It’s been a long weekend already and it’s only noon on Sunday :) Of course I started it on Friday.

Early friday morning I headed out to take some flower and yard pictures and to start getting the birds at the new feeders used to my being around with the camera. The yard is a mess after a long wet coll spring. But A little close up work hides the jungle and just shows some pretty thing.

There’s purple vetch growing next to the ash trees in the front bed.

purple vetch

yup, more vetch

The blue flower whose name I always forget is blooming by the house. It is a most reliably self-seeder. ;)

very pretty blue

closer still

Then there’s the shot of the wood sheds that I always see but can never get to work out. I think I should start by moving the yellow milk crate. Then maybe turn the wagon, but only if the side is as perfectly faded as the back is. (And I’ll move the faded orange clip as well.)

the wood shed and the wagon

And then there are the new bird feeders. They provide plenty of entertainment when we’re soaking in the hot tub, and I can see — but more importantly hear — the birds from my office window.

the bird feeders hang in the center of this bed

a seed tube, a tray, a small sunflower tube, and a very sturdy pole

I’ve been spending some time sitting out by the tub everyday to get the birds used to me and my cameras. So far it’s been the usual suspects, juncos and chickadees and the stellar’s jays. But we’ve had a few others, there were purple(ish) finches for a day or two but they seem to have moved on. The grosbeaks are abundant this spring. And my favorites the goldfinches have been moving in.

Lots of activity and lots of bird song. But the pictures aren’t making me happy. I get a few out of every session that are okay. Like these of the pine siskins.

note the messy eating habits of the guy at the top

not a bad pic with a little post-processing help

But okay is as good as it gets. Most are like this one. Over exposed — the dark trees in the background fool the metering. And not very sharp, in spite of using a tripod.

certainly the brightest bird of the morning, too bad about the picture

I’m getting fed up enough to consider taking a little cardboard cut out of a bird and taping it to the feeder while I fiddle around with the camera. Or maybe the small plush-toy rooster that a friend brought me back from Hawaii.

Still, how bad can a day be when it starts with sitting in the yard drinking tea and having the jays scold me?

Oof. It was late last night and I posted this entry to the wrong blog. So here it is about 12 hours late.

For breakfast this morning we had marching bands. One of the largest of the local high schools had their parade to the zocolo in honor of the Bicentennial.

First there was a bit of a professional band (boring) and then the school banner.

Moises Saenz Garza Highschool

Followed by the school’s drum corps…

rat-a-tat

… and then the student body. Loosely organized, and very happy to wave and say hello and make funny faces at the folks peering out of the Casa’s front door.

smiles and hellos for everyone

The bulk of the day was taken up with a tour of the botanical gardens at Santo Domingo. Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca.

I’m still working on getting all the pictures sorted out. There will be a nice big gallery of them later this week. But for now here are a handful to give you a feel for the garden and its plants.

The tour starts with a discussion of the native food plants. The triumvirate of squash, beans, and corn. These are squash plants.

squash, beans, and corn

In the background are bunches of the large marigolds that decorate the altars at Muertos. I am deathly allergic to them.

This little red flower on the other hand doesn’t make me sneeze. It’s a dahlia. Seriously. All those fancy garden flowers (Hi Elise!) have been bred from one little red flower.

the original dahlia

Of the common trees in Oaxaca the one that I can always identify without a doubt is the pochote. But when you’re looking at something with points like this…

unmistakable thorns

The gardens are located behind the buildings of the Monastery of Santo Domingo. The church’s walls provide a backdrop for the large collection of dry eco-system plants.

typical water channel

Maguey cactus. The source of mescal/tequilla. Also just plain pretty.

As we were leaving the gardens and heading toward lunch we ran into another marching band. This one was followed by dancers.

the flowers are particularly nice

Meanwhile Jim would like you to know that he is hard at work cataloging the various motor transport options in the area. Today, I think it’s working bikes.

We spent a little time down at the expensive toy store earlier this weekend. We came away with two new-to-us lenses.

The first is rather dull — it’s a straight across replacement for the 70–300 that we already had. The new one has VR, Nikon’s image stabilization/vibration reduction package. The longer the lens the more I appreciate VR.

