StrangeRanger

My mind has NOT been in the game.

The blogging game, that is.  Still isn't, really.  Ah, life, that you keep us *so bloody busy*.  Pity. really.

I'll stop whining now, as I know that everyone who visits this blog (Hi Mom!) has stuff to deal with.  Or...stuff with which to deal, if I'm trying to be all grammar-ish.

Enjoy a vintage picture of Maddie. 

This is about 10 years old, taken just after she came to live with us.  She's a bit over a year old in this one.  Hasn't changed a bit.  Especially if we ignore the knee surgery.

Now, I do have an up-to-date photo or two of the garden.  Enjoy a pic of the wood poppies and the creeping phlox.

or you could enjoy the phlox and the poppies!

It all depends on your point of view.

No it doesn't.  I'm always beautiful.

 
That's right.  Point of view doesn't matter.  Maddie's always a butt-head.

HEY!  I HEARD THAT!!!

And yes, that's a vintage picture of Ivy.  FTW!

Good Times

Enjoying some good times here at Chez Ranger.  The sinus infection has been chased away at last, which allowed me to actually enjoy celebrating LadyRangers birthday!  (w00t!)  We've had a very mild winter so far.  Mid 60's this last part of January and projected into February, so the garden is starting to look a bit like spring.  Just in time for the inevitable big freeze to kill everything.  Been lazy on the new pic-taking, but here's a vision of Maddie doing what she loves to do every spring (or spring-like winter)...

Yep, looking out the window at the newness.

One Tough Plant

One of the cardinal joys of summer here at Chez Ranger is LadyRanger's herb garden.  We (she, mostly) harvests herbs and dumps the fresh yumminess into whatever we happen to be eating that day.  We (she, mostly) makes PESTO (NOM!!!).  We (she, mostly) grows lemon-thyme for fish and risotto (see previous "NOM!!!" annotation.

One of the gems of the herb garden this summer was the parsely.  Not only did it have a lovely, vibrant flavor, but it grew like a champ.  Grew so well that we just couldn't bear to pull it out of it's pot and pitch it during our end-of-the-season-clean-up.  We left it in the pot to see what would become of it as the weather turned cold.

 
et voila!  Here it is, a bit the worse for wear but here it is.  And this is after many nights w/temps in the 20's.  We don't know if it'll make it through the whole winter, but we're not betting against it.  Superior genetics, obviously. 

On a Lazy Sunday Morning

Maddie is looking out the window.  That is if you can look out the window with your eyes mostly shut.

LadyRanger and I have noticed that, as Maddie gets on in years, she tends to pick a nice sunny spot and camp out there.  She's been enjoying the sunny couch back for several weeks now.  She often spends most of her day there, napping or watching the traffic and the birds.  I think that she likes this spot 'cause it's warm and comfy, but also because she can watch (or listen to) most of the house from there.  She keeps on ear on us as we move about, tracking us with her large and furry-tufted radar dishes.  Once we settle in another room, she'll come meowing in, wanting to be with her humans.

It's almost time for the cedar chest sunpuddle to reappear.  I'm sure that will be her favorite spot again, soon.

Another item that Maddie can observe from her perch a-top the couch?  Our Morning Glories, which took their own sweet time to fire up, but are curently putting on a show:

 

The Garden in July

The garden in July is rather like the garden in June.  There's a difference in some of the flowers that are out, though.  A slightly different display of lovely.

 
These were our 4th of July daytime fireworks.  And we're not the only beings around who enjoy them!

 
 
 
This is a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (I think).  Lovely creature, don't you think?

 
I think this is a Spicebush Swallowtail, but I'm not sure of that.  It was moving around very fast and this is the only pic I could get.

We have unwittingly planted a butterfly buffet.

 

Over at my parent's place, however, there is a completely different order of fauna.

 
This is a breeding pair of Red Shouldered Hawks. They've got a nest in the holler behind my parents house.  The hatchling is now fledged and flying and is almost as large as the parents.  Needless to say, the chipmonk and squirrel population has dropped dramatically  in the neighborhood.  And never fear.  We never take Maddie to see my parents.

 
Fah!  I could take 'em!  Both of 'em at the same time!  One paw behind my back!  Hah!  Smack!  jab!... hey, ummm, these windows are closed, right?  I'mo go check the rest of the house, ok?  Just trying to conserve electricity...

