Knock Knock....

 

Wanna come out and play?

More like, Wanna come out and see what I haven't eaten yet?

I'm sorry I've been so long gone again but, geesh, I'm just not keeping up these days.

For those who asked, yes, the new baby arrived safely but contrary to best laid plans. (DIL was past her due date so they scheduled her for a c-section but complications arose and she ended up having an emergency c-section prior to the scheduled date.)

Baby Myla Lynne arrived in style (during a tornado warning) but both mom and baby are doing well.

And, yes, Gigi duty went fine and dandy...but, yikes, was I tired LOL.

By now most of you know that each summer I generally do a post about the summer's flowers.

This is this year's.

Because I was too lazy to make it into a couple, separate, posts, be forewarned that there a LOT of photos.

{The cream separator came from our family's farm}

{The first hibiscus to bloom}

{White Admiral Butterfly on hydrangeas}

{One of my favorite places to be: on my bench on my back porch}

{The view from said bench....}

It has been a good year for the "volunteer" plants (ones that just seed themselves from prior years and manage to grow in the bricks of my patio.) Amazing given how extremely dry it has been.

{All of the plants under the tub are "volunteers"}

{Even a volunteer phlox!}

{Morning glories and echinacea}

These plain-Jane white petunias are actually "firefly petunias"... 

At night, without any props or lights, they become magically lit as though by little fireflies:

{Word to the wise: Do not put these somewhere where one has to navigate stairs in the dark in order to see their magic.  Just saying....}

{No flowers here...just a peek looking into the cornzebo with a little "light magic" of its own.}

{A very rare (for Nod - and Wisconsin generally) "stray" Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly playing amongst the echinacea.}

{Not flowers either, and not-so-rare, trash pandas on the bridge. Yes, I was tempted.}

{Sun setting on the tasseling corn after a night of cat yoga with Mia.

There are days life is so very sweet.}

Hope you all are keeping well.

Camelot It's Not....

Pretty, but....

...Camelot it's not.

And for someone who is a huge fan of Camelot, I am not entirely certain how I ended up in a place like the Cold, Cold, Land of Nod.

In the musical, King Arthur declares:

It's true! It's true! The crown has made it clear.

The climate must be perfect all the year.

And then he sings of the glories of Camelot:

A law was made a distant moon ago here:

July and August cannot be too hot.

And there's a legal limit to the snow here

In Camelot.

The winter is forbidden till December

And exits March the second on the dot.

By order, summer lingers through September

In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!

I know it sounds a bit bizarre,

But in Camelot, Camelot

That's how conditions are.

The rain may never fall till after sundown.

By eight the morning fog must disappear.

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering than here 

In Camelot.

Camelot! Camelot!

I know it gives a person pause,

But in Camelot, Camelot

Those are the legal laws.

The snow may never slush upon the hillside.

By nine p.m. the moonlight must appear.

In short, there's simply not

A more congenial spot

For happily-ever-aftering than here

In Camelot.

Yeah, Nod is pretty much the polar opposite of Camelot (pun intended):  No limits to the snow here (legal or otherwise), winter tries sneaking in as soon as October (and, some years, even September is not off limits) and, as for the rain not falling till after sundown?

HA!

It falls morning, noon and night...and whenever else it feels like it.

Yesterday morning started like this:

It went downhill from there.

Yesterday afternoon/last night were worse.

It continued into the wee hours of the morning before giving us a brief reprieve.

It just started again with more heavy rain forecast through the evening and night. As you can see, we are under another flood watch.

I have once again hooked up the pumps, but water has already made its way through the chimney and into the furnace room.

I shudder to think of what is happening at the lake.

Weather aside, Nod can be beautiful.

{Not beautiful, mayhap...and destructive little rodents they are...but, have to admit, they're cute.}

{The first "volunteer" patio petunia of the year}

{Middle-of-the-night skies}

...and there are treasures here.

All in all, I'm just one squirrel short of a fairytale.

Oh wait...I have one of those too.

One Step Ahead, Two Steps Back

...toward spring I mean.

In the week since I last posted, we've had two ice storms, two snow squalls, and one day of spring-like weather (today - albeit windy and rainy).

There is the possibility of snow in the forecast for tomorrow night again.

{A little spun cotton chick in a sphagnum moss nest in a little escargot pot with an ice-coated window in the background}

I had said I would try to show some Easter photos but, obviously, that didn't happen. Well, it's happening now (if you haven't figured that out), but it didn't happen before Easter like you probably (and rightly) assumed it would. 

Each year I bring out less and less, which means I should get rid of more and more.

But that's not likely to happen either.

In any event, here are a few photos. Heavy on the rabbits, I know.

{Antique and vintage candy containers. Most are German, but a few are Japanese, or unmarked. These are the kind where the heads remove to access the candy (vs. the type with a paper-covered opening in the bottom)}

 

{Another antique candy container...with embellishments}

{Rabbit print on old paper framed on an antique book cover}

{Pressed paper/pulp/ paper machie rabbit...one of many. Another obsession}

{Antique German die-cut rabbit and vintage watch faces and flower frog}

{Probably my largest antique candy container}

And lest the fowls cry foul, Miss Fiona is here to represent the chicks, ducks, and ducklings in my collection that didn't get shown.

{Yes, she is real...and taxidermized. Sorry}   

*************

As a bit of a postscript, someone mentioned in my last post that they wondered where the rabbits go in our wretched winters. 

Contrary to popular belief, they do not hibernate.

Rather, they seek shelter in a variety of places: brush piles, tall grasses, under my porch decking.

During periods of heavy snows (i.e., weekly in Nod), they will use the snow itself as a shelter - building tunnels and shallow depressions in the snow called "forms."

The snow acts as an insulator reducing loss of body heat and a buffer against the wind.

All too soon, they come out and build nests. One day the ornamental grass was covered in several feet of snow and the minute the snow melted, some bunny had burrowed in and started building a nest out my back door. Again.

GAH!