03/30/2022 – Around Colehaus

Spring is here at last! Sure, we’ll probably still have some cold nights ahead but we’re past the snow and ice stage. These little daffodils needed the cold winter chill and now it’s time to celebrate.

The same can be said for the grape hyacinths. When we moved to this house, we brought a couple hundred bulbs with us from the rental we lived in because Dad liked them so much. Now Mom spends time each spring pulling dozens and dozens of them up and tossing them in the yard debris bin. It’s safe to say we’ll never be rid of them, ever. The good thing is that the bees like them. Go, you little grape invaders, go make the bees happy.

When our neighborhood was new, so many people commented favorably on our grape hyacinths, that Mom gladly gave handfuls and shovelfuls of them away, always under the agreement that those people would never come back and complain how the bulbs took over their flower beds, or yards in some cases. None ever did and you can take one drive through our development each spring and see where all of Dad’s hyacinths ended up.

A week or so ago, a neighbor commented favorably on the striped iris Mom has planted out at the end of the driveway. The color is so bright, it lights up at night and you can always find our driveway entrance. Well, this neighbor really, really wanted some after Mom said she was going to dig up and toss half of the clump. And now they do. Don’t be surprised if, in a few years, more end up here and there in other yards. It’ll be our lasting legacy around here. Yes, the folks at Colehaus were solely responsible for the grape hyacinth and iris invasion of east county.

Mom remembered to cut out half of the old blueberry canes to foster new growth and hey, it worked! The clematis she thinks might like weaving its way through the star magnolia is sprouting, too.

And the lupine she planted from seed two years ago and completely took over a favorite flower bed last year without any apologies whatsoever, has been moved to, hopefully, a more forgiving area. Mom says she wouldn’t have been terribly sad had it not survived the winter, but since it did, she wasn’t ready to toss it out or let it take over half the yard. So, she pruned it up a bit and planted it right under an old hanging, never-used birdhouse wherein, one year some years ago, some bumblebees made a small hive.

Those bumblebees are long gone but the lupine was positively buzzing with them last year. Maybe they’re return and find the old birdhouse a welcome resting spot once again. And Mom can have her favorite flower bed back.

And here’s a very early visitor sitting on some moss nowhere near the lupine that isn’t ready for visitors yet. Mom promises not to become emotionally involved with this bumblebee like she did with one last year when she brought that one in overnight and fretted over it for days. Bumblebees have a lifespan of only 28 to 35 days. If you’re going to make friends, it had better be a fast friendship. This one’s in a sheltered area with soft, moist moss underfoot and blooming flowers very nearby.

It’s not all flowers, greenery, and poofs of glitter here. A few years ago, we planted clumps of blue grass on the backside of our backyard fountain, and it looked very nice. Jump ahead to last month and it was clear that wasn’t the best location. Not enough sun, too much clay soil, not enough drainage. The five clumps looked like sodden blobs of ugh. Mom took action and replanted each clump elsewhere; in some cases all that was left was a sprig or two of green and a root, and we hope to have pretty blue grass to show off later in the year. Only time will tell!

Neighborhood visitor P promises not to dig up those replanted blue grass sprigs. At least, we think that’s what she promised. She could have been begging for a catnip treat, or a belly rub. She’s a hard one to figure out.

Or maybe she was letting us know she still likes using the feral shelters with their warming mats inside. We know she was in one earlier and her belly did feel very toasty. A short furred black adult cat with a tipped ear has been seen leaving the one farthest away in this photo, the shelter we named Spitty’s Place in dear Spitty’s honor. Mom’s dying to get a photo of that cat, even more so to perhaps make friends with it.

Lastly. the Thanksgiving/Christmas/Easter cactus Mom saved from certain death over the winter rewarded us with two beautiful blooms, both white with a dark magenta ring and tip in each center. Guess that means we’re committed to keeping it now, huh? (The brown sticks you see in the pot are there for stem support.)

Thanks for visiting Colehaus!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2021 – No post
2020 – No post
2019 – No post
2018 – Spring Whiffies
2017 – No post
2016 – MultiCat Monday
2015 – No post
2014 – Friday Outtakes
2013 – No post
2012 – Impatient for Spring