Beautiful morning

The yard is beginning to recover a little from the hail damage of 4/27/11. I have one bloom on two different hydrangeas. You can see just a little hail damage on the greenry.

My daylilies are going to bloom, but it appears that all my asiatic and oriental lily bulbs have been eaten by something since last year. I had a 12 ft, by 3 ft patch, and a single row about 20 ft long. Not one single sprout this year. I don't know what else other than some critter must have enjoyed the taste. Thank goodness they don't like daylilies.

The roofers came today and are hard at work.

Rhododendron are beginning to bloom in the Smokies

I got back home late Saturday evening, in that terrible storm. Sunday Jimmy and I went to the mountains, and most of the day was nice. It did start raining, and did rain rather hard, but I was able to get some photographs of the rhododendron beginning to bloom before it beat them all down.

We didn't actually go to the GSMNP, we went to the Arts and Craft loop road. Yes, I am forever looking for ideas.

I had a great time at the Kentucky Sheep and Fiber Festival, and I will post photos soon.

Tree Swallow and White Wisteria

The first spring after we bought the property Jimmy built this in the middle of the 'backyard' for my wisteria. We brought starts of the white and the purple from our house. This was the spring of 2005. It has been a very slow process. Thought we had lost them all, me being more upset about the white. Knew I could get more of the purple from my mother.

Well, the white survived and 5 years later I have a few blooms, but I think I can finally say the vine itself is going to make it. On the opposite end we replanted purple. The plan is to have the purple and the white mingled together. Although I have now heard one is dominate. If so, again I hope it is the white. I have a good start of the purple in another location. At our previous house we had both, planted 100 ft from each other. Does anybody know about this with wisteria?

These photos are all un-cropped....to tell another story.

This past Saturday afternoon I sat in the photographer's blind to get some photos of the Tree Swallow. First, I should have been there in the morning(lighting reasons). Second, I should have been braver, hence closer.

But the real funny part of this is, the last photograph is still not cropped. After coming out of the blind I kept walking toward the birdhouse snapping away. I walked almost all the way around the birdhouse. This was the last photograph I took. I turned my head and the Tree Swallow flew away at that time.

The grandchildren have swings attached right behind the birdhouse. On Sunday they were out there swinging and the birds flew as if to attack as long as an adult was with them. The adult could walk just a short distance away and at least one of the birds went in the house. After that all was ok. They just want to protect their little ones.

Old Fashioned Snowball Bush

There was a little break in the rain on Sunday afternoon,

and I went out and took advantage of it.

No sunshine, but at least I could get the camera out without damage to it.

The insects are loving all the moisture from the rain we have been having.

This Old Fashioned Snowball Bush has been transplanted to 3 different houses since I met Jimmy. When we married and he sold his house we got a start of the bush by a cutting, since he could not dig it from the yard. Then we have built 2 houses since then. This is one of those items that was moved to the new property before we sold the old house, and before we even started building the new house. When we moved it this time, we divided it into 4 bushes. Three of them survived, not sure why the 4th did not. They are all 3 about waist high, but the Old Fashioned Snowball will get much taller, in time.

The top 3 photos are from the bush at the back of our property.

The bottom photo is from the front of our property,

think the snowballs are smaller on it.

Lavender Azalea

My favorite color for an azalea is the pale lavender. This little one is in my front yard down at the tree line. I started it from an azalea at John and Lindsey's first house.

At least this year it does have about 10 blooms. Year before last it was doing a little better, before we had a real late freeze in the teens. Thought this one was a goner, so right now I am just happy it is still alive.

As normal, I had to get closer.

Someday my azalea will look like this one that I photographed in Knoxville last week.

I have already sold this photo in 2 cards, the Happy Mother's Day and a sympathy card.

Lilac Bush in Spring City, Tennessee

I think everybody knows by now my husband lives in Rockwood during the week and I go to visit a couple of times a week. On top of that we don't work the same shift, so even when I do go we only see each other during his lunch hour. Added to that, there is no internet service at the house, so no blogging time. I do now have a laptop, and sometimes I do take it with me. If I am meeting him in Spring City for lunch (instead of him coming to the house) I will drive around in Spring City to see what is photograph worthy. Last Friday morning I was feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't find anything...and thinking if I was in Knoxville I could travel the Dogwood Trails and it would be gorgeous. I was a little surprised that there were not more absolutely gorgeous yards in the little town of Spring City. So I decided to go to Veterans Park to search for my buddy, the Great Blue Heron. No luck there either. Oh, but coming back from the park I spot this lilac bush. And a great little pull off to park at. So I am on the side walk taking photos of the lilac bush and out walks this older gentleman with a real frown on his face, staring straight at my car. Caught, yet again. I speak up and tell him it is my car and I am photographing his lilac bush. Change of heart immediately, he showed me around to the other flowers in his yard. Told me to tell Jimmy to come dig me a start of the lilac bush, showed me he had little starts growing under the bush.

If you have never smelled a lilac bush, it is worth getting caught for.

Almost smells as good as Wisteria. Doesn't have as many bees as the Wisteria.

Macro of Japanese Quince

Macro of Japanese Quince in my yard.

Purple Leaf Sand Cherry

This is the same shrub/tree in my post from yesterday, here.

Jen from Unglazed came up with the name and I googled it.

Thank you Jen, I am glad to know what it is.

2 photos of a fall Flowering shrub

The 1st and 2nd photograph are the same just turned. The top photograph is the way I took it, but was not sure which way I liked it.

The 3rd and 4th photographs are actually the same also, just turned differently.

The horizontal of both photographs are the way I actually took them, but wasn't sure which way I liked each of them, so thought I would take input from my visitors. I only took 2 photographs. I took this outside my daughters office window right after I took her picture, which I posted this past Friday afternoon.

Last 2 Blue Hydrangea blooms from Spring City

These are the last 2 blooms from the Blue Hydrangea shrubs I photographed last week along the country road in Spring City, Tennessee.

Thank you for bearing with me as I learn all the quirks of blogging with the new computer.

Fading Hydrangea blooms

These blooms are beginning to fade. The last photograph is the only bloom left on the fading shrubs. All the other photos I have been posting are on 2 other shrubs to the left of these.

This last fresh bloom looks out of place by itself.

And now I find out I can't type where I want to always. And what is it with this Picasa sign stuck up next to the last photograph instead of at the bottom? Go figure!

More Blue Hydrangea flowers

Ok, now I figure out with this new fangled 'thing' that I cannot seem to conquer it won't let me post but 4 photographs at a time. I will post 4 more to go with this. You thought I posted often before, it is going to get worse with this.

This post was going to show you the blooms as they progress, see the next post for that.