All posts by laurahinnj

Garden, Pond

Pond clean-up

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We accomplished most of the pond cleanup yesterday. In the interest of honesty I’ll show you pics of just how ugly it was, but I’d really rather not. Bad, bad, bad. It’s our fault for not ever getting a cover over it in the fall to keep the leaves out and there was really no way to avoid emptying it. I never even got to push my lilies and other pond plants down to the deep end, so they’re mush from having been frozen. We pumped the water out of the pond and onto our newly planted trees, so all that fish fertilizer will be put to good use.

As nasty as it looks, most of the water we pumped out was actually pretty clear. The fish are in a holding tank for a week or so while we refill the pond and let the water settle. You can see how clear the water was in the pic below.
We rescued this lone surviving frog from the skimmer box. There was another in there that was well past stinky! I feel badly for the frogs and don’t understand how they manage to die over the winter, considering all the leaves and mulm they have to burrow under. I wonder if it would be possible to catch them in the fall and bring them inside? I wouldn’t want to make a pet out of a wild frog, but I hate finding them dead in the spring.

Here’s a view of the sparkly clean pebble beach as we started to refill the pond late yesterday afternoon. The birds love this part of our pond, because most of this area is only an inch or two deep. It’s a nightmare to keep clean, but worth seeing the birds come in for a bath. The fish also love to play in this part and root around in the pebbles. Down at the far end of the pond the water is a little over 3 feet deep and it holds about 1,000 gallons. So the pond is filled today and the frog is back in one of his hiding spots. I’ll wait till the weekend to put the fish back once the filter has been running for a while. The only time I add any chemicals to the pond is in the spring when we have to clean it out like this and then I use just a dechlorinator. The next step is to get some pond plants and some annuals to dress up the edge. It’ll be pretty before long!
Birds, In the neighborhood

Goofing off at the beach

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I took a short break this afternoon from pond-cleaning duty to visit Sandy Hook and the migration watch site. It was a beautiful day and the Hook was packed with people desperate for time outdoors. There were cyclers and bikers, rollerbladers and windsurfers, tourists and birders. Lots of birders. A Hooded Warbler was found yesterday and I thought I might get a peak at it, but no luck. There were a nice number of hawks moving today, I thought. Plenty of airplanes to look at when nothing else is going by.

Lots of people hang out at the hawk watch to keep the counter company and to see what’s happening by. I saw a few broadwings, a red shoulder or two, and lots of turkey vultures. They tend to fly out a certain distance over the bay and then stall while deciding what to do, as they’re hesitant to cross the open water ahead of them. Most circle back and fly north via the bayshore. The dune vegetation is still very brown, but soon the beach plums will be blooming – can’t wait to see them all frothy white and humming with bees!

Garden

We planted trees!

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Today was catch-up day in the garden; with the weather being so poor lately, we’re about a month behind schedule with outdoor chores. It was beautiful today and we got a lot done – we cut back the ornamental grasses and the butterfly bushes and raked up the whole yard. Then we went shopping for plant material – my favorite part of the day!
I’d been wringing my hands over what to plant in this spot for well over a year. There was a spirea bush that needed to be replaced as it had grown woody and wasn’t blooming well anymore. I had a list of at least ten possibilites, but the nursery didn’t have any of my well-selected choices, but then I saw this tree and fell in love. It’s a Golden Larch (Pseudolarix amabilis) – not a native, but it will be like having a little piece of the Adirondacks here at home. It’s not a real Larch, but is supposed to be suited to heat and humidity; we’ll see. Larches are unique because they’re the only deciduous conifers – yes – they drop their leaves in fall, but not until they turn a lovely golden color. I love the lacy look of the foliage. I planted a few cotoneasters beneath it.

I finally found a place for the Cranberrybush Viburnum (Viburnum trilobum) I’ve been wanting. There was a Sandy Cherry in this spot, but it was very damaged in the February ice storm so we yanked it out. Viburnums are my most favorite shrubs, and this will fit in nicely with the other varities we have planted in the border along our property line. It will get pretty white flowers followed by yellow fruits that turn red like cranberries. They are beautiful when covered with snow and are edible. I even have a recipe for jelly, if the birds leave any behind.

I also got a Sourgum/Black Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) that Wayne from Niches recommended to me a while back. We put it in a low spot in the back lawn where hopefully it will find enough moisture to flourish. Sourgums are known for their brilliant autumn color, plus they get purple fruits that the birds like (check out the list on Wikipedia). They’re one of our most beautiful native trees, I think. It doesn’t look like much now, but in a few years it will be big enough that a bird can land in it without toppling it over! In the background you can see our neighbor’s red barn and one of the many American Hollies we have along the property line. They are the only evergreens we have here. I know we need to plant some others, but they are very few that I really like, besides hollies.

