An Update, Oh My Gosh! Happy New Year!

How to describe my year!  Wow, it flew by so fast, I think all I have left are a few fluffy tufts of down feathers to remember it by!  I suppose that an eventful year is a good year, however! I know I'm missing a lot, but I'll add to the list as I remember.

Things I Did in 2011:
-Reconnected with several friends that I had been looking for from High School through Facebook.  My friend J also found me through an obscure post!!
-R bought us a new electric tea kettle!  It may not seem like a ground-breaking event, but it has settings for 6 different temperatures!  I never have to guesstimate temperatures for the various teas I drink ever again!! 
-We hired the amazing Lockwood Electric company, who updated all of our electrical in our 200 year old house, installed a new 60 slot panel, labeled all the switches, went through all our plugs, switches, and fixtures to trim the wires and reconnect them with fresh wire, and much more!  R also made a new gun buddy, which is also wonderful.
-I celebrated Peaches' birthday by taking her to Crab Shack, where C entertained us by donning the Birthday Crab suit!
-Saw my very first wild Saw-Whet Owl!
-I took my first (and last!!) Trans-Atlantic cruise to England, spent a little over a week in England, and had an absolutely wonderful time with my husband. I also discovered that walking that much wasn't nearly as bad on my legs as I thought!
-We got to travel all throughout south western England with the most amazing tour guide (the brother of our B&B owner), and learned an authentic recipe for pasties!
-I finally got to visit Europe! (See my previous post for details!)
-I got to spend lots of wonderful quality time with R's parents, sister, and family during the European cruise.  It is always so wonderful to see an incredibly functional, connected, supportive family; it gives me hope that there is still much good and loving still left in the world.  The bonds they have are unbreakable, and they hold one another up through immense hardships, which earns much of my admiration and respect.
-I made more friends at Mayday Underground, who I still keep in touch with!
-I learned how to play a first-person shooter style game (Skyrim), and though it makes me dizzy as heck, I'm relatively okay at playing it!
-Went through my first corn maze and didn't die of claustrophobia!
-We finally bought more storage furniture for the house, including two display cases and a gorgeous China cabinet in which to store all of R and I's childhood curios and relics.
-We replaced our funky dishwasher, but only after we thought it was broken, when actually, it turns out that it was an overloaded socket...a socket, which also powered the entire guest house in the back, our outdoor driveway plugs, our foyer, AND our external sockets in the front yard. (Geepers...)
-I got to have my sister and dad at our house, during which dad fixed a lot of my doors, installed a wall to lock the mice out of my cupboards, and reorganized my garage, plus other things.  I learned to owl with my sister :)
-I learned how to use my Yudu silk screen machine and successfully printed half a dozen shirts with my own design, using my own photograph of Murdock.
-We got a Christmas tree two weeks before Christmas (As opposed to the day before, when I'm still trying to decide if I really want one...) and decorated it with S and A.
-We had housemates, S and A, again for the first time in over a decade.

-I started my Asian Ball Jointed Doll collection and joined a very nice forum with other hobbyists.-Got to meet and enjoy the company of S's mother and father, both of whom are wonderful people, even though they're separated now. 
-Got to meet/see my very first Yellow-Collared Macaw, female Solomon Island Eclectus, Kakarikis, Catalina Macaw, Military Macaw, Hawk-headed Parrots, Perfect Lory, and Queen of Bavaria Conures.
-Bought 35.5 acres of land/property from R's cousin, J, which belonged to their grandfather.
-Fired my first rifle (among many), which I still absolutely adore.
-Hit a lot of targets with my rifle! (I'm not as blind or as horrible as I thought I'd be!!)
-Fostered two kittens, AKA "The Shittens" (as cleped by my little sister!), for S.  (Use your imagination as to how they earned this nickname...!)
-Actually got most of my Christmas cards out in time!  Shipped my presents out EARLY! (Oh my gosh!! No overnight shipping, it's like I earned money!! Hee...)
-Planted my Japanese Full Moon Maple, after I thought she had died last summer!


Things I Wanted to Do, But Didn't Get to Do That I'll Do This Year:
-Renovate my kitchen.
-Plant all my bulbs.
-Have my vegetable garden do really well. (Trip to Europe for a month made it difficult to care for.)
-Practice shooting my rifle more.
-Set up my Japanese prayer shrine for my (deceased) Loved Ones.
-Furnish Closetland so guests have places to put their belongings.

More Goals for This Year:
-Visit California to spend time with my family.
-Take Sacha out to the property so we can all go hiking together and survey the whole property.
-Plant my Arbor Day organization trees when they arrive in spring.
-Kickstart my heirloom seeds from Southern Seed Exchange in March so they'll be thriving in time for mid/late spring planting.
-...I think that's it!

Garden Time!

So...all of my perennials from last year survived!  They were pretty scrawny for a while...then NY weather brought in the rain, and everything leapt right up again!  The exception is my various artemesias...urgh.  I think I may need to fertilize them a bit.

 

Wildflowers carpet a good part of our wooded turnabout, which B is more than happy not to mow.  We both love the touch of wilderness that it lends the wooded side of our driveway! 

I've discovered that the yellow flowers that are everywhere are an invasive species from Europe called Chelidonium majus forma, Greater Celandine.  The sap is bright yellow and will stain your hands if you're not wearing gloves...It breaks so easily, but it pulls up with relative ease.

Dead Nettle is also everywhere, but it's so cute!  B and I thought it was some sort of mint, but it has no minty smell, though it IS in the mint family!

 

Our front steps are now adorned with beautiful tree stump-like pots, which I planted with Pansies, wild Violets, Lemon Verbena, and Creeping Jenny. 

