SIBERIAN IRIS' AND THEN....

you will see what happened a little way down my post.  But first, I am going to share a few photos from the front patch of our garden.  It was a bit bare, and we needed some color.  

Our garden isn't as large as some but even so, we are no spring chickens and at this stage of our lives we are grateful for extra help.  There is a very nice gentleman who takes care of our garden for us.  Last year I asked him if he could plant a few flowers in a bare spot at the front of the house.  He names flowers that would grow best in a particular spot.  I let him know what colors I am interested in, naming those seen in catalogs.  The place we needed them is in part shade, and his knowledge about such things has always impressed us, and I appreciate his honesty.  If I pick something he will tell me if it works and if it doesn't.  I am happy to compromise as he has never failed us...

and has known us long enough now that he has a good idea what we like.  We trust him! 

I liked everything he planted but my favorite was the Siberian Iris.  I love their deep, rich red with darker shades.

So, as pleased as punch with the way they were blooming in their second year, I took photos.  But yesterday (6-16-23) this happened (excuse the utterance at the end of the video - I usually keep them out of my vocabulary).

The start of it...

and the middle of it.  It hailed for 20 minutes, the rain half an hour afterwards.

Those icy pellets bounced inside the family room with such force, I was picking them up half-way across the carpet, at least a dozen feet inside.  (Our son, when he visited on Father's Day, after showing him the videos said, "Why didn't you just shut the door Mom?" "I had to take my photos!" I replied, and he laughed because he knows his mother.  (He lives 14 miles away and had no hail.) 

This morning as I write (6-17-23) we have had several storm chasers knocking on our door, asking if we wanted them to take a look for damage.  Gregg has already taken a walk around the house to see if he could see anything amiss.  He also contacted our insurance company requesting an inspector.  One of our neighbors had a new roof put on a few days ago.  We are keeping our fingers crossed for them.  Our next-door neighbor had someone inspecting his roof just now, and there are similar scenes all over the neighborhood.

I picked up a few icy pellets after the storm.  They had been much larger and were already melting in my hand.  Hundreds of new leaves had been knocked down.

People are saying it is the worst hailstorm we have had in ten years.  At least they weren't golf-ball-size like that time.  Our whole roof and siding were damaged badly.

Back then we had continuous rain between the inspection and the repair.  Many damp ceiling patches appeared in the garage, but only one large patch inside our main bathroom, and we were grateful 

  

There are two large wooden air vents on each side of the house, and one was badly smashed.  I kept thinking we were going to have squirrels, raccoons and birds taking up residence in our attic.  Fortunately, that wasn't a problem.  A few months  later our insurance paid for a new roof and all the siding, including the side vents and the frames around the windows.  We were amazed no windows had been broken. 

In our neighborhood there were contractors fixing dozens of homes for over a year.   The cars that had been parked outside had dents.  Every square inch looked like someone had taken the round part of a hammer to them.  But again, that was several years ago and this lesser storm may have given us a break.

It seemed to me that the hail wasn't quite as large but it was forceful, and because of the damage caused before, we don't want to take any chances.  

Gregg was away from home after spending most of the day visiting an old navy buddy 70 miles away.  I called him to let him know what was going on, worried that he might be caught out on the freeway as it was around the time he would have started back.  He was fine and there had been nothing where he was.  He said the closer to our house the worse it looked, but others have been mentioning it in other neighborhoods.  It took us all by surprise.  

It was misty afterwards, and there was steam rising from the ground.  I was curious and found on this page a term called "Hail Fog".  If you scroll down you will not only see that title, but others that give you reasons how fog forms.  Gregg said it was like a layer of fog rising from the ground when he was coming back into the neighborhood.  He had never seen anything quite like that before.

I took photos before it got dark (the two above) and again the next morning when I checked the plants.  Most of the petals had gone but there was this one left...

and a few other stalwarts with stems standing tall and petals still hanging on.  Resilient!  

We have an inspector coming around soon.  We are expecting rain for the rest of the week.  Fingers crossed!

WORTH REPEATING, SHE SPROUTED LOVE…

“She sprouted love like flowers, grew a garden in her mind, and even on the darkest days, from her smile the sun still shined.”

