This year (long story) we haven't put up bird feeders. So today I wanted to share a memory from last April 18 (2024) when...
...a brown thrasher, a bird we've only seen this one time during now five years of birding, visited our yard. And, my spouse was actually able to get a picture of it.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
From a walk in my neighborhood last Sunday.
I was intrigued by the patterns on my lawn.
It's nice to have leaves on the trees again as there are more opportunities for shadows now. So why not come out of the shadows and join us?
Joining Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventure for her #ShadowshotSunday.
His daughter love lilacs so much that she planned her 1995 wedding for when the lilacs were in bloom.
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| May 10 |
Yesterday, I attended a memorial service (via Zoom) for my last living uncle, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 100.
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| From my yard, May 10 |
The youngest brother of my father, he was raised by his siblings, including my late father, when his mother died way too young. He was a scientist and a man of many interests, including poetry. I remember him reciting poems - long poems, at that.
Today I will honor my late uncle with a poem he used to recite to his children as they grew up in Texas and Iowa: Some Little Bug by John Leroy Atwell, from 1915.
In these days of indigestion
It is oftentimes a question
As to what to eat and what to leave alone;
For each microbe and bacillus
Has a different way to kill us,
And in time they always claim us for their own.
There are germs of every kind
In any food that you can find
In the market or upon the bill of fare.
Drinking water's just as risky
As the so-called deadly whiskey,
And it's often a mistake to breathe the air.
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug will creep behind you some day,
Then he'll send for his bug friends
And all your earthly trouble ends;
Some little bug is going to find you some day.
The inviting green cucumber
Gets most everybody's number,
While the green corn has a system of its own;
Though a radish seems nutritious
Its behaviour is quite vicious,
And a doctor will be coming to your home.
Eating lobster cooked or plain
Is only flirting with ptomaine,
While an oyster sometimes has a lot to say,
But the clams we cat in chowder
Make the angels chant the louder,
For they know that we'll be with them right away.
Take a slice of nice fried onion
And you're fit for Dr. Munyon,
Apple dumplings kill you quicker than a train.
Chew a cheesy midnight "rabbit"
And a grave you'll soon inhabit
Ah, to eat at all is such a foolish game.
Eating huckleberry pie
Is a pleasing way to die,
While sauerkraut brings on softening of the brain.
When you eat banana fritters
Every undertaker titters,
And the casket makers nearly go insane.
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug will creep behind you some day,
With a nervous little quiver
He'll give cirrhosis of the liver;
Some little bug is going to find you some day.
When cold storage vaults I visit
I can only say what is it
Makes poor mortals fill their systems with such stuff?
Now, for breakfast, prunes are dandy
If a stomach pump is handy
And your doctor can be found quite soon enough.
Eat a plate of fine pigs' knuckles
And the headstone cutter chuckles,
While the grave digger makes a note upon his cuff.
Eat that lovely red bologna
And you'll wear a wooden kimona,
As your relatives start scrappin 'bout your stuff.
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug will creep behind you some day,
Eating juicy sliced pineapple
Makes the sexton dust the chapel;
Some little bug is going to find you some day.
All those crazy foods they mix
Will float us 'cross the River Styx,
Or they'll start us climbing up the milky way.
And the meals we eat in courses
Mean a hearse and two black horses
So before a meal some people always pray.
Luscious grapes breed 'pendicitis,
And the juice leads to gastritis,
So there's only death to greet us either way;
And fried liver's nice, but, mind you,
Friends will soon ride slow behind you
And the papers then will have nice things to say.
Some little bug is going to find you some day,
Some little bug will creep behind you some day
Eat some sauce, they call it chili,
On your breast they'll place a lily;
Some little bug is going to find you some day.
More about my uncle (and my connection with him) in my Music Moves Me post tomorrow.
Joining Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventure for her #ShadowshotSunday.
Spring has arrived, and I am so thankful, today and every day.
These pictures were taken yesterday.
Forsythia.
To finish this up, violets and a dandelion.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday.
It's Monday and it's time for music!
