The Magical Mystery Tour Is Coming To Take You Away...

Ok. It's not really mysterious.

But to me it's magical! My early March tour of the garden stirrings. It's the time of year I scrutinize every inch of the soil and plants for new growth.

I look like a crazy person squatting every two seconds with my camera. If the camera weighed 50 pounds, I'd be really fit!



I was very excited to see all of the budding, and in some cases blooming, activity going on.

I know that violas can be ho-hum to some people, but I can't help but love their little faces. These ones have been growing since the fall, and they're starting to look bushy again.


The 'Stairway to Heaven' rose is starting to shoot some new leaves out. As you can probably guess, I bought this rose for the name lol. It's a climber/rambler, and it has the most beautiful clusters of red blooms. They smell delicious. It was doing very well until it got the inevitable black spot disease. Damn you black spot!

I also had it growing through that wire garden fence, which is now no longer there. I'm going to either move it while I still can, or try and rig it up anew. Or scrap it. I don't know if I can bear to do that though! I've only had it since last spring. :(



My 'Ann' magnolia is setting it's flower buds right now. They'll probably pop out in a couple of weeks. I planted this for my mum. Her middle name is 'Ann'. :) It's more of a pretty shrub, than a tree. I wish I had planted it in a different spot though. Oh well :)



My daffodils take after me. They're a bit flamboyant...:D



My reblooming azalea. I can't remember what the name is...'Autumn' something. It's one of the Monrovia repeat bloomers. It looks even better blooming in the fall than it does in the spring. I love it!



And I noticed it has squeezed out an early bloom. Let's see how long that lasts before we have another frost lol.



'D.D. Blanchard' Southern Magnolia. I'm waiting for it to take off growing! It won't flower till May, but I love the leaves on it so that doesn't bother me. Each branch grows a 1-2 feet per year (so far).



I'm calling these 'Zombie Mums'. Because even after spending this very cold NC winter in flimsy pots, they've risen from the dead. To eat your face.

Hey, better your face than your children!



'Endless Summer' hydrangea. If you can grow hydrangea, grow this one. it's awesome. I've never had trouble with it, it's probably one of the healthiest plants I have. My little lizard buddies love living in it lol :)




As I said before, frost season isn't over. So we'll probably get another one or two that will kill off this growth. Sorry to get all Debbie Downer on ya ;)



Even ol' Rosemary decided to put on a nice dress for the dance! ;)



I had the whole weekend off (rare occurence when you work at Barnes & Noble), and it was beautiful! I stopped at a couple of garden centers to pass some time. I mostly am doing this for planning/dreaming purposes, since most of the trees and shrubs are bare. I found something that caught my eye, a tree I've wanted since I moved here and started gardening. Mr. A said he'd buy it for me! I love that man.

Don't like to eat, er, count my chickens before they've hatched though. So I'll leave the reveal for another day! :)

Holy Crape!

Is it 'crape myrtle' or 'crepe myrtle'?

I've been waffling back and forth.

At first I wrote 'crepe myrtle', because that's how I thought of the trees. The flowers look like crepe paper.

But down here in the Southern US (aka the 'Deep South'), every tag on a 'myrtle' at the garden center says 'crape'.

I tend to write what I'm feeling. If I'm feeling like 'crape' that's what I write. If I'm feeling French, I write 'crepe'. Zut alors!

If you Google the subject, you find arguments for both. Both are correct, depending on where you live.

I have the 'Muskogee' variety. It's hard to find a tree that flowers and does well in the strong North Carolina sun and strong wind that my property constantly receives.

I really hope mine flowers more profusely this year. Last year it only had a couple of flowering panicles.

But the real reason I wrote this, is because I just love words. Since moving from Canada, I've found that people here in the States use different words for what I'm referring to. Not saying they're wrong, just different. And interesting.

Canadians say 'Grade 3'. Americans say '3rd Grade'.

North Carolinians call a winter hat a 'toboggan' or a 'beanie'. To me, a toboggan is a sled. A beanie is a hat with a propellor on it. I call a winter hat a 'toque' (rhymes with 'fluke'). French-Canadian. Short and sweet :)

Americans say 'couch'. Canadians call it a 'chesterfield'.

What is 'Canadian Bacon' to Canadians? It's 'ham', people!


And if you haven't experienced the French-Canadian delicacy that is 'poutine', I feel sorry for you. It's both delicious and heart-attack inducing. It should come with defibrillator paddles.

Fries, cheese curd, and gravy. Oh HELLS yeah.


My favourite of all? Americans say 'tuna fish sandwich'. Which is delicious. I have nothing against a tuna fish sandwich. Except...

Why call it tuna fish? Why not just 'tuna sandwich'? We all know it's fish. Nobody eats a 'tuna horse sandwich'. Do they? :D


I sure hope not. That would be messy. And probably not as appetizing.

So come on...do you say 'crepe myrtle' or 'crape myrtle'? Bet it depends on if you live in the Southern US or not!

