Girl's Day out...

I had a wonderful weekend spending time with 3 of my 4 sisters and most of the nieces for a sister/niece day in St. Cloud, MN.
Since we came from the NW, NE, central, southern & metro areas of the state it was a good meeting spot. We spent the morning leisurely strolling through Clemens (7 acres) & Munsinger gardens (14 acres) enjoying lots of beauty and even more conversation! We were not the only ones enjoying the beauty of the rose gardens.
The rain held off all day and the weather was cooler so it was a great day to be outside.
The nieces strike a pose under the huge block wide arbor...
and there were many fountains (or as Madeline says "rain") to enjoy.
Then we went to a wonderful lunch at Ciatti's where we were catered to like Princesses. The littlest Princess Allison was very popular at this spot being passed around the table so that everyone got a chance to hold her. Jayme has a big smile during her turn :-)
I really enjoyed spending time with Madeline, we don't get to see her much and she was such a fun participant in the day. She enjoyed the ducks and rabbits in the garden the most I think.
After lunch, the great nieces went home to nap and the nieces went on a shopping exursion so the sisters went to Quarry Park to hike. It is a beautiful place with many water filled quarries but my only recommendation is don't forget to bring mosquito repellant (we did)!
It was cool enough for us to wear jackets but the younger crowd was jumping off into the 116' deep quarry. If you click on this photo you will see one girl mid jump.
After the hike, the four of us sat in the car and called the 5th sister in CA on speaker phone so that we could share sister day with her. A fun conversation with 5 talking at once :-) Then it was off to Cold Stone Creamery to meet up with the nieces for a treat and to end our day.
What a wonderful day it was!

Q & A, part 3...

All the flowers of all the tomorrows are in the seeds of today.
(Author Unknown)
The orange butterfly weed is blooming and waiting for the monarchs to lay eggs, soon it will be covered in caterpillars and they will strip the leaves. There were 2 questions in the comments yesterday so since I hadn't done a Q & A in a few weeks, I looked back for more and only found one other that hadn't been answered. On June 20th, Lynne asked "Have you ever offered garden tours?". The answer is that I have lots of summer visitors asking for tours and I get several calls a summer from groups asking if they can come and do a tour. So no, I don't offer but I almost always (if my time allows) graciously accomodate those who ask :-) Yesterday, Kayceebeebee commented and asked "I've never seen a vanilla spoon before. Do they grow in MN?". Vanilla spoon is an annual from Proven Winners. It is what I call a "speciality annual" as they are sold single and not in 4 or 6 packs. I especially like the Proven Winners as I have the best luck with them. So yes, it grows in MN but freezes out so you have to replace it every year. If you remember my Mother's day post we went and purchased my speciality annuals that day, I buy those for all the containers and a few unusual ones to put in the ground. Another one purchased that day is the Hot Lips salvia pictured below.
Yesterday, Lynne asked "How do you keep the bunnies out?". The answer is Gabi & Ruger, our dog & granddog who also lives with us. They are outside farm dogs with free roam of the property and frequent rabbit hunters. When I go outside in the morning the first thing they do is patrol the garden. In the winter, they get quite lazy and spend most of their day sleeping in the warm garage so we were able to enjoy feeding Joseph & the girls. As soon as it was warm out, I discontinued feeding them the corn in order to protect them from our mighty hunters. I took a few shots this morning of the whole backyard garden because the beautiful close up bloom shots I have been showing are a little misleading. The garden is still mostly green and doesn't hit it's prime until mid to late July. That is why I get such joy of seeing each new set of blooms each day and my morning ritual is to walk around (ignore the weeds) and see what has opened. In this shot, you can see Gabi returning from her morning run through. As always you can click on any of my shots for the large view.
I also enjoy doing an occasional "Where's Ruger" as sometimes he is a little harder to spot, plus it is a send out to Nathan our son (it is his dog). So in this opposite view of the mostly green garden, Where's Ruger?
With all the outside house remodeling being done, I am redoing the whole front landscape. The first to be worked on is a small rose garden and I have added the first two roses. Easy Elegance Sunrise, Sunset...
and Morden Sunrise.
The gardens are always a work in progress for me and I hope to show you the angel garden as soon as I weed it!

flowers open...

The sun is on fire
In the sky
And in its warmth
Flowers open
In the garden
And the butterfly
Flutters by.
(Stanley Cook)
New flowers are bursting forth every day in the garden but overall there is still more green than color. Above is a vanilla spoon osteospermum (proven winners annual). Below, the first bloom of Kilian Donahue clematis was open this morning. They open fushia and fade to an orchid with a fushia stripe. Beautiful!
Remember last summer's pinneapple lily? The bulb overwintered in the basement and this year I planted it in the ground rather than a pot. I have made a note to buy more of these bulbs now that I know they overwinter well.
Globe flower is about the only perennial I have in the garden that never multiplies or needs dividing. I can't decide if that is a good thing or a bad thing.
The first of the red border lilies opened overnight. The plant is loaded with buds so look for a huge burst of color next week.
The calla lilies are also blooming...
and for my fellow birdwatchers, I imagine you have noticed I haven't posted any birds lately. That's because I haven't had time to sit down and wait for a photo opportunity. I have been so busy with work, remodeling projects and WEEDING! This year I have more weeding to do than in most years, some of them are actually weeds (dandelions galore & bindweed are the worst) but most of them are self seeders. I've pulled pails & pails of gloriosa daisies, feverfew, coreopsis, coneflowers and the absolute worst invader DILL which I have never planted but it must have been in a wildflower mix a couple of years ago. The johnny jumps were getting pulled but there are so many I finally cried "Uncle" and gave up.
The wrens do keep me entertained while I am out there weeding just a singing away.
I should have waited to show you the climbing rose as it is now bending over under the weight of the blooms.
Have a wonderful day and don't forget to look for the beauty in each thing you see...even the weeds!