Buddy spent the day supervising and enjoying the sunshine. Tomorrow we have to tackle the pond clean-up.
Birds, Wanderings

Swallows

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I found these tree swallows at lunchtime today. They were very involved in discussing the merits of this particular nest box, as compared to any of the others nearby, and didn’t mind that I got close to take a few pics.

I found a really nice park within a five minute drive from my office; I’m not sure just how I never knew of it before, but I’m excited to discover someplace so nice to spend my lunch hour once in a while! There’s a pond and wooded ravine and a twenty acre butterfly meadow, which is where I found the tree swallows, and bluebirds, and flickers, and chipping sparrows. Heard a field sparrow singing there today and saw my first dragonfly of the season, too. Only butterfly today was a cabbage white, but the meadow is still just winter stubble. It looks promising though!

Wanderings, Wildflowers

Get out your wildflower ID books!

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I’m kind of at my wit’s end with trying to figure out what these flowers are. Maybe someone can help? I know, I know, I’ll never learn to key out a plant by cheating this way!

This looks like it wants to be some sort of hyacinth, but the leaves are all wrong.
These were past their prime, but I’m guessing Bloodroot? I know the way the leaves are clasping the stem is important, but I can’t think of the flower that does that! Someone recently had this flower on their blog, but I can’t remember who it was.

These were blooming on a very spindly shrub. There were no leaves yet and the flowers were on the tips of the branches; the open ones reminded me of apple blossoms sort of.


I’ve edited this post to add this last photo above which shows, rather poorly, what the flowers look like when open.
Ideas anyone?
Books, Bunnies

Rabbits: Gentle Hearts, Valiant Spirits

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In the absence of any new bunny pics this week, I’ll pass along a link to what looks to be a wonderful new book for the bunnyphile. Click on the pic to link to the author’s website and ordering info if you’re interested.

From a review:

“Anyone who has had the honor of communing with a rabbit—nose to nose, whisker to cheek—will applaud this book. Those unfamiliar with these dear little creatures will enjoy the heartwarming tales of adversity overcome and joy achieved. Educating the public is of paramount importance to the welfare of rabbits, and the author has captured the essence of this far-reaching task. Our rescued rabbits give all who were involved in the creation of this book a “two paws up”!
~DIANA ORR LEGGETT, founder and president of Rabbits’ Rest Sanctuary and WildRescue, Inc.

Remembering

Backyard willow

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I can’t see a weeping willow tree without being reminded of the one that towered over my childhood home. Probably I’m remembering it wrong, but my father told the story that ours was a gift from a neighbor who couldn’t get it to grow in their yard, so we ended up with this wisp of a tree that languished for a few years before it set about dominating our home landscape. There were other trees, lesser trees, that grew in the side yards; a few messy sycamores and a crabapple, but the weeping willow overshadowed them all.

Planting it in the middle of the backyard wasn’t a wise choice, as it eventually grew so large as to block all sun from the patio and my brother’s vegetable garden. It was twice as tall as the house and its roots found their way into the sewer pipes. The limbs were a constant threat to roof and windows. Eventually my father had it cut down after a large part of it came through the kitchen window one night during a storm.

Once it was down, the backyard never felt the same; there was too much sun and too much space. No more would it be one of the first trees in the neighborhood to show color in spring. There weren’t any kids in the house by then to climb it or attach a rope swing to it.

I wonder if the new family that owns my dad’s house now will plant some other tree in that empty space, although I suppose it doesn’t look as if anything is missing to their eyes. But I remember the tree that stood so tall there, and am reminded of it when I see the first green of a willow’s wispy branches. All that’s missing from this one is the rope swing.

Books, Snapshots, Wanderings, Wildflowers

Trout lily X 4

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Another find from the brookside trail. I walked past these at least twice before I noticed them, and then I saw patches of them everywhere – most weren’t blooming yet; only their purplish-spotted green leaves gave away their presence. Ther’ye tiny things and easy to miss at about six inches high.

I’m trying to teach myself wildflowers, and it seems half the exercise is in finding them, never mind identifying them! I have to get my head out of the clouds and my eyes off the treetops and look down at my feet for a new perspective on the natural world.

