I am a daffodil!

I took the little quiz and found out that I am a daffodil! This is the description of a person who is a daffodil: "You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard." Yep, that sounds like me.
I love that I am a daffodil because I have been trying to turn my orchard into a daffodil field for years. This has involved planting hundreds of daffodil bulbs in large swaths of the orchard each fall. The field had a major set back last year when we underwent the soil remediation project and had to dig up all of the bulbs we could find. Let me tell you that it is much easier to plant the bulbs than it is to dig them up! We undertook this task last summer after the daffodil tops died back. Summer is not a good time to work out in an orchard field! We both looked like mud puppies when we finished each day and I thought we might get a divorce before we finished!
Alas, I am sure that many daffodil bulbs were hauled away with the old soil. Now, I have to start the process all over again this fall.

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

States I have visited

visited 33 states (66%)
Create'>http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=usa">Create your own visited map of The United States

Well, seems that I have confined myself mostly to the more southern climes, with the exception of the northeast. Hope to visit the other states when we make the grand post-retirement trek -- which is still a few years away.

Spring!!

Spring is in full dress mode -- dogwoods are almost finished blooming, but the azaleas are glorious and everything in the veggie garden is growing furiously! The sugar snap peas are loaded with blossoms and the beginnings of tiny pea pods. The lettuce is full and ready to make the leap to bolting. Must eat it fast! The greens are juicy and delicious. Just can't beat the rich abundance of spring veggies before the heat sets in. The first strawberries are just beginning to ripen, with many more in varying sizes down to blossoms. There are tiny pears, peaches, and plums beginning on the fruit trees and clusters of just-set blueberries on the bushes. Ah, spring, you are full of such promise!

Gardens

Oops, not doing such a great job with my blogging resolution -- the last blog entry was almost two months ago! My excuse is the gardens and our frantic scramble to get as much planted as we can before the hot weather (and the need to water, water, water) arrives. We have really accomplished so much, but the "to do" list seems to never shrink. We have planted all of the new fruit trees in the back orchard -- three figs, three peaches, four plums, one pear, one apple, two grapes, and six blueberries These join one fig, five pears, two apples, one peach, nine grapes, and many blueberries that stood fast during the ground remediation. In the front orchard, we have 36 blueberries and fifteen blackberries planted. We have three figs, a persimmon, several grapes, and four new apples to plant up there yet. In the veggie garden, we have planted four of the eleven beds. One bed is devoted to strawberries, the others contain winter veggies and salad greens. The peas are finally coming up -- had some doubts about them because we planted before a cold, freezing rain arrived -- but they just sat tight and waited for warmer days and are now pushing their little green shoots up. As we plant these beds, we are clearing the pots of plants out of the paths, laying down the new landscape fabric, and putting leaves into the paths. These plants were "warehoused" in the paths of the remediated garden as the rest of the ground project proceeded. As I move them out of the paths, I am trying to place them in the beds where they will be replanted. The other big accomplishment in the veggie garden is the new arbor/arch that Michael built for the front entrance. Will post a pix with this entry soon. Outside in the yard, we have planted about a dozen new camellias and assorted azaleas. Along the fence in the new "hedge garden" we have planted forsythia, deutzia, Chinese abelia, and one star magnolia. Still have lots of potted shrubs to plant in this area. I will also start lots of cutting flowers (zinnias, coreopsis, etc.) from seed to plant here. We have gotten four flats of the daffodil/narcissus bulbs back into the ground. This will be the big push for the next few weeks as the whole front porch is covered with flats of bulbs that need to be replanted. We dug them up before the ground remediation and it is taking a long time to get them replanted.

After re-reading this post, I am amazed at how much we have accomplished during the weekends of the last few months. Have to remind myself about that when I am overwhelmed by the task before us.

Planting in the Cold

This is an update on the planting progress, which satisfies two of my resolutions -- to blog and to plant! In the last few weekends, despite temperatures in the 30s during the day, we have made big progress on the planting projects. Have planted four plum trees, three fig trees, an apple tree, a pear tree, two grape vines, seven blueberry bushes, seven camellia bushes, and one garden bed with winter veggie transplants. Yippee! Guess all of the bundling up in layers of clothing and grumbling was worth it. We have also continued our sod-wrangling, i.e., moving sod from the spots we don't want it to the paths in the front fruit orchard. Have almost lined all of the paths with a sod carpet. We are also making some progress on deciding where the other fruit plantings will go: a double row of grapes, a double row of blackberries, three miniature figs, and a persimmon in the front orchard; bunch grapes along the old fence near the barn; and more blueberry bushes in the barnyard. After the fruits, have to turn our attention to the flowering shrubs that will be planted along the long fenceline with our neighbors. It looks like our winter and spring will be filled with planting!

The Life List

While having lunch with several coworkers yesterday, we started talking about what things are on our "Life List", i.e., things we want to do or see during our lifetime. I have so many. Here goes with my often-to-be-updated list.

1. Attend the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena. I actually got to view the floats the day after the parade when I was in California a few years ago and they were spectacular. But I want to see them cruising down the Pasadena streets, see the moving parts in action, and hear the bands playing. There is a good chance that I can fulfill this goal as my daughter lives in LA and I plan on another holiday visit in the future. Just need to get tickets for a reserved seat so that I don't have to spend New Year's Eve camping out on the Pasadena sidewalks!

2. Visit Monet's garden in Giverny. Okay, this one is going to cost a few bucks and should include a trip to other spots in France to make it cost effective. I have always loved Monet's garden paintings -- maybe because it is the way I see the world without my glasses. Everything is an impressionist painting when you are extremely nearsighted and have an astigmatism! When I discovered that Monet was a serious gardener, I was hooked. I have several books about his garden and its reconstruction, a video about the garden, and a picture of his house hanging in my office.

3. Visiting the national parks on camping trips. I have visited a few of the biggies over the years (Grand Canyon, Smoky Mountains, Niagara Falls, Shenandoah) and many of the smaller ones (Saint Gaudens studio in New Hampshire, Sandburg's home in North Carolina, Lincoln's home in Illinois, the Gateway Arch in Missouri, Stone River battlefield in Tennessee, Longfellow's home in Massachusetts, Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, to name a few). However, I want to visit many others, including Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore. Might be able to visit Yosemite on a visit with my daughter in California, but will have to wait for retirement to really explore the others out west. Let's see how many more I can visit in the meantime.

Okay, that's enough for now. What's on your list?

Blogging resolution

I have been really lousy with my blogging! Haven't posted anything since the beginning of November. Now, the holidays have come and gone and a new decade has even begun. Well, my new decade's resolution is to post a blog at least once a week. If I spend a few minutes writing for myself each day, then I will have a record of my life in little "blogs" to look back on at the end of this year.
My other resolutions: spend less money, finish that stack of UFO knitting projects, complete one knitted gift each month (this can be combined with previous resolution for a two-fer!), and get the numerous plants, trees, and shrubs out of their pots and into the ground!