A Second Look at Irises 5-26-11

A Second Look around the yard this week found me focusing on the different irises that were in bloom. Because I don't know much about them, I did a bit of reading. I found out that no matter what they're called, most iris are some form of the bearded iris. After that, I got confused with the details. Therefore, I'm naming them by color as you will see. The one thing I do know, is that the word "iris" is used a lot in crossword puzzles (in my experience, anyway) because all of the letters used to spell it are very common.

Pale yellow iris

Yellow-veined iris

Lavender iris

Salmon colored iris

Two-tone purple iris

White iris

Siberian iris

Our Fine Feathered Friends

Recently, for Ward's birthday, we put up a bird feeder, suet feeder, and bird bath. He wanted to become a bird watcher---at least from our windows. We put out expensive seed and suet and waited for the birds to come. Slowly, but surely, they have been finding their way to our gourmet offering.

However, did I mention the whole family is severely lacking in our understanding of birds? Until the new feeder, I was the advanced one because I could identify both a cardinal and a robin. Ward could spot a blue jay, and Wally and Theodore knew a crow when they saw one. That was about the sum total of it. One time, my sister, a long time birder, took me bird watching. While she was saying, "Look at the white on the tip of the bird's wing," I was saying, “Which tree?”

After a couple of weeks of watching, we're very proud of our new knowledge. We can now tell you that house finches are our most frequent visitors, the male cardinal doesn't like sharing, and the feeder REALLY swings when a crow lands on it. We can also tell you that we have both pileated and downy woodpeckers who are enjoying the suet; but neither one seems to resemble Woody Woodpecker. We're still a little confused about all of the little brown and gray birds, but we think we have been visited by a black capped chickadee, a white breasted nuthatch, and a house sparrow.

We've also had the ubiquitous visitor to every bird feeder—the squirrel. So far, the “squirrel proof” feeder is doing it's job, but we are enjoying the squirrel's antics as it tries to eat from the suet feeder in all positions. So far, upside down seems to be the favorite. Perhaps it's trying to copy the woodpeckers.

Who knows what we will see next? Maybe it will be something exotic. I just hope that we will be able to recognize it when it comes.

A Footnote: Special thanks to the boys' Aunt Martha—the bird expert who has been a tremendous help in getting us started.

A Second Look, 5-20-11

A Second Look  around the yard this week found these things.

  

Bearded iris

Honeysuckle--The smell is so sweet. Now if it just wouldn't engulf everything around it.

Sage

Bearded iris

Ground Hog Hole--Front door and back door that is always hidden.

An early blackberry bloom. Or is it black raspberry. I always get them mixed up.

Passports

We had front row seats to see Old Faithful.

Our family applied for passports this weekend. It all started in third grade when one of my friends brought a View-Master to school with pictures from around the United States. Two of the most impressive ones for me were the Old Faithful Geyser in Yellowstone National Park and Niagara Falls in New York. I marveled at these unbelievable acts of nature, and they became icons for me of the amazing things to see in this country. However, I never got to see them in person--that was until last summer when Ward and I saw Old Faithful. It erupted  faithfully, as it has done for countless years, and the experience was all that I imagined it would be. After that satisfying event, we started planning a visit to Niagara Falls.

It was decided that to have the complete experience, we needed to see both the New York and Canadian sides of the Falls, which these days means you need a passport. No one in the family had an up-to-date one, so we had to start the application procedure from the beginning. Soon the excitement of the trip was forgotten as the annoyances of bureaucracy took over.

A dark cloud seemed to be hanging over the process. We couldn't find Theodore's birth certificate. We couldn't find the safe deposit box key to look for his birth certificate. Wally's work schedule didn't fit with the times the post office was open to submit applications. Ward and Wally's work schedules didn't mesh with the schedule of where we could get inexpensive pictures taken.

However, the sun started to emerge Saturday morning. We found the safe deposit box key (under a seat in Ward's car). This enabled us to get the right documents, work around Wally’s work schedule, and make it to the inexpensive place for our pictures. We got our applications submitted, yeah! Now, we hope for clear skies for the people who will be processing them.

Niagara Falls here we come!

Discoveries this week 5-12-11

A Second Look around the yard this week found these new flowers blooming along with a few other things.

Pink azaleas

White azaleas

Siberian Iris

Star of Bethlehem--Some consider this a weed and some consider it a flower.  It spreads easily by both seeds and bulbs, so you have to be careful where you plant it.

Rhododendron

The blossoms are off of the peach tree and peaches are starting to form.

The cows are grazing in the field behind us. They get rotated among the different fields on the neighbor's farm, but usually spend the summer behind us.