EDITED TO INCLUDE:


:D

Over The Hills And Far Away

One of my favourite movies of all time is 'Coming to America'. I've probably seen it literally 100 times, and can quote it verbatim. I find it even funnier now that I've been submerged in the American experience. :D

If you're offended by the F- word (and I don't mean 'freesias') don't click. But I've clicked on it 5 times myself, and I'm still laughing....great way to enjoy the ol' morning coffee.


My original intention was to talk about the flower I have in my header (a couple of readers have admired it in my comments section), but my fingers took me to other places, so I hope you decide to read on. I'll get to it eventually :)

I shared my story of how I came to the States in Love, Cancer and Good Friends. For the first two years I was here, it was pretty hard on me, and not only because of Mr.A's cancer.

I couldn't work, because it would be illegal. I didn't have a car, I had to have my brother sell it for me in Canada. Hell, I didn't even have a license after awhile because mine expired while I was here. The reason I didn't try to get my permanent residency (aka green card) right away, is because it's such an expensive process. People wonder why there are so many illegal immigrants here, it's because you practically have to sell a kidney to pay for the right to live here. Plus, I'm lucky I'm white and speak English. Sounds terrible, but the government favours me. People from other countries have to wait 5, 10, even 15 years before they can come in legally. I still had to get a lawyer because of the way I came to the country, and then there were all the forms. If I want citizenship, it's going to cost me the other kidney!

Everyone thought that just because I was married to an American, that I was a citizen too. It hasn't been that way since 1926 lol. Even being married to an American, I wasn't safe from being kicked out. I had to jump through several flaming hoops like a circus dog.

'Biometrics' was first on the agenda, which was a trip to Charlotte. About 5 hours away from me here on the coast. There they took my fingerprints, and my picture, and asked me all sorts of questions. I felt like a criminal lol.

I had to visit an immigration doctor to get examined to make sure I didn't have TB or STD's. Actually they were searching for any acronym-worthy disease imaginable. I had to get all of my childhood vaccinations all over again, because I wasn't sure where my records were in Canada to have them sent to me.

Finally, I had an appointment set with my official interviewer on June 16, 2008. We had originally had tickets to see Robert Plant and Allison Krauss play in Asheville for June 14, and we hit the interview on the way back.


The interviewer was the dude that would make me legal, or send me home.

The things we had going for us?

He was also a Zeppelin fan, and he was interested to hear how the Plant/Krauss concert was. One of the questions they ask you is what you did together 'last weekend' to make sure you don't have a sham marriage. And even though I stayed illegally in the country, it was because I was taking care of someone with cancer and got married to him. He had a little sympathy for the situation.

The things we had against us?

He felt like we didn't make enough money together. I had actually gotten a job a few months earlier, because they let me work while I was waiting for the interview to be granted. Not making enough money is grounds to send me home and bar me from the States for 3 years. The Immigration and Naturalization Services are highly worried that people are going to end up on welfare and suck money out of the 'real' citizens. And it didn't help that the interviewer's ex-wife was Canadian, we could tell that hadn't gone well for the man.

Luckily I was approved anyway! Obviously :)

Long story short (I hate when people say that, sorry), we had a great time in Asheville before the interview, and took some excellent pictures. :) We saw the concert, experienced the wonderful city that is Asheville, and explored the Blue Ridge Parkway.

We hiked up Mount Pisgah, and that's where we saw the red mountain columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) that you see in my header. It's being held up by Mr. A's manly mitt. You can read more about the plant here


Mount Pisgah from the ground. Doesn't look very high, until you're climbing straight up it. Especially for poor Mr. A....he just has a lung and a stump O_O



This is sort of the beginning of the Smoky Mountains. They're not huge, but very pretty because they're like massive rolling hills.





Hehe....oh, the immaturity.






We found one of the prettiest waterfalls ever...that was a long hike down into a gorge...and then of course you have to hike back up. But it was worth it :)







The flowers blooming in early June were beautiful! I know I have more pictures of them somewhere, but these were all I could find.

The rhododendrons were not bushes, they were TREES. And they were everywhere.


And these are 'fire pinks' I believe.


Mr. A found himself a really cool tree. And he looks just like a hobbit peeking through it. I'm married to Frodo Baggins...


We even saw a crazy religious cult guy! I was afraid to drive past him...I thought maybe he had a Super Sinner Death Ray rigged up on the back of his pickup truck...O_O



If you ever get a chance to go to Asheville and surrounding areas, I highly recommend going in June. Amazing weather. And the Biltmore is there, I hear the gardens are amazing. We were tempted to stop there, but we wanted more time to explore them.

If there's one thing Mr. A and I are good at, it's turning a boring/stressful trip into an adventure! :)

"The Answer, My Friend, Is Blowin' In the Wind..."

Remember my lament about not being able to attract goldfinches to my seed sock?

Well, the females finally decided they loved it like a fat kid loves oreos.


The new location, hanging from my crepe myrtle, did the trick. Only problem is, it's far away from my house, so I haven't been able to get a good picture of them swarming the sock.

This is the picture I took after work today:



What's my biggest beef with this photo?

a) The sock is empty and waving around in the wind.
b) There are no goldfinches.
c) There are giant HOLES chewed in the sock, so that it is empty and waving in the wind, and thusly creating a goldfinchless environment.

