Morning walks

It's glorious early in the morning this time of year.  The horrible heat hasn't arrived yet but spring in really here and everything is starting to bloom.  Here is a sampling of what I've come across on my morning walks around the property...

 

Coreopsis tinctoria  is an easy to grow dye plant that seems very happy in my wildflower patch.  There aren't enough of them this year for me to harvest but I'm hoping they will re-seed themselves so there will be more next year.  I'm looking forward to a nice yellow dye pot.

My gardenia bush is taller than I am and full of blooms.  This was my grandmother's favorite flower and growing up we always got her a gardenia corsage for Easter.  We would get up really early and drive into Chicago to have breakfast with her in the nurse's residence.  All of us in our new Easter dresses, my mother in gloves and a hat and my grandmother with her fragrant gardenia corsage.  This is the smell of Easter for me.

I have been watching this thistle get bigger and bigger and bigger.  It's over 3 feet tall and the base is at least 3 feet in diameter.  It's the biggest one we have.

The magnolia trees are new since last spring.  We added three of them to line the driveway along with one small struggling magnolia that was there since we moved in.  All of them are doing nicely and seem to appreciate the regular watering they get.

The tiny red roses that climb on our front fence and the large and luscious yellow roses in the front garden are blooming beautifully.

The peonies and snapdragons are left over from last fall but it hasn't gotten hot enough to kill them off yet.  They won't last the summer but are lovely to look at now.

We have 4 large prickly pear in addition to what's growing in Ron's cactus garden.  It all looks happy with soft yellow blooms.  The butterfly bush has gone past now but this is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.

We have peaches!  They should be ready to pick in early June and I can't wait.  They were wonderful last year although we didn't do a very good job of picking them all.

Other things of note on my morning walks did not get photographed.  The black snake that I almost stepped on slithered away very quickly.  He had a kinky look to him so I'm guessing he was a rat snake.  It's that time of year.  This pile of vomit in the barn was more problematic.

It looked like a large gopher with no head which had been eaten and then thrown up.  It didn't have a head which might indicate a cat since they often decapitate their prey before they eat them.  But these pieces were much to large for my cats.  It looked more like the size of an animal my dog might eat but I doubt Cash would have removed the head.  A conundrum.