Watching the Garden Grow

There is nothing like spring flowers to brighten up a yard.  This is the weekend when normally the annuals are placed out as we typically do not get frost after this.  I didn’t say we never get frost, but usually we do not get frost from now until fall.

It is raining though and much as I enjoy playing in the dirt, I don’t enjoy it in the rain – so we still just have the perennials.  I had planted pansies last year in the hopes they would come up again this year, but there doesn’t seem to be any.  I’m thinking that the newer, larger pansies are not as tolerant of winter and I had some beautiful large flowered pansies.  I will stick with the basic size if I get pansies again.  I know I used to have some that would come up every year for many years.

Last year the Forget Me Not flowers covered the whole flower bed – but this year they are just popping up in the lawn and are hardly in the flower bed.  My late blooming Tulip is almost open and the first Iris is now open.

May 18 Forget Me Not

May 19 Iris and Forget Me Not

May 18 Tulip

Iris May19

Chester and I had a shortened walk due to the rain and the Iris pictures were taken in the rain also.  Although we need the moisture, it is not supposed to rain during the day, especially on weekends and especially on long weekends.

Happy Birthday Angela

Today is my daughter’s 26th birthday.  Hard to believe how my life has changed since she arrived.

Happy Birthday Angela – hope you have a wonderful day and that each day gets even better.

We managed to find one Mallard Duck on our walk along the Red River yesterday.  He was just a bump on the log while he slept though.  I knew that log would be good for bumps. 

Bump On A Log May14

He must have been up late last night and never did look around while Chester and I were watching him.

We got back to our yard to find that the lilacs next door have now started blooming. 

Lilacs May 14

Lilacs May 14

Lilacs May 14

So far on Africam today, we have seen Nyala, Impala, Elephant, Warthog, Black Eagle, Kudu, Zebra, Giraffe, Waterbuck, Hadeda Ibis, Cape Turtle Dove, and our beautiful Cheetah Salome and her adorable cubs.  Before long we should be seeing a Black Eagle chick too.    Click here to see all the pictures from May 15th.

The Tulips

The tulips have opened.  This is mostly exciting because it doesn’t look like I’ll have many flowering this year.  The ones that seemed to be affected by the weather, never did recover and some just didn’t put up any buds.  My later flowering ones have a couple of buds, but they will be awhile yet.  I’ll celebrate when they open too. 

My peonies have also grown very suddenly so we have a picture of them too.  Also, a tree in my neighbour’s yard is flowering.  I don’t remember it ever flowering as much as it is this year though.  The flowers are similar to the Hawthorne, Plum and  Mock Orange that I have in my yard – but the plum has finished and the mock orange and Hawthorne haven’t started yet.

Blooms May 9

Blooms May 9

Blooms May 9

I don’t see any thorns so its not a plum or Hawthorne – I guess we’ll have to examine the leaf next.

Peony May 7

Tulip May 9

Tulip May 9

So far on Africam today, we have seen Waterbuck, Nyala, Kudu, Elephant, Wildebeest, Giraffe, Side-striped Jackal and of course our beautiful cheetah and cubs.  Click here to see all the pictures from May 10th.

Serious Lack of Critters

I hope you are enjoying the garden pictures, because there has been a serious lack of critters along the Red River when Chester and I have been going on our walks lately.

I found 6 more Red Lily bugs on my lilies yesterday morning and have disposed of them.  I will check again each day until I no longer find any for a few days in a row.

We don’t have a lot of pictures today – just my tulips and the elephant ear flowers.

Tulips May 7

Tulip May 7

The next few days are supposed to be warm and sunny – so these should be completely open very soon. 

Elephant Ear May 7

After much thought, I’ve decided I am going to sell some of my digital cameras, including the Sony NEX-5N.  The Olympus and Canon haven’t been used in awhile, so it was no problem to think of selling them, but although the NEX takes wonderful pictures – it just doesn’t have the zoom that I wanted.  I thought of taking both the Nikon and the Sony to Africa, and switching between them depending on how close the critter was, but finally decided that would be too much of a nuisance.  I am also going to sell the set of luggage that I won a few weeks ago.  If you live in the area, look for my ads on Kijiji.

So far on Africam on May 8th we have seen Lion, Cheetah, Impala, Giraffe, Zebra, Elephant, Side Striped Jackal, Wildebeest, Nyala, Egyptian Geese and Hadada Ibis.  Click here to see all the pictures.

Ducks and Flowers

Chester and I found one pair of Mallard Ducks on our walk along the Red River Saturday morning.  There were also a lot of rowers on the river.  After that we took a couple more pictures of the garden as it is growing.  You saw my main (well, really my only) problem yesterday with the Red Lily Bugs moving in.  Other than mosquitoes, I seldom kill any bugs – but if its a choice between the bug and my lilies, I’ll get rid of the bug.  A few bites here and there would have been ok.

Rowers May 5 with 1 Gull high above them

Rowers May 5

Mallards May 5

Tulip May 5 – opening soon

Plum Tree Blooms May 5

Good thing I took this plum tree flower as we were heading out for the walk instead of waiting until we returned.  Blue sky here now, but when we got back, it was all cloudy.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Salome, the cheetah mom with her 3 adorable little cubs, Leopard, Impala, Kudu, Elephant, Nyala, Wildebeest and Grey Heron.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.  Check out the cams while you’re there – you never know what might wander into sight.

Red Lily Bug

I don’t have too many problems with bugs around here.  I know there are some who snack on my plants – but then the bunnies have a snack once in awhile too.  As I was taking pictures yesterday morning, I noticed a red bug on my lilies.  I zoomed in on it, but didn’t have my glasses on anyway – so didn’t see what I had until I came inside and uploaded what I had taken.  It turns out there were 4 red bugs in the picture and 2 of them were busy trying to make more.  One of them is cropped out of the picture to make the 2 busy ones more visible.

