We put our first offer on this house in February. It didn’t close until April 15 and I didn’t move into the new place until July 1. So, pretty much, we missed Spring. Neither of us knew if we had any flowering trees or blossoms or … you know… the great happenings of Spring.
Spring is my favorite season, just sayin’…
For the last few days, I’ve been wandering around here with my mouth agape, so incredulous about the living, beautiful growing foliage around here! So today, on the first day of Spring, I traveled around the homestead with my camera to document the Spring around here!
IT’S ALIVE!
First, I want to celebrate that the single, one and only tree in all of the horse pastures – IS ALIVE! I was sure Mo (the new donkey) had killed it when he stripped the bark in one afternoon. After discovering this horrible assault against the benevolent tree, I was heartbroken. The only tree.
But, alas, when I took a photo the other day of Finn and BG scratching on what I thought was the dead tree, I saw green! I enlarged the photo to make sure, and sure enough – buds!! I then ran outside to make sure of my discovery AND IT WAS BUDDING!
I’m still awestruck. I have no idea how it is living. It has no continuous bark! But, it is alive so I celebrated by wrapping the crap out of it. There is chicken wire everywhere around it and I just pray that it mends itself – somehow. I truly have no idea how it is living.
This is the photo I took last week (Finn and BG scratching on the tree) and discovered ‘green’ on the dead tree!
Here is the Phoenix tree – arising from the ashes. I had no idea it was alive! There are buds all over it – but the right side has budded out first.
There is literally NO BARK on this tree. I do not know how this is happening! (You can see Finn’s hair on the ground.)
Mo, the culprit tree murderer, looks on.
I wrapped every part of this tree to as high as I could reach.
Sweet Wrigley always wants to know what is going on…
It is difficult to see the wire wrap, but it is all over this tree. I will do whatever I can to keep it alive. What a view from up there, eh? This is where the house should have been built…
THE OTHER SPRINGTIME NEWS AROUND THE PLACE!
Well, I find it fascinating that I have 4 of the same type of tree, Raywood Ash, and they are all in different stages of bud. The youngest is hardly budding. The tweenager is barely budding. The young adult is fully budded and the Grandpappy is just thinking about budding…
This is the youngest Raywood Ash that I purchased and have not yet planted. It is barely budding. (Yes, it is going to rain again today and this week…look at those clouds.)
This is the tweenager Raywood Ash and it has a few baby leaves.
The buds look like little pineapples or palm trees…
This is the young adult… which is 10 feet away from the tweenager, and it is in full bloom. I don’t understand how this happens. They get the exact same sun and light.
This is the great Grandpappy Raywood Ash. It is about 40 feet from the others. It is only barely thinking about leaves on the bottom half.
OTHER SIGNS OF SPRING
While I was in the tree wrapping mode, I decided to wrap the trees that protect Annie, Gwen, Dodger and Norma. No one ate any bark last summer… but you never know. So, I wrapped them. Annie watched.
These are the great trees that shade Annie, Gwen, Norma and Dodger during the hot summer months. I wrapped them, too. These guys are barely showing leaves. My neighbor had no trees on her property when she purchased it 18 years ago…
Annie watched intently.
WHAT KINDS OF TREES ARE THESE?
We have two trees in our backyard that are mystery trees. One seems to be a flowering pear or something like that. But it has no fruit. The other is a complete mystery.
This is right outside the kitchen window! Who knew?! So pretty and fresh!
This is the mystery tree. Those orange balls are left over from Fall.
This beautiful red tree! It is tiny and hidden behind a pepper tree… but look at it! So pretty!
I did not know Eucalyptus has these blossoms!
This (plum?) tree was not like this when we moved in. The rains really helped it come back to life!
And we have several wild rose bushes. Very nice! These guys were totally dry when we arrived. Now look at them! Back from the brink of drought.
And this crooked Eucalyptus. I don’t know why a tree would grow crooked when there are no other trees around it – I’m guessing it was like that at the nursery.
HUBBY AND SCOUTY… and me.
Yesterday, when it was sunny, Hubby mowed and mowed and mowed. Afterwards, we sat and relaxed with Scoutypants. We have a lot to do, but who knew there was so much life on what appeared to be very dead land! We have a long way to go, but the rain and manure sure helped!
MARCH BUCKET FUND HORSE, SWAYZE, NEEDS SURGERY TO SURVIVE. His Drop in the Bucket Fund (story here) only needs $459 to give him his lifesaving surgery! Just a few drops will add up! Thank you in advance!
Do you have Starbucks money to donate to this very handsome gelding? He has fought so hard to live! Thank you!! Make a 100% tax deductible donation here!
