Signs of things to come

Hopefully my flower gardens will be as full of butterflies this year as in the last several years.

I just love ladybugs. This is a partial view of one of my daylily flowerbeds. As you can see I am going to have a real hard time getting in there for photographs. My husband likes to plant them close to begin with, and then when they grow there is NO room to get around them. He did weed and mulch this spring before the daylilies started showing themself, so with the mulch and the closeness of the daylilies, not much room for weeds. Thank goodness, since we couldn't get to them if they were there. I do think he is seeing the error of his ways right now.

In the back there is a hint of purple from the iris bed, and you can see the road. The daylilies are right up to the edge of the bank down to the road. I used to be able to walk around that edge, but this year the daylilies have grown so much I won't be able to. This one bed is 10 rows, of about 20 plants in each row. Then I had Jimmy leave me a path before the next section. Hah! The path is almost closed up. I may end out getting him to dig a row up every so often just so I can have a path. Won't be this year. He barely gets home before he has to go back to work.

We did have a wonderful day Saturday....no work for either of us. I had to work Sunday, so he left his yard work for Sunday. Those of you that are against that, just keep the comments to yourself. We do what we have to do. I ended out only having to work 6 hours, so Jimmy met me in Knoxville and took me to The Chop House. He went onto Rockwood and I returned home to continue with my current needle felting project.

Ladybird Beetles

We always called these Ladybugs, but have found out the correct name is Ladybird Beetles. There are 350 species in the United States.

I went outside during a break in the rain yesterday (no photos today, it is pouring the rain) and was trying to get photos of my iris blooms. Not sure how they are blooming in all the rain, but they are gorgeous this year. Looked down and saw the Ladybug on the ground, so I picked it up and placed it on the iris.

The wind was blowing (bringing in more rain) and the first photo is not quite as sharp as I would have liked. Snapped the 2 photo, and then the Ladybug was blown to the ground. Didn't even see where it went, photo session over.

My 15 month old grandson is here today, while his mother goes to Bible study, and he is suppose to be taking a nap right now. Know how hard it is for a Granny to let him sleep while he is here? Specially when he doesn't want to. I decided to get this post ready so I could TRY to ignore him for a few minutes. It hasn't worked very well, and I am going to get him to play for a while. When Mason is here I don't even care that it is raining, yet again!

Colors of Spring 2009

The colors of spring through my camera lens this spring.

Forsythia taken at the Spring City Elementary School.

Redbud taken at the Lutheran Church on Broadway in Knoxville.
Japanese Quince

Bleeding Heart

Azalea

Flowering Almond

Close up of the Flowering Almond

Grape Hyacinth

Tulips and old fashioned white daffodils

Both of these photographs were taken at Max and Mary Frye's house in Dandridge. We were there this past Saturday to get fruit trees Max started for us last year. While we were there they also gave us a large clump of the these white daffodils. His aunt planted these at the old home place over 75 years ago.

Dandelion (Rockwood)

Flowering Crab Apple (Rockwood)

Peach Fruit Tree

Apricot Fruit Tree

Apple Fruit Tree

Not sure about this one. We first planted a Japanese Maple in this location, right before the late freeze (21 degrees) in April 2007. The Japanese Maple still had not come back to life in the fall of 2008 so we replaced it with this tree. I can't find my tag for it, so I don't know the name of it.

A ladybug on the above tree/shrub.

Unless otherwise noted these photographs were taken in my yard in New Market. We are expecting another April hard freeze tonight so I hope we still have some spring colors when we get up Tuesday morning. If we get some snow it would help. We are suppose to, but since we all want it in hopes of helping to save all the blooms we probably won't. The dogwoods are just beginning to open up, and it sure would be nice to have dogwoods in bloom for Easter. I would like to be eating apricots and peaches from my own trees this summer too.

Random macro photography

Just some random macro photography.

"Ladybugs" Ladybird Beetle

We always called these Ladybugs, but looking in the book, they are really called Ladybird Beetles. There are 350 species in the United States. I just enjoyed following this one all around my lily.