New to Me Plant

 It is good to have a day off.  I've had three days of work and already I want to be home instead.  I'm sure that there is a lot that someone could read into that... Anyhow, Keziah and I spent some time clearing out the bittersweet, the trees the bittersweet killed, and the general area along the south fence.  There is more pick up to do tomorrow, some equipment had problems and our energy waned.  

Keziah cutting things down.

So much bittersweet at her feet!

Bye-bye tree!

Having help today made a huge difference with what got done.  Other things I am happy for today:

• Since the zinnia I planted yesterday didn't get eaten by the various rodents that seem to think I am planting for them, I planted a couple more and one of the marigold plants.

• I discovered a new-to-me clover today.  I didn't realize they came in yellow.

According to Lens this is large hop clover.

• The crab apples seem to be doing alright.  We did a bunch of pruning of the trees earlier in the spring as well as removing some bittersweet and Norway maple.

Lens identified this as a crab apple.

• ANother thing I did earlier in the spring was to clear out the area between the garden and the sumac trees/grape vines to make a pathway.  To the other side of the sumac and grape vines are tiger daylilies.  I imagine that many years ago this looked much different and not the jungle it is now.  

There are many, many daylilies.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Back in a Cemetery

 This morning I was able to get out and mow a little bit of the lawn and thin the bittersweet a little before getting ready for the pre-hire event.  I'm glad I got outside and was a little productive.

This is the before shot looking towards the garden.

Slightly different angle only
about 15-20 minutes later.

What I got out before having
to pause for the day.

The pictures help me see how much I accomplished in a short time.  This might motivate me tomorrow.  Other snippets of my day that were happy things:

• I went to the pre-hire event and survived.  Now I wait to hear from them to find out if I officially have the job or not.  If I do, I'll start work on June 22nd.  
• After that, I met a friend and we walked through the Pine Grove Cemetery.  We walked through this same cemetery a few weeks ago.  The Find-a-Grave app is working on my phone now so we attempted to find some of the grave requests.  Turns out, this cemetery has over 24,000 monuments and we didn't happen to find any of the requests.

Heron.

This lovely cemetery has ponds and a fountain.

This holds plants now but it looks
like it could have been a fountain.

Last time we walked here we
somehow missed the road signs.

• On the way home I stopped for a short walk across the Merrimack River.  I love this area.

Train bridge.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thanks for reading, stay safe.

Bittersweet

 As the end of the month draws near it is time for me to move funds around to pay my mortgage.  With that task and getting my mail at the post office where the house I own is in mind, I did these errands this morning.  Because I also wanted to get out and get a few steps in I made some other small stops.  One of them was just a parking lot but the other was a cemetery.  Having planted flowers earlier this week at family members' gravesites I was reminded of an app that I haven't used in a very long time, Find a Grave.  People request pictures of gravestones to help further their genealogy research.  I was able to find two graves in the cemetery I stopped at.  One was easy to find as she was my best friend from high school's mom.  The other was a common name in the town so I had a good idea where to look.  I spent a lot of time in that particular cemetery growing up as it is very near the house with that mortgage I need to pay.  Helping people with their genealogy endeavors and the following are my happy things for today:

• Last year, after buying strawberry plants so we could have some here, we found some already growing.  They were in the part of the garden that was overgrown with autumn olive trees and bittersweet.  Most of the autumn olive was cut down a few weeks ago.  The bittersweet that I cut last year has grown back.  Some of today was spent pulling up roots and saying goodbye to weeds.

There is still a bunch of bittersweet but
it is coming from the other side of the fence.
Hopefully I will get to that over the weekend.

• In the process of pulling the bittersweet, the strawberry plants came up too.  They haven't seemed to produce anything since we moved here last year, so I moved them.  

The first area, before the rock,
has radishes planted.
The line up the middle after that are strawberry plants.
It seemed like a good time to add the soaker hose too.

• We aren't sure who was driving but this happened...

The taco truck is in need of a body shop.
The cats are fine.
It is suggested that catnip may have played a part.
😀🤣😂

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

    Did you know that it matters how fresh the grass is that is growing for the animals that eat it?

Thank you for being a happy part of my life.  Stay safe.

Full Heart

 One of the things I was hoping for when I did the YouTube videos over Lent for downsizing my stuff is that somebody else might want some of it.  I had a request for what had been my baby doll when I was a child.  The friend that I used to work with and I walk with sometimes asked if she could have it for her granddaughter.  I got the things that I had together and gave them to my friend last week when we walked through the cemetery.  Today she sent me a picture of her granddaughter playing with what was my baby doll.  The doll's new name is Charleigh.  💕

Nothing can beat that, but here are some other happy things for today:

• When I finish up with the wheelbarrow I turn it upside down onto the compost pile.  Today when I turned it over to use there was a garter snake curled up on yesterday's debris (pic).  It stayed so still I thought maybe it was not alive.  I went and started weeding and couldn't keep myself away.  I went back and there was just two or three inches of the tail and the rest was burrowing into the compost pile.
• Is it wrong that removing as much bittersweet from the garden brings me joy?

I dug deep.

The larger pieces on top are bittersweet roots.

• The rhododendron is getting ready to blossom.

For some reason I just love how this looks.

• Now that a bunch of the cypress spurge has been pulled or mowed there are other things that are seeing the light.  According to Lens the flower I noticed today is called, star of Bethlehem.  It spreads both by seeds and with bulbs so it may not have been there last year.  As with so many other plants I find, this one is also considered invasive in some places (not NH yet).  

This star of Bethlehem is in the yard,
not a garden area.
It might end up mowed,
depending on how I feel when I mow next.

• Our dryer is not working properly (not happy).  However, as we sat discussing the problem Winston decided that he would take the opportunity to check it out.

He liked it, perhaps too much!
😜

☮

Currently reading: The Burgess Book of Nature Lore, by Thornton W. Burgess.

--two chapters today!  I WILL finish this book.

Stay safe!

Garden Stuff

 According to Map My Run, I worked in the yard and garden for six hours and 46 minutes today.  I turned on the app to get an idea of how much moving I really do when I am working outside.  It turns out that was 3.7 miles this time.  Some of that time I was sitting and pulling weeds.  But I also raked, shoveled, used the pitchfork, cut branches and small trees, moved branches and small trees, used the wheel barrow to remove weeds and leaves and branches and possibly more things.  It was a busy day.  Here are other things I am happy for today:

• Keziah and I worked together part of the day with the trees and branches.  We maybe enjoy pulling and cutting bittersweet too much.
• Some of the buds on trees are getting bigger and opening.

Tucker, the cherry tree.

Okay, these 'leaves' are out all year.
The little pine cones aren't though.

From a Norway maple tree.

• While in the garden I tried to identify a plant using two different apps on my phone.  The apps failed.  Tonight, sitting here I tried again and this time I think it is correct.  Much of this plant was pulled from the garden.

Ground ivy.  It is kind of pretty, but very invasive
according to the internet.

• What was most likely a night crawler came out of the soil I was pulling weeds from.  It was probably eight inches or longer.  I'm really loving the amount of worms I am seeing this year.
• There were some passing sprinkles today which meant the sky had some pretty cloud formations.

• Zed was nice and made a quick dinner tonight after Boy Scouts.  It should have been my night to cook but I forgot and was too tired to think about food by the time I came in.
• There was left-over peppermint stick ice cream for me in the freezer for dessert.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Stay safe.