~Erin Hanson~

Born in 1981, Erin began painting as a young lady, learning oils, watercolor, pen and ink, pastels and life drawing from art instructors.  She began commissioning portraits of her neighbor's pets at age 10 and by age 12, she was employed after school by a mural studio, learning the techniques of acrylics on the grand scale of 40-foot canvases. Her first encounter with the Vincent Van Gogh painting "Irises" in elementary school was decisive and marked the beginning of her appreciation for Impressionism.

I planted a few deep red Siberian Lilies in the garden last summer.  I lost one when I found it had broken off at its base and it had been trampled.  That was that but I was very happy to see the remaining ones blooming two days ago.  

I turned this photo into a painting with my ArtCard app, and will share the original photo soon.  

FAVORITES FROM JUNE 2022

  Happy July everyone, Happy Fourth of July Weekend to those celebrating, and Happy Canada Day to all my Canadian friends out there!  I hope this month will be a good one for you all.

I am adding more favorites from the previous month.  I intend to do this regularly, as long as there is plenty of computer time.  I started last month at this link.  Today I am also adding a list of what and where these photos were taken.  Also another quote as you know how I enjoy those, and hoping that you will too.

"A picture is a poem without words."

~Horace~

Top left: Photo art of an eagle statue near the visitor center at Mason Neck State Park, Lorton, Virginia.  I enjoyed using Paint Shop Pro for this one.

Top row middle: Tree Swallow, also at Mason Neck State Park, Lorton, Virginia.

Top row right: Cat Bird in one of our trees in our back yard. 

Middle row left: Yellow Coneflower at Mason Neck State Park, Lorton, Virginia.

Middle row, in the middle: Female Eastern Cardinal, also taken in one of the trees in our back yard.

Middle row right: Siberian Lily, new to our front garden and recently planted.

Bottom row left: Female Eastern Pondhawk Dragonfly at Mason Neck State Park, Lorton, Virginia.

Bottom row middle: Red Fox surprised me on our back deck one night.

Bottom right: Black Swallowtail at Mason Neck State Park, Lorton, Virginia.

Probably not the right Horace but the only Horace I found of interest was this one.  Born Quintus Horatius Flaccus (born December 8th, 65 BC), known in the English-speaking world as "Horace", was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.  He was a soldier, scriba quaestorius, poet and senator.

BITS AND BOBS DAY

Bits and Bobs: plural noun

Things or objects of different kinds, as in:

"These are just a few bits and bobs I am sending today."

or:

"No one knows exactly what happened.  All we have is a few bits and bobs of information so far."

Bits and Bobs also is English slang for a collection of small items too numerous or varied to name individually. It originated from carpenters' tool kits containing parts for a drill, with bits used for making holes while bobs are routing or screwdriving drill attachments.

And now we know!

It's an expression I remember being used a lot growing up, but I haven't heard it in a very long time.  Do any of you out there use it?  The language is evolving so I am told.

Anyhow, here are my 'bits and bobs'.

Last month my Dear Other Half was in our local coffee house.  He is very much like me in that if there is anything that catches his attention and, if it is okay to do so, will take a photo with his cell phone.  Above you can see what he took while waiting in line, a prettily decorated information chalk board.  The chalked flowers appealed to me, and I picked one to make the ‘painting’ at the top of this page using my ArtCard app.  At the same time, I wondered who put all that together.  I liked their artwork very much.  And because it's good to have a smile, here you go.

 

We had to buy a new clothes washer.  Our old one threw its hands up and said "Enough already, I'm retiring".  I don't like change, I saw all the lights and dials on the new one, and said out loud for the umpteenth time, "I really don't like change", with emphasis.  DOH said, "What's so hard?"  "It looks too complicated" said I. "Why does there have to be so many buttons and flashing lights?  It's like looking at the instrument panel in a cockpit."  Well, not quite but you know what I mean.  DOH pressed two buttons, "That's it, it does it all for you!"  I said, as I peered into the chasm, "I don't like change."  After 46 years of married life, I think he knows that by now.  I did get used to my new cockpit and, not surprisingly, it only took a couple of days.  Now I'm saying, "It would be really nice to get the same brand of dryer, then they would match.”  (Our new washer is three inches taller than the old one.  My symmetrical brain was trying to get used to that too).   I could swear I heard Dryer gasp, or maybe that was Gregg.  Just kidding Gregg! Anyhow, Dryer threw up its hands and said, "Well, you're going to have to wait a while for that one, I'm sticking around for a long time."  "I hope you do", said I.  Does anyone else talk to their appliances?