The few wildflowers that I recognize I know only from books and I’m finding the wildflower ID guides to be fairly useless this early in the learning process. Reminds me of what it felt like when I was first learning to identify birds – the field guide only confuses and frustrates. I’m having better success with with a few books by Hal Borland. Who else? One, A Countryman’s Flowers with photographs by Les Line, was a gift from my father a few years ago. I’m sure it’s out of print, but you might find it online with some searching. What I like about it, in addition to the photographs, is that the flowers are grouped by habitat, helping a beginner like me to know what flowers to expect where. Of course a standard wildflower ID guide includes that info, but it’s buried with all the other confusing stuff that makes my eyes glaze over. The categories are basic – the dooryard, the roadside, the old pasture, and brookside and bog and the book only includes 85 species, but I figure that’s enough for someone just starting out. The book also features Borland’s delightful essays; one for each species and includes info on growth and flowering habits as well as a bit of folklore. Of the trout lily, he writes:
“If you don’t know this flower by this name, try dogtooth violet, or yellow adder’s tongue, or fawn lily… The names trout lily and fawn lily come from its time of blooming – late April and May, when trout are biting in the brooks and when does are dropping their fawns in the woodland… Dogtooth violets mean May Day to me. As a small boy I gathered them for my May baskets, simply because they were one of the few flowers that always were in bloom by then.”
This book is almost as good as having someone along with me, teaching and telling stories. Does anyone make May Day baskets anymore?

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Now that I’ve finished ruminating on trout lilies (lol!) I’m off to finally finish up my income taxes. All that’s left to do is recopy them in nice handwriting and make photocopies, and stuff the envelopes. Think I might’ve waited a bit longer?
My husband is off with a fireman friend evacuating nursing home residents in another part of the state. Here on the coast there hasn’t been any significant flooding, but inland to the west is another story. I’m proud of my DH for doing this. I guess we all have our sense of duty – me to the IRS and him to something a bit more valiant.

Wanderings, Whatever

Rainy day tour of Asbury Park

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My husband and I ventured out in the storm this afternoon to have a look at the ocean – can you see just how churned up it is with the storm? No, me neither. This view is typical of the northern part of the Jersey Shore – huge mansions and condos on the right and the concrete seawall on the left. The seawall is meant to keep the huge mansions from floating away in a big storm. In some towns, the people who own houses on the right side of the road (the river side) also own the rights to a private staircase over the seawall. The rest of us get to look at the concrete wall that keeps *us* safe from the ocean’s fury. Yea right. The seawall only runs through those towns that are backed by the river; where it ends it’s replaced by condos, hotels, and beach clubs that also block public access to the ocean. Until you get to Asbury Park.

Asbury Park is a ghost town and has been for at least the past twenty years. There was a time long ago when it was a seaside resort and a family place. Through the years it’s become a seedy sort of place, yet I can remember as a kid going there on Easter Sunday all dresssed up to ride the rides and walk on the boardwalk. My husband remembers going there to race along the main drag when he was in high school. Bruce Springsteen made Asbury and its nightclubs famous.

Now it’s just a very sad sort of place. Most of it, like the once gorgeous Convention Hall pictured above, is in some perpetual state of revival that never seems to come. What’s not boarded up, falling down, or outright abandoned is “under construction” that seems to have been stalled for a decade at least. There’s yellow police tape and orange construction barrels at every turn, but never any work being done. There are still plenty of families who make their home here, and some sections of town have been revived, but I don’t know that the parts of Asbury that I remember will ever get back to what they were so many years ago. I don’t think many people care about Asbury Park anymore or its future.

One thing that Asbury had going for it today was easy ocean access, not that we were willing to step out of the car to enjoy it. The gulls were in heaven, or so it seemed. I’m not sure what this was about, but there must have been something churned up by the waves to draw so many to one spot. The ocean was angry today, but the *historic storm* the weathermen predicted turned out to be nothing more than a rainy day with some flooded roads. Here locally, at least. Some places are being pounded with snow – glad it wasn’t us.
Wanderings

Spring beauties

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These small pinkish white flowers are litle more than half an inch across, but when you find a nice patch of them dappling a meadow or woodland the effect is lovely. These and squill were the most numerous wildflowers on the brookside trail that I visited today. Hal Borland says Spring Beauties are also sometimes known as Quaker Ladies and oldtimers might know them as Patience, though he claims to not know why. Could it be that they bloom just when we need patience the most in our wait for Spring?

Today’s weather gave no hint of the storm to come tomorrow. Everyone seemed to have the same idea as me; to get out and enjoy the fresh air and sunshine while it lasted.

I went to two spots today looking for early blooming flowers; one had lots (more pics to come) and another had none. I don’t know enough about wildflowers to understand why that is, but wonder how to find more places where pretty groundlings like spring beauties bloom.