Baldur

Our young male cat, Kyle, is a killer. He nabbed one of 3 baby mallard ducks that had hatched by our neighbour's small pond.
This could not have been easy as they were fiercely guarded by a cluster of mature females.
The corpse was discovered in the lawn by yours truly. At first it appeared to be a partial frog as evidenced by a pair of rubbery webbed feet of a brownish shade. Those are a frequent sight in the yard.
Further prodding with a stick however uncovered a downy underside.
The funeral was brief and not attended by any of the bereaved family.

Otherwise my day was consumed by my mother. She needed to make her monthly trek to the mausuleum to exchange one stem of silk roses for another ay my father's cryptette. Actually I would call it a niche.
The it was off to purchase groceries and finally her daily chance to cricticize my actions as she directed me through a bit of yardwork.
She had a rather overblown forsythia (deciduous flowering shrub) in the garden. The dimensions of the beast were 4 metres in height by perhaps 3 metres in width in every direction.
Her intentions were that i would reduce it to an upright rectangular form of 2 metres in height and 1 metre in width.
This was to be accomplished without denuding it of leaves.
Now I have discussed these matters with her in the past. Deciduous bushes generally only carry their leave cover on the exterior of their form. The leaves, requiring sunlight to perform their function, will not thrive deep inside a thicket.
I did get the shrub down to the desired dimensions, but alas there are no more than a handful of anemic leaves left hanging on it's skeleton.
She was not amused.
Shrubs are resilient and it will recover (literally) in just a few weeks.
Unfortunately, this process will hamper its blooming next Spring.
I shall be called on the carpet for my actions once more in late April.

Baldur

The + n = Then

Baldur

leave - ve + f = leaf

Lizzi

I think the Forsythia might be OK, as they flower on old wood. My own needs pruning and I must get at it soon, to give it time to regrow before winter. It has become too tall for me, and I fear I will have to get my stepladder out there so I can cut the top. Scary thought!

Baldur

Just hack it at the bottom Lizzi, it will indeed grow back.

Lizzi

Now there's an idea! Thanks, Baldur!

Normal

Most lovely forsythia I ever saw was in front of the Iranian embassy in DC, back in the Shah's era. They had pruned somehow that made it grow up the middle, then spill out all around, like a circular yellow flower fountain.

If you hack way down, maybe you could try this???

Dragon

Had to look up forsythia since I'm not familiar with them. Are they ever bright! Do they continue to flower right through the season or are they more like most flowering trees which put them out in spring only?

Here at Margaritaville we're enjoying our plants. My asiatic lillies are starting to bloom. One bright pink one is just opening up now and most of the others have closed blossoms on them so I think our walkway (which they are planted along) will soon have some wonderful colour. My sweetpeas are full of blossoms. They had a rough start and looked like they wouldn't do very well but they turned around a couple of weeks ago and filled out beautifully. They stand at about knee height which is funny because the ones I planted at work are positively jungle like reaching up to my eyes! I planted those ones a few days after the ones at home too, but the soil is quite a bit better at work and they get full morning sun which they seem to thrive on. The ones at home get a lot of afternoon sun but it's not quite the same. The work ones only have a few blossoms out just yet but within the week they should be absolutely lousy with them. I can't wait. Last year they didn't do great so I didn't cut any blooms off until it was time to pull them up. This year we'll have lovely bouquets of them on the desk.
We still don't have our sod in so I have to do frequent weeding of the yard and I'm afraid I'm not as diligent about it as I'd like to be. Imagine my surprise when I realized several of the 'weeds' were actually poppies! I did a good weeding of the back yard yesterday but I left the poppy plants whenever I found them. They sure are pretty when they put out their flowers. I'm considering trying to transplant them somwhere when we get our sod so we'll still have them. We'll see how hardy they are when (if) I get around to it.

Login

I'm not sure the poppies will tolerate transplanting, Dragon, but it's worth a try. Also worth leaving the seed pods on ... if they have dried out by the time your sod arrives, they can be carefully removed (upright) and the seed pods then emptied into a container. Here in temperate UK, we would sprinkle the seeds straight away in their new site. Your harsher climate may necessitate more careful nurturing.

Baldur

Happy Birthday likemee

Dragon

Simply saving the seeds may be easier anyway. Either way, they're basically weeds right now (though pretty weeds) so I've lost nothing but my time if I do try them out. I am greatly looking forward to getting the sod, I'm sick of looking at our weed lot and tired of pulling those weeds too. It's been so hot here in the last week that we don't even dream of doing that. I did do a little weeding on Sat, but I had to sit down for a few minutes when the heat got to me or I might have passed out.

Baldur

Happy Cheer Up Day!

3 of Baldur's bean vines have topped 12 feet tall.
The others are not far behind.

sheftali52

Congrats on the bean vines, Baldur. Sheftali has been enjoying a very modest but tasty harvest from her garden--cucumbers, squash, bush green beans, onions, various peppers, and finally a tomato or two. I recall you had a nice bunch of baby bok choi one year--did you plant some this year?

Baldur

I have planted more baby bok choi this year and it's coming along fine, we just haven't picked any yet.
It also looks like the beets are indeed forming under the beet greens. That alone makes this a fantastic gardening year.

Baldur is glad that your garden is producing.

Baldur

Happy Birthday to the Rolling Stones!
50 years ago today they performed together for the first time.
They were paid about $50 for the gig.

sheftali52

I really must plant some baby bok choi myself, as I like the stuff and it's hard to find in a grocery store. Glad Baldur's bok choi and beets are doing fine.

Baldur

Gustav Klimt is born (1862)
Billy the Kid is killed (1881)

Happy Bastille Day!

Baldur

Happy Birthday Logan!

bluemoon

Thought you might like this.. Henri 2, Paw de Deux

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q34z5dCmC4M

"A fine parody of the French film noir by an awarding-winning film maker."

indigo

SO good! Thanks bluemoon. ^J^