Now for the squirrels.  The acrobats have been at it again.  We have a new family in town.  Not babies any more but growing youngsters and eating everything in sight.  It's hard work for them as you can see!

I decided it was time to stop putting the birdseed out, after seeing said youngsters running all over the garden digging up acorns and other delights.  There is enough for them to eat now.  We also had the raccoon.  Yes, I stopped putting the birdseed out, but there were still a few suet cakes left.  After those are gone, I won't be buying any more.  This has been the most popular suet cake I have ever put out there, and they have been disappearing overnight.  

The past week and each morning, pfttt!  All gone, and the suet was tightly encased in their cage.  But where there's a will, there's a way and even though the latch was never undone, nimble fingers worked their magic.  I had a good idea who the culprit was, and I didn't really need my trail cam to figure it out.  From the first to the fourth frame in the collage above, you can see the suet cake slowly disappearing.  If you look at the last frame, you might be able to see a smaller animal (enlarge for a clearer view).  The Flying Fox Squirrels are back and they only come out at night.  Not only Flying Foxes but regular Foxes too.

This is a screen shot from the video above.  I had heard a noise and looked from behind the curtains thinking I would see a raccoon.  We only see them rarely. You can hear me breathing hard after holding my breath for a few seconds.  I try to console the Fox after startling it by saying, "That's okay babe"...

but after staring at each other briefly, and after I accidentally bounced my phone off the window again, he hurriedly left down the steps.  I had an instant realization that this would be the last night of putting birdseed and suet cakes out.  

A few nights previously, there was what I think the same raccoon.  A ghostly shape appeared below it bottom left (courtesy of trail cam).  It was the fox but it soon disappeared and the raccoon relaxed after huffing a few times. There is the glow in the eyes of the fox, photo below. The raccoon was definitely on high alert as its ears flattened a tad.  It took me longer to know what was going on as I left my trail cam out a couple of extra days and there were over 800 takes on it, half photos, half videos.  Many produce nothing interesting as sometimes a rustling leaf can set these things off.  It takes time as there are too many to wade through in one sitting.  I put all the uninteresting frames away, but every now and again you get a gem, and I feel like I have been given a special gift.  I will have plenty to share throughout the summer.  

With the thought of the bears being active also (as I have mentioned in previous posts), though I have heard of no visitations on the next-door app like last year, yet, I do not want to encourage, in case I look out the window and find one of those bears staring back at me. Most importantly of course, there are a lot of dogs and cats in this neighborhood and we need to look out for our neighborhood pets.  So...time to get on your bike little raccoon!  I will be thinking of you and wishing you well, foxy also.

Ending note on this particular subject: I consider our local wildlife a true gift.  They were here way, way before this neighborhood was built.  When we were first married and drove through the area on our way to Skyline Drive, 40 plus years ago, (we lived in Alexandria for a couple of years) there was nothing here.  Now we are coexisting.  

Next day I walked around the garden and looked at the new plants in front of the house.  We had a little landscaping done. I gave the gentleman a basic guideline of what I liked.  It wasn't a big space but I told him favorite colors and I saw a diagram in a magazine I showed him as a guideline.  Gregg prefers I do all the deciding where the garden is concerned.  Basically, I told the gentleman, go for it.  I trust him 100 percent as we have known him for several years now, and he has also done our neighbor's garden and it looks lovely.  As for what he did here, I really loved the red ones, which came as a bit of a surprise, but definitely a happy surprise. 

It is a Siberian lily (botanical name Lilium pensylvanicum), also known as a Candlestick lily.  It is native to Siberia, Mongolia, Korea, northeastern China and Hokkaido in Japan. The Latin name is misleading due to an error caused by the botanist, John Bellenden Ker.  It is actually native to a cold climate and requires frost during the winter.  Furthermore, it is found in the wild in Siberia, so it is called Siberian lily.

It is also my garden friend as it is super easy to take care of and recognizes me as a brown thumb. It tells me it is resistant to pests and diseases, but needs consistently moist soil during its growing period.  It doesn't, however, need moisture during its dormancy.   

I have a few other coneflowers that are doing quite well, but these are new arrivals.  Some of the plants, the leaves and petals are getting chewed on by insects.  Can any of you out there give me a 'green' solution?  I try to stay away from pesticides and am reading up on all that, but having some first-hand information of something that is tried and true, is always gratefully received.

Our family is well and I am hoping yours is too.  Thanks for dropping by and my wish is for your day to be a great one.