>I’m going to start charging…

>All right, I’ve decided maybe to just officially open a deer birthing center in our side yard as I found another baby deer, which is pretty incredible after the storm we had last night. I can’t imagine being born with hail coming down all around. We’ll wait and see whether the mom shows up.

But I think I could do it. They check in and I show them to the secure fenced in back yard where they can rest and recover predator free except for occasional viewing by kids and maybe a cat or two. I can even give the moms some hot or cold compresses. Of course, I may have a problem with these new moms munching down on my plants whihc until that point had been protected from the deer. You know those new mothers. They have no manners when it comes to food.

Maybe I better rethink this.

>Wacky weather

>Violent lightning storm across our area right now.

Uh oh, hail…coming down outside.

>Update on baby deer…

>Baby is gone! Motherhood must have called her back because her baby disappeared from the hiding spot this morning. No signs of any foul play so I assume she came back for baby and they made off for the deer resort that resides in the woods around my house.

>Do I really need another baby?

>I had an unexpected visitor this morning. Jack discovered a newborn deer this morning right off of our driveway. A squirrel was fussing at something and jack noticed. I saw the squirrel looking at the ground and paying no attention to me and thought for sure there was a snake over there. So I snuck over and lo and behold.

Do you see it? Here it is a bit closer.

Here it is from the other side

The mommy will usually take off for a little while, probably to search out a deer pub where she can have a stiff drink before she returns to motherhood. My web search about mommy deer behavior turned up the following:

If you find a deer fawn that appears to be abandoned, remember that deer fawns are born with natural camouflage and a lack of scent. In the first few days of their lives, the newborns are not mobile enough to travel with their mothers. As a defensive tactic to keep nearby predators away from the newborns location, the mothers will often leave the young animals alone for long periods of time. During this crucial period the mothers will visit the newborns at least twice a day to feed them. After a few days, the fawns are usually strong enough to join their mothers and the herd, where there’s more protection.

>Blue?

>I had heard of shrimp plant, but blue shrimp plant? I’d never heard of it, much less seen it. But here it was, cerinthe major purpurascens, for sale on ebay, when I was buying poppy seeds for my meadow. And the pictures, breathtaking. The deep blue color of the shrimp. The blueish-green of the leaves. And almost 100% germination from the seeds. I bit and bought. And now I have shrimp plant leaves emerging in my garden.

We’ll follow this plant story as it develops. And who knows, I may have seeds to share next season with all of you!

>April Bloom Day

>It’s Bloom Day again, as demanded by Carol at May Dreams Gardens (darn her for making us all feel like a community!)

So here’s the rundown here at Casa Bonnie.

My pride this month in the garden is the blooming Confederate Jasmine

Here’s a closer look. This vine smells amazing and I have two of them that I have had for years, transferring them from our old house, and now have them making their way up some deck supports right off the patio.

Here’s the camellia making what I fear to be her last appearance on Bloom Day for a while

She has done a bang-up job of blooming this year, more than all past years combined and I hope her new home in the ground makes her happy for future years.

My roses are almost all blooming. Lady Hillingdon, Madame Antoine Mari, Mutabilis. And here is one of the brightest, Knockout.

Oh, good lord, I hope that didn’t burn your retina. I didn’t realize the sunlight made the red color so hot.

And among my roses, how could I forget Peggy Martin, a symbol of life reemerging after Hurricane Katrina

This is her first bloom for me and I like what I see.

My wildflower garden atop my septic drainage field is in bloom. Right now it is overwhelmingly pink primrose

but I see some other late spring/summer bloomers making their way out. But I love the soft pink of primrose.

The other flowers that I love to see strolling in my yard are the ones I never planted. We have some wooded parts to our lot and I often find little blooms here and there. Rain lily, verbena, yucca, daisies, garlic…

and this vine that grows all over the non-landscaped areas. I finally IDed it when I saw it last year as milkweed vine, also called pearl milkweed. The flower is simply one of the most gorgeous things I have seen. So simple green with a gorgeous silver center.

OK, back to the garden I actually have control over.
Purple columbine, the first time it has bloomed for me

The red columbine in front of it is still shut tight, looking like a crown

My climbing rose, Golden Showers, filled with blooms and buds all over.


Among others in bloom, red and white salvia, salvia Royal Spires, verbena, gerbera daisy (just one bloom so far!) and my dwarf pomegranate.

Finally, in the garden, my strawberry patch is hiding lovely red jewels among the leaves.

Happy blooms to all of you!

>Strawberries Everywhere I Turn

>
One of the things I love about gardening is getting my kids outside and teaching them to enjoy plants and digging. This can be tough when their ages are 4 and 1 and their attention spans are about as long as it takes to get outside. But I try.