The second lens is a bit more interesting. A 12–14 f4 aspherical. (Tokina.) We bought it because I want a wider lens for getting good shots of the crowded narrow streets and aisles in Mexico. So that I can get things like these pictures of the road to the farm.

our road

I’m considering using this one on the new Blackdog and Magpie website design. Doing some thing with a vertical image on the left side rather than the totally predictable header image.

looking down the road from the pasture

If you know my backyard well you’ll be able to see the amount of squashing in this picture. It’s actually a long way from the rock pile to the edge of the saw buck. You can also tell that the hood doesn’t fit  perfectly and that at 12mm there’s some interference with the edges of the image. Oh well, I’ll have to see what I can do about it.

the back side of the work yard

The other reason for getting a nice fat round lens is to be able to take good landscape pictures. Admittedly about the only thing we have around there this fall is green but it’s nice crisp detailed green.

why yes, we have a few ferns

And some more green things.

more foliage, up close this time

But best of all is the ability to get close and shallow on those days when the lilies look good but the patio furniture is a little dingy.

the last of the Stargazer lilies for this year

In this morning’s experimenting I found that the camera consistently over exposes shots if I let it have too much say in the exposure, especially if I let it choose a shutter speed. A little care in shooting and a  little nudge in Lightroom and I get those lovely water drops on the lily… happy.

This time next week I’ll be writing the first of the posts from Oaxaca and the Mexican bicentennial celebrations. Can’t wait!

Yup, it’s still raining. Three bloody weeks of the drizzle falling down my neck.

I took advantage of a half hour break last weekend and went for a little ramble about the place. Here are some pics.

The redbud is finally blooming and has a few tender looking leaves. (And some of these shots are silly and arty.)

redbud blooms

looking over the pasture

There are a couple of new things in the garden beds but this rainy cool weather isn’t doing most of the plants any favors.

The little lilac has bloomed. I’m not sure if the mottling on the leaves is supposed to be there. Hmm.

the odd little lilac that I put in last fall

And a bonus in the herb garden, or rather mixed in with the lilies next to the herb garden. Self-seeded cilantro.

won’t need to buy any cilantro

I’ve spent some time in the woods recently checking on coyote activity. Last weekend I took my camera with me and got these four shots of spring.

vine maple blooming

the forest is chartreuse!

honey suckle is a weed but it’s so pretty

one of the deer trails

Our next project is to finish installing our new hot tub. Right now it’s just sitting on the concrete pad in the middle of the dirt and gravel.  It’ll be nicer when there’s a door where the windows are now and there’s a nice deck surrounding it. Doesn’t matter really we use it a lot already.

waiting for improvements

Pray for sun, we’re losing our minds out here.

It is the first nice wekend in May and like all Seattlites I am doing all sorts of getting ready for summer things outside.

We have an entire week of Sunny days forcast so it’s time to start having tea on the porch in the morning. I’m still pleased with the new cushions I made last summer.

tes here tomorrow.

We’ve had the BBQ out for almost a month. Clearly outdoor dining season is upon us. The table and charirs are set up and a couple of little sqawks about the conopy are fixed.

second year for this canopy

Finally and best of all: first loads of laundry on the line. Mmmm, smells go good.

fluttering in the breeze

This is all, of course, much silliness because summer is still 2 months away for us. But after 30 years of living out here in the west I still can’t avoid getting the early summer start.

Last weekend the front bed with the cedars in it got new shrubs.

Continuing the theme of happy flowering shrubs and brooding conifers that we started with the cedars and the (now gone) buddleias we’ve added more happy and more brooding.

Starting with the happy, a flowering currant. I’ve seen this plant on both the lists of –plants that birds like– and the lists of –plants that deer don’t like-. We shall see. The shocking cerise of the flowers is a nice stunner — at the far edge of the bed.

flowering currant, shocking cerise

And now a little gloom. Okay, maybe not so gloomy. This little White Cedar cultivar has a lovely fluffy, bunny look up close.

Heather Bun, what a terrible name.

