Gallery 10 - My (New) Indiana Home in Spring

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Our fifth spring ... how the time flies. It was a year ago last April that I lost my job. In this down economy I've had ample time to really observe the change of seasons. We had a real, honest-to-God old-fashioned winter this year - snow on the ground December to March. From beginning to end, no confusion about what season it was - and then, somewhere around the middle to end of March, first the time change, then the sun came out and boom! It was spring. It came on so fast.As I write this in mid-April, it already looks like May.

This year after doing some research, I bought a Panasonic Lumix Camera and have learning how to use it - it has a wider angle lens, an 18x optical zoom, and is somewhere around 12 megapixel! It is a bit different from my Olympus 3030, so I am still a little lost in the translation.Mourning dove outside my kitchen window

Red-bellied woodpecker outside my kitchen window.

Red-bellied woodpecker outside my kitchen window

Downy woodpecker outside my kitchen window

Cardinal outside my kitchen window

Wooster and Dharma

This was the winter we were beset by cats. For four years we had one dog and one cat. When Tigger and Jet turned up in the barn last November they were just cute little kittens. Now they are lively adolescents.

Around the same time, Dotty joined us. He was very comfortable with us, the chickens, and the mules.

Used to be that I didn't get around to spring gardening and planting until late April or even May. But I discovered this year that in March after the snow finally melts off the ground and maybe it rains once or twice (to settle the ground Benny says), it's REALLY EASY to dig in the flower beds and to put things in the ground.

March 2010

Goldie finally came in from the cold this February

Junco outside my kitchen window

My early spring indoor garden

Wooster and the girls roam the yard

Wooster and the girls roam the yard - Wooster is getting quite protective - we found out we'd better keep our eye on hiim

Goldie looks out the back door

My five dollar Rural King Poinsetta going strong in April

Dark-eyed Junco

Blue Jay

Indoor Garden

The area outside my kitchen window is protected. I fed the birds this winter and watched the first buds open up in the spring. I got out most of the decor I had put away for the winter and put it in this area - and called it my Easter garden.

My Easter garden

First forsythia blooms

Picket Fence sinks easy into the wet March ground

Daffodils around the windmill come up in March

First Forsythia blooms in March

My Pussy Willow sprig from the Master Gardener's show 2 years ago last April had two little blooms on it this March.

Coming up on our Magnolia tree on a wagon ride with Kate and Annie

Magnolia Tree buds

Magnolia Tree Buds

Weeping Willow leafing out - I dug the circle around it.

I also dug out the mail box and Iris flower beds - I transplanted the Irises from my friend Marilyn's and from my clothesline post last fall during a plant swap.

View of our house from the wagon with Kate and Annie - first lawn mowing job of the seaon!

The chickens enjoy the spring yard. I started getting three eggs a day this winter - we kept a heat light on during the day. I let them out in the afternoon in the barn. This spring they have found their way into the yard.

Laundry day after Easter. I found some tulips half price at Bennett's and planted them in my shade garden - which in March and April is not shady!

Hazel on her run

View of the forsythia bush, the magnolia tree and various plants starting up in my flower bed

Some tulips open up among the windmill daffodils

Magnolia tree in bloom - they were magnificent this year

Magnolia tree in bloom

Hazel enjoying spring

Inventorying my garden

How many red things in this picture?

Purple violets open up

Time to change the seasonal front door wreath

Magnolia tree on a windy day

Mourning dove in my Easter garden

Magnolia tree

I dug out the horsehitch flower bed and planted some snap dragons

Can't stay away from that forsythia bush!

I finally dug out the entire peony bed along the driveway - what a job. And mulched it.

Magnolia blossoms

My gardening tools

My next project was to dig out and mulch the flower bed in the front of the house - and the Easter garden

Phlox in full glory

Front Porch flower bed

My big job after that was to dig out the flower bed along the front porch and kitchen picture window and connect it to itself and to the easter garden and to broaden it.

All my hard work digging and mulching

Front to back all mulched!

It's a Forrest Gump Thing

I keep finding digging projects. Last spring after I lost my job, I went out and started digging in the yard. So this spring when on a whim I sunk a spade into the ground in late March and it went right in, I thought I might as well dig out the entire peony bed along the driveway. We kept having sunny warm days, so then I figured I might as well enlarge the horse hitch flower bed. And while I was at it, I dug circles...around my willow tree, Japanese Maple, Snowball bush, Lilac bush, and Red Maple so Benny wouldn't hit them with the mower. Then since I had done that much, I thought I'd finish digging out the beds around the house ... and enlarge the mailbox and Iris and windmill flower beds. People ask me what I'm digging for, and I say I just want to dig. ;) Maybe one of these days, I'll come to a halt and say, "I've been digging for a while now. I'm pretty tired. Think I'll come in out of the rain." Or in the words of that old show Hee Haw, "I'm done digging now." :)

Farming through the years - Ploughing Garden with Kate and Annie

Farming through the years - Ploughing Garden with the Old Ford Tractor

Farming in Indiana 2010 - Benny in garden and Alan in field

Farming through the years - Ploughing Garden with Kate and Annie

Early May - a windy day, locust trees in bloom in the distance and my snow ball bush close up.

