They have begun blooming right now, and it is a joy to my heart. They are such beautiful flowers and I never tire of looking at them or photographing them. My first experience in planting them was actually an accident or as a result of my relentless quest for a bargain. After Easter, you will no doubt notice, there are pots and pots of Easter lilies on sale for about $1.00 per pot. So as is my want, I felt sorry for the poor, neglected Easter lilies and bought several pots of them. As is the norm with my bargain buys, I had no idea where I was going to put them, but eventually I plunked them down in the flower bed in front of the living room window. The foliage died down and I thought nothing of them until the foliage grew back and they formed nice little crowns. The following year they sprouted right back up and bloomed beautifully, I was hooked. After Mother's day I noticed that there were lots of other lilies in pots that had passed their best and been reduced to $1.00 a pot, so the same routine ensued, plant the contents of the pot in a spot in the garden. Then in one of my regular trips to Lowes I noticed that their bags of summer bulbs, including lilies, had been reduced to 75% off, so my lily population grew, and each year since I have been buying bags of lilies and searching for places to plant them. This year when I was building my rose bed, I bought a small bag of lilies to place around my alien statue. As it turns out one of my cats decided that the MOST fun in the world, the MOST fun in the world, was digging up the lily bulbs and batting them around the flower bed, I think three out of the six survived and are now putting up leaves, how many will flower after that kind of abuse is anyone's guess. Still, my lily season has just begun and I can imagine that in the next couple of months my digital camera is going to be worn out taking photos of them. There is nothing like the anticipation of seeing a big, fat, lily bud, just waiting to burst open, it is like watching a volcano waiting to blow....



and thar she blows

So I drove down to Chadbourne for the annual "block party" also known as "Encounters." In normal circumstances it is held on a street in downtown Chadbourne, or as it was one year, in the yard of The Martin Mansion (I believe I have the name right). As it was as I drove down highway 74/76 I monitored the weather, as I set off the chance of thunderstorms was 40%, by the time I had passed through Burgaw the chance was 60%, by the time I hit 74/76 it was 80% and then my cellphone rang. It was my husband "go to the elementary school babe don't come here we are moving everything". As I arrived at the elementary school the heavens had opened and a full blown downpour was underway with fork lightning that would impress any photographer. As I was early I contemplated a dash from the car to the cafeteria in the driving rain, or a sit in the car listening to the radio until there was a break. I chose the latter. Once there was a break in the rain I ran into the cafeteria and was hit by a wave of humid air. I milled around and greeted those familiar to me and waited for the food to be served (I was hungry, no idea why as I usually do not eat in the evenings). After I got my food I wandered back into the cafeteria and found just about every seat either warmed by a bottom or reserved by a bag or a sweater (this is normally not the case when the event is held outside, you can always find a seat). I wandered back out. As the rain had stopped and the sun was coming out I decided to take myself and my meal outside and I found myself a perch on the colonade beside the cafeteria and watched as the local wildlife came back out from their shelter after the storm. The Robin was first, taking advantage of the worms that had been forced to the top of the grass in the deluge, he would hop along and then turn his head to watch as he spotted a juicy worm slithering to the top of the grass. Many folks believe that this turn of the head is listening, but no it is simply the Robin turning his eye to give him the best view of the subject. I watched as a female Red-Bellied woodpecker inched up a tree in search of an insect that she obviously heard burrowing in the bark, she would rap at the bark a few times and then place her ear close to the tree to fathom where the bug was moving. While she was on her bug hunt a squirrel, still soggy from the rain, set out in search of previously buried nuts. After a great deal of hop, sniff, hop, sniff, he found one, a pecan that was obviously buried in the fall. After digging it up he ran over the fence and up the tree, disturbing the red-bellied woodpecker as he did so, I am not sure if she ever got the bug she was looking for. In another part of the school yard a male grackle was attempting to impress a female by doing some sort of elaborate mating dance, which in some part, consisted of him doing the "Snoopy doing an impression of a vulture impression", as it was the female was not impressed and flew off, leaving the male to stab impatiently at the ground in disgust. Someone, obviously a nature-loving soul had placed a nesting box at the edge of the school-yard and it was occupied by a pair of eastern Blue Birds, who, if their very frequent comings and goings were any indication, had a clutch of babies to feed. Somewhere in the trees, at a place I could not discern, sat a Mockingbird, singing his heart out, for the norm with Mockingbirds for no apparent reason, other than that it had stopped raining, Mockingbirds are like that, they sing because it is raining, they sing because it is sunny, they sing because it is six oclock in the morning, they sing because it is a day with a "y" in it. As it was it was a joy to sit out there, in the damp, eating my dinner and listening to the birds. It was, as it turned out, far more delightful than sitting in the cafeteria listening to the incessant "tweep, tweep, tweep" of the "Sparkly crested beauty-queen birds" who, despite their colorful plumage, are a bit like a red-winged blackbirds to be honest, really annoying when they gather in large flocks. After I had finished my meal I stuffed my face with more strawberries than is really good for a person then wandered off to the gymnasium to listen to the Jazz Band perform. It was a glorious evening, and yes I know you are all wondering where my camera was during this entire thing, well truth be told it was in the back of my car, in its case, because I simply did not want to stand to go and get it and disturb the life going on around me. I figured it was more important for the Blue Bird to land at my feet and retrieve a worm to feed his babies than it was for me to take a picture of it, I figured it was more important for the Grackle to do his mating dance than it was for me to take a picture of it. Sometimes you just have to sit and watch, and not take photos.