a little bit of everything...

Sisters are different flowers from the same garden.
(Author Unknown)I meant to post this last week, my little sis and her youngest daughter in the garden. They were my houseguests for 2 days while we helped Grandma Ann move. I have 4 sisters and we are all definitely "different flowers from the same garden" but a garden of one type of flower would be boring and our family is definitely not boring so we compliment each other beautifully!
The potted annuals are growing and full of blooms and the honeysuckle vine is now a bright spot of orange among the roses.
The serviceberry bush is in constant motion. The berries are starting to ripen and the robins are eating any that have the slightest purple to them. The robins are too heavy for the branches and the bush just swings and sways with the weight of them.
Tonight's sunset was beautiful so I ran out to take a picture for the post (told you this was a little bit of everything!)
I almost tripped over this fallen cottonwood branch on the path to the edge of the grove...
it's no wonder my garden is covered in fluff when that small of a branch puts out that much cotton and we have huge cottonwood trees on both sides of our yard. Some days in June it looks like it is snowing with the blowing stuff so it is not my favorite time of year. The seedlings are one of the most prolific weeds I pull in the garden and the stuff plugs the pond filters daily.
It's everywhere!

my heart is blooming...

Garden - it's where your heart can bloom
(seen on a sign in a local shop)
The garden is just starting to "color up" with new blooms opening each day. I have a full and long schedule of work in the office today, but the roses in the early morning sunlight were pulling me to go out and take a photo first.
I don't even know the name of these climbers as we have had them for over 25 years and I wasn't into gardening back then. It is a hardy variety because 8 years ago when we built an addition to our home, my husband cut them down and then dug out the rootball and discarded it. I came home from work hours later, reclaimed the roots from the trash pile and planted them under a clothesline pole and they have thrived and grown taller each year. They are at least 10-12 ft tall and the highest blooms with the sky backdrop is gorgeous.
Niobe clematis is opening on one of the gazebo poles. This spring I added a white Huldine clematis right next to her so next year it should be blooming a white/red combo.
Up close she is breathtaking!
These were still in the shade this morning but Dr. Ruppel clematis is in full bloom.
One of his blooms in the full sun.

I have a new found love for clematis and this spring, I have added two Huldine's and The President. I hope to add at least three or more before the season is over.

a visit to the past...

but first my last peony. I purchased this one last summer and have eagerly awaited it's bloom. The variety is Paeonia 'Primevere' and the tag shows the same creamy yellow outer petals surrounded by a bright yellow center as the link. I started worrying when all the buds were a pale pink and as you can see it is blooming pale pink with a creamy yellow center. A little disappointing but I still love having another variety and it is known for it's scent so a definite keeper.

The history of the world is the record of a man in quest of his daily bread and butter.
(Hendrik Wilhelm van Loon, The Story of Mankind)

Now on to the past...we love visiting sites like the Jeffers Petroglyphs. This was a first visit for us and it was very interesting. This exposed rock face is 50 yards wide and 300 yard long and is covered in petroglyphs dating from 250 to 5000 years ago.
A path is marked along the top of the rock and you walk and try to identify all the carvings. This explanation was given for the time periods of the carvings...The most common technique of dating the glyphs is identifying the items depicted, then relating them to peoples of a particular time period. By this technique, they appear to range from 3000 B.C. to A.D. 1750. Some of the earliest ones depict hunting buffaloes with atlatis (throwing sticks) which were used before the bow & arrow were invented 1,200 years ago.
The carvings depicted deer, buffaloes, turtles, thunderbirds, snakes (lightening bolts) and humans (medicine men).
We enjoyed reading each sign and trying to identify the carvings shown. Some were large groups of carvings and we had a hard time due to erosion and the lichen and could only identify one or two of a group of 10 or more.
This signature hand was one of the easiest to spot.
This rippled effect on some areas of the rock date this rock to be 1.6 billion years old.

After enjoying the rock trail we took the prairie trail to view the native prairie and all the wildflowers blooming. Wagon ruts from the earliest settler trails are still visible on this undisturbed land.
Along this trail were several of these birds singing away. Neither Jeff or I recognized them or had ever seen one before.
When this one flew off, his back was gorgeous! I couldn't wait to look him up when we returned on Sunday.
Our first bobolink sighting!