Finaly named the fish

I recently bought 4 new fish believing that I was down to one. I thought that 3 of my fish went into the belly of a heron. I was mistaken. Only 1 of my previously purchased fish is still MIA. Now I have 7 fish. 6 of them can be seen here. Starting from the top left the white/grey one is name Skeletor, they golden one is name Midas. the orange and white under Midas is named Dixie (as in the orange Dixie cups). Just to the right of Dixie is a very spotty one named Sookie. Bottom row of fish, the one on the left that is mostly black with the bit of red on the nose is Rudolph, the last one seen here on the bottom right with the orange head and a striped body is Barbarella. The missing fish is hiding under a new shelf i put in. He is all black and named Obama. Scott picked that name out, and it has stuck. Today is rainy and about 50 degrees. i re-potted my water lilies.

After re-potting the lilies I climbed into the pond and repositioned a couple of the boulders at the bottom of the pond. then i put this large flat rock on top. That is the second time i have gone into my pond. It felt less shocking this time since the air was almost the same temp as the pond. But now i have a place for my lilies at about the right depth and the fish have a place to hide from herons on raccoons. We know that Obama likes it under there.

The blueberries by the pond are blooming.

Here is a very pretty columbine i planted a couple of days ago.

Tualatin park - camera outing

Christina Sandy and I went to the Tualatin nature park so they can get use to their cameras. I was there to give them advise and answer questions. I took some pictures too while I was there.
Christina and Sandy taking pictures of fungus.

We would have missed the hawk completely except we saw some people looking up into the trees. I had asked what they were looking at so i would be in the know too.

This was a very tiny little orchid

Extreme close up

I think the fungus looks like of like alien life forms. Don't let them suck out your brains.

I do not know what this is, but it is groovy.

Here is a nice little trillium.

Scott is going camping in the cold

Scott will have left by the time i get of of work. So i have the place to myself. I wont be idol though. I will be cleaning and gardening the whole weekend. Looks like we will have good weather for it. Woo Hoo.
This is where Scott is going to be, Howard Prairie. His brother goes up every year on opening weekend. I was with him last year and it is very beautiful. From the lake you can see several mountains. This weekend it will be too cold up there, about 20 degrees at night, so i am not going. Plus, i have a lot of things to do at home.

Tomato planting time

Tips on planting tomatoes
Always plant tomatoes deep, and on their sides.
Dig out a shallow trench. Remove the lower stems and branches off the tomatoes, leaving only the upper most top leaves. Lay the entire plant down a trench on its side and cover with soil. Leave only the top leaves showing. Don't worry if the foliage is pointing to the side, it will right itself and grow upright in a few days.

Planting tomatoes on their sides allows the entire stem that is buries to form roots, giving the plant the best foundation possible and allowing the plant greater ability to absorb nutrients and water. Plus a larger root system near the soil surface will meant that more heat will be available to the plant, producing earlier tomatoes.
I built this little hoop house over my newly planted tomatoes to protect them from frost if we happen to have any in the next week or two. It should warm up the soil a bit too to speed up fruiting.

New path and new fish

Scott marked out the new path with this pink string last night. This morning I started digging it out. But first I removed all the plants that were on the left hand side in the bed and gave that area a quick till. I think the path is now ready for Scott to put the edge boards in and fill with gravel.Tulips are up all over the back yard. I had bought a bag of 50 from Costco last fall.

Here is a little fern baby. I think they are so groovy they way they are all curled up and then unfurl.

Here are the new Koi I bought today. I believe at least 2 of the 4 I purchased last summer have gone to their final resting place - perhaps in a heron.

So far they seem to have found a decent hiding place. I will have to buy some water Hyacinth this weekend to give them more cover.

Busy 3-day weekend

The first of the rhodies to bloom. It is getting more sun than some of its neighbors.

We will start with Friday – I took the day off. Take that tax peeps. I relaxed as it was rainy outside during the morning. I repotted some tomato, melon, and herb starts. Now everything has a bigger home. Then Denise and I saw Monsters Verses Aliens – in 3D. it was a fun movie.

Stan is next to one of his favorite places to pee. My euforbia (probably spelled wrong)

Saturday I gathered yard garbage to be taken to the dump. This included 3 bags of cement, some broken cinder blocks, a couple of cement encrusted fencepost, and the rotted out flower boxes. I did this while Scott prepped a second salmon for smoking. Yes he caught another one. Then Scott hooked up the trailer and away we went - For about a block. He realized that the lights on the trailer were not working. So back home we went. I did some yard work for a bit and then went to Al’s for a little hanging basket talk they were putting on. I managed to escape with most of my money. Boy the lines were worse than Costco line. Took days to get out of there. By the time I got back Scott had fixed the trailer and off to the dump we went. Let me tell you, when a cement bag accidentally opens up, don’t breathe in. Not good. After the dump Scott and I went to our local rock store and picked up 2 yards of “garden mulch”, which is recycled yard debris. Then I vegged out the rest of the evening.

The veggie beds with their fresh load of compost.

Sunday after doing my grocery shopping I unloaded and spread all that mulch. I dashed upstairs for a quick shower then headed over to PM & Karry’s for a fun lunch and a bit of shopping. After returning home I placed a few rocks on the inside edge of the pond as we decided that the exposed pond liner is unattractive. I did a bit of fertilizing and watering and that is about it.

One of the first asparagus plants to come up. So far i see 4 coming up. Makes me nervous about the other 16. They might need to be replaced next spring. What a drag.

Thank god i am free at last

It is April 15th. Pretty much all the tax returns are done or extended. I can go back to working normal hours and having weekends off. I spent the first hour at the office just cleaning and organizing. My desk is ship shape and the top floor is vacuumed. I do like a clean work space. This afternoon we will be having our end of tax season party. I will eat snacks and have a couple of drinks then go back home to relax. I will be either taking tomorrow or Friday off.

Not much with the garden, except we had a frost yesterday. i am glad my tomato starts were under plastic. they look as though no harm befell them. This weekend should be sunny so i hope to get a lot done outside.

just for fun here is a picture of one of my hostas coming up.