There's a redbreasted sapsucker (sphyrapicus ruber) living in my elm tree. I finally got a photo of it. My elm tree gives me an immense amount of pleasure; it's one of the best things about this house. I would just sit and look up into it all day if I could. Kant wrote that the sublime fills you with fear, contracts your brain, and then leaves you awash in pleasure. That's what I feel when I look up into my elm tree. That is, if I'm not watching the bird/squirrel showdown.
I've been engaged the very first stages of landscaping as I've been pruning trees over the past few days. We've had a couple of days that were about 65 degrees and sunny, and boy, did I need that. I've done everything but prune the grapes and the plum tree in back, both of which need pruning desperately. I got a small pile of wood from the birch tree, which I'm drying behind the shed, and enough long sticks to make nice stakes from the plum tree. A friend has promised to give me more roses, so I have to figure out what to do with them, and I learned that I own a bunch of dahlias that are planted between my house and my neighbor's. Yum.
I think I'm going to build raised beds over a retaining wall in the middle of the yard for my veggies, lime the heck out of the soil near the house and put in my herbs there, and build a bean frame in the back corner and hope the blueberry comes back (chopped down by the PO -- thanks). I guess I could put in squash there, too. Next year I'll do cold frames for seedlings and build a deck.
1 comment:
What wonderful pictures!!! It sounds like you're in the same place I am - not at all sure what treasures and trash will come up in the yard courtesy of the previous owners. Ours is mostly trash, but we've stopped hacking until we know for sure.
I also totally relate to loving a tree. The largest crepe myrtle I've ever seen grows just to the side of our house (alas, a couple of feet over into our neighbor's yard so it's technically not "mine"); it's as tall or taller than our house, and I look right into the smooth curvy tops of its many trunks/branches when I'm sitting in my third floor sewing room. There's a post about it and pictures somewhere in my blog.
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