Random pictures, random thoughts

Remember the lovely tulips right outside my front door? The ones of which I was so proud?

Not so pretty now. If they'd go ahead and die totally, I'd dig up the bulbs and replant them. You can see I have marigolds in front, and there are some other flowers on back that haven't bloomed yet, between the tulip rows. But really, the brown, dying tulips are what catch my eye when I step outside.

Granddaughter Natalie took this glamor-shot of Cliff baling hay on the Mahindra tractor we're babysitting for the brother-in-law. I hope Pat takes time to look at this, because he's never seen his tractor without the bucket-loader on the front.

Cows always look so awkward when they're at rest. Bonnie was chewing her cud until I approached her; then she starting thinking there might be a bite of sweet feed for her somewhere, and got all alert.

She's sniffing my camera in hopes it's edible.

I received an interesting anonymous comment from someone reading my blog around 3 A.M. today: "Gosh dang this must be the most interesting blog I ever read."

Why do I think that comment was made tongue-in-cheek? I mean, it was left on an entry about my garden, for heaven's sake.

Never give up

I've mentioned a couple of times how all my Norway Spruce trees seemed to be dying; it's disappointing because last year they were thriving. Still, I told Cliff not to mow them down yet, since some of them had a tiny bit of green. By "tiny bit", I mean four or five needles. But one never knows.

Today I was making an inspection of the sickly trees and noticed something promising on one of the "dead" trees.

Looks pretty hopeless, doesn't it?

But look! New growth! Can you see the green buds?

How about now? I can hardly wait for Cliff to wake up so I can tell him. Some of the others are showing signs of life, too.

In spite of strong winds yesterday, the tulips are standing tall and proud. You knew there would be a shot of the tulips in this entry, right?

I never saw a purple cow....

Cliff's taking advantage of this lovely day by giving our gates a coat of Ford (tractor) blue. Oldest grandson looks on (he hasn't had much work lately, he's job-hunting again).

Turns out Secret likes the taste of blue paint.

Finally, Cliff asked me to tie her up until the paint could dry.

She didn't seem to mind; in fact, she laid down and relaxed.

You don't often see a cow wearing makeup. Maybe if she had tried this look before, she might have gotten pregnant.

Sadie is checking out the tulips.

Dear Googlers

I see from my Sitemeter that many of you are worrying about your tulips freezing.

Here's the scoop:

If the tulips aren't blooming, you don't have to worry. I watched mine freeze solid a few days ago.

If they are in bloom, cover them up, or you'll lose the blooms.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Dear Lord, don't tell me Forest Gump said that, because I HATE that movie.

Freezing temperatures and tulips

This entry was done in 2009; I'm adding this little blurb in March, 2010, for all you people who ended up here by way of Google:  A hard freeze will not hurt your tulips.  Put your fears to rest.  


I knew we were in for a hard freeze last night. All my tulips are up, so I went looking on the Internet to see if I should cover them. The answer was "no".

This morning when it was fourteen degrees, I bent over and touched a tulip blade. It was rock-hard, and it seemed strange to me that any plant except grasses would be able to totally freeze like that and still have life in it.

A couple hours later when the ground had started thawing, I once again touched the tulip plant; it was no longer frozen, and looked and felt absolutely normal, as it does this evening. We're supposed to get another hard freeze tonight, and I assume it won't do any damage to my tulips either. I do know that a freeze while they're blooming destroys the flowers, but it'll be awhile before they bloom.

I don't have a lot of experience with tulips. I tend to stick with easy annuals like impatiens, marigolds, pansies and such; or else flowers that come back year after year, requiring no effort on my part, like iris and peonies and tall phlox.

Tulips really aren't cheap, and they're only good for a couple of years. But I do love them, so last fall I splurged.

Once we get out of the current cold snap, I'll have a report on the lettuce and radishes that were up last weekend.