April and May Blooms In My Garden

As I write this post, it is the end of May.  May is the busiest time of the year for a Wisconsin gardener.  This is when everything starts blooming (except for crocus and daffodil, they will bloom in April unless it's a very late spring) and when we get busy preparing the garden beds and planting.

These are the only three crocus I saw this year because guess what?  We have bunnies!  I haven't seen rabbits for years in my garden because we have too many feral cats in our neighborhood.  The other day, my husband called me into the yard to point out three large bunnies in the yard.  They were so cute, and I was so happy to see bunnies again, I can't complain about the damage they do.  This year they ate all my Cushion Spurge too, so I never got to even see it bloom. 😢

But the one thing bunnies and deer never eat are daffodils because they are poisonous, and this year, the daffodils were AMAZING!

The Bleeding Heart was beautiful as always.

Our flowering crab apple trees really put on a show this year because there was no late frost to nip their buds.

We have four flowering crab apple trees: two white and two pink.

I didn't see a lot of tulips this year;  either the bunnies got them or their bulbs are dying off.  Tulips don't last forever and reproduce like daffodils do.

I have four lilac trees, but only one flowered really well this year.  One lilac bush didn't flower at all, another we had to cut down to the ground last fall to rejuvenate it, and so far other than a few sticks coming out of the ground, we've seen no rejuvenation, and the last lilac bush is just a little one so it didn't do much at all.

But the one lilac bush that did bloom was a beauty and smelled like heaven!

I purchased an antique cast iron tea pot when we were on vacation out west last fall.  I used it on my wood stove all winter until I noticed a crack on it and water spilling out, so this spring I planted a petunia inside!  It makes the cutest planter ever.  The crack releases just the right amount of water and the petunia seems to really love its new home.

Every year I need a lot of hanging baskets;  I think I have 27 hanging baskets total, so I can't spend $25.00 - $50.00 on a single hanging basket when I need so many.  To make it as economical as possible I reuse my simple plastic hanging baskets and make my own.  I use to use the moss lined wire baskets, but they just dry out too fast, and required a lot of watering, so I went back to plastic.  At my local nursery they sell a trio of plants for about $7.00 that you can just pop into a container;  so each basket costs me $7.00 plus the cost of potting soil.  They grow super fast, in fact, I can't believe how much they've grown since this photo was taken.  I will have to share a new photo of my hanging baskets with you in my next garden post. 

I have a cat bird family living in this bush this summer.  He has been quite the nuisance, but very entertaining as well.  He has been attacking our windows thinking he sees a rival.  He's also been busy chasing other birds away from the feeders.  What a character this guy is.

I can never remember the name of this bush.  I have a love/hate relationship with it because it is covered with thorns but it provides three seasons of beauty:  gorgeous yellow flowers in spring, beautiful greenery all summer, then red berries in the fall.  No wonder the cat bird loves it so much.

I have two Viburnum (snow ball bush) bushes.  One is doing well, but the older one seems to be fading.  I think the trees are growing too big and providing too much shade.  Hopefully I won't have to cut it down.

And here is a sneak peek at my vegetable garden.  That is bush beans on the left and broccoli/cauliflower on the right , with little seedlings of spinach, lettuce, basil, radishes, beets, parsley, and cilantro way in the back.  A month from now, this bed will be so fall you won't be able to see the leaf mulch!

 I hope you enjoyed my little garden tour.  I don't have any far away shots because our yard has been under construction with a new landscape project we started last fall.  I hate having my beautiful yard in such a mess, but I know it will be worth it in the end.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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On The Road Again, First Stop: Indiana For Easter

This is the first post of a new travel series.  In this series, we are headed east starting in Wisconsin and going all the way to Virginia to see the home of George Washington and Colonial Williamsburg.  But first, we stop in Indiana to celebrate Easter with my daughter, son-in-law, and the grandchildren.

It is about an eight hour drive from Wisconsin to Indiana, so my daughter's home is always the perfect pit stop to spend the night when traveling east.  I mean, who can beat not only a free room and meal for the night, but sweet time with these adorable little ones I call my grandchildren.  

I always love to go east in the spring because ya'll have a lot warmer temperatures than us northerners, plus I enjoy seeing the flowering trees and green grass.  I've been told these beautiful purple trees blooming all over the road sides as one heads east or Eastern Red buds.

I make one digital scrapbook a year for my grandchildren and I give it to them at Easter.  They love to look at photos of themselves and see all the things they have done during the year.

I also give them Easter baskets which they love opening!

This was the first year Lazarus was able to get an Easter basket.  He turned one in May.  Boy, did he get a kick out of opening up his basket.  He kept thinking "Is this really all for me?"  He wanted to eat everything in his basket at once.  Now if you're wondering what I put in a one year old's Easter basket that he could eat, it wasn't candy.  I purchased almost everything at Aldi:  dehydrated strawberries, and all the baby treats Aldi sells. 

