And on to a pretty good week!

When last we blogged, things were looking irritating at my house, but situations were resolved and it turned out to be a pretty good week!

My High School kids are usually very fun and quite cooperative.  They are a cool bunch and my mornings with them are generally quite good.  My elementary kids, for the most part, are the same, but I have a couple classes that are so SO big.  Like 30 kids in the classroom big.  And since it is a class and a half, they are very noisy as well.  And things aren't getting any quieter as the end of the year approaches.

So, a couple of my days during the week are ones I dread a bit, as an hour is a long time with all that constant correction and reminders to not shout at the kid they are sitting right beside....  it's exhausting.  Anyway, Tuesday, these children were actually pretty productive and fun- after I read them the riot act and possibly frightened them.  Ha, like I am so scary.  Anyway, that was a surprisingly good day, followed by days of little glimmers of good news.

It has been a week of eyebrows raised in little moments of surprise- cancelled meetings- and days of warmer and dryer than expected weather...  things like that.  Today we have an inservice all day and then its Friday and then it is a weekend that is going to include some kayaking!!  YES! With a friend I haven't seen in like FOREVER!!  Double YES!

I now have a several clumps of flowering little daffodils, and a few full sized blooms have occurred just yesterday!  Woo hoo!

And back, briefly, to Monday.  The MA had to help someone late in the afternoon deal with a tax situation, and then had some business things to attend to.....  which is no different than ever, but bad timing.  The NEXT day he got home at a reasonable time, raked the lawn for a while and then we did go for a little ride.  I don't think I stopped talking literally the entire time that we were in the truck.  Lol.  I know you all find that hard to believe, right?

It has been nice getting back to spring activities- the lawn is being dealt with, I have the grill out, starting to fetch the different pots of perennials from their winter beds and getting them woken up.  Making plans for kayaking and Bayfielding and all that good stuff!

Anyway, I hate it when my blog is hanging on a downer sort of note, so I decided to do a quick update.  It really is a good week.  I like this!  :)  My camera contains some really nice daffodil shots, but I didn't get around to editing last night- I had a fun twitter thing going on, and I can't be witty and creative all at the same time I guess?  That and I had done some fast down and dirty weight lifting the last few days and I was SO tired.

Well, though it doesn't feel like it, I have to go to work today.  Inservice days - where I have to sit all day- make me just a little nutty.

But I will find some joy - I am sure of it.

Rock on all you beautiful people!!!

And now an annoying Monday night

So here is a daffodil- at least that is not annoying.

So I have been indicating how nice it was going to be that tax season was done....  well, just for that last little bit of annoyance- the MA is STILL not home and it is heading towards 6:15. This is crazy.  

I don't really blame him, because obviously he wouldn't still be at the office if he was done.  I don't know who to blame.  Lol. I know he was planning his last day last night- extensions I think.... Now I wish I would have gone to the gym, but I thought maaaaayyyybe we would go have supper somewhere.  Silly me.

Anyway, I have nothing more to report- other than I got some fun information about the Italy trip today.  So there is that.  And that is about it.  Idk if there is even time now to go walk to the Way-back Field before sunset.  sigh.

Oh well, I guess there is always tomorrow....

I will definitely be going to the gym tomorrow.  HA!!

And I always find that a joy.

Daffodil days

I went outside last night when it was somewhat overcast and found perfect lighting for my daffodil pix.

These were all taken with my phone and I threw together this collage without any editing at all.  So they are slightly over exposed, but you can see all the different kinds!  A couple look similar to each other (you have to really look to find the differences) but they are all different sorts.  AND then I forgot that I had some other kinds elsewhere, like by Lola.....

There are more types to bloom yet, too!  :)

These are among my favorites

Lola is looking lovely, isn't she!

These peach and yellow ones are not super easy to find, but they are worth the search

It was very soul satisfying to inspect all of them up close!  It was a good afternoon.

