Flying Squirrely Night Visitor

In a wonderful "wife" moment last evening, my husband and I were sitting out on our Patio enjoying some hot tea in our cooler weather. After a full day of being "mother" by chasing, reading, feeding, cleaning (always feeding then cleaning), coloring, snuggling, it was a great rest. (We had also squeezed in a little "gardener" with a quick trip to the small local nursery after dinner to grab some plants. Sorry we missed you, Joel!)

So, we are enjoying our after dark tea and conversation, when hubby spots a little creature making leaps to our bird feeder. It is so dark that it is difficult to see anything but its outline, and that is brief because it is so quick!  I snuck inside to get my camera, and the flash reveled our visitor - a flying squirrel right in the middle of town!

I lightened these photos a little so they could be seen better.

We watched him jump back and forth to the feeder in shadow-form for about twenty minutes. It was not until I snapped a picture between his jumps that we knew he was staying in the front of the tree to look at us. Sorry for the lack of focus on the next couple of photos; rather tough in the dark.

You can see his little pouchy "wings".

And with a little teamwork, we managed to shine a flashlight and get a little video clip of him jumping to the feeder to show our kids (and you all of course). 

Flying Squirrel at the Bird Feeder

(If you are reading this on email, you will need to go to Wife, Mother, Gardener to view the video.)

Great fun on a Thursday night!
Hope you are able to enjoy a few more magical moments this summer!!

Foliage Follow-up July 2011

So, I already started gushing about our green backyard yesterday.
Here on Foliage Follow-up Day with Pam at Digging, I find more room to sing its praise.

Our patio in July with our wonderful maple trees.

Great spot for reading, relaxing, eating chocolate desserts :)

We also really enjoy eating dinner and watching the birds come and go to the feeder.

Our mature tree canopy

For a glimpse of our mature trees, check out the Green Canopy video.

 Christmas Fern

Ivy balls in training

Thanks to Pam for hosting FFD! 

Check out the flowers at Gilmore Gardens from July GBBD yesterday.

In honor of old trees...

A short clip of the bird song and light in the
mature silver maple trees that surround our backyard.
They really make this garden possible and enjoyable in the middle of a louder section of town.
And they beautify our whole block... even the town!... since they can be seen up on the hill as the vanishing point of one of the major roads in our town.

  Green Canopy

   
   It is brought into sharp appreciation for me this week because we very nearly had to have the first tree pictured in this video (and below in photo) removed because of power line issues. Thankfully, the power company foreman was incredibly understanding and he agreed to just trim the top for this year.  Whew!! I was sweating that one.

  Hope you enjoyed standing on our back porch and looking around at the green canopy surrounding our backyard and Woodland Garden. 

Garden Blogger's Bloom Day ~ April 2011

Daffodils at Gilmore Gardens!

(Alt. title: No more mowing the curb strip!!!)

  For the past year-and-a-half, I have been hard at work getting rid of the grass monoculture that occupied the wide strip between our sidewalk and the road. (Here is a great article on all the fun you can have in this unappreciated area of your garden.)

  After I lasagna-layered it with cardboard boxes and leaf litter, most of the sod smothered over the previous winter.  Last spring, I intensively planted it - actually my darling husband lent most of the muscle for this root-filled area - with extras from the rest of the yard.  Hemerocallis, artemesia, pachysandra, Sedum 'Acre', hosta, forget-me-nots... anything I could throw at it on a short budget.  Some mulch on top gave it a nicer look. 

   I ended up adding a forsythia that I rooted myself a few years ago when still living in our College Ave. apartment, and the daffs (Narcissus 'Topolino') were added last fall.  And here it is for its first beauty show!

   Narcissus 'Topolino' flanking the walkway to our back entrance.  Everything is already (and purposely) green in the Driveway garden - a trait to be sought after, as suggested by C. Lloyd himself (read more in Succession Planting for Year-Round Pleasure).

   Tulipa 'Ice Stick' is new to the Hill Garden this year. Wonderful to have such an early tulip, especially since we are running behind by a couple of weeks this year. Last year in April we were already enjoying our main tulip show!

    View from the tulips on the Hill Garden to the forsythias and pachysandra in the front of our home.  I love how the little purple in these tulips is picked by by the red barberry stems.
    
   Hellebores orientalis hyb...  a new one to our garden and I really like its soft pink color on the Shade Path.


  

Hellebores orientalis hyb. with it first buttery blooms.

   On to the blues: Scilla siberica in the backyard creates such a fun scene in our little rock garden by the maple tree and in the cracks of the patio.

  Surrounding our Circle Lawn, Anemone 'Blue Shades' is in full bloom now and looks lovely coming up through the loosestrife shoots (Lysimachia punctata 'Alexander').

Thanks to Carol at May Dream's Gardens for hosting 
Garden Blogger's Bloom Day!