Nature Friday

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. There aren’t many new flowers blooming from last week but we have some beautiful pictures to show you.

Let’s see some beautiful flower pictures.

We call this our “School Bus” Yellow Daylily

Pink daylily with coreopsis background.

Here is a picture of what happens after the flowers bloom on one of our plants.

Hypericum androsaemum ‘Albury Purple’ berries

Don’t the flowers behind me kind of look like Christmas lights?
That’s how you do “Christmas in July”!

We hope you enjoyed a look at some of the nature in our yard this week.

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We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Nature Friday – Beautiful Blooms

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. We’ve had some scorching hot weather this past week and it’s caused lots of shrubs and flowers to bloom.

Oh look! Dad’s over there taking pictures of some flowers.

Let’s see what’s in bloom.

Korean spice viburnum

Doublefile viburnum

Korean spice viburnum in black & white

We sure do have a lot of different viburnum.
What’s dad taking pictures of over there now?

Deciduous azalea flower

Bumblebee on azalea flower

My Monet Weigela flowers

Those are all such pretty pink flowers. Now for our favorite flower…

Blue Columbine

There sure are lots of things blooming in our yard.
That’s not even everything that is in bloom. Stay tuned for our next installment.

We hope you enjoyed a look at what is blooming in our yard. We had record high temps this past week and will now get some more average temps in the week ahead.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Nature Friday

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. We’re finally getting some warmer weather and some of our trees and shrubs are starting to open their buds.

What should we look at first?

The Korean Spice Viburnum buds are ready to open.

Even though the buds haven’t opened yet the Korean Spice Viburnum sure looks pretty.

Ogon Spirea

This spirea has the tiniest flowers but with so many of them on each stem they almost look like they are covered in snow.

Serviceberry tree blossoms

We were afraid that some of the cold weather we had might ruin our crop of serviceberries this year but the flowers look like they are doing fine.

Serviceberry in Black & White

Serviceberry tree blossoms

We can’t wait to see all the fruit on the tree and have it covered with all kinds of birds that love to eat the fruit.

I found a nice stick to chew on.

We hope you enjoyed a look at what is blooming and almost blooming in our yard. With the warmer temps we are supposed to get this coming week we should start to see more flower opening up.

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We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Wild Bird Wednesday – Backyard Birds

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. Last week I showed you our Bluebirds so this week I want to show you some of the other birds around our yard. Let’s start with the largest.

Blue Jay

There is no difference between male and female Blue Jays but the next pair has subtle difference between genders.

Female Downy Woodpecker

Male Downy Woodpecker

The only gender difference between the Downy Woodpeckers is that the male has a red spot on the back of his head. The next two birds are about the same size and are some of the smallest birds we have around our yard.

Song Sparrow

Tufted Titmouse

Like the Blue Jay the male and female Song Sparrow and Tufted Titmouse look the same.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the birds around our yard. There are more pictures to come as more migrants arrive and I’m working hard on trying to photograph some of the more skittish birds in our yard.

I’m joining the Wild Bird Wednesday blog hop. You should stop by and see some more birds.

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Nature Friday – Early Spring Flowers

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. The weather sure has been crazy around here lately. This morning it was snowing and the snow actually stuck around for a few hours but then the sun came out and melted it all. It was cold and windy though.

There are some pretty flowers around this stump.
I wonder what the neighbors are doing back there?

The area around this stump has some lovely little bulbs that are blooming right now. Don’t forget you can always click on an image to see the full size.

Purple Chionodoxa

White Chionodoxa

Pink Chionodoxa

We also have one of our viburnum blooming now.

These are one of the sweetest smelling flowers you could ever sniff.

Dwarf fragrant viburnum
(too bad you can’t scratch and sniff)

As you can see there isn’t much in bloom right now but our daffodils have buds on them and some of the other spring flowering shrubs are getting ready too.

I always love getting out in the yard to play and sniff around.

The weather is going to be like a roller coaster ride for the next week. There will be some warm days and then a few cold ones (about 20° F or more swings). The cold doesn’t bother us but we hope it stays mostly dry so we can get out and play. We hope all our friends and their families are staying safe and healthy.

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We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Nature Friday – Snow Covered Beauty

Hi everyone! It’s Millie & Walter here. This week we had some of that snow that sticks to everything and looks so pretty.

Frosty trees in black and white

Alaskan cedar in snow

Is dad taking our picture, Millie?
I don’t know. I’m watching out for tree rats in the yard.

Nature photographer at work

Let’s see what dad was taking pictures of when he wasn’t pointing his camera at us.

Rose hip covered in snow

Frosty barberry bush berries

Hydrangea flower in snow

The birds love these frozen rugosa rose hips

After all the rain we had it froze with some interesting leaf formations in it.

Oak leaf in ice

Maple leaf in ice

Squirrel!
Are you sure because I didn’t see anything.

We hope you enjoyed seeing some of the nature in our snow covered yard this week.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Nature Friday – Flowers Around Our Yard

Hi everyone! It’s Walter here.

Let’s check out the flowers and fall colors

As you can see I’m doing quite well and I have all of my Blogville friends to thank for helping me recover so quickly. We don’t have any test results back yet but I feel good as new and I’m told my breath is super fresh now. Enough of that, let’s get to the flowers in our yard.

Hydrangea showing its fall colors

Another pink hydrangea

Some of our Stella D’Oro have started blooming again

The Turtlehead flower is one of the latest bloomers we have in our yard

The insects appreciate having a late flowering perennial in the garden

A tiny spider is enjoying this Eupatorium
(click on the image to make it big if you can’t see the spider)

Lastly let’s see how some of the shrubs have changed so far.

The spirea leaves are starting to turn red

The Callicarpa berries are really starting to turn their beautiful purple color

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the flowers and fall colors we have in our yard.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining the LLB Gang for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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Flower Friday

Hi everyone! It’s Cindy here. There is always something new blooming in our yard now. I like to call this our white and purple/blue phase. Let’s start with the trees and shrubs that are blooming now. (Don’t forget to click on the images to see a bigger version.)

Stewartia tree flower

Hydrangea Paniculata

Hydrangea Arborescens

Lil’ Kim® Violet Althea

The althea (or rose of sharon) looks more pink than violet so it is the only exception to the color theme. Moving on to the perennials. I know I’ve shown you our clematis already but here are some more shots.

Etiole Violette clematis

I just love how the flowers cover the top of the trellis in deep purple blooms. Here are a couple of close ups of the flowers.

Etiole Violette clematis

Etiole Violette clematis

Blue Agastache

The agastache is a favorite of the hummingbirds. Next up are a couple of the hosta that are blooming. We have so many different varieties that we have forgotten what they are.

White Hosta

These hosta flowers have a bit more purple than the others.

Last but not least is one of the new additions to our perennial garden.

Purple Rooster Monarda

We chose this variety of monarda for its mildew resistance and so far it is holding up well. We’ve seen lots of bees, and some butterflies using them and even the hummingbirds go to them.

I hope you enjoyed this stroll around the garden today.

Join the Nature Friday Blog Hop

We are joining our friends Arty, Jakey and Rosy for their Nature Friday Blog Hop. You should pop over to their blog to see all the other posts.

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