TODAY!!!!!! Today I am Bayfielding!  If you need me, I'll be eating and hiking and waterfalling and softly weeping at the end of the dock looking towards Madeline Island.....  jk.  Well, I will be wishing that the ferry ran more often so we had time for an Island run, but not today.  We have some new waterfalls to inspect!  Big Water Coffee, Coco's and the Chequamegon Food Coop will be our stops in civilization, otherwise we will be walking and hiking and possibly wading, baby!

And THAT, like my daffodils, will give me all sorts of joy!

Spring on pause

I assume you can see the disturbing view from the window....

I went out on Sunday and brought in a few of my daffodils so I can enjoy them in here.  Heaven knows being outside isn't particularly enjoyable at this point.  

The forecast has changed wildly from day to day- right now this is looking like the last day of snow.  Ha- we shall see! But warmth is not part of Mother Nature's plan for a while.  Oh well, it is still April!

And as many people have mentioned- this won't last.

But until that time where it is warmish again,  I will enjoy 3 of my daffodil varieties!  

Hope you find something bright and warm and sunny in your day, too.  And hopefully you can spread a little of your joy.

A beeeee-zy day

LOL! I didn't notice my finger in the way!!  I was laying down in the flower bed to get this with my phone.  Eh, deal with it

Well, here it is at an ungodly hour on Saturday morning and I am awake.  This is somewhat unfortunate, as once again I slept fitfully last night.  I tried 3 different locations to find some sleep, none of which worked particularly well.  I don't understand what is going on, but fortunately I am not tired during the day.  Oh well.  And of COURSE when I could sleep at the end of the night, you-know-who was up and at 'em early, because he does not have to be at the office until 8pm tonight.  He actually worked late the 16 th and 17th as well, which seems somewhat unfair, however, so is waking up at 5:45 when one slept like crap.  Oy.  I think someone needs to kidnap me, and ply me with liquor or sleeping pills and then guard the door to a very quiet, cold, dark room and let me conk out for 12 hours.  Is that really asking too much??  Yes?  Rats.  Well a girl can dream.

Oh yum, a little hidden pocket of honey!  I think someone will enjoy this!  (and while I had a taste, I actually meant the bees!)

Alright, well anyway, today will be a fun day.  I actually plan to sneak a walk in here soon, but then later this morning we are heading out to pick up more bees.  Ours did not live the winter, and we are going to take a crack at it again. (The Mad-Middle son informed me that 40 - 60% of the hives even raised by professional beekeepers are lost each winter)  It was ever so amusing to tend those little things, and nice to have a clue what we are doing this time.  We are getting 3 packages this time, one of which is going inside the garden.  We cleaned up the hives and located the supplies and are almost ready for them.

We will be picking them up at Hansen's Honey Farm (which is really just a house) in Rhinelander today.  But FIRST! I get to eat Mexican and I *might* have plans for a midday Margarita!!  :)  Because why the heck not.  Plus a stop at Golden Harvest (which the MA refers to as the hippy place, which really isn't so much now) to pick up a few goodies, including some of their sublime bakery items.  YaY!

Traveling with a back seat full of humming bees is an interesting thing to do. We were diligent last year about brushing off the hitchhikers, which we need to do again this year as well.  Honey bees are really very docile, but I don't think I want one flying around in my face in the truck.

My Tete-a-tete mini daffs!!!

Meanwhile, back at Lola's flower garden we have these!  I was SO EXCITED to see these yesterday afternoon!!  YAY for spring!!  I am going to enjoy the heck out of today (like I have the last few days) because our weather is taking a turn for a little stretch tomorrow.

Find some joy in your day today, and maybe you will have time for a nap too!  Or a mid-day Margarita!  I know you are all jealous.....  hehehe

Gardening in the Northwoods- the flower edition (and a side trip of trilliums)

The seasons change quickly up here and low and behold, it was snow flurrying about 2.5 weeks ago and now it has suddenly changed to  summer - we've had *2* 85 degree days- in a row!  What in the world happened to spring? Oh right, that was last week.   Silly me, thinking we might have some mild weather.  BUT I am not complaining about the heat, one bit.  I will complain about the mosquitos- that is the drawback of not having drought conditions....