I searched for red bug online and discovered that they were Red Lily Bugs and that I soon would not have any lilies if I didn’t do anything about them.  The advice was to either squish them or put them in warm soapy water.  I wasn’t in the squishing mood, so took out some warm soapy water to put them in.  By then they had gone into hiding, but I managed to find a couple of dozen of them along with several eggs.  The eggs are soft and just bush off without too much problem, but I had to catch the adult ones one by one.

I’ll have to check the plants daily to make sure they don’t do more damage.  I’m sure I missed a few of them.

Red Lily Bugs May 15

When I was catching bugs, I found a few who were busy like these 2 are.  I hope I didn’t leave any eggs to hatch because the larva are really disgusting looking and those are the ones who eat the lilies.  I’ve had these lilies for many years and would hate to loose them to a new bug on the block.

Here is the webpage where I found the info on these little guys.

So far on Africam today, we have seen Elephants, Leopard and Saddle-bill Stork.  Of course, the day has barely started as I am typing this.  Click here to see all of today’s pictures.

Watching the Garden Grow

It is exciting to watch the flowers growing in the garden.  I really have to get out there and do some weeding, but rain has been forecast for today and I had too many things to do yesterday.  I did manage to get some pictures of the growing plants yesterday. 

Chester and I had our walk along the Red River as usual before I started on my list of errands to get done.

Peony May 4

Snow on the Mountain and Lily of the Valley May 4

I have never noticed the Lily of the Valley here before, but it sure looks like what is coming up on the right and behind the log.  I have some in other places in the yard, but don’t remember it ever being here.

Maltese Cross May 4

There is a lovely tender looking dandelion coming up here too.  I may go out with my salad plate and pick it later. 

Iris May 4

Lilies May 4

Lilies May 4

Elephant Ear May 4

Looking down into the center, you can see that it is going to flower this year!!!  I see flowering Elephant Ear plants in several places on our walks and mine have never flowered before.    I’ll get that stick out of there before the next picture.

Elephant Ear Flower May 4

I had to get a closeup of the flowers. 

I am really enjoying Salome (Cheetah mom) and her 3 adorable babies on Africam.  What an adorable family!

See the Garden Grow

We survived Chester’s birthday 

We didn’t find any critters on our walk, but under a cloudy sky I decided to take pictures of the plants that are still emerging.  The lilies that I had been wondering about have now made an appearance, much to the delight of the bunnies – so I hope they will survive.  The plum tree is in full bloom now – so that won’t last long and I got pictures.

Tulip April 30

Lilies April 30

Plum Tree Flowers April 30

Plum Tree Flowers April 30

Plum Tree Flowers April 30

So far on Africam today, we have watched the workers at  Tembe trying to fix the night light cable  (after watching the elephants damage it the day before).  We have seen Elephant, Giraffe,Zebra, Wildebeest, Waterbuck, Impala, Hamerkop, Blacksmith Lapwing and Scrub Hares.  There are lots of pictures of the elephants playing with the cable too.    Click here to see the pictures from May 1st.

Let the Garden Grow

I realize I promised Chester pictures today, but decided to wait until his birthday on May 1st, although I may show one or 2 tomorrow, since I took more of him today. 

My plum tree is starting to flower, my tulips are starting to bud and I have lilies (I think) coming up so I took pictures of them for today.

Plum Tree Flowers April 28

Tulip Buds April 28

Lilies April 28

Now, I think these are lilies, but they aren’t coming up where my lilies normally do.  Actually, nothing is coming up where the lilies normally do and I hope they do soon.  These may be some of the fancier ones that I planted a few years ago though.

So far on Africam today we have seen Impala, Zebra, Giraffe, Elephant, Baboon, African (Cape) Buffalo, Waterbuck, Nyala, Grey Heron Burchel’s Coucel, Common Duiker, Wildebeest, Hornbills and Side-striped Jackal.  Click here to see all the pictures from April 28th.

Flowers are Growing

No sign of any actual flowers yet, but we’re finally getting weather almost as warm as it was in March – so they are growing again.  It is cooling off today unfortunately, and we may get some rain – so April hasn’t been a nice month with the weather.

I’m hoping we aren’t going to pay for the warm winter by having a cold summer.

Yesterday the sun was shining and it was a beautiful day though.  Bear in mind that I take the pictures one day, write this the next day and post it the following day – so today, yesterday and tomorrow are different from what you are experiencing at the time. 

Chester and I had our usual walk along the Red River and all we found yesterday was a Mallard Duck – that is why I’ve added some current pictures of the flowers coming up in my flower bed.

Day Lilies

The day lilies flowered very nicely last year and I am hoping to get the same from this this year.  Amazing to think how many years they spent in complete shade and hardly ever put out a flower.  Now that they get sunshine they are doing wonderful.

Tulips & Iris

I did clean the leaves out of the flower bed after taking these pictures. 

Tulips & Elephant Ear

Snow On The Mountain

I haven’t taken the leaves out of this area, but this will grow to cover them anyway.

Mallard Duck Apr 24

So far on Africam today, we have seen Elephant, Waterbuck, Blacksmith Lapwing, Grey Heron, Impala, Oxpecker, Terrapin, Zebra, Wildebeest, Baboon, Nyala, Helmeted Guinea Fowl, Brown-headed Kingfisher, Common Duiker, White-tailed Mongoose and lion (with cubs).  Click here to see all of the pictures from April 25th.