Moving rocks

Today I took my husbands old Chevy truck and searched for some good rocks for landscaping. I have a hard time passing up a rock pile!  And as always I'm trying to get things looking better before our 4th of July family and friends gathering in Sewanee.  I had some luck and found some nice ones to spruce up the landscaping.
When we built our home ten years ago I had the good fortune and offer to clear some rocks from our contracts project managers farm land. It was covered in large river rocks. They were perfect for my landscaping ideas and needs And the man needed those rocks cleared so that he could plant and farm his land. We helped each other!  I'm adding more rocks and it gives me a great workout! So it's a win, win for me since a hate workouts in the gym.  Being productive and getting the benefit of a workout is my idea of staying fit.  And the yard looks much better too!

This is a picture of our dog Sam laying in the rocks just to be close to where I was working I suppose.  I  cannot imagine that those rock were very comfortable to lay in.  I tried to coax him to a better spot!  But that's were he wanted to be!

Revel In The Nature of God's Beauty

All you have to do is go outside and look around. If nothing else just look at the sky! This morning I grabbed the camera, my phone, car keys and shouted to Carly, our dog, that we were going for a ride...it was short but she always gets excited to get to go for a ride! It use to be a truck ride but she can no longer jump that high and has put on a good bit of weight in her old age. And I'm not up for picking her behind up very often either at my age! We bought a car from our daughter-in-law that she and it scoot around in these days. It's older, low to the ground and easy on gas. I don't let Carly ride in my nice car these days! When we arrived at the edge of the woods and I parked next to the barn. I noticed how bright the sun was starting to get but it was still nice and cool. As we jumped out of the car I spotted a butterfly and bee on a purple thistle flower. The light was often very bright, I had forgotten my sunglasses, my eyes tried to adjust to the bright morning sunlight but my eyes filled with tears. It made it a bit difficult to see as I scooted though the tall grasses, thinking that I will probably encounter lots of pesky ticks and chiggers! YUCK!!! So far so good though! I'm hoping they don't show up later :0/! We had a very mild winter so they are out in full force this season! Fortunately, I had so much beauty to see that I was bursting with my normal desire and enthusiasm to take it all in so I tip toed for a while then said,” to heck with it”(prayed that the bug spray would work on me), as I plowed right through to the open field. It's always the little things that I get so excited about, spotting a new dragonfly, a tiny blue butterfly that seemed to pose for me and the sunlight peeking through the trees just along the creek bed and along the road was spectacular. So, I encourage you open your eyes to what God has created and to revel in nature's beauty. I try to do it daily myself! It is good for you I promise!

Our Great Pollinators

The amount of pollen that this bee had collected was amazing!  He was sprinkled with pollen everywhere!

A honey bee in utter delight of the reb bud blossoms (like me!) and getting an early start on the season back in March.

Our Salvia seems to be a great attraction for the bumble bees because they visit it often!

This bumble bee is either chilled out or totally pooped out!  I got so tickled at the way it was resting on this leaf.

There are many different pollinators and they work differently since they are not all designed the same. Each type of pollinator feeds on different plants and therefore pollinate different plants in different ways. The most common pollinators are bees, butterflies, birds, and moths. But that's not all, there are more! Other pollinators include flies, beetles, bats, occasionally the wind and man sometimes either by accident and sometimes the deliberate processes that we use to pollinate in order to make better and stronger plants occurs.

To be pollinated, pollen has to be transfered from a stamen to the stigma. When pollen from a plant's stamen is transferred to that same plant's stigma, it is called self-pollination. When pollen from a plant's stamen is transferred to a different plant's stigma, it is called cross-pollination. When cross-pollination occurs it produces stronger plants. The plants have to be of the same species or family in order for cross-pollination to occur. For example, only pollen from a rose can pollinate another rose. Pollen from a daisy or an pear tree would not work on a rose.  It is interesting to watch bees, butterflies and etc. helping this process happen!

This bee had evidently been busy!  And he continued to collect pollen from this thistle flower.

This is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papillo glaucus) helping with the pollination process of the wild azalea. Native azaleas are deciduous shrubs that are in the rhododendron family. They are fairly common where I live as well as an abundance of the mountain Laurel however; I have not noticed the common rhododendron growning abundantly and wild in our forest.

An abundance of cherries totally by mistake

About five years ago we had a late frost and I was so sad about not getting to enjoy the full duration of beautiful and utterly splendid weeping cherry blossoms for the already short time that they last. This year I thought to grabbed some gorgeous photos of the blooms to enjoy forever. And I thought how disappointed I was that this tree had become awkward and misshapen after the late frost had forever changed the appearance of this once lovely tree. I had considered replacing the tree with a much more full and beautiful tree for next year since this tree is a focal point of our front yard landscaping. My busy schedule this spring and lack of rainfall has put a halt to most of my usual gardening but I'm hoping to rebound! Yesterday our youngest son was home briefly after his graduation from college. He had been outside absorbing some sunshine and relaxing after another hummingbird adventure. Then he comes inside and says mom have you noticed the cherries on our tree!!! I said, huh??? Cherries? And he says"Come here and look at these!" I was amazed at the luscious beautiful red cherries growing in abundance on this cherry tree that was grafted to be an ornamental weeping cherry. Now 3/4 of the tree is fruit bearing! Where the graft had been made on the tree, due to that late frost several years ago, we now have a fabulous yield of yummy red cherries!  We are all excited and ready to plant more cherry trees now!

The ever changing garden

An early bloomer this year...Trumpet Honeysuckle, Coral Honeysuckle Family: Caprifoliaceae



 Spring snowflake Leucojum vernum Family: Amaryllidaceae



The path of Abbos Alley garden in Sewanee, TN

It is amazing how after only a few days you can notice the garden's old plant growth is ever changing the look of the garden. The colors and textures change with some blooms fading and new texture and color emerging! I am always looking for what is new as I stroll through every path in the garden.

My B, B & B day...blue skies, butterflies and bunnies!

 Sharing my day in pictures...my beautiful ,blue skies, butterflies and bunnies day! Beauty surrounds us all of the time. All I can say is that, I thanked God often today for such a wonderful day! And I wanted to share it with anyone that loves the outdoor and spring! I do not think that there is anyone that loves it anymore than I do!!!  I simply wish that spring blossoms lasted longer...FOREVER!




White dogwood with a gorgeous blue sky backdrop and a touch of redbud!

 



Wild azalea bushes are spectacular

 


A lovely swallowtail butterfly on a wild azalea.




This wild azalea was above my head and I'm 5' 9" so I grabbed
 an underneath shot of this beautiful swallowtail.

  

Snuggly!



Oh how sweet, warm and precious this little baby is!



I think that I counted three little Easter bunnies all snuggled up in this cozy den/nest. 
I didn't want to disturb them too much.  I will be visiting them again to make sure they stay safe!



Spring has sprung in Sewanee

I feel so blessed to I live in one of the most beautiful places in our country. The mountain is alive with new growth and with earlier than usual warmer temperatures we have color before we have leaves on our trees. So many flowers are in bloom or have already finished blooming. I have felt a bit obsessive compulsive about trying to capture photos of nature at it's finest before it's gone! Today I had to get busy with my cleaning out flower beds and preparing for some planting! I believe as usual, much of my gardening will be in containers due to our deer population. I hope that you will enjoy some of my garden pictures.