A magnificent scene

Beauty in the north

Anyway, I have some lovely daffodils this year, but many of my clumps are getting a bit sparse, so it is time to divide them.  Well, not right now, I have to wait until late summer.  You need to let the foliage all die back naturally and really you should wait until at least August.  Then let the bulbs dry down a while and it can get quite cold before you replant.

Hyacinths

Now the trick is how does one figure out where one's daffodils are without doing a proverbial "stab in the dirt"??  The MA thinks that I can take good pictures of their location, which totally doesn't work.  For a variety of reasons.  I have come up with a good way, though, and that is to put a layer of pea gravel (or this year it will be sand) around the base of the flowers while I can see where they are and which ones were lacking in floriferous-ness.  It worked several years ago, so I have no doubt it will work for me this year.  My technique is to then dig up the clumps, replant a bunch of them, then toss the extras aside to get all mixed up so no one can guess which kind is which!  :D  Or I will attempt to perhaps put them in separate piles and try to keep them identified, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I was you.

Fritillaria or trout lily

I did some major weeding last night and tonight, and I have found that not quite as much stuff died as I thought.  I lost the usual amount of sempervivum and some of the fuzzy grey creeping thyme, and I imagine I am missing a few things that I have not noticed in the rock garden yet, but I found some of my favorite things.  And then a few of those things I realize in my hurry to escape from the mosquito onslaught I forgot to photograph.  Well, just  BOO.  I can catch them tomorrow.

Pheasant eye daffs under the lilacs

And I discovered this guy flying around!  I've not seen a sphinx moth quite like this

One of my mini evergreens

Sea Holly (ignore the weed remnants)

Rock garden Gentian

My fern leaf peony- not sure if this guy is going to bloom this year

Another sea holly- haven't finished neatening up this area- mosquito issues!

We also took a drive a few days ago, when the weather was a little overcast and cool (you know, that week of spring) to see the trilliums in bloom on Lakeshore Drive between Butternut and Schnur Lakes. So amazing this year- seriously it is worth the drive if you are within an hour or so of here.  It is like a carpet of trilliums that go on and on and on for a couple miles.  It is a pretty road anyway, but this is just spectacular.

I cannot tell you how wonderful it is to see all this green.  The leaves are almost fully developed, they are just a little on the small side yet, the crab apples and apple trees are starting to bloom and leaf out and the lushness that is the short season of summer in the Northwoods is upon us.  I intend to indulge in every moment of it that I can- at least until the mosquitos send me into the house.  But there is always tomorrow.

Until next time, find some joy and pass it along.

Bee update and other stuff

blood root

I was planning to do separate bee updates and posts from other things, but you know, it takes a long time to do one and I am too damn tired to do two. So folks, you will have to BEE PATIENT AND FORGIVING!  HAHAHAHA  these bee jokes are just going to go on and on, you know that, right??  :)

Brushing the bees away from the queen cage

carefully replacing one of the honeycomb dealies where the queen cage was

Our bee tools- hive tool, paint brush, multitool and spray bottle of sugar water

Anywho, we went into the hives tonight and took the queens out of their lil cages.  They could have been out already, but the corks that we were supposed to remove and replace with marshmallow fell into the cage, and then got in the way of the queen getting out.  sigh.  Well that was no big deal, and we just pulled the screen off the cage and dropped her in.  For anyone who thinks they can tell a queen bee from the rest- that is highly unlikely.  I mean she looked exactly like the rest of them, except she was holding her butt up in the air, very unqueenly if you ask me.  But hey, what do I know.  Anyway, she disappeared into the crowd.  I am sure they know who she is.  Interestingly, they had already started "pulling comb" on the side of one of the queen cages.  VERY fascinating stuff.  It is a trick to deal with those bees all clinging to the different parts.  We were trying to replace the combs without squishing anyone, which we mostly succeeded with.  Everything is all good to go now, we shouldn't have to do anything except fill the feeder pail once in a while.  They can take it from here.  We will just keep an eye on things and make sure there aren't marauders around.

Removing one of the parts of the hive to make sure the queen got out of the other cage - you can see the watering pan that has rocks in it for the bees to land on to get water

Crazy isn't it

And of course we had the cork issue here too.  

