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There are many things about our home at Tangled Oaks that I really like. The most outstanding is the lovely flowering trees that adorn the property. The first to bloom have abundant white blossoms that have withstood being cut down by lightning strikes last summer and ice storms several winters ago. The second is a pink flowering decorative tree that sits just outside the orchard. The previous owner put two dogwoods in the front, a white and a pink, and a Kusa dogwood that will be white later on. The apple trees are showing their first flowers as is the pear tree. The fragrance builds as the trees develop. We also have a cherry tree over by the barn that has been hard hit by last winter's storms. The poor thing's trunk is almost totally out of the ground. This will make it easier for me to pick cherries before the birds get them all, but I wonder if the tree will be able to survive this way.
The other thing that I like about life at Tangled Oaks is the congenial neighborhood. Kids have better manners than my own did, and I am happy to have them pop over to visit me. Skittles and Patches are thrilled by their attention. Other neighbors are, like us, past the child rearing stage, and on occasion their grandchildren can be seen visiting and helping out. Everyone has been hard hit by this past winter's winds, and one neighbor is trying to solve the problem of fallen branches by using a wood chipper. This thing is clever. It has a big "mouth" into which the branches and limbs are inserted and a "spout" where the wood chips are sprayed out. When I saw what he was doing, I steered the dogs to another section of the lawn to prevent accidents. Their favorite neighbor was putting HIS branches and limbs into the hopper, and although he gave me a quick wave he made no effort to call the dogs over. Instead their attention went to my husband who was headed for the barn to see if the tractor place had come to switch the unit from "snow" to "lawn". Unfortunately my past month of calling to have this done had resulted only in "we'll get over as soon as we can". Oh well. The grass isn't going to stop growing while somebody will be over "soon"! So my husband and I talked it over and he decided to go out to the stores and look at lawnmowers. This presented its own problems, the first being COST. Even small tractor/mowers were priced in the thousands. Ouch! For now at least we would have to be the "deadbeat" family with a horribly overgrown property. I can hardly believe that we have lived here 12 years. During that time I haven't done the planting that I always did back home, however one of my daughter's friends came to put a few things in the ground for me. As a result there is an evergreen tree in front of the bedroom end of the house with a pair of azalea bushes. Everything else from that attempt at landscaping died. This place needs some forsythia bushes and some spirea. In the y ears we've been here they would be fully grown and beautiful. There are bulbs growing in a roughly outlined space behind what was a deck off the master bedroom. But the previous owner chose to close in that space and insert two "spa tubs" into the floor. Why they needed these in a house that already had three bathrooms I can't understand. These "spa tubs" have a vinyl zipped cover over them that I opened once to look at, and all I could see was mold! Yuck! I quickly rezipped them and haven't opened them since. The real gardeners here have been the abundant wildlife. Squirrels mistook bulbs for nuts and buried some in front of the house. They also enjoyed eating the berries on the mystery white flowered trees as did the birds. The outcome of this feast (no pun intended) was that seeds were put into new locations. One is in the center of an existing spirea bush; the other is in front of the glass door that I had put in the porch when I had it closed in. Since there is a bird's nest in a nearby tree, I have to credit the birds with that one. My husband has said that the tree will "have to go", but without a finished walkway coming out of that door, it may be left alone. Right now the biggest action is in the holly bushes right in front of my monitor window. There are still ripe berries left from last year plus the beginnings of this year's berry crop. When I had the oil delivery man cut down the branches that were impaling him, I had him just toss them out. They still had ripe berries, and the birds appreciated it. I watch them picking off the remainder of this fruit from a scant 4 feet away. There are birds that I can't readily identify, and I will have to turn to my bird books to name them. Since my husband forbids me to have feeders where the birds will eat and then dirty the cars, I am grateful that the landscape is feeding them for me. Could this be what Pearl Buck meant by "The Good Earth"? Just Mom |
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