My Irises

 

All around me my neighbors have irises blooming...even as of over a week ago.  Here my irises are just now throwing up bloom stalks...or whatever they are called.  It looks like I will have quite a few blooms this year.  I am excited to see what they will give me.

The irises blooming this Spring will be a bit bittersweet though.  Many of them were given to me by a precious lady from church.  Betty.  Betty loved her flowers; she always had lovely flower beds all around her house.  She had irises around her house, and down her drive, I believe.  In any case, quite a few years back I'd mentioned at a ladies meeting that I wanted to start growing irises, so she said she'd give me some when she separated hers in the fall.  I wish I'd written down all the different colors she gave me, but I quite remember she gave me yellow.  They are all so lovely. 

About 2 years ago I bought myself 4 different colors of irises; two different "black" irises, and two different "blue" ones.  They are huge and ruffly, but I haven't decided if I prefer them over the classic irises.  We shall see when they all get bloomed out this year.  I think this fall I might want to add an orange color to my mix.  We will see about that too. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Oyster

It isn't even halfway through the month yet and I have run out of lists or anything amusing to tell you about the dairy. So here is a poem I picked up on a homesteading forum. It does deal with ag issues, just of a different sort... Enjoy! The Oyster Baxter Black The sign upon the café wall said OYSTERS: fifty cents. "How quaint," the blue-eyed sweetheart said with some bewildermence, "I didn't know they served such fare out here upon the plain." "Oh, sure," her cowboy date replied, "We're really quite urbane." "I would guess they're Chesapeake or Blue Point, don't you think?" "No ma'am, they're mostly Hereford cross . . . and usually they're pink But I've been cold, so cold myself, what you say could be true And if a man looked close enough, their points could sure be blue!" She said, "I gather them myself out on the bay alone. I pluck them from the murky depths and smash them with a...
Read more

Like Cats A'Fightin'

Image
That's a local saying when it's snowing hard. Snowing like cats a'fightin'. You can look out and see the fur flying. Ellen had never been outside while it was actually snowing. She was enchanted. She had to have a bucket of it to carry around. It was in the mid-20s but we took a bit of a walk before coming back in for a nap. The snow is still too dry to be able to make a snowman, it is really powdery. So far we have somewhere between 3 and 4 inches, I would suspect.
Read more

The Blind Calf Story

Image
This happened last month. I thought it was an interesting case. Wed Aug 15th 2007 8:30 AM: Went out and brought new heifer calf and cow in from field. Not too sure how old calf was; umbilical cord sort of dried up, but calf still seemed damp. Left her with cow all morning ‘til maybe early afternoon, then separated them. Beautiful, normal calf. 6 PM Fed calf bottle. She slugged back the whole thing. Thurs Aug 16th5:15 AM (approx) Calf comatose. Or as near as I could tell. She was on her side, non-responsive, drooling, head on ground, eyes closed or just barely opened. I tried to feed her bottle but she only swallowed convulsively once or twice, then milk just drained from her mouth. 5:30 AM. Husband went out and looked at her. Drug her out of pen and out of the way to be taken to boneyard later after chores were all done. She was barely breathing and as I said, totally non-responsive.This was a real grief as the cow she came from is a great milker and to get a heifer from her was a joy....
Read more