Three Mountain Day

It's a chilly, but beautiful day out today.  We could see all three mountains when we went out to feed the birds.  The wind was blowing, and the windmill was generating electricity.  Before we erected our windmill, we worried about the noise it might make; but honestly, when it's spinning and making electricity, I enjoy hearing it.  It makes a quiet rhythmic sound that is somehow reassuring.

Smitty went out with me, and we filled the bird feeders and emptied our compost pail.  Then we went around and looked at the state of the garden.

Things don't look too bad, but the weeks-long period of frost definitely took its toll.  My poor little daphne has seen better days.  Still, I think it will recover, and it has buds on it, so it looks like it will bloom.

The poor heather doesn't look good at all, but it will recover.  We planted it because it blooms in winter with these sweet little pink blossoms.  The foliage should be green, and while it's difficult to tell in the image below, it is all tipped with black from the frost.

And then there are the mountains.

I never get tired of seeing them.

And look at this!  Daffodils!  

Some women at Curves were talking about their daffodils the other day, and I was sniffing that mine weren't up yet.  Little did I know!

And what's this?  Tulips!

The squirrels must have missed these last spring when they went on their feeding frenzy.  I thought they'd dug up and eaten every single one, but they missed these.  Oh well.  They'll be back this spring and these will be history too, I imagine.  I've given up trying to grow tulips.  I planted them in pots so that the deer wouldn't eat them.  Even so, I've caught the deer standing looking hungrily at them.  They just aren't willing to cross the concrete paths to get to them...yet.  Here are a couple of those buggers from last year.  What do you suppose she's looking at?  My tulips!

So I kept them safe from the deer, but then those pesky squirrels got most of them last year.

We didn't have Smitty then.  They better think twice before showing up around these parts this year, what with little Hunter Extraordinaire living here now.

He's practicing his stealth here.  He's looking at the bird feeders.

Or maybe he's admiring Mt. Adams.

We have a substantial amount of yard clean-up to do, but we never worry about that until the weather warms up some.  I tried for years to get foxglove to grow under the Japanese Maple trees and finally gave up and planted seeds.  Now that they've been here for a few years, they seem to have taken off on their own.  A couple of years ago, Mike mistakenly sprayed them with weed killer, which knocked them back.  I think this year, we will have lots...and in three different colors!

They are biannuals and they seed themselves from year to year.  We always just let the leaves lie where they fall all winter so that they nourish and insulate the soil during the cold, wet winters.  When it warms up, we'll rake them away and there should be foxglove by the zillions.  These will probably bloom this year.

So by that time, my hands were getting cold, and I went inside.

Smitty was just as glad.  He didn't want me to blow his cover.

The foot pedal came this morning.  It made absolutely no difference to my sewing machine.  The machine is working fine for now, so I'm happy enough.  I'll return the new one.  It was worth a try.  I imagine the problem will return, but for now, all is well.  And speaking of foot pedals, think I'll go put mine to use now.

Updated to say that I'll be linking this post to Sew Darn Crafty at: