The Cumberland Post

The Cumberland Post
My Backyard, Six Miles from the Cumberland River

Monday, April 12, 2010

More Signs of Spring

I'm tired. No posts now for over a week. We were in TX visiting our son's family for a while. And the first couple of days we were back, Tuesday and Wednesday, were recouperation days. We always drive the 650 miles in a single day and it's pretty exhausting. Since then the weather has been beautiful and we've been working hard outside. The pile of dirt that stayed with us all winter is now spread over the place--thanks to my brother and his John Deere. I was on the rake and shovel. It took two days to spread and now I'm sowing and watering new grass seed. Joyce has been very busy with painting and staining.

But I heard Uncle Sam calling my name. So, I came inside at lunch and began to work on my tax form. This post is a small break from that drudgery. Here's a couple of pics and I'm back to 1040....

The upper branches of a wild pear tree. This was taken about ten days ago; the blossoms are gone now.


A couple of tulips and grape hyacinths surrounded by chickweed. I know, I know. I need to get that chickweed out of there. Soon, friend. Soon. As soon as my back returns to normal from all the raking, and as soon as I finish the damned tax form. Seeya later...


7 comments:

  1. ...oops. commented with my wife's account

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  2. Dan, I have had to give up on certain weeds otherwise I'd be out there pulling them 24/7. So now I leave the less destructive ones.

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  3. Dan, we've got some gorgeous weeds at Andy's Place. In fact, they get prettier every year! ;)

    Don't you just love Springtime?

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  4. RK, thanks for stopping by. And TN is beautiful in the spring. Especially without storms...knock on wood.

    Pat, I think we take an approach similar to yours at our place. From the start we never wanted our little five acres to look like a manicured golf green, so a few weeds here and there, especially the milder sort, have been okay along with a lot of scraggly looking locust trees. We like the place kinda rough, although over the years we have smoothed out some of the really rough edges (the blackberry bushes that used to grow up in the front acre, for example, are gone now). That sense of being at home in the natural world is one of the main reasons I really like your place in Robin's Wood.

    Andy, Springtime is lovely anywhere and especially La. One of my memories of Hammond that spring in 1963 is of the flowers, both domesticated and wild that seemed to pop up everywhere. Also many varieties (if memory serves me) of blooming trees. Beautiful. And by April it was very warm. The fecundity of the place was almost overwhelming. Caterpillars covered the front exterior wall of my landlord's house. (Have you seen this? Or was it a one time thing?) And May was like a steam bath. I took a shower in the a.m and came home at lunch and took another (no a/c at my Southeastern U office) before going back to work.

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  5. Dan, South Louisiana is a good bit different from the NW corner where I live. But, not so much that I don't understand the "steambath" thing.

    We get it about a month after the North Shore (Hammond, etc.), and it passes much earlier in the Fall. But oh man! Do I ever love it!!! I'm a hot weather guy. The caterpillar thing...I'm not familiar with that, but geckos, lizards, bumble bees, and red wasps...yes!

    It will be 86 today in NW Louisiana...so...yes, by April it is very warm. Oddly, the last few years we have approached record "cold" temps in the Spring. But, eventually, old Sol has his way.

    I've got to get up to Tennessee fairly soon. My 3# son is marrying a lovely gal whose parents live in Jellico (near the KY line). It's been a couple of decades since I visited your neck of the woods, and I'm looking forward to it.

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