The Garden in June

It's been a fairly nice June here in the American southeast.  Hot, but hey, it's supposed to be.  It's really humid, too, but hey...ditto.  The plants in the garden seem to like it though.

 
Here we've got the day-lillies.

 
The herb garden.

 
The front garden.  Usually we put the plants in the ground, but we're going with a container garden this year 'cause we want the soil to regain some of it's mojo.  As you can tell, there's a lot of basil.  We do love pesto! 

Here are some close-ups of the flowering plants.

 
Our Rose of Sharon out front by the container-garden.

 
The 'Ed Muray' day lilly.

 
The petunias and nasturtiums in the herb garden.

 
 
And our candy lillies.  Small, lovely, vibrant flowers.

We also have a few denizens of the garden:

 
A bee of some sort on our bolting cilantro plant.

 
And a Carolina Wren.  It's hard to see the distinctive white stripe over the eye, but it's there.  We see these birds in pairs mostly.  The male builds several nests at the start of mating season.  The female picks the one she likes best, and that's where the eggs are hatched.  We've had them raise families all around the house.  Nests in the bend of a drain-pipe, the window sill, the rose bush, an open bag of mulch on the porch (that was a bad choice.  the bag was on the deck of the porch, and the stray cats often patrol the porch on their way by)(nature, red in tooth and claw, as it were).  Anyways, these are about the most common birds around here.  We do have jays and mockers as well.  And always one catbird in the neighborhood, too.

Hope you've enjoyed the tour!

 

Place Holder

Worked in the vegetable garden yesterday.  Not growing anything this summer.  Just weeding and plowing in all sorts of organic material.  We're going to let the north 40 <snicker> stay fallow this summer in hopes of having more productive dirt next summer.  LadyRanger has a massive garden in pots, though.  Planning masses of pesto in the freezer by the end of september.

Anyways, after all that work yesterday (and I'm saying that like I was busting sod out on the prairie with nothing but a hatchet and a hat and an ornery mule) I'm a mite pooped, so you're only getting a cat pic instead of my usual scintillating prose.  Enjoy this lovely study in black and white.  I've always liked this picture for some reason.  If you like it, attribute it to the model and not the photographer.

 
Have a lovely week!

Visual Medicine

Ahhh....on the mend at last!  Spring is really here now, and its healing power has (along with copious amounts of anti-biotic) driven the ick from my head.  HooRay!  Allow me to present the visual medicine that has accomplished such a wonder.

 
Formerly a dark magenta tulip, it seems to have aquired a "break" and turned into this lovely specimen.  You can see some Bleeding Hearts in the background.

 

The tulip is kinda tipped over a bit 'cause of the colossal thunder storms we've been having recently.  If it survives until we get sunshine, I'll get a better pic then.

EDIT:  Here's a pic of the tulip standing up in the sun.  Even a bit more open.

 

Did I mention Bleeding Hearts?

 
The floral pharmacy also prescribes Woodland Phlox, which smells like heaven:

 
Wood Poppies:

 

And, of course, my favorite pre-historic plant, Chocolate Trillium (over there behind the poppies):

 

All of this is potent enough to cure, if not what ails you, then a bad case of long winter blahs.  Kudos and humble thanks to LadyRanger, the pharmacist who mixes up these restoring nostrums.

And the most powerful, wonderful visual medicine?

 
You guys should see this!  It's really pretty!  Hey, when do the turkeys bloom?  And the cheese plants?  Those are my favorites.

Many thanks to Scooby, Shaggy and Scout for their kind inquiries into our collective health.  I think we're doing well, and we wish the same for you and yours!

From Both Sides Now

Maddie has been quite surprising over the last several weeks.  We think she's finished her recovery from the knee surgery.  She's been zipping around like furry missile, leaping and jumping onto furniture that she'd been shunning.  I guess the knee was bothering her more than we knew.  Maddie has been spending more time in the couch window.  Easier getting up there when both knees work properly, I guess.  Here's a few shots of her, from a couple of different angles, during a recent nap.

Facing east:

 
Facing south:

 
Facing face:

 
What had she been looking at before drifting off?  Perhaps some of LadyRanger's toad lillies:

 
Not very toady, I think.  Maybe "poison dart frog" lillies, but not toads, surely.

Enthusiasm...

...the lilacs have it!

As does the redbud tree.

The cat?  Not so much.

Lilacs?  Whee.  Tell you what...you let me know when the turkey blooms and I promise I'll be properly ecstatic.