Checking in on the flower beds - Loaded down with Peony buds and Ditch Lily leaves

Checking in on the flower beds - I enlarged the mail box and Iris flower beds along the road. The irises that I got from the plant swap with my two friends, plus the ones I moved from the clothes line post are doing great!

The geraniums are a gift from my next door neighbor for my 60th birthday and a few weeks ago I also planted some yellow pansies.

Front view of the Iris flower bed

A windy day, and not in focus, but captures the essence of how these locust trees look in the woods in May.

Young Maple Leaves Blowing in the Wind

My fourth wagon load of mulch

Checking in on my flower beds - Horse Hitch bed has one of the Gerber Daisies Bonnie got for the table decorations for my 60th birthday party. Also my transplanted zonal geranium in in bloom. I'll cut it back after these two blooms, which formed indoors, have dried up.

Maple tree shade Garden and Sister Jenny's potted Begonias - another 60th Birthday Gift

More dirt jobs - edging the back porch Summer Kitchen flower bed.

Edging the Maple Tree Shade Garden and Summer Kitchen Back Flower Beds

Another view of the same dirt work. :)

Small Shade Garden flower bed in front of garage.

Shows the edging and digging I did to the flower bed under the Kitchen Picture Window and Bonnie's Flowers and Herbs.

Jeanne turns 60 in May!

Jeanne turns 60!

We went to the Rockville Maple Fair with friends in February and saw this exquisite colored pencil rendering of hens and rooster in artist Ellen Shaffer's booth - I was so surprised when my friends presented this piece to me on my 60th birthday in May!

The chickens go next to the lovely engraved wooden welcome plaque "The Winsteads - Where Mules Rule!" that my cousins gave us for Christmas. :) We are becoming hobby farmers!

Aunt Firma's Painting of Archie Foxworthy's Sugar Camp

Watching the peonies open up after digging the flower bed in March and April

The pink ones are going to town ...

Over a series of windy days ...

And loving how this new Panasonic Lumix captures it all!

Fragrant Pinks

Clematis blooms at the same time as the peonies

Flowers and vegetables to plant in the expanded flower beds!

Pink Peonies in Bloom

Pinks and a few Whites

White Single Bloom Peony

Red Single Bloom Peonies - I think this is the first time this one on the end has bloomed! I've been trying to help it flourish.

Rosebuds starting to form

Iris flower bed

Red and white geraniums in Iris bed

Clematis

Still unemployed and getting ready to refresh and learn some skills at Ivy Tech - where you can go for free when you are sixty, I don't have time and money to invest in a lot of new plantings. But I went to the Master Gardener's Show in April and picked up a Jack in the Pulpit and a Trillium - and a little redbud start, altho I'm not sure it's going to make it. And a red raspberry bush. I've picked up violas and annuals on Walmart's and Rural King's discount shelves - and Bonnie bought Gerber Daisies to decorate for my 60th birthday party. I bought some half off tulips from Bennetts - we'll hopefully enjoy those next spring when they bloom! And Ace's where I go to get my rose spikes is impossible to resist - I've picked up about 4 perennials from them. It's hard not to want to plant things when I have these expanded flower beds. I've dug enough sod to line the entire driveway, fill in a hole in the pasture where a paving crew left the water running all night, and to cover a dead area where Benny accidentally spilled oil out of one of the tanks. He was actually able to heat his workshop this winter from the oil in tanks that were here when we moved in. But I digress. Anyway - I've dug a lot of sod and worked a lot of dirt. My motto is, "No earthworm left behind." (which means I carefully extract them from what i take out and put them all back where I found them.)

Another digging and mulching job well underway behind the Summer Kitchen. I dug up the rocks as I was digging out the flower bed. Think they were extras from when they built the foundation.

My first peony bouquet of the year

More and more peony blooms

In early May we had cold winds, high winds and temps down in the 30s - it bit off a few things, but not the peonies!

Spectacular Peony Blooms

Checking in on the Horse Hitch Flower bed

Spring Front Porch

Front yard flower beds

Mail box flower beds

Iris flower beds

Irises

Iris

Iris flower beds

Iris flower bed

Summer kitchen garden

New plantings in new Summer Kitchen flower bed

Clematis

Back Porch Entrance Decor

Back Porch Decor / Aunt Firma's Matchbox

More back porch decor

Entering kitchen from back porch

Sweet little view from dining room in May

Peonies along driveway with house in back

Peony flower bed in the morning

Morning Peonies

Dewdrops on Peony Bud

Dewdrops on Peony

Profuse Peonies

Morning Peonies

Irises

Mail box and Iris flower bed from across the road

Irises in Bloom

Peonies and Mules

Dappled Morning Front Porch

This fall and winter we were beset with cats. Last year at this time, we had one dog and one cat. Now we have five cats - 3 indoor outdoor and 2 barn kitties. Three are kittens. So they've just about broken the bank with shots and neutering - they are all male. They love my mulching job and they are just too helpful when I'm out digging in the flower beds - they delight to play and roll around (and do their "jobs") in the freshly dug earth and mulch and new growth - which sometimes puts dents in my flowers!

