Visitors, (Even Human)…Plus Plants and Flowers

Given the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic…and being at our risk level, given age and condition, human or critter contacts have added value.  The pleasure of actually seeing someone in person, talking to someone on the phone, or even communicating via Facebook, email or text, can be the high point of one’s day!

Day 52 of self-isolation with no clear-cut end in sight… The good thing is that we have had phone calls, texts, emails and even Zoom time with family and friends.  Photos and short videos flow back and forth as well, keeping us up on who’s doing what…

We’ve also had live human visitors in the last couple of days!  Norm and Linda stopped by to say Hi.  We maintained social distancing in the driveway while we chatted and reminisced about confidently dining out in sit down restaurants!  Love that Point Beer t-shirt from Steven's Point Wisconsin… Please note the colorful objects in Norm’s hands…

Norm plays a bit of golf and is a talented gardener.  Despite those hobbies, they aren't quite enough to keep him busy.  So, he’s taken up painting rocks…! He's making colorful little vignettes that he can pass around to friends and neighbors, hopefully providing a bit of cheer and happiness.  The larger rock ended up at the base of our birdbath in the front yard where it looks great! (Artistic too!)

Laurie ensured that Norm left our place with several nice flat rocks for him to paint.  She was helping him pass on a bit of ‘sunshine’ to others…paying it forward!

We haven’t seen any deer in the neighborhood lately…but our bird friends have kept on coming by.  This handsome wood thrush has been a regular visitor lately, primarily because he loves the seeded suet as well as the meal worms that Laurie puts out for the bluebirds.

 

The wood thrush is closely related to other thrushes such as the American robin.  They winter in Central America and southern Mexico and they are the official bird of the District of Columbia.  In the last 50 plus years, their numbers have declined by about 50%, primarily due to habitat loss.

This year we haven’t been able to capture a good photo of a colorful male rose-breasted grosbeak but we’ve captured several pictures of the female as she stops by to feast on the seeded suet and pick up dinner for her young.  These birds are members of the cardinal family.

Rose breasted grosbeaks also winter in Central America and southern Mexico but their numbers are holding steady.  East Tennessee is on the southeastern edge of their breeding area whereas middle and western Tennessee are areas that they only pass through on their migration.

Laurie has been busy in our yard, working with a local landscaper to maintain and enhance our yard.  Construction of a house next door has necessitated moving some plants and bushes as well as acquiring some new ones. 

This Itea Little Henry Sweet Spire was just planted last week.  Hopefully it will like its new home!  This spot in the front yard had been home to a rhododendron.  However, when the woods next door was cut down to build a house, the full sun was way too much for it so it’s been moved to the back yard where it seems very happy!

This little bush was recently planted along the garage side of our house at my request.  I’ve always loved forsythias and this is the second one we’ve planted.  It will help delineate our yard from our neighbors while adding a a bit of early color every spring.   

This photo shows the back side of our yard adjacent to our neighbor.  In the past it was a semi-wild no-man’s land.  You can see some of the remnant moss still hanging on for dear life.  The three newly planted small bushes in the back with the red flowers are re-blooming Sonic Bloom Red Weigela.   We haven't decided on a plan for hard-scaping the area yet.

This shows the tiny flowers on one of our 5 burning bush shrubs in the back yard.  This plant is native to parts of China, Japan and Korea but it is considered an invasive plant in some New England States.  It derives its common name, ‘burning bush’ from the attractive bright red colors it displays in the fall season.

This is a close-up of one of our 2 large oak leaf hydrangea’s that live under and next to the giant oak tree in our back yard.  Love the big leaves and when these plants produce their showy white flowers, those leafs just accentuate their beauty.

Here is a little more variety.  The preceding photos show 2 different azalea blooms and one of our pieris japonica “mountain fire” bushes up close.  The latter had already bloomed but the ‘fire’ in the leaves certainly adds color and interest.

We had another visitor a few days ago.  From my man cave window, I spotted a FedEx truck in our driveway.  I called Laurie on the intercom and alerted her.  She went out to see what it was.  The lady driving the truck brought this huge box toward the house…and Laurie said “What is that…a tree?!”  The FedEx gal said…”Yes it is!”

So we carried it into the house and discovered that it was an early Mother’s Day gift from David II, our daughter-in-law Amy and our two grandsons.  This is what it looked like when it was first ‘unveiled’.

Soon we were off to the local Hardware/Garden store to purchase gravel for drainage, the proper soil for the tree, a giant pot to plant it in and a base with rollers!  This is a Karoneiki Olive Tree and its new home for now is on rollers on our front porch.  We can move it to full sun once it’s acclimated and if we get too much rain, we can move it back onto the porch.  It will join Laurie’s other plants in her plant room when it gets cold in the fall.

 

The Koroneiki olive tree is from Greece and its primarily used for olive oil production.  These olive trees cover 50 – 60% of the olive tree acreage in Greece, but they are also grown in countries scattered around every continent in the world.  With a little luck, we’ll produce some olive oil of our own…

It seems right to end this post with the ‘bluebird of happiness’! (This one is loading up with meal worms for his brood) Life goes on, so we all need to just hang in there.  Things will get better and in the meantime, take pleasure in those little things around you…

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Stay Safe and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave