End of a native azalea

Possibly unique in our neighborhood, we had three of the native deciduous Flame Azalea growing near the pine trees we put in a few years ago. Unlike the Flame Azalea our nursery provided which has mere buds for leaves and flowers here at the end of April, the natives are leafed out and have been blooming vigorously this week. Cheryl went to take their photo this morning after last night's big wind and rain, and sadly saw that one had snapped off at the base. She twisted it free and has brought it to the house for us to enjoy while the blooms last.


We looked into trying to root this, but from what we read, propagation of these native azaleas from cuttings is best left to professionals.

The azalea was not the only orange flowering plant to suffer with the winds - there are plenty of Tulip Poplar parts strewn all over the roads.


This is an updated view of our former mulch-desert of a back yard. The ferns seem very happy with the rain, and the azalea at the far end have been a beautiful spot of color. In a few years, they should be spectacular. The hydrangeas and Virginia Creeper are finally starting to make an impression of green on the stark rock wall.



Cheryl noticed this large and interesting wildflower in front of a nearby home while out surveying the damage.

Sat morning at the Botanical Gardens

Taking advantage of the nice Easter weekend weather, Norris and Cheryl stopped by the Asheville Botanical Gardens after they finished their visit to the N. Asheville farmers market this morning. Its a nice place to do some walking and we put in about 2 miles in and around the gardens. Here are a few pictures taken on the walk. This stream erosion created an interesting view of some tree roots. As always you can click on the pictures for a larger view.

Cheryl and one of the dogwoods along the path.

This is an old log cabin that was moved onto the grounds of the botanical garden in 1965. We couldn't find anything that told us how old it really is, but it makes a nice picture.

Its that time of year again

The neighborhood turkeys are in full mating mode (at least the guys are, anyway). Here a gang of five males on the right is trying hard to impress the two ladies on the left.

After a few minutes of non-reaction from the girls, four of the males have given up and are taking their show elsewhere, but the one male at the end of the driveway continued his fruitless efforts for a good five minutes after the other guys had moved on. He eventually gave up too. The girls are still playing hard to get.

backyard hike

We have not been up to the top of our property for a long time. Sunday was beautiful so instead of a walk in the neighborhood or trip to the gym, we decided to see what was growing on the mountain.

The only flowers in bloom were small -

We have never managed to be up on the ridge when the massive rhododendron were in flower - everything green in back of Cheryl is rhododendron.


At the top of the ridge, the violets came in a second color -


We also saw this little flower, but only at the top. It was windy up there, so a little assistance was needed to keep the bloom in focus.

Of course we wanted to check up on the old chestnut. Norris posed beside some of the sprouts from the roots, just starting to show leaves.

Here's a closeup of the leaves - the little teeth of Castanea Dentata already evident. These were only a couple of inches long - they get to be more like 8 to 10 inches.

We were sad to see the chestnut log itself is finally giving up to decay.


Not everything we came across was natural. This barbed wire at the top of the ridge grabbed Cheryl's pants and ripped them near the hem.

But we don't want to leave you with that ugliness - it was a gorgeous day to take in the sights and sounds - here's the view to the other side that we don't see very often.

Pink

Cheryl was complaining our redbud trees are still not making a very good impression, but they are growing.



The five azalea that were planted in our would-be vegetable garden above the driveway are in various stages of getting ready to bloom - this one is farthest along.

First sighting of 2011

Cheryl noticed our feeder had a visitor yesterday for the first time. We like to post it on the blog so we can compare from year to year when they have reappeared.



This morning, we have one waiting for a photo. Maybe she's just resting after her very long journey back here!

After the storm

Our landscape did not suffer for the two episodes of hail we had yesterday. The dogwoods we had planted in front of the house are just blooming.



None of these next "bloomers" are dogwood - they're just Cheryl's favorite American Beech trees, still hanging on to last year's leaves.

In this next photo, the tulip poplars are showing green on the slope behind our house. They are definitely greener as you come down in elevation.


We woke up above the clouds this morning, but they kept drifting our way -



As your photographer walked down the road, it got darker and darker -




Had to get out early though to beat the heat.

Hail, Hail

Norris and Cheryl just made it home when a small storm system struck with violence. First there was a lot of rumbling thunder, but then, there were loud noises on the roof. Hail the size of ping pong balls started bouncing around outside.

Cheryl waited for it to stop falling before venturing out for a couple of quick photos - here's one by the bird feeders, where the slope collected a lot of the stones -


And one that, when we first saw it, was probably twice this size. Temperatures have fallen, but it's still in the upper 60's so it's all melting very quickly.

Your Homeland Security dollars in action

Norris has been in Johnson City TN this week taking a FEMA class on establishing and managing communications for medium-size disasters. There are 24 students including fire, police, 911 center workers, and emergency management employees. This is not to benefit our local fire department so much as it is to take advantage of Norris's engineering background to help out the county emergency management staff.

Not all the course time is spent in class. Today the class got to play with one of the TN disaster communications vans, funded by FEMA with your tax dollars. It is air conditioned, has a refrigerator, microwave, sink, satellite TV, satellite internet, and a tower that can be raised to 45 ft. It has pop-out sections that accommodate a command staff section and a radio dispatch section.

Probably none of our blog readers except Cheryl's dad would be the least bit interested in seeing the rack of Motorola radios inside the trailer, but here it is anyway.

Bread Bakers Festival

Today we attended the Asheville Artisan Bread Bakers Festival at the Greenlife Grocery. 15 local specialty bread bakers were showing off their various breads and offering free samples. Bread making classes were also being offered but we focused our attention on the free samples. Well, it wasn't really that free since we ended up buying 2 loaves of bread, two pastries, and a bag of toasted granola. We tried out breads from some local bakers we had never heard of, so now we have some new places to go bread shopping. Norris also got to try out the camera on his new cell phone.