An Earthquake, and Peonies Too

Alright, I will admit I am obsessed with the peonies that are growing on the side of our home. 

You may find it hard to imagine, that is if you are the flower loving sort, that the blooms, once opened,  are seven inches wide and tall with more than a hundred petals!! Yes, jam packed with goodness. So, keeping that in mind, peonies are going to be featured a bunch in this post! 

The above photo has been on my camera for nearly a week and just before I downloaded it to my computer, while in the kitchen cleaning up, I was thinking that one thing we do find fantastic about NC is how few bugs are in your homes. Well, looks like you know who brought one in!  The runner is new;  I made it in an attempt at a Spring decoration. 

So should you have noticed the title, you are undoubtedly more interested in an earthquake than you are a peony. Am I right about that? 

Of all things, Saturday morning, about nine, I was once again in the kitchen, having just finished filling the dishwasher, when, while standing in front of the stove, there was an incredibly loud sound that I am finding difficult to describe. Because there are no planes overhead here, it is very quiet around these parts, so a huge loud sound is not something that would go unnoticed. Following the bang, the house began shaking and I do mean shaking. At first I thought it was Bruce upstairs, stomping around. Silly, right? Meanwhile, he was on the porch, so his experience was different than mine. At any rate, once the shaking stopped we met in the middle, both exclaiming how very weird it had been. Of course, never having been in an earthquake before, we needed validation. I called a neighbor, yes, it was an earthquake. What is so crazy is that I texted Matt and within seconds he got back with me telling me that Tom confirmed it was an earthquake in Tennessee measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale. For those unfamiliar with our location we are about 25 miles to TN and about the same to GA. After more investigation, it was deemed to be a 4.1 earthquake, about 70 miles due north of us. Tom explained the scale because in some way he has to know about it for work. In any case, this one went nearly 16 miles underground, thus people felt it as far away as Atlanta! It was the talk of the town that's for sure!! 

Two days later, I found the only "damage" was to one of Mrs. Vespasian's statues that had toppled over.

We keep them around because they remind us of how lucky we were to find this house that she so lovingly cared for. Note tomato plant...more to come on that front.

Last Wednesday even though it was raining here, Bruce was slated to play the men's doubles pickleball matches in Hayesville, so when it was time to leave, we had not heard about a cancelation. By the time we arrived, the email came through that indeed it was canceled. "Honey, do you mind if I roam around with my camera in this lovely setting?" 

By now you know his answer as he has been through it countless times before! 

I cannot tell you how excited I was to see the identification of these birds I photographed in the field, Boblinks, a songbird that I have never seen before!

From this article, I learned that they are one of the most impressive migratory birds, traveling...are you ready? 12,500 miles to and from South America each season!! Migration is so cool, don't you think?

As well, Meadowlarks sightings have been few for this bird loving lady and I spotted one as well.

Thank goodness for zoom lenses! 

While we are talking birds, two sets of parents of interest found in the park where I walk alongside the river.

Even better news is that we have some in our backyard! I believe I mentioned how I lured them to the box with mealworms and now we put some on the fire ring as well.

May I present the Tree Swallows parents.

So exciting when they show up each year. 

Let's go here while we are talking families...I got to meet Grayson, Bruce's little brother, at a school band concert! As well, we met his mother and grandmother. He was just as sweet and well mannered as Bruce described him. As an aside, none of our children were in the band so this was our very first band concert.

He is the young man standing up with the flowers behind his head. This is his first year and he's really enjoying band. It was good to see a good number of middle school band members because they are sorely needed. You may recall from the football game I reported that the entire band has about ten members and I may be being a wee bit generous.

A place we came across in Hayesville was the Master Gardners plot and it was a wonderful surprise.

It was lovely and very well maintained with some blooms happening with many more to come.

The sign says they hope it is inspiring and it worked on this couple!! 

Bruce filled our beds with much needed mulch, edging them and trimming up the bushes that have already bloomed like they forsythia which was growing wildly. He also trimmed the dead branches from the Rose of Sharon trees along with fertilizing everything. While we were out there, he called me to come take a look at the base of one of those trees.

Hundreds of what at the time looked like pearl couscous, in the next day or two they looked like this:

Super cute, right? Don't get attached because, lo and behold, during yesterday's yard survey, they had disappeared!! This whole area of the yard is heavily shaded at this time of year with ancient plants, or so it seems to me. Last year when Tammy first visited the house she called it our fairy garden. Maybe so, right?

She also gave me bulbs galore that had belonged to her grandmother and I planted them with no knowledge about what I was doing. Although there is foliage, so far only one of the lilies has bloomed, but it was a beauty, so I am not complaining.

So that side is super shady but fortunately we do have sun on the other side of the house. By golly, lookee here.

Back to the peonies. Always back to the peonies, at least for now anyway. After doing some research I learned that I was not meant to wait for the peonies to open, instead cut them when they are at the marshmallow stage. They were so heavy with bloom and buds Bruce had to tie them up big time! So I did cut some,

Please note the funny tic-tac-do piece! Isn't it clever? So within a few days there were many more blooming or in the marshmallow stage so l have had to keep cutting them.

With further research I learned that if I wrap them up in paper, they can be refrigerated for quite some time and when ready for more gorgeous fragrance and beauty, give them a trim and put them in water. I will let you know how that goes! 

The house behind us is now empty, waiting on a buyer, so when I noticed the roses blooming profusely, permission was granted and I am now in flower heaven between my own roses, Shannon's roses, and the peonies, what more could a gal wan't? Actually vases are at a premium in this household so I must stop!

As well, I plucked these from a tree on the river walk and were they ever filled with fragrance. 

The front porch has some dahlias and violas and while they have no fragrance, we are loving how prolific flowers are here in NC.

Looking down from the other side of the porch it looks like it is going to be a good year for hydranges!

Ya'all recognize this woman?

Somehow I came across this and have had it on my desktop now for a few weeks. Time to dump it off here for folks who will not recognize that woman! I hardly do. Many, many years ago!!! Classmates from Valencia Community College visiting me. While we are looking backward, I came across this POST from 2014 that might interest folks who are just getting to know us. 

I need to leave room for pictures of Christian on my desktop...they are multiplying because they are so darling I can't toss them out! Won't be long before we see this little cutie in person. He is becoming mobile, rolling over, and in general, doing all the things he should. He's 5.5 months old now. Bill and Fallon have been so good at sharing videos.

Mother's day came and went with calls from my darling sons. Not just mine of course, but on this day I am calling them mine. Listening to Fallon talk about being a first time mother has been such a joy. 

While we were in Hayesville we returned to an antique shop we first visited when we were driving up to Murphy for the first time. Actually, the shop is in GA, but as you are now familiar with how close places are, that makes sense, right? Anyway, every single time when we visit a shop like that I wonder how in the world did someone, firstly come up with some of the things and secondly think they would sell? 

It makes you wonder doesn't it? 

When we moved here I imagined maybe a tornado could be in our future but an earthquake? No way!

Shows you what I know!! 

as always, your friend,

Gail

p.s. I may be wrong but I think the plants and flowers like the cold winter.