Playing With My Hyacinths Indoors. Just pictures

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***Copyright 2013 TatyanaS

Rosa Rugosa Hips. My Picture of the Day

I add Rosa rugosa hips (seed capsules) to my tea for its flavor.
They are packed with vitamin C (8 times more than oranges (USDA data).

***Copyright 2013 TatyanaS

My New Love, Romneya

There were several plants that I fell in love with in 2012, and I hope will bloom in my garden in 2013. 

One of them is Romneya (Matilija poppy, Tree poppy).

          Originally, I was looking for Romneya coulteri (Coulter's Matilija poppy. 

The specific name commemorates Thomas Coulter, an Irish botanist and explorer). 

But, the plants which I bought are Romneya trichocalyx. 

They say the only difference between these two is a fuzzy calyx and R.t. leaves are a bit narrower.

Romneya is native to the American Southwest, and it grows well in the Pacific Northwest too. It needs full sun and well drained soil. I placed my two new plants in a sandy spot where they can spread. And, they say it will spread!

 I like everything about Romneya: height (4-8 feet), huge, showy, fragnant white flowers with sunny yellow middle, gray-green foliage, deer and rabbit resistance, drought tolerance.

 These pictures of Romneya were taken in different gardens last summer. I hope my own plants will bloom in June.

I'll be glad to hear from you if you have any experience with this plant.

***Copyright 2012 TatyanaS

Squirrels

Part 1

          Squirrels! Squirrels are in my garden. Not those big grey ones, but small brown creatures. I saw them running on the roof of the house and jumping from tree to tree around it. Then, we started to hear some suspicious sounds. After a short investigation, we found out that one of the squirrel babies fell into one of our drain spouts.  The lower end of the spout goes into the ground. There is no way that an animal can climb out of such a spot. After a brainstorm, we removed the lower section of the spout.

  You can click on pictures to enlarge them

We even placed a branch as a ladder to help the squirrel....

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But, the scared and tired animal didn't get out. We waited and waited... Finally, I gave up.
But, my boys used their own technique: they detached a lower part of another drain spout, inserted a hose into the opening and turned the water on. The squirrel jumped out, wet as a  fish

     It ran around the house and tried to get back on the roof. Obviously, the squirrel family had its nest there.

Finally, it got reunited with its siblings...

Part 2

Next day, I walked into the bathroom and got the feeling that I was not alone.
I opened the curtains and saw this:

Two creatures leaned on the window. I looked better and realized that one was watching me and another was sleeping.

Yes, one was hanging on the window screen and sleeping!

They both started moving after I made a noise with the curtains. The sleepy one was trying to hide under his buddy to get some warmth.

I got out from the house and went to look at them from outside:

I decided to clip some California lilac branches, so the squirrels couldn't jump onto the window screen:

When I left to get my clippers and then returned, the two curious creatures were checking the container and my gloves. The branches were clipped under close supervision.

These creatures are cute and funny, but you don't want them to get into your attic, basement or a crawl space. How to get rid of them?  Traps can be harmful... While we were looking for a solution, the boys solved the problem. After they chased the squirrels for a couple of days, the squirrel family decided to get away from such trouble, and went back to the tall fir trees. I hope they will stay there... 

***Copyright 2012 TatyanaS