Countdown to the bird count.

I looked at my calender the other day only to realize that it's almost time to start counting. The Great Backyard Bird Count starts this Friday, February 12th. I'm hoping we find some interesting birds to count this year. I've been a little busy and unable to take many bird pictures, although we've had lots of visitors lately.
I have a feeling the Juncos will outnumber all the birds again like last year. Chickadees and Nuthatches, along with Sparrows and Wrens have all been at the bird feeders. I've also noticed a new hummingbird hanging out in the Cherry tree in our front yard. I can't figure out what it's going to, I haven't seen it at the feeder, just flying in and out of the tree.
I peeked outside to see a Rufous-sided Towhee hopping around and singing in our front yard. He flew off before I returned with my camera.
This little guy was so into his bath he didn't notice me taking pictures.

This Song Sparrow would sit and rest, almost like he was daydreaming, before he would dive down into the water.

Here he goes, ready to get wet...

Splishing and

splashing his little heart out. How can they make such a big splash with so little water?

He must have repeated this whole bathing routine three times while I was outside.

I'm going to get all the feeders filled today so that the birds will continue to visit during the count. Someone mentioned in their post last year about putting some seed or food close to the house so they could get some good close up pictures, I think I'll try that too this year.

3 girls and a garden show.

Yesterday was our turn to visit the Northwest Flower and Garden show. My Mom, Sweet Pea and I attended the garden show together. I thought it was fun that three generations of gardeners got to enjoy the day together. Our first bit of luck came when two women handed us a ticket, and told us "it's an extra". Whoever they were it was such a generous gift and we were very appreciative.
Last year I did my post on the garden show on all of the water features, since that is one of my favorite parts of a garden. This year I noticed far fewer, there were more small bubbling type fountains and one that I think was supposed to be a natural looking swimming pool.
This year there was no real theme to the display gardens. There seemed to be a lot of natural looking displays with large boulders and evergreen trees. I noticed a few had recycled different things and used them from everything from cold frames to chicken coops.

The Northwest Bloom and Seattle Tilth display garden was one of my favorites. It was designed to look like a little farm in the city.

Here was one of the few water features I saw in the gardens. The little stream running from under the rain barrel. To the right you can see a little fenced area which held a few small goats. I noticed the use of lots of Carex and different grasses throughout this display.

One of my favorite ideas was the cold frame made with a recycled window frame painted a bright green.

Around the other side from the vegetable garden area was a chicken coop that looked like it was made from possibly and old tractor. This was one of at least three displays that had chickens in them. One used an old pickup as a chicken coop.

Hellebores were everywhere! I don't think there was one display without them. Many of the visitors were carrying Hellebores they had purchased in the plant market.

I liked the use of one mosaic tile in with the more plain aggregate pavers. This was from the Wizard of Oz themed garden.

Green roofs were also fairly popular.

I loved the window curtain of falling water. What I wasn't so sure about was the movie screen they had inside the outdoor room. It kind of takes away the feeling of being outside with a big screen movie playing in my opinion.

Garden art that would add year round interest here.

My Mom, Sweet Pea and I all decided this display by Fancy Fronds was our favorite. We talked for quite awhile to one of the creators. They had lots of color in this garden and much of it was garden art, painted pavers and glass art. Her explanation of the added color is to show inexpensive ways that we Pacific Northwesteners can have year round color. I know this garden is not for everyone, but to me it was a lot of fun. Perhaps being the mom of two young kids I could see how much fun a garden like this could be for a child to play in. There's always time to have a more grown up garden once they are older.

Some of the glass art amongst many of the ferns Fancy Fronds is known for. One of my few purchases was a pond float made by the same artist that made this glass art.

Another corner of the display. I love the Birds Nest Spruce by the metal Quail.

I always enjoy going through all of the retail displays and the plant market. We were mostly just looking, but did see a lot interesting things. There were quite a few glass artists there. I mentioned above that I bought a blown glass pond float. My other small purchase was a Columbia Lily which is a native lily here. I'm trying to add more native plants into my garden, especially the backyard. Sweet Pea used her own money to buy a Fritallaria that is a native here as well. I don't know too many 11 year old girls that spend their hard earned money on plants!
We three gardening girls had a great day together at the garden show starting with a free ticket and ending with sharing a piece of double chocolate cake; and of course lots of gardens and plants in between.
We've heard that unlike this year which had no overall theme, next years theme will be Fairy Tales.

New surprises for Fertilizer Friday.

With so much starting to pop up around here I'm finding more new growth almost everyday. I've been outside as much as I can and taking advantage of any dry days we have. I've been working on straightening out and enlarging the front bed and have cut back more perennials. Bird activity around here has been increasing and I'm wondering if some birds are already looking for places to build nests. I've had some Chickadees and Wrens checking out birdhouses, they must know Spring is early too.
I found some new surprises last time I was outside, and because this time of year you have to look a little harder to find something you may have to squint a little to see some of these. :)

I love how the Hellebores looked covered in raindrops, the sun shining through gives it a nice rosy glow.

The new Hellebore 'Mardi Gras Double' is starting to bloom. I'm having a hard time being patient, it looks like it's going to be very pretty.

More Iris reticulatas blooming near the pond. I planted quite a few last year, but the new ones don't have any blooms yet, just foliage so far.

I had thought the Pulmonaria seemed early, but looking back to last years pictures I found that they are right about on time. I love how these start out pink and then will change to purple as they age.

Navelwort 'Starry Eyes' (Omphalodes cappadocica) which Teza helped me to identify on another post, surprised me with one little flower open already. I have a few in my shady garden and they do great there, even in dry soil.

I discovered some Anemone blanda under some leaves while doing some cleanup.

And this flower you won't have to squint to see, it's the Amaryllis 'White Christmas' which sent up another flower stalk and has just started blooming. This Amaryllis took forever to start growing, and now it has given me more blooms, a very nice surprise for sure!

Fertilizer Friday is hosted each Friday by Tootsie at Tootsie Time. Visit her to see what's she got happening in her greenhouse or to join in "flaunting your flowers."

Meeting Rain Gardener.

Yesterday I had the pleasure of meeting another Pacific Northwest gardener. Linda (Rain Gardener) of Gardening by Trial and Error drove all the way here (about 3 hours!) to visit the Littlest Gardener and I. We had been trying to set up this visit for many months. In fact so many months ago we started planning that the driving directions I gave her were no longer good. Unfortunately we didn't figure that out until after she got lost trying to follow the directions I had given her.
I had a feeling from our interactions through blogging and emailing that conversation would be easy with her, and I was right. We talked about gardening, blogging and family for a good 2 hours. Originally we had planned to possibly visit a nursery, but the weather was cool and rainy so instead this time we just talked.
We also had our very own plant swap. Each of us had admired plants on each others blogs and this was the perfect way to be able to dig up some plants and share our seeds with each other.

Linda brought me Siberian Irises, Wild Iris, Yellow flag iris and a Saxifraga 'London Pride'. She was so thoughtful and even brought my girls their own Sedums because she knows they like to help in the garden. I'm very excited to find places for all of them in my garden.

She also brought lots of seeds and made this pretty card. I love how she printed pictures of the flowers to put on the envelopes. I plan to winter sow all but the Poppies this weekend. Those I will save for a little longer and just direct sow them.

It's been so much fun getting to know other gardeners through blogging and I've been even luckier to actually get to meet some in person. Hopefully Linda will forgive my old and out of date directions and visit with us another time when there is more going on in my yard.