Last weekend, my husband and I took the kids out to Sweet Berry Farm about an hour drive away to pick strawberries. I won’t say that we sang songs as we picked berries all day. The picking was more like me keeping one eye on Alex as I picked berries as fast as I could and dropped them in our box. Alex, you see, has a knack for picking whatever berry she can see, mostly the red ones thank god, and stuffing them in her mouth as fast as possible, green stem and all. Then I have to stuff my finger in her mouth to fish it out, at which point she bites down on my finger with her vice-like grip, grinning because at her age she thinks an adult yelling “Ow!” is funny. Jack meanwhile is picking green, red and rotten strawberries and putting them in our box, as we madly try to sort all the bad berries out. The actual picking lasted about 20 minutes, which was about 10 minutes longer than the kids could stand. But the Farm wisely provides other entertainment. Fresh ice-cream and pop sickles (berry flavored of course), goats, and hay bales to climb on.

All and all a great day. Jack enjoyed telling his grandparents that night that these were berries he picked as we ate our fresh strawberry shortcake.

The past few days, my own berry patch in my yard has been producing. So Jack and I have been harvesting every few days and bringing in the bounty. Now, it may not be the boxful that we brought home from Sweet Berry Farms, but these little bowls of berries make me proud, having come from my own patch of dirt. And hearing Jack tell his teacher he picked berries from HIS berry patch tells me he’s catching this whole love-for-gardening thing I am trying to pass on to him.

>Things I Learned at the Fling

>I couldn’t bear to blog about the Spring Fling until I had time to let all of the wonder of the day distill in my mind. Late Sunday night, after the kids were in bed and the house was silent, I sat on the couch with a notebook in my lap. I thought about all of the people I had met at the Fling, the incredibly interesting and smart people that I have known through pictures and words, but now know them as friends. And I tried to recall all of the knowledge that had been handed to me during the event.

So here it is, things I learned at Spring Fling:

1. The white “lip” on each bluebonnet flower is to attract bees to pollinate the flower. Once it is pollinated, the white spot turns red and bees are not attracted to it any longer.

2. The Cochineal Beetle feeds on the Prickly pear cactus, secreting a white substance as protection around her. These beetles, when crushed, contain a vivid red coloring used as dye.

3. The bloom on the Prickly Pear is called the “Tuna”

4. There are other trees known as Live Oaks that are not related to the Texas Live Oak (thanks Karen!) According to Wikipedia, the name comes from the evergreen oaks remaining green and “live” through the winter when other oaks are leafless. Added bonus knowledge: a small grove of live oaks is known as a mott.

5. Skullcap (Leguminosae Scutellaris) comes in purple (the common color seen in most nurseries is pink).

6. Vicky makes a mean lemon/ginger marmalade. Thank you for the lovely gift, Vicky. Is it proper to ignore the toast and eat it with a spoon right out of the jar?

7. The inventories of sacred places and childhood hiding places are similar – thank you Tom Spencer for this lovely thought that kept me pondering over it for 5 minutes and just makes me smile every time I think about it.

8. Blog about what pleases you- keeping your focus on why you blog sets you free to enjoy it to its fullest. Thank you to Carol‘s discussion group on Community in Blogging who reminded me of this.

9. You can know someone for only a few minutes before you know, you just know, that they will be a lifelong friend.

10. Bringing together so many creative and passionate gardeners can create an energy that you can carry away with you. Borrowing one of Tom Spencer’s images, we are gathered stones.

Thank you to all who gathered together for this wonderful event. I will always carry it with me.

>Gotta post

>OK, I just can’t help it but post. I have just arrived home from our Friday night welcome dinner at Matt’s El Rancho, a great old Austin Mexican restaurant here in town.
What a blast!

We probably had about 40 people at dinner, many more spouses and significant others than I expected. Everyone dove right in when arriving, spotting those of us in the entrance with nametags and we immediately got to talking. And I don’t think we stopped the entire time. I was sitting with Laura, Diana, Nancy and Robin and had some great discussions about blogging, gardening and our excitement about the weekend. We had all of the spouses make up their own titles for nametags. They did quite a good job, including “Labor for [blog name]”, “I lift heavy things”, “I don’t garden, I don’t blog”, and “Financier”. God bless these guys and gals who humor our hobby of gardening and blogging and the crazy mixture that is garden blogging, and being supportive enough to come on a trip to meet people their spouses know, but don’t know face-to-face.

Looking forward to more time with this fun group tomorrow.

>Flingers Ho!

>I’m so jazzed up today because I know a whole mess of garden bloggers are arriving in Austin and tonight I get to meet so many new faces, but attached to names and gardens that I know. What a blast. Final preparations have been made- welcome bags have been stuffed, name tags printed, prizes sorted out, itineries sent. Pam, Melissa, Diana and I have been working hard to make Pam’s vision a reality and it just seems incredible that it is here. And I so applaud Pam for having this thought and getting us all on board, and working her butt off to get it done.

The wildflowers are blooming, we had a refreshing rain this morning and now it is sunshine all weekend! Yahoo!