I love the scent of Lemon Verbena...it smells like moist towelettes you use to wipe your fingers after eating BBQ or shellfish!

 B and I picked out two gorgeous hanging baskets this year for the beginning of our walkway from the south driveway.  Purple and pink Fuchsia and adorable Chenille Cattails are enchanting!  The cattails look and feel like caterpillars!!  They're so soft....There was a little boy at Grossman's who was staring at them forever.  I finally told him it was okay to pet them, and showed him that he could touch them if he liked.  He finally did and we giggled and pet the cattails for several minutes, then he trotted off bubbling joyously to his mother about how soft and fun they were to pet. 

As you can see, my Red Columbine and Dark Blue Tower Columbine are bursting with life!  Hopefully my Artemesia will catch up and spill over the rocks again like they did so splendidly last year.  I forget what the pink plant is mixed in with the Columbine... 

We've had random tulips pop up all over the place, thanks to the squirrels, no doubt.  We even had daffodils pop up in the wooded area compost pile!

 Both my species of Astilbe (above and below) are back and faring well!  I had to pull them up and relocate them so I could plant my herb garden this year, but they went easily without a fuss and settled right in again.

 All three of my Coppertina Ninebarks -- Thalia, Aglaia, and Euphosyne -- are doing great!  Their colours vary so drastically, I'm not sure why -- maybe it's the amount of sunlight they get?  I finally planted the one below beside Kenna (my Crimson Queene Japanese maple) beside front of the north-facing garage door.

 My Full Moon Japanese Maple, Sachi, is also back!!  I was so happy to see that she wasn't dead after I failed to put her into shade last year (and she burned), that I cried.  I watered her plentifully and moved her into a shady spot near the kitchen birdfeeder area and I'm going to plant her this week in front of the house!  Sachi is absolutely glorious....

 

 Guess what massive plant this is (above)!  If you guessed, "Catnip", you're right!!!  No, I kid you not, that's my Catnip!!  The leaves are 3-4 inches long, longer than my middle finger!  I've pinched the buds to help it bush out and expand this year so we'll have lots of happy cats.  It's really strong, too, all of the cats reared away from the buds as I crushed them and took off running with their lips peeled back from their teeth!  They came back to roll around eventually, then much mischief ensued!

My three little dwarf Golden Princess Spirea are doing great, too!  I was so happy to see that they were back after the winter!  I call them my Yoshi Bushes.  Yoshi, the green dinosaur from Mario, that is.  Mikari, my Magnolia tree, is doing fantastic, as well!  The blasted rain took out all my beautiful blossoms, but not before I was able to give Peaches one for her birthday in a bouquet I made for her!

My Peonies have yet to bloom, but they're almost there!

What I've designated as my Wildflower Zone is currently filled with Rocket, Dandelions, Johnny Jump Ups, wild Violets, and who knows what else!  This is going to be my work in progress...We were going to smash the barbeque up, but we kept it, because it's kind of like a throne on the other side...

We just got back from Grossman's today and brought home an entire trunkload of beautiful, wonderful plants!!  I had snuck off to Agway earlier this week and brought home my own carload of greenage, too...

 The coppery black Vertigo grass (above) is going to be gorgeous against the house by the birdfeeder!  Escargot Begonias (below) will be going into Gnome Woods.  The spiraling pattern of their leaves is absolutely enchanting!!

Blue and Black Salvia will look stunning.....uhm, where ever I wind up putting them...I have no idea where some of these plants will go, but I'll figure something out!  They may go into my Wildflower Zone!

Celosia was a pick for B, because he always remarks on how cute they look, so I finally caved in and brought a flat of mixed colours home with us.

Forget-Me-Nots!!!!  These are really cute, because occasionally, there are weird little lavender guys in with the blues!  These are definitely going into my Wildflower Zone!

The Magic Carpet Spirea is new to my garden from Agway, and it will likely be going into my Wildflower Zone, too!  I plan on planting it across from the Coppertina on the north-facing garage door side so it gets enough sun.

I laughed when I saw this marked as "Lil Kim Lilac" (above), then came home and looked it up, only to find it's called "MISS Kim Lilac".  Maybe I should call the nursery and let them know...The scent is incredible!!  It's a dwarf species, so it will only grow 4-6 feet tall.  I can also keep it trimmed shorter, if need be, I imagine.  Our lilac bushes around the property are blooming right now, also, and the scent is heavenly.

Miss Kim Lilac (background), Sand Cherry, and Magic Carpet Spirea awaiting planting!  The Sand Cherry is cool!  It'll grow to be 7-10 feet tall, so it's very manageable.  I plan on planting her opposite of Kenna beside the bay window.  Aside from having beautiful purple-red foliage, it will also produce black berries to feed the birds!

Shoshoni Doublefile Viburnum, who I've named Aiyana, is going to go just beneath the cover of the maple trees along the wooded area between our house and F & M's house.  It'll be covered in berries for the birds to eat after it's done flowering!  I can't wait to get it established, it'll be wonderful to have more foodsources for the birds!!

Spitfire Coleus is another incredible addition to my garden this year!  I'm not sure where I'll put it yet, but B thinks it looks like it's dead.... T_T  I'm starting to think I want a Fall Garden year round... B said he thinks we should have bright spring flowers for spring and summer, because everything will go red in fall.  Sigh.

Well, that's it for my garden until I hit up more garden shops -- and only after I get all of these guys planted!!  I'm pretty sure I'm gardening outside, because I'm trying to avoid cleaning the inside of my house.  Argh.... Alright, it's midnight, time for bed!