Heard Sandhill Cranes yesterday morning, and cut my first bouquet of Daffodils for the kitchen table, so we have turned a corner. Yay!
Our daffodils are past peak, but my dad & cousin got beautiful bouquets for Easter - daffys were still ‘good’. The redbud is in full bloom - so gorgeous. The fruit trees are blooming ... the ‘possible’ apple tree on the new place and an older one that is starting to leaf out/bloom a little - this one will have apples, I’m certain. The forsythia bush is going to green. My little boxwoods I planted February a year ago have probably grown 6 inches (I have had 2 requests for them when we move although I’d like to take them with me). My lavenders (making the move!) have new green leaves in the last week. As the saying goes “spring is busting out all over!” :-)
Major tree issues to be addressed at the new place - meeting with a tree guy tomorrow for a quote & talked to a 2nd person that will be out this week as well. One fairly large pine started dying about the time we bought the place ... one dead branch at the bottom. Now it’s died about 1/2 the way up & most of it is going ‘yellow’. It’s right at the road/driveway so the first thing you see is ‘dead tree’.
The next tree, which I had not thought of taking down until we got the slate roof fixed for big bucks, is a monster ‘bull’ pine growing at the corner of the house. Some of the branches are as big as small trees. It’s mature so will be having branches break off (wood is soft/brittle). One branch dropped off in January & missed the house, thank goodness - I ‘just’ got it hauled away, needed a pole saw to get it into small(er) pieces. These pines have shallow tap roots & not much of a root ball so they blow over easier than say an oak - the tree is already leaning towards the house & all the big branches are on the house side. After seeing the tree blowing/bending in 50-60 mph wind gusts, my stomach was in knots & I had to look away. The roofer says “that tree is scary!”. I have convinced mom it needs to come down. I am sure it will be big bucks since it’s a huge tree, but it would be bigger bucks if it wrecks the roof! Always ‘something’ to deal with when you own a place .....
We have a male fox (killed all my SIL’s chickens in the last week - auto door was malfunctioning, fox dug in and got them) who is barking every evening - seems to like the Collie. She is sicced on the fox, chases it away, & it’s back in no time, yipping/barking, making weird noises. There must not be any females around right now.
I cut some daffodils for the sunroom table around St. Patrick’s Day. They are all finished blooming around here, and I’m happy to see lots of other early spring plants coming up and blooming. The bleeding hearts made it through the hard freeze earlier in the week, and the brunnera are going strong. My bachelor buttons have blossoms and should begin opening soon. As long as I deadhead those periodically through the summer, they should rebloom until November.