The bees had started to make comb on the queen box!

So today I went for a little photo shoot of some flowers both planted and wild and got a few nice shots. It gives me so much pleasure to have these flowers around and I am assuming that pretty soon the bees will start visiting these different blossoms as well.  They were pretty busy in the hive today, haven't seen anyone out and about quite yet, but I bet that will come soon.

Crocus

Blood root

Anyway, here is a selection of some of my finest daffodils and there are a few mayflowers and blood roots too.

And as we go into spring, and then summer- remember to be a joy giver!  And save some of that joy for yourself.  If you can't bee happy with you, how can you find happiness in the little things in life.  And those little things are everything!

End of Winter contest - When will Lola be free?

Oh honey, spring is on the way!

So I've been doing this goofy thing on Instagram, really by accident, showing a pic of a Lola a day since January 1.  I have done this almost every day, although I may have skipped a weekend day, and that is ok.  I am not obsessive about it, as I don't take the pic from the exact same angle.  I'd like to have done that in theory, but you guys, I just can't.  I have a friend from Madison who is taking a pic on the shore of one of the lakes down there, and it is beautiful and I loved how she was doing it.  So after some thought, Lola was sort of the obvious choice, she is right there!  I am not really doing it to record how the light changes at 7:00am every morning as I zip out the door, but just for the heck of it.  Little did I know I was chronically cataloging how poor Lola has been getting buried!

So as I was leisurely enjoying my coffee this morning, I noticed a piece on Channel 9 about a car dealership in Eau Claire who plunked a car on top of a pile of snow and are having a contest..... So yeah, here it is.  A contest about Lola.  (Also a tip of the hat to Lynn L. who had a competition when her old car would spin over to 200,000 miles.  I realize a small piece of it is that too).

I've had a lot of people ask me about Lola lately.  Besides Instagram, I  have had a pic of Lola on the Channel 9 weather as well - buried of course- and there is a lot of interest about how she was made.  And of course have we ever had this much snow before.

I am sure we used to get this much, but the thing is, between Lola, my digital cameras and the deck that has been put in since those times, I haven't had things to measure the snowfall against.  AND I had little kids and who the heck knew what was going on outside. It all boiled down to - is there school today or not??

Anyway, back to business (this was going to be a short post??) So what's your guess people??  WHEN will I be able to see the bottom of Lola's skirt clear of snow ALL around it?  I will NOT touch that snow, trust me.  I never do.  AND while you are at it, when do you think my first planted daffodil will bloom?  I won't be brushing the snow aside there either.....  really I won't!  It doesn't help anyway, they bloom when they want, I've tried that in the past, too.

What will the winner(s) get??  Uh, I'm not sure.  Cookies?  or I think I have a concrete flower pot that I could mosaic up into something purty, too.  THAT would be fitting if it doesn't cost 100 bucks to ship it!  :)  Pretty sure it weighs less than 40 lbs, so I can UPS it for sure.  My choice.

Leave a message either in the message portion here and because blogger can be twitchy, you can also leave me a message on the facebook post about this "contest" or even text/message me.  This was totally a spontaneous, early morning decision so I may be encountering issues I have no idea are coming.....  Oh well....  **Joy stealers need not apply!

So LOLA- when are you going to be free??  I'd like to say March 15 but we all know that isn't going to happen.  :)

March!  March is THIS WEEKEND!!!  AND during March I get to see all my kiddos again- and ELLA and the grand doggies.  YAY

March is bound to have a whole PILE of snow joy!!!

Daffodils- 2013 at last.....

Well that took a long time!

Finally, I have some opened daffodils!  The daffs- mini ones, named Tete a Tete- were the first but the white and gold ones are right there with them.  I encouraged the last 2 petals to open on the white one.  :D

bare feeties in the sort of green grass

It was even nice enough out to be in bare feeties, very comfortably!!  YAY!  The only thing is that we do need rain to encourage the green and make the brown decompose, as there is a big fire up north a ways and we could smell the smoke last night.  That is always somewhat unsettling.

So here is my dose of pretty for the day, I hope you enjoy it as well!

Narcissus "Tete-a-Tete"