Today I am joining up with other Music Moves Me bloggers (and you can join us at the linky above). We are a group of music loving bloggers who blog about music each Sunday or Monday (or even later in the week). If you have music to share with us, you are most welcome to join! (Music Posts Only-meaning at least one music video, please! Otherwise, your post link may be labeled "No Music" or even removed.)
Our head host is Xmas Dolly, and our co-hosts are Cathy from Curious as a Cathy, joined by the knowledgeable Stacy of Stacy Uncorked and, last but not least, me.
Every other week we have a theme. This week's theme is "Spring Colors". And am I ever Ready for them!
A sample of my daffodils, taken yesterday
Where I live, spring explodes in a symphony of colors. There is the purple of crocus and Lenten rose, the yellow of forsythia and daffodils, and the red of primrose and tulips.
There is the green of newly sprouted grass, and the light green of newly unfurled leaves. Meanwhile, we welcome back birds that have overwintered in warmer climes.
So today, as I listen to the trilling of red winged blackbirds, I am choosing some songs mentioning spring or color.
I know so well the feeling of finally seeing blue sky again after our dreary winter white/grey skies. Here, from 1977, is ELO's Mr. Blue Sky.
On the sunshine theme, how about Pink (it's a spring color!) and her daughter Willow Sage Hart in 2021's Cover Me In Sunshine?
In the early spring, wild onions sprout. Here's an instrumental: Green Onions, from Booker T and the M.G.'s from 1962.
How about another show song - Ethel Merman and Everything's Coming up Roses, from the 1959 musical Gypsy. OK, no color in the title or lyrics but - roses.
Speaking of red roses, how about Bobby Vinton and his 1962 hit Roses are Red, (My Love) which mentions both red roses and blue violets?
I'll wrap today's set with Bobby Darin's 18 Yellow Roses.
Spring has arrived in my front and back yards. Finally!
The crocuses have arrived.
More crocuses.
I know these aren't the pictures I promised last week but I am so excited to finally have flowers. These pictures were taken Tuesday.
Joining up with Sandee at Comedy Plus for her #WordlessWednesday
Every spring, I can't wait to plant something. Usually, it's pansies or violas from a nearby nursery planted in a hanging basket. (Until this past spring, I've created my own hanging baskets with a couple of exceptions).
Then, the weather warms up and when it gets too hot, the pansies give up. I'll try to limp the pansy basket along but at some point, I give up.
The basket goes into our garage. The next spring, it's used for something else.
But this past spring, one of the baskets had a plant growing in it. Despite being in our garage, nature was telling me to see what happened.
I did so. At first I was wondering if I was seeing a weed. But then little flower buds appeared and the plant itself looked familiar. So we planted a couple of other plants (see the pink and purple flowers) and waited to see what happened.
This is what it looks like now. The yellow/black pansies or violas are so happy that I gave them a chance. I'm calling it my miracle pansy.
I know that, sooner or later, this pansy will give out. But hopefully, the purple million bells and pink scaevola will last all summer. After frost, the basket will go into the garage.
And then what?
It just might happen again. It's worth trying.
I want to celebrate this month before it speeds past me. So let's take a minute to stop and soak in the beauty of the flowers in my front and back yards.
I hope I can have these flowers for years to come. I consider myself so fortunate that I have a yard. I grew up in an apartment building in the Bronx (New York City) and this was a lifelong dream, just to have flowers of my own. Every spring is like a little miracle all over again.
My bearded iris.
I have two bearded iris I got years ago at a plant sale and I keep forgetting I have them until they bloom. Both of these were taken May 26.
On the other hand, this chive flower at our community garden plot probably smells a lot like onion. The bee doesn't mind.
I have two rhododendrons. These are close to forty years old now.
Purple
What else? I'll end with this from my back yard hanging baskets - fuchsia.
All my yard needs now is a hummingbird - a story for another day.
"Let's take our hearts for a walk in the woods and listen to the magic whispers of old trees." -Unknown
These aren't all natives or even in woods, but they are all beautiful.
Four trees that bloomed in the past couple of weeks in my part of the Northeast United States.