The older kids got Easter crafts, some candy, healthy treats and small toys.

The boys favorite toy was some water bubble guns I purchased for $4.99 at Menards.  They had so much fun with them!

The next day we went to church where they had an Easter brunch and a lovely service.

In the afternoon we had an Easter Egg hunt.

We spent the rest of the day playing with the all the new toys and enjoying a traditional ham dinner.  It was a beautiful day. The weather was so perfect we even tried kite flying!  It worked great until Alethea let go of the kite.  😀

The next morning we were up at the crack for our next stop:  Frederick Maryland where we would spend the night before arriving at Mt. Vernon the next morning.

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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Waterfalls in Green Bay, Wisconsin Plus A Quick Stop at Lambeau Field

For this week's travel post I am continuing on with our winter staycations and then next week I plan to start a new travel series of our spring vacation to the east coast to see Colonial Williamsburg.  Would you believe we ended up going to Green Bay, Wisconsin twice this winter?  I sure couldn't.  We first went to meet up with the grandkids because my son-in-law was speaking at a teacher conference in Green Bay and he brought the whole family along so they could have some fun with us while he worked.  We took the kiddos to The Children's Museum of Green Bay and The Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary.

We ended up going back to Green Bay in April to meet up with some lifelong friends of ours to see a concert.

The concert was in the evening so we had the whole day to see more sights in Green Bay that we missed when we there two months earlier with the grandkids.  One thing we really wanted to see was the Green Bay waterfalls.

The first waterfall we stopped at was Wequiock Falls.

Wequiock Falls, one of Brown County's smaller parks, contains a large ravine featuring a close-up inspection of the Niagara Escarpment rock formation. 

In spring, the flow from Wequiock Creek forms a picturesque waterfall which gradually slows through the dry summer season. 

A pretty place to picnic and relax, the park is equipped with tables, restrooms, drinking water and ample parking.

I always like to include a photo of a human in it so you can get an idea of the size of the waterfall.  Apparently, from what I read above in Travel Wisconsin, we were pretty lucky to see this much water falling as it is not always like this. 

At the other end of the falls is a tunnel, covered with graffiti that takes the water down the river.  Apparently, during the dry season, the tunnel is so dry you can walk through it. 

Our next waterfall stop was Fonferek's Glen. This waterfall was located in someone's backyard!  An old farm sits adjacent to the parking lot of this waterfall.  They sure don't have much privacy anymore as people are parked outside their house all day, and walking behind their property to view the falls.  I read that the family donated 74 acres in 1991 so that everyone could enjoy the beautiful waterfall.

This is a beautiful waterfall.  There is a stone viewing deck to see these falls and although there are no established hiking trails, people still made their way across the shallowest portion of the river to see other rock formations.

Fonferek's Glen Conservancy Area is a unique 75-acre county park with magnificent views. This geological gem features a 30-foot waterfall, dolomite cliffs, and stone archway, which are all part of the larger Niagara Escarpment. The park also includes 30 acres of former agricultural fields that have been planted to native trees and prairie. The waterfall can easily be viewed from a designated overlook constructed in 2019.

The rest of the park is a natural conservancy area with dangerous conditions, including steep cliffs, falling rock and rugged terrain. (Brown County Parks Department).

We ventured off the platform to get down to the river.  It was pretty steep, but I had my walking sticks with me so it was manageable for me.  I could not have done it without my walking sticks.

When reading about this place, I read that there have been a lot of injuries and deaths because it is not developed.  Many people called for trails, bridges, and more guardrails to keep the area safe.

The two photos below shows a unique rock formation seen at the bend of the river.

I also read that this waterfall can really dry up in the summer and be more of a trickle too.  It's hard to believe that as it was so powerful when we were there. 

We still had some time left before meeting our friends for dinner before the concert, so we decided to check out Lambeau Field.  Now I know just about everyone in Wisconsin is a Green Bay Packer fan, but my son and I are not.  My husband used to watch professional football but stopped when they went all woke,  now he just watches college sports.  I do realize it is unheard of to live in Wisconsin and not be a Packer fan.  The fans are a bit crazy for their team here.  We had been to Lambeau Field once before, but we just took a photo of the outside and left.  This time..we went in! OOH!  😆. I know, baby steps.  They have a museum and they offer tours of the field, but we didn't do any of that.  We just walked around a bit, and checked out the Pro Shop which had the most Packer paraphernalia I had ever seen in my life (and none of which I'd ever buy), and left. 

Now I know I've never seen the inside of any other football stadium in my life, but I was pretty impressed with the architecture.  The glass atrium was beautiful.

There is a giant statue of the Lombardi Trophy inside the atrium.  It is 50 feet tall and weighs 14.5 tons.

I should also mention there are lots of statues outside as well such as a statue of Vince Lombardi.  But it was freezing outside, and because I'm not a Packer fan, I just didn't care enough to freeze my butt off getting photos of those statues.  😆

Have A Great Day!  Amy

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