April 2, 2024

Spring has officially sprung. On April 2nd, I golf-carted around my lawn and took pictures of what was blooming. Looking down my driveway, I could see redbuds in full bloom as well as a greened-up willow oak. 

A closer look at the redbud shows that the crape myrtles along the road have not yet budded.

Another redbud is near the bottom driveway. The maples and the poplar tree are greening up too.

The wisteria on top of the pergola should bloom in another few weeks.

Lilacs are in bloom.

This dogwood is loaded with blooms.

Money plant and orange tulips provide a nice contrast for each other.

I used to have lots of azaleas, but many have died out through the years. This one near the deck is huge and always has lots of blooms.

This one, growing under a pin oak, is still hanging on.

Past the small azalea are redbuds.

The redbuds are doing very well this spring. Here's a close-up of some branches.

Money plant is blooming all over the place. Here it shares space with a tulip.

And here it blooms amid the irises.

Money plant always does well here.

The spirea is just starting to bloom. In a week or two it will be covered in white blossoms.

Even the holly is blooming and full of honeybees. There should be lots of berries by Christmas.

But spring will be long gone by Christmas.

~

March Flowers 2023

 The spring flowers on my property were putting on a show the other day: tulips, dogwood, redbud, lilacs, and forsythia, oh my!

Spring has officially sprung.

~

SOTK Spring 2023

 State of the Kitties Report, Spring 2023

by Tanner (Resident Cat-in-Chief)

Here I am in bed with Rufus, Grover, Charlotte, Orville, Jim-Bob. and Arlo.

Not a lot has changed since my last year state of the kitties report. I am still in charge but I am slowing down a little, and I sometimes only work half a shift instead of a whole day. I only stay in the garage at night if it's warm. If it's cold, I stay in the house and sleep on mommy's bed with a bunch of the other cats. It is a good thing we all get along.

I am an old cat now. I turned 10 this winter.  There are only three cats on the property who are older than I am—Chloe and her brother Jim-Bob will be 14 in August, and the outside cat Spotz will be 14 in June or July.

Spotz in her domain—the shop window.

Spotz works around the pasture and goes in the shop at night. She has a friend named Max who is a feral cat, and they sometimes hunt rats together when Max isn't away for a few days. Mommy told me he is likely looking for love. Mommy golf-carts out to feed them twice a day. Spotz is always glad to see her, but Max won't come closer than a foot. He is the only cat on the property that Mommy hasn't been able to tame. He usually sleeps in a box on the patio under the deck.

Skippy and his kitty Cedrick also work outside, and they usually sleep close to the house where Mommy has fixed several cat nests for them. They often sleep together. Cedrick has been here for a few years now, and I still do not much like him. I can usually tolerate Skippy, though. Jim-Bob still hates Cedrick and wants to fight him.

Cedrick thinks he's king of the castle.

Jim-Bob and I are the only housecats who work outside during the day now. Chloe would like to go out the way she used to four years ago before she disappeared for 9 days and came home hurt real bad, but Mommy won't let her go out anymore because it cost a lot of money to get Chloe's fracture fixed. Jim-Bob usually only works half a day. Then he comes in and naps with some of the others. Arlo would like to sneak out if he could like he did a few times last year, but Mommy watches him whenever she goes out. Arlo and Chloe usually stay in the garage at night to hunt the rat, but we haven't seen any garage rats for a long time. The other cats have no interest whatsoever in going out.

Rufus, Jim-Bob, Otis, Orville, and Grover.

Late in the afternoon, the sun shines in the window and a lot of us like to sleep in its warmth. Claudine gets in the window and tries to hog all the sunlight for herself. Her brother Rufus is so big that he gets a lot more sun than anyone else.

 

Sometimes I'm in and out during the day. When I'm out, I do my catwork, which is mostly patrolling and watching. Two weeks ago, Mommy golf-carted me and Skippy out to the former pasture so we could check the fence line. Here I am inspecting it.

Skippy inspected it too.

The weeping cherry tree by the fence is real pretty when it blooms.

An even prettier one is across the pasture. A bird planted the see there a long time ago.

Here's a closer look at it. In summer, I sometimes sleep under it.

A few weeks ago, Spring was just starting to show itself. The corkscrew willow that Mommy planted a long time ago—before I even got here—was the first to show green.

Next to it is a cherry tree, which is in bloom. 

Here's a closer look at the cherry tree.

The redbud soon started showing its buds. I sometimes climb the redbud trees.

The forsythia near the mailbox really showed its color. 

The bridal wreath near the side yard bloomed early this year. Sometimes I sit under it because it is a good hiding place. 

All around the yard things are changing, but the view of the mountains doesn't change all that much.

That is about all for my report this time. It is time for my nap.

~

April 2020

This April has beeen like no other I can remember. We have spent the month "sheltering in place" because of the coronavirus outbreak. Most businesses are closed, so there's no where to go if we wanted to. This April has also been incredibly beautiful.

In between rainstorms, the air has been clear (fewer vehicles on the road=less pollution emitted) and the sky has been bright. Flowers in my yard have bloomed profusely. Here are some pictures of things in my yard this April:

There's a gazebo behind these redbuds, but you can't see it. The willow oak behind it is one of my favorite trees:

I purchased these bluebells at a plant sale in Rocky Mount about a decade ago:

I brought the seeds of money plant from our house in Roanoke in 1999. It blooms in various locations around the property here:

The redbud by the bottom driveway grew from seeds the birds had planted. Same for the mulberry at right and the poplar tree behind the redbud:

The azalea near the patio was here when we bought the place in 1999. It has grown huge since then:

I bought a small sweet shrub a few years ago. I didn't think it would live, but it did:

I planted these tulips a half-dozen years ago:

The white dogwood in the font yard was here before we were:

So has the pink dogwood in the side yard:

Ditto for the spirea:

Another redbud:

The peach tree I planted near the mailbox about 15 yars ago already has little peaches:

 Jim-Bob, one of the working cats, guards the property line:

This azalea was here before we were. The green garden bench beside belonged to my grandmother. Maggie the border collie has been here nearly 15 years:

I doubt that Maggie will be here net April. Given the current state of the country, I wonder if any of us will be.

~