1. A young red horse chestnut tree. Learn more about the horse chestnuts here. The red horse chestnut (Aesculus x carnea) is a hybrid coming from a cross between a horse chestnut and a buckeye, and may have originally come from Germany. It's increasing in popularity where I live.
2. White dogwood (Cornus florida) in a wooded area off a popular rail trail. Dogwoods are native to where I live and is a small understory tree when in the wild. They are also popular in landscaping. Their bloom for 2024 is over now - this was taken about a week ago.
3. Pink dogwood, planted along the same trail as a tribute to a young woman who died from cancer. Pink dogwoods are native also but aren't common in the wild, as the pink flowers arise from a recessive gene.
4. It's hard to see this but I think this is a wild rhododendron. I've never seen it locally (although they o grow in this area) and this came as a surprise. I wish I could have gotten closer to it.
Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for her twice a month #ThursdayTreeLove.
It's time for our local farmers market to move outdoors. Let's celebrate this market from last Saturday with:
The first asparagus of the season.
Hanging baskets
Spring garlic
Finally, bidding bye to mushrooms. This grower only grows it in the winter and first part of spring.
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| Recreation Park Bandstand, Binghamton, New York |
Our county has four farmers markets, one of which is year round. They have been instituting some nice programs in the last couple of years, including a monthly giveaway of $15 coupons to military veterans. This year we are getting, for the first time in years, a Sunday market in the Binghamton park that was the setting (not filmed there, but the inspiration for, the Twilight Zone episode Walking Distance.
Does your area have a farmers market?
The next Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, which will be Wednesday, May 15, invites us to show the flowers blooming in our houses and yards. But spring has been advancing so rapidly that I have flowers from just last week that are dwindling or no longer with us. Today, I pay tribute to them.
These were taken May 4, and I decided to feature them on my blog as an early Mothers Day gift to my blog readers who are mothers, or are devoted to children in their lives in a motherly way. Let's enjoy these today, and tell them "see you next year".
Crabapple.
Finally, from May 8, the last of my tulips.
Time seems to go faster and faster. Tomorrow, my Mother's Day post and Shadowshot Sunday, brought to us by Lisa at Lisa's Garden Adventures. If you have any shadow shots, why not join us today or tomorrow?
Wednesday, my Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post.
It's a spring Friday here in the Southern Tier of New York. Let's celebrate by watching the sky with pictures taken in the last couple of weeks. I love how the sky changes from day to day.
April 20, yellow and red dogwood twigs. You only see this color before the bushes leaf out.
A sky from April 30.
Finally, the drama of May 6. We are fortunate - no great damage from wind, no tornadoes like more unfortunate parts of the United States.
Stay safe, dear readers!
Joining Yogi and other skywatchers from around the world for #SkywatchFriday.
This past two or three weeks, our spring trees in the Binghamton, New York area showed off their blooms for us. Here are some of the highlights.
West Middle School (the junior high that one Rod Serling attended) April 25.
Flowering cherry Binghamton May 1.
Pink dogwood Vestal Rail Trail May 2. (This tree is planted in memory of a young woman who died years ago from cancer.)
My crabapple May 3 (its flowers are gone now, too).
Finally, a white tree (apple?) in bloom on the Vestal Rail Trail May 4. Such sweet memories, as we move on to lilacs and other spring delights.
Joining Parul at Happiness and Food for #ThursdayTreeLove with my pink and white tree flower parade.
X, for me, is the hardest letter of the alphabet in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.
Because of our early spring, I'm revisiting a topic I also blogged about in the 2021 Challenge - Xanthic. Or, in plainer language, Yellow, especially related to flowers.
The dictionary defines xanthic as yellow, or yellow-like. That works for me, because I wanted to sneak some spring flower photos into the Challenge before it was all over.
At my house 4-22-24.
Yellow and orange double daffodils.
More daffodils.
The other flower is barrenwort, taken 4-20.
I took a picture of this beautiful primose at Cutler Botanical Gardens in Binghamton, New York.
Yellow (or Xanthic) and spring go together so well, don't they?
Tomorrow I will publish a music and shadowshot post. Monday, it's back to A to Z with the letter Y.
X day in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. My theme: gardens, art, history, and the unexpected.
