I'll be back next year - Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday

Excuse me please...

What? Who me? Leave?

Not for long!

I'll be back before the next one of these...
(click on the picture to see the man in the moon!)

Happy holidays, spring break, spring!
~Aerie-el

Wordless Wednesday-Snow surrounding Seattle

Wordless Wednesday

Skywatch Friday - it's for the birds

Not a lot to see this Friday in the skies over Seattle except clouds, fog, and rain.
So rather than more gray pictures, how about a little eagle update?

Hence, this Skywatch Friday is dedicated to the 'national bird', the bald eagle.

(Except for the very first photo of this post,
all were taken about 1/2 mile away thru a scope.
As always, you can click on any photo and see it BIG!)

Above is the happy adult bald eagle couple
scouting out a place to build a 'home' last year.
They settled in, one eaglet was raised and fledged in 2008,
and the couple has returned again this year to the same nest.

Can you see the green to the right on the nest above?

The eagles added lots of evergreen branches from nearby trees
to the nest this year.

The eagle was inspecting the addition of twigs and branches.

Above they were having a little tete-a-tete, or is that peck-a-peck?

(Dr Destructo, I presume? For more on Dr D, check out Greenwalks' posts.)
I saw this rapid movement on the nest and checked it out thru the scope. A squirrel!? Oh my, I hope this doesn't mean bad things have happened to any eggs that might be in the nest.
The squirrel wasn't there long, but long enough to worry me...

Soon after, no sign of Dr D, just momma or pappa E.

And above is the most recent shot of one of the eagles in the nest.
(It's the white dome-shape on the right top of the nest--hard to see!?)
One of them remains hunkered down 24/7 now.
Soon, very soon, we may hear the cries of a wee one or wee ones again!

Click for more Skywatch Friday posts

~Aerie-el

Cold Rain

I'm not going to complain. I like rain. I like to walk and work in the rain. When I lived in Germany people would always be walking. One day I asked why they were out when the weather was so miserable. The reply was that if they waited for the perfect weather, they might never be outside. It is a good philosophy of not letting the weather affect what you do, don't you think?

But I'm not terribly excited about gardening in the cold rain. That's how its been today. So instead I took a few shots of what's been happening about the yard and what I've done so far this year. I'd say so far this spring, but I actually did this work before 'spring' was officially here. So, let's take a stroll, shall we?

I'll show you the bad news first. Here's my lovely Rosemary, badly damaged by the brutal winter weather this year.

And how about this bumper crop of shotweed? They're all volunteers. I didn't plant them intentionally! Click here to read more about these plants in a posting I wrote last March.


Below is a photo of some epimedium in the 'woodland garden'. I can hardly wait to see the skunk cabbage come up! (I think there's a movement to change the common name from skunk cabbage to something sweet-sounding, but it's hard to break old habits!)

The Hellebores are blooming like crazy,
so I had to include a couple shots of them.

Here's some kale in the garden. Looks good enough to eat. Yum.

I planted my mini-dwarf apple trees and finally got my blueberries in the ground back in February. Pay no attention to the burlap bags, they'll be covered once I get some mulch.

And here is my star!
Hamamelis x intermedia 'Diane'!
I just purchased her, so she's not in the ground yet.

There you have it...a wee tour of what is happening here.

I'm curious,
How does your garden grow?

~Aerie-el