Contrasting nicely in form is this whipcord Western Red Cedar. It’s an Iseli introduction. I’m always happy to see that they’re still in business and still developing  interesting plants.

whipcord western red cedar

Also along the back of the bed there’s a white flowering quince. I know, I know, flowering quinces are supposed to be that red-orange color. But this one is so pretty… I also like how well the wrecked, stick-figure angularity of the this particular one is already developed. (I’ll plant one of the properly colored ones down by the farm sign, I promise.)

flowering quince — Jet Trail

These creamy flower clusters were irresistible.

close up of the flower clusters

There are three of theses little red twig dogwoods. The variegated leaves will contrast nicely with the green wrinkly currant leaves behind them.

nice shrub dogwood with ivory edges leaves

The other gloomies. Two nicely colored conifers. The juniper in the front will have a purplish cast during the winter, the yew in the back will be somewhat bronze. Both will head more toward full green in the summer.

just being to lose it’s winter purple

Now I just have to be patient. And diligent with the deer repellent.

It was a busy garden weekend here at Black Dog Farm. We started with a trip to Molbaks to take advantage of their 30% off bare-root and b&b trees and shrubs.

We started with something to go in front of the three cedars. The early white blooms of this magnolia shrub will lighten up the dark corner.

balled and burlapped magnolia ready to go in

Digging the hole for the magnolia was little nerve wracking. There are irrigation pipes everywhere. This one isn’t actually split — though all that water running into the hole made us nervous for a couple of minutes.

it’s not what it looks like

We added two other shrubs to the front bed. Spireas have nice little white flowers early in the spring and the bright green foliage will make a nice backdrop for more colorful flowers in the summer.

bare root spirea

spireas in front of the oak-leaved ashes

It was hard sticking to the bare-root section at the nursery. I did pretty well, but I just had to have these lenten rose for the library window.

nice lenten rose

lenten roses blooming and iris starting grown

The last plant we bought (and we had to go back for it with the trailer) was replacement for the Korean Dogwood that froze out 2 years ago. Redbuds are a lot hardier. Jim liked the shape of this contorted weeper.

weeping redbud for the end of the rock wall

fat red buds!

We’re still playing catch up with rehabilitating the trees that were improperly planted 6 years ago. So far we’ve had two die. This cedar is doing okay but look at those roots, aren’t roots supposed to grown down?

roots are supposed to grown down not out

The Black Dog Ivan. What can I say…

ivan was supervising

Things are starting to get going. This fat old peony is sending up it’s shoots. They’re so red! They’re also brittle.

fat roots, little shoots

Last October I fell for one of those mixed bags of spring bulbs. In this case reticulated iris and some unnamed species tulip. There were 25 or 30 bulbs (I think) I’ve seen three irises and 2 tulips. Bloody deer. Chewed them all off. I’ve never had much faith in deer repellents but I’m desperate enough to start throwing away money ;-)

a bit faded now

purple!

I also did some early trimming in the herb garden. The rosemary may have survived the winter. I can’t tell yet. One of the things I cleaned out was the washtub that holds the clothes line post and the mint. Hundreds of tiny mint plants.

tiny mint plants

Also coming up are the lilies. Time to put out slug bait.

starting to appear — lilies

amazing that this will be 4 feet tall by august.

I’m hoping for another dry weekend, there’s a lot of planting to do!

Last fall we dug up and divided a lot of overgrown plants. Among them a patch of iris so thick that it took a tree saw to hack it apart.

just starting to grow.

All eight sections have begun to grown nicely. I’m not sure how much bloom we’ll get this year. They’re going to look great at the back of the garage and library beds.

I took advantage of one last day of fine weather to do a bunch of clean up and some late season planting.

This is what happens if you forget and leave the felcos on the wall of the garden bed. Damn. That’ll take a couple of hours to put right.

rusty felcos

We had a lot of damage from last winters hard, long freezes. I’d left a bunch of almost certainly dead things in the garden in the hope that a few of them might recover or re-sprout from the roots. No joy. So the first order of business was to take out the dead things. Four “Dark Knight” butterfly bushes and a Korean Dogwood are now on the brush pile. I also lost the Rosemarys that were climbing down the rock wall behind the herb bed.