I'll give you a chance to think about it...



C?? Ding ding ding!!

I was so mad lol. I woke up a couple of days ago, and looked out the bathroom window at all the feeders. I instantly realized the sock was gone. Mr. A went out to investigate and found it out in the field, half empty because of all the holes.

I don't know what could have taken it off that branch without a breaking it and several others. As you can see in the photo, the tree isn't very old, so the branch could have broken easily with some tugging.I had that feeder string on there good. And it had some weight to it. Maybe a deer?

I'm glad that the finch socks are relatively inexpensive, because this will probably happen again. I'll get another one on Wednesday.

On a completely non-gardening, non-birding note...


That was celebration photo from yesterday afternon's Olympic activities. Nothing goes together like Molson Canadian and a Canadian hockey gold medal on home turf. Except maybe peas and carrots :P

I'm so proud of my country right now. My husband and I were watching the game together, and I thought one of us was going to have to sleep on the couch depending on the outcome LOL. I'm happy with all of our medals, but this was the most important to me. I even switched work shifts so that I could watch the game. SO proud.



I bleed Canadian colours. Thank goodness blood is red, or I'd have to see a doctor O_O

"Got you In A Stranglehold, Baby"

Fun fact about Ted Nugent, who has been kind enough to provide our post title today. The Nuge is a chef!



I don't even need to provide hilarious commentary for that one, it laughs for itself :)

Three words. Wisteria. Is. Awesome.

I love the stuff. It's one of those exotic things for this transplanted Canadian that never gets tired. Like magnolia trees. Like azaleas.

I fool myself into thinking it's spring at the end of February. Then there's a frost. Then I fool myself that it's spring in March. Then there's another frost. Then I get upset and throw a few tantrums.

But in April! When I see that first bloom of purple in the trees while I'm driving to work...I've nearly crashed my car craning my neck to make sure that I really saw it. And then I KNOW it's spring. :)



I'm full of fun facts today. On the television show 'Desperate Housewives', the name of the street they all live on is 'Wisteria Lane'. Wisteria is an invasive plant that strangles the structure it grows on, eventually crushing it or killing it. The boa constrictor of vines. Great name for the street that these crazy broads live on:


Well, it's not invasive in every area. But wisteria's potential for invasiveness in my area is the reason I don't grow any myself. I wouldn't trust any structure I grew it on, unless it was an already dead tree. Which I don't have on my property. And I sure wouldn't grow it near my house. I feel comforted by the fact that it takes a lot of years before its first bloom, and I probably wouldn't be in this house by then anyway.

Lowe's has a wooden arbor that they call a 'Wisteria Arbor'. The salespeople must have thought I was nuts, standing there laughing at this arbor. There's no way that flimsy thing would last more than a couple of seasons under the grip of wisteria.

I don't want to grow it on a metal one either, unless it was some serious heavy metal.



We found out that metal trellises seriously corrode here on the Southeastern coast of NC. Mr. A had some Carolina Jessamine growing on one out in the backyard. We had a tropical storm come through 3 years ago, and the arbor snapped like a twig. The metal was just so corroded, it couldn't take a bit of heavy wind.

I know that wisteria can be used as bonsai. I LOVE this idea. I've seen it trained into tree form in a few of the neighbourhood yards here, and it looks amazing. I just don't think I have the patience or skill for that at this point.

This 'bonsai wisteria' is not my photo, the rest of the wisteria ones are.


However, I love to take walks. And wisteria is everywhere. There's this one area on a dirt road down behind where I live that has the largest amount of wisteria that I've ever seen in one place. It must have been growing there for a couple hundred years at least. The pictures I'm posting of it don't do it justice.



Imagine this powerful, beautiful, heavy scent hitting you in the face like prizefighter. Wisteria smells amazing. Have you ever seen bees get lazy and sleepy when someone 'smokes' them? I look just like a dazed bee in this picture....bee-dazzled, if you will :P



I'm sure I'll bore you all with new photos of wisteria this spring, but here are some more from last year. My favourites are the ones where people are growing it through their azalea bushes. The colour combination is AWESOME.



This wistera is growing on a large crepe myrtle. Which is now sorta half dead. And I guess it doesn't matter because you can't see the tree through all the wisteria lol.


This is my favourite wisteria photo. I put it on the 'Crystal Coast Gardener' bumper sticker I had made on Zazzle.com












Can you tell I'm still waffling and want to plant it even though I know better?

What's Ted Nugent doing these days besides hunting and writing cookbooks?

Maybe I can hire him to threaten the wisteria into staying contained... O_O

A Star Is Born

A few stars actually. They're gonna be the peacocks of my garden this spring!

My tulips have come up!!

They're still very shy at this point, but they're finally deciding to show their faces.

Well, maybe not quite faces, but the tops of their heads anyway :)



Can't remember which type I planted at the moment, I know they'll be bright red lol.

And my 'Ernest Markham' clematis has started to squeeze out buds as well...


Oh, and let's throw in a gratutious shot of the red-breasted woodpecker as he's celebrating the appearance of this new life!