OT: spring photos

[sandbox]

This is just a view of what's coming to a theater near you.
photos taken with a Olympus 550 zoom.

[Xairbusdriver]

Not sure if you're on the lookout for blooms or animals! Either way, I can hardly wait for more images and Spring itself. Our Forsythia are in full bloom, the neighbors Redbuds are, also. And the wild Crab Apples in the fields around town are starting to show their splendor, as well. Plenty of bird activity is keeping Sweety, our cat, entertained and on alert!

[RNKIII]

   Kelly was right in all his admonitions that 'Spring is right around the corner'  

50 degrees according to the non-Atomic deck thermometer.... and have the deck door open for a while to 'air out' the house and give the cats a chance to exercise their noses


  for the advanced warning, Kelly...

Bob K.   rnkiii

[kimmer]

The lizard reminds me our lizard from last summer. I named him Larry. Wonder if he'll return this year. :hmm:  The chickarees were around yesterday - always a good sign.

[jcarter]

Oh, it is really time for spring to come to NE MA, its been very cold, like 6 degrees here on Cape Cod last night!  Thats a bit too cold for us.  No snow though.
How about a bit o Global warming when we need it!  Our wood stove has been working overtime.
But we are in for a change finallllllllyyyyy,
Spring is coming!
Thanks for the encouraging pictures.  I have my garden flowers for both desktops and all screensavers at the moment.  We need it!
Jane

[sandbox]

I thought I saw mama, but I wasn't quite sure? Keep and eye out, he might want your flowers!  

[iGuy]

sandbox, is that the new Olympus 550 which was due out this month? If so, how long have you had it and how do you like it.

I was talking cameras awhile back here at TS trying to decide what my next camera should be.  I still haven't bought one.  A month or two ago I read the below article.

Olympus 550 UZ


Looks like a sweet camera and a much needed model to fill a void in the Olympus line up.

Ryan

[jcarter]

Yes indeed, the darn deer ate all the azaleas that we had in our front yard.  We cannot shoot them any more, so I just throw rocks and chase them, as do the neighbours.  There is a thick woods across the street from us, why dont they stay in there where they belong?  Those woods were just full of lady slippers and they ate every single one of them, and they do not bloom any more.  They will also eat daylily flowers.
Now that the weather is above freezing, we put the coyote crystals all over our yards and shrubs, and that works quite well.  Deer also are