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.

Can you smell the Wisteria?

My Granny Sorrells had wisteria at her farmhouse. This is the same Granny I received daffodils and a plain white iris from. I probably also received my love of flowers from her. These photos are not from my yard. Wish this first one was my yard. When we bought our property in October 2004 the 2 acres had been part of a pasture field. It will take several more years before we have anything remotely close to this. At our previous yard we had a purple wisteria and a white wisteria planted about 50 feet from each other. The above wisteria is smaller than either one of ours. When we bought at our current location Jimmy built an arbor for us to plant our wisteria startings at. The next spring we took shoots from both the white and purple, with plans of the white and purple to be mingled together this time. They have struggled, and we thought we had lost them totally. But last year they began to grow some. This spring we finally have blooms, they are ALL white. Which is ok with me, because I wasn't going to be able to get a start of the white again. The purple I can get a new start from my mother.

Some of you agreed yesterday how good the lilac bush smells.

Wisteria would overwhelm the lilac it is so strong smelling.

Now to the story of how I got my start of the white wisteria. We bought property in Knoxville that we ended out building a home on in 2000. In 1999 my office moved and I traveled a different road going to and from work. I saw this beautiful white wisteria up high in the trees on the side of a very wooded area of the highway. Jimmy and I decided to get us start of it. I babied that start until it had to be put in the ground due to it's size. We transplanted it and it lived. I begun to feel guilty about taking the start until one day I went by that same location and the county road crew and wiped out the whole bunch of it, plus another 20 ft beyond it. That spot is still cleared, so the white wisteria never came back in that location. I am so happy that I got a start from my old house and it is going to make it now. Someday I will have an arbor covered in this white wisteria and if we are all still blogging I will show it to you.

By the way, I printed the first photo just to see what it would look like for a card. Ended out putting it in one of the Mother's Day Cards in my greeting cards. I still was not sure what I thought of it, but got a very good response about it when I showed it.

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.