Remember How I Told You About Spring in the Forest?

You don't? Well, I guess I don't talk about it enough. I never understood the old hymn that says that the woodlands are fairer than the meadows. This was until I experienced Spring in the forest.

Last year, in the Upper Peninsula, we would see forests where as far as the eye could see, there were forget-me-nots or trillium. Other times it was yellow and orange hawkweed mixed with daisies. Or, it might be garden lupine in three colors.

But, even here in central Michigan, we get some really nice wildflowers. My flower beds are neglected because I'd rather be in the woods!

Today, the kids and I did a little walk just to see the trillium in bloom on a hillside near our home. It's an amazing sight and something I don't know how to capture on camera to convey it in photo form.

These first two photos are just shots of the hillside to give you an idea of how many are there. It is a steep hill, over fifty feet high and goes on about the length of a football field (just a guess, I'm not great with measurements):



Here is a close-up that gives a better idea of what a trillium looks like if you aren't familiar:

Here's a close-up I took last year at trillium time:


And these are a different type of flower we saw today, just to give you an idea of what the forest floor is like right now. There are also places just covered with a flower that looks like a yellow star:



Here is the row of turtles we saw today, plus the leopard frog Brigham spotted on his own the other day (he sometimes identifies birds by name before I can!):



There's so much to be grateful for!!

My Graduation Which Leads to Exhibit A (below)

I can't believe it. I have to post about my graduation. I have moved on in life to the place where I can go out into my yard, leaving all the little kiddies inside and do yard work. That is just what I did this morning. Then, later, I told Elijah he was making lunch today and gave him some instructions. I stayed out in the yard from about 11 am until 2 pm! Wow!

What was I doing, you ask? Well, I was planting seeds. It's the end of June and I'm just getting around to it. Planting seeds means being committed to watering every day which is hard for me. I dislike being tied to the hose. But, so it is and I hope we have some great color here soon.

Now for Exhibit A:


I'll never be a hand model now!

There's never an A without a B. It's just not proper form, but I can't reach around my arm with the camera to take a picture of my wasp sting. Those evil insects traumatize me!

Gardening, Gardening

Lovely. My house is full of carpenter ants. I just told Joseph that he is lucky to go to work. I have a creepy crawly feeling all over my skin. Didn't know that carpenter ants would go for the honey. How does that relate to gardening? Even though I didn't feel like it, I went outside today to get away from those gross BIG ants to dig.

I have to do this every year. I have lots of perennials and they look great, but I also have a lot of open dirt for planting seeds of annuals. By this time of year, there are tall grasses, seedlings from plants that seeded the previous year, dandelions, clover, etc. invading my precious free dirt. I have to dig through that dirt to get rid of what I don't want and prepare the ground for what I do want.

So, because of all the organizing I've been doing inside my house, the outside needs some work (last year's herb garden and vegetable garden):

Can you tell where the grass ends and the gardens begin?

And here they are again after two hours of digging. Notice that the regular garden hasn't changed one bit. Sariah wants a pumpkin patch, but I know that I don't want to keep all that ground free of weeds, so I'm not so sure. Joseph??

The birds have not yet found our feeders we put out a week ago.

I had no idea that the basil and thyme were perennials. There was plenty of dill grown from last year's seeds and also some cilantro. I found this cute little English daisy among the clover and grass:


Despite lots of insect repellent, there were plenty of mosquitoes and gnats buzzing around me AND when I was done I had to shovel at least an inch of mud off the bottom of my gardening shoes.


The promise of fruits to come later:

We're trying potted tomatoes this year as we've had a horrible time with tomato plants almost every year!