While many of you would say that I should have been certified years ago, it is now official, my little acre is now offically "National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat # 62298" Can you say how proud I am? And when you think about it, of all the backyards in the US only 68,298 are certified. Why is that not more. I studied my fennel this evening to see if any eggs have been laid yet but none so far, I don't think it will be long and I will have catterpillars. As an aside this rose bloomed today.... she is the result of feeding roses bananas...., for more of that ask me about feeding roses bananas....

This evening I was wandering down the back of my garden checking to see if my laundry was dry, it has been a good drying day, warm and windy, so of course it was. As I walked around I noticed a "petal" on the ground, almost all green with a perfect orange throat, as is the norm with my garden I looked upwards, figuring that the plant from whence the petal had come would be in the heavens. Sure enough there in the skies, in a tree at least 40 feet tall was a beautiful flower. I ran in to get the camera, to take an extreme zoom shot of the bloom, as it turned out, the wind, in its power, had snapped off a branch and a bloom lay on the ground. With the bloom and my shots I managed to identify it, its a Tulip Poplar tree, which upon learning its ID I almost bust a gut. Not only are the flowers glorious (despite the fact that they are 40 feet up and you can't see them) BUT, BUT, it is the host plant for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.... can we say caterpillars folks...., I am about as excited as a human being should be allowed to get right now.... Mother Nature must just love me to death.

I spent the day weeding the bed at the edge of my patio and then planting it for my impending butterfly invasion. I planted butterfly weed (host plant of the monarch and nectar plant for all others), fennel,dill and parsley (host plants for black swallowtails), Penta (nectar), Lantana (nectar) and then I oversowed the bed with seeds, zinnia, mexican sunflower, cleome more dill and more butterfly weed. I am hoping that this bed will attract an army of butterflies to my garden this year in addition to all of the other plants that I have in my garden specifically to feed them. While I was at my favourite nursery (Pender Pines by the way, just outside of Hampstead, NC, if you ever get a chance to visit then you must, it is truly spectacular and will make even the casual gardner drool with sheer desire.) Where was I? Oh yes, for the most part the staff at Pender Pines are very knowledgeable and have the answer to every question immediately. They must have some new staff however as today I asked a simple question "do you have any butterfly weed" three of the folks that I spoke to didn't know what I was talking about, the one that did said she didn't know where it was, as it turned out they didn't have any, but then when I was checking out there was this exchange.... cashier "wow thats alot of fennel" me "yes its for the caterpillars" cashier "you are buying it for the caterpillars to eat?" me "yes" cashier "weird". Contrast this to last year.... my caterpillars have eaten the fennel down to the stalks, they have nothing left to eat, I get on the phone to pender pines.... "do you have any fennel?" staff "no sorry we are out for this year" me "do you know anyone who does, my caterpillars need food" staff "Oh no problem we have lots of dill, they will eat dill if there is no fennel, we still have lots of dill also do you happen to grow carrots they will eat carrot tops" which of course means me jumping into the car and driving down to Pender Pines to buy lots and lots of dill. Another emergency phone call me "hi do you have any butterfly weed left?" staff "hmmmm I think so let me check" hold "yes how many do you need?" me "at least six, my caterpillars need food" staff "no problem we have lots right now". Now I know it is quite a strange person that will spend good money on a plant specifically for it to be eaten but I think we have all agreed by now that I am a strange person, of the first order. By the way, this is the fennel just after I had planted it and watered it in.