Catching Up

I thought I'd catch up on some pictures I took 2 days ago that I promised in the last weeks. This first one is the bloom on Petasites hybridus. If you remember the first one when they just appeared, they looked like Morel Mushrooms. (Aside - we found Morels that had just come up yesterday. Will probably pick them today and enjoy them for supper). As the blooms mature, they elongate until they are 18 inches or so tall. Eventually they will form seeds, like milkweed seeds, that will fly away. I haven't found any babies that were obviously from seed at any distance from the parent clump, only the usual new plants which appear from underground runners.
This is a better picture of the Double Bloodroot. The first one just had no contrast. Our clump is a bit smaller this year. I hope that is just a temporary thing and not because critters have suddenly found it tasty.

This is our new outdoor kitty, Ammimal. He appeared, as do most of our cats, during a university break when students just can't be bothered with the 'no longer a kitten' that they just had to have at the begining of the school year. They all assume, that people in the country want to take care of an unending stream of abandoned animals. We do take them in and take care of them, but there are limits. We were feeding a couple dozen at one time, now only about 12. He is an outside cat for now because he is still a bit afraid of us. Not surprising since he probably wan't treated all that well at his previous home. He is just so cute, though when he sits outside of the glass door and 'plays' with the cats inside. They chase each other's tails and bat at each other just as if there wasn't a pane of glass between them. It's one of the rare times that I wish I had a video camera.

These last two pictues are of Tulip 'Lady Jane'. The first is probably very similar to the other one I posted. The second is on a hot, sunny afternoon. Quite a difference.

We had spotty frost last night, though I haven't seen any damage so far. It usually doesn't show up until the sun hits things, though. We will have sun and nice weather today, but hot for the weekend, with some predictions of temperatures in the upper 80s. From winter to summer in just 2 days. Yesterday was a hard day to get anything done. It would be sunny and nice for awhile then suddenly the winds would pick up, the temperature would drop and it would be raining. I did get some straightening and weeding done, but only a little at a time.

If you're in the area, stop by this Sunday for our opening day - noon to 5. Regular days and hours start next weekend. I wasn't sure with all of this cold weather that I'd be able to set plants out for Sunday, but it looks like it will be fine. That's not to say that I won't have to put everything under wraps once or twice more before we're frost free.

Jane