Clematis in bloom 2010

Red single row peony

Pink Peony Row

Pink Peony Drive

Pink Peony Drive - I'd say the pink ones are now at their peak and will start to fade - while the white ones are just getting started and the reds on the front end are still in bud.

Pink Peony Drive

Farmhouse with Peonies

Mr. Tree Frog

Walmart Violas

Ace Hardware Silver Green vining perennial

New Blue Columbine from Ace's

Evening peonies against neighbor's barn

Jet on the Fence

Annie and Jet

A Setting Jersey Girl

Kate and Annie share a meal

Wooster in the Wind - you can really see his brown feathers in this shot

View of Drive with Mailbox, Irises and Peonies

View of Drive with Mailbox, Irises, Peonies, and Jet

The New Digging Project goes on - will it ever end?

Expanding the back of the Summer Kitchen Flower Bed and taking it around the corner

Here's where I had to stop a week ago because we haven't had a single dry day to work the dirt!

Pink Peonies in front of yellow farm house

Summer Wreath

Dark Pink Peonies

Climbing Rose Bushes in Bloom

The one on this side was one I found on the shady side of the house behind the hedges and transplanted. This is the first year it has bloomed profusely - who knows how many years it was on the shady side.

Yellow Snapdragons

Climbing Rose Bushes in Bloom

Budding Rose Bush in Peony Bed

Dark Pink Peony Close-up

Pink Peony Close-up

Late Blooming Peony Bush - I pried this one out of the ground on the shady side of the house last December and transplanted it. It has more blooms than it ever did over there!

Benny and the mules pulling in the driveway

View of Other Climbing Rose Bush with peonies in background ...

Approaching June, everything's in bloom ...

Horse Hitch Flower Bed with blooming geraniums, snapdragons, daisies, and delphiniums. The Cone Flowers will pop out next ...

All peonies in bloom with roses and ditch lilies coming on ...

Peak Peony Row

More Walmart Violas - these are so sweet

Grand Rose Bush Blooming Out

Evening Skyscape

Barn with Skyscape

Spring Evening with Laundry blowing in the wind and corn field.

Roses Roses

Coming Up Roses

Everything's Rosy

Checking in on the Horse Hitch Flower Bed - It's getting full!

Prize Rose Bush - earliest this one has bloomed! Usually it blooms after the climbers.

Prize Rose

Everything in Bloom.

View of Climbing Roses from Kitchen

Memorial Day Weekend - this spring has been such an early season (despite a rainy May) that the peonies are waning but the roses are in their full glory

View of Climbing Roses from Kitchen

Roses with Flag Bunting as Backdrop

Delphiniums in Horse Hitch Flower Bed

More Fun with the Horse Hitch Flower Bed - Mule in the Distance

Gorgeous Climber Cluster - Roses

June

Not such a good picture, but the first Ditch Lily of the season opened June 2nd!

All the flowers in bloom - we can't see the Clematis behind the roses and lilac bush.

Barnyard scene: Kate, Benny, and the chickens out by the horse lot.

Kate grazing by the horse lot

Clouds - just amazing what this Panasonic Lumix can do.

Cumulus Clouds over the countryside

Cumulus Clouds over neighbor's barn

Cumulus Clouds

Roses near and far at sunset

First Ditch Lilies Bloom behind Summer Kitchen

First Ditch Lilies Bloom behind Summer Kitche

Digging Projects finished! At least for the year!

Annabelle Hydrangeas coming on

First Ditch Lilies bloom behind Summer Kitchen

Fluffy Roses

Daisies, Delphinium, and Snapdragons

First Ditch Lilies bloom along driveway

Progress of the Ditch Lilies - as the peonies and climbing roses wane

Progress of Driveway Ditch Lilies and Rose bush

Ditch Lilies behind Summer Kitchen and a peek at final mulching behind bedrooms

Done with the spring mulching and digging at last! - there will be plenty more next year!

Ditch Lilies Mid-June

Country Corner

Annabelles in Bloom

Hydrangeas in Bloom

Nikkos in Bloom

Last days of spring - and what a spring it's been! Our vegetable garden is a bust because of all the rain - Benny's planted the corn and beans 3 times. But my flower beds are loving all the moisture. Summer school has started, spring cleaning hasn't, and the job search continues as unemployment stipend ends ... so maybe there won't be quite as much time or quite as many pictures! I do love my new Panasonic Lumix camera tho!

A corner in bloom - the hosta blooms are coming on, but difficult to see in this shot

Butterball enjoys a drink on a 90 degree day

Nasturtium and Violas

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