Spring keeps getting better

Love birds are flying everywhere. They are fighting over the boxes, but I am sure soon they will have all that straightened out between them.My small purple wisteria. And my white wisteria on the arbor in the backyard. Someday it will be as large as the one we had in Halls, but it still has a way to go.

Purple Wisteria

I am home from Stitches South. Had a WONDERFUL time, spent way too much time ( and money) in the market place. Came home with yarn and ideas for myself and to sell (for my Etsy shop). In time I will show my workshop accomplishments, none of which are quite complete at this time. I took two entrelac workshops from a wonderful teacher, Gwen Bortiner, one of the nations top entrelac experts. She has an entrelac book coming out in August at Stitches Midwest, out for the general public in September. Sweaters, etc in this book, I can't wait to get my copy, but I won't be going to Stitches Midwest.

Oh yes, the purple wisteria above is not at my arbor, but in my backyard. It is from my mother's yard, which means it is from my Granny's yard. Wish I knew where all Granny's flowers originated, may be from several more generations of my family.

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.

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.