Buds and Birds A Silent Slow Walk About

Looking East

My Stick Garden . . . Looking South East

Wild Turkey Visitor

Viburnum Carlesii

Star Magnolias and Prunus just beginning

Looking under the Apple tree towards the Magnolia.

South field more alive since last post.

Weeping Cherry steals the show. 

A convalescent room.

Trillium

Tree Swallows on the Bluebird's house!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet returns! In amongst the Viburnum buds.

This little Phoebe is hidden in the Viburnum too.

I keep telling myself . . . patience! It is all more than I can do. I am so glad for having great help and beauty all around me!! I will continue sharing images with you and try to visit a few gardens each day. I hope you are all having a wondrous Spring! Thank you for your kindness and understanding.  Please do not feel you have to leave comments, as I am unable to reciprocate right now. I will go visit, look and 'pick' . . .  but for now that is all I can muster. There is a great amount of work going on here at the farm. The Red Fox that just slipped by is happy for the opening of fields and the perennials, trees and shrubs will enjoy the chocolate side dressing when we get some rain. It is hard for me to 'direct' only and I do overdoooooo it somewhat ... then to the hammock under the Weeping Cherry to watch the blossoms, clouds and migrating buteos high in the sky. I do so feel for people who are ill and in horrid conditions as well . . . those in war zones, natural disaster areas, homeless or just with no beauty around them. I feel so lucky to have my gardens and the magical wildlife that visit me here.  

One Small Step Into Spring and Blogging Again!

Many sunrises have come and gone and Spring has been racing in very fast with temperatures rising 

into the 80's! Too fast for me . . . if only my mystery bug could exit as rapidly. I am taking a small step back into the blog realm. I have missed this part of my life so much and largely due to my enjoying visiting your worlds so. I will never be able to catch up but will slowly start anew.

The earth turns quickly and days seem to fly by . . . each one bringing new growth and color to the landscape.

Phoebes have returned along with Tree Swallows! Their songs and antics enliven the gardens.

The heat caused the Magnolia stellata to blow open quickly! I prefer it when it slowly opens and lingers. You can see from the first Magnolia photo above that it is now fully opened and there are even petal showers, when the wind kicks up.

The Weeping Cherry is soon to unfurl revealing an umbrella like canopy of soft pink blooms.

The Hellebores are still holding their own. These plants are over twenty years old . . . planted about then under the bonsai like Apple tree.

Sweet Scilla are carpeting areas, where snowdrop petals fell.

Chionodoxa 'Glory of the Snow' are coming up in the Blueberry fields . . . for the voles decided they prefer them growing there. The heat wave brought out all the crocus and daffodils into the fiery rays of days . . .  so that the little crocuses mostly melted in a few hours, along with the tiny Iris reticulata . . .  seen marching down the hillside below.

Spring has certainly touched this hillside and I step into it with joy and lighter lungs . . . not quite themselves but much improved for the rest. I am sharing the south side of the gardens today, thankful that the temperatures have returned to more normal 50's and 60's. I look forward to seeing what is happening in your worlds! Thank you so much for all your kind words of support! 

Spring Break for Health and Harmony

Filigree of Star (Magnolia stellata)

Sensual flowing waves of soft risings of earth . . . like undulations of skin are the body of this land . . . it lay across from a hillside gently cutting it's Oak, Hemlock and Pine crested curves into the sky. Between here and there a waking forest climbs upslope towards each measured rise from a singing, rushing, overfull river below. Yesterday's last light hints at the golden fields and lay of  the land all clean cut . . .  revealing it's lovely form. Stirrings tingle and tickle along it's surface and beneath, as they near piercing through the mantle and long to grow towards the light. Standing outside just at dusk . . .  I imagine the sounds to come of freshly emerging blades of ghostly growth tossing aside fallen decaying leaves . . . straightaway reaching up asserting their youthful verdurous vigor. 

Today Flower Hill Farm is soggy. . . rain has been pounding hard and the wind is whipping and shaking all the trees. Shivering snowdrops and swelling buds may not mind the raw chill and wet of yesterday, today and the promise of more for tomorrow. I cannot go out in any case . . . so I do not mind all the wet . . .  but imagine all the good it is doing for the trees and shrubberies.  Later in the week the forecast is for a heat wave of nearly 80! It will not last long. I hope this invasive creature in my chest will not stay for much longer either. I have to take a break from my computer so that I can truly heal, for I am in relapse and must obey doctor's orders! Both the real and virtual garden will have to wait and I hope you will too. Please do not forget me. I hope to be back sharing my gardens and wildlife . . .  as well as visiting your worlds . . . very soon. I shall miss you! Happy Passover and Easter to everyone. 

New England is Slow to Fully Spring but Offers Other Things for Blooming Friday

 Daybreak a few weeks ago revealed heavy wet snow . . . then it all melted away and now tonight was forecast to drop more snow maybe up to two inches! I just checked the National Weather Service and they have changed the forecast to just clear and 16 degrees! Our days and nights are getting colder suddenly, as we march towards the full moon.

There are no blooms to speak of in the gardens except for the brave little snowdrops. I will introduce some images from the past. Inside the sun plays with Amaryllis shadows on the wall. 

'Apple Blossom' pink is a favorite of mine. 

Once the sun is swallowed by clouds . . .  this is what the landscape looks like today. No blooms but bright plumes! The male Cardinal is singing his heart out in celebration of Spring.

Snowdrops are pushing aside old leaves and sticks to stand as tall as they can beneath one of the giant Rock Maples.

The Bluebirds have chosen accommodations near the Weeping Cherry but will have to deal with the Tree Swallows when they return, for that is their favored house. We go through this every year.

As the sun sets and throws a wash of pink across the sky, I sneak in last years Magnolia stellata, which looks so lovely in front of the soft sky painting. She will be blooming soon!

Dusk is a favorite time to sit and watch the waxing moon and listen out for the American Woodcock! 

   Woodcocks call out from the open fields and one takes flight, when there is just enough light to find it's tiny almond shape sailing in a figure eight . . .  winging sounds and songs of rapturous melody. He sings out his grand finale then dives fast into the darkening sky nearly impossible to follow, for he zigzags his way to earth and a possible mate. I so love their return to the gardens! Spring rituals continue and warmer days coax buds into slowly softly swelling . . . cautiously moving towards releasing calyx of armor. Colder nights keep the sleepy trees and shrub's vital life fluids from rising and stretching out into their tips too soon. The gardens and forests are not still but mostly dormant . . . on the edge of slumber . . . and this is a good time to quickly finish pruning and sculpting the forms of Viburnum, Lilac, Apple, and Hawthorn. At the moment rain is lightly falling, as mist rises up from the river and races like clouds between where I sit writing these words and Walnut Hill across from the valley below. Today is March's last Blooming Friday to see other participants visit Katarina's Roses and Stuff.