There were some successes though. The variegated sage in this picture was a mushy disaster in mid-February. It did quite nicely. I cut it back twice this summer.

corner of the herb garden

On the other hand the center of the lavenders which had gotten rank and spindly last summer died out completely. Leaving a nasty hole in my favorite bed.

big hole in the center of the lavender

Not related to last winter’s deep freeze, these slender deutzias have never been happy in the harsh glare that comes off the barn and shop, as well as the graveled work yard. Prefers Full Sun on the nursery tag doesn’t always mean prefers to be baked daily.

slender deutzia have not been happy in the harsh sun

They now have a new home next to one of the Snake Bark Maples in the front yard. There’s still a fair amount of sun there but not the intense heat. I’ll see how they do next summer.

hopefully the new location will be better

The bed beside the garage on the front of the house has most of my damp loving shade plants in it. (And most of my deer food — Hostas, eaten to the ground again, sigh.) The grass and a stand of Siberian Irises have become seriously overgrown. Both should have been divided last year. This spring at the latest. It took both Jim and I and a lot of shoveling and levering to get these out.

seriously overgrown grass and irises

We found this little surprise in among the iris foliage. I think they’re puff ball mushrooms. I remember eating puff balls as a kid and being told that it was very hard to make a mistake about what kind of mushroom you were picking. I’m too chicken to try it out without an expert along.

a little surprise in with the iris foliage

We also pulled out the kerria. It’s too rangy, and rank, and all sorts of nasty. There’s now a nice little reblooming lilac in it’s spot. The tag says to 5′. Which would be about perfect.

a new lilac

We put one chunk of the grass back in where it had come out of, and put three clumps of iris across the back of the bed.

Here’s the bed all finished. Too bad about the stumps of hostas lining the front edge. Next weekend I’ll trim up the left over foliage on the irises. The grass I’ll leave — the leaves dry out and rattle nicely in the wind.

ta da

We took four more clumps of the iris and one of the grass and added them to the bed in front of the library. Next year I’ll try to get the perennials into this bed. It gets a nice 8 early hours of sun a day.

iris and grass in the library bed, bonus ladder and bouvier

I can’t find the tag to identify this little fellow. He’s lived in a couple of spots in the gardens. Hopefully he’ll be happy here across the walk way from the Cypress

not sure what exactly

I picked up a couple of new lavenders to fill in the hole. An English type for a change. They seem so small and helpless in there.

infill lavender

We dropped the last chunk of the divided grass onto the point of the bed that faces the barn. Behind it you can see the smoke tree that we put in a couple of weeks ago.

another piece of the grass

In the same bed I added a black mondo grass in the place of a long dead azalea. Right now it looks like black grass on black dirt but once it and the nandinas next to it fill in a bit, the contrast between the long black blades of the grass and small red gold leaves of the nandina should be nice.

black mondo grass

Jim loves Japanese maples so we added one to our collection. This mounding red cut-leaf should make a nice focal point out on the point of one of the beds by the porch.

mounding Japanese maple

The bird bath bed is still showing some evidence of summer. The dutsy miller still looks good and there are some purple flowers on the nicotinia.

still showing some summer color

I am a total sucker for the brightly packaged bulbs that begin to appear next to the checkout in the nursery this time of year. The blank spot in this bed got a bag of mixed species tulips (30 bulbs) and a bag of dwarf iris (10 bulbs). No clue at to which species the tulips are — only that they are a “Naturalizing Blend” hopefully that means that they’ll come up more than a couple of times.

there will be species tulips and dwarf iris here in the spring

Robbyn gave me a bunch of bearded iris rhizomes a couple of weeks ago. I put them in this sunny well drained spot near the pasture. Close enough to the electric fences that the deer might leave them alone long enough to bloom. Yup we have plenty of rocks.

misc bearded iris for the hill side

It’s a good thing I finished up yesterday. This morning it was below freezing. The irrigation system ran, this morning. The leaves on the smoke tree have a nice sparkle to them, oops. No harm, no foul. The system is installed deeply enough that the occasional frosty morning isn’t a problem. We’ll empty it next weekend. I just wanted to be sure that the new plants got a little extra water for the a couple of days.

the irrigation system ran this morning

I also clipped off the last of the lavender blooms yesterday. I brought them inside to dry out. They’ll sit on the hearth and slowly get used as tinder for the fires. The smell is wonderful.

ready for winter

Starting with this post you can see the botanical names and variety names of the plants in the pictures by mousing over.

I keep the tags from the plants that I buy in ziplock bags by year so that I can go back and look up exactly what’s what. It was quite depressing to look through the tags while I was trying to confirm the variety name on the grass I divided. I’ve put in tons of perennials, and they’ve almost all disappeared. Freezes, drought, deer and chickens all take a toll. No wonder I don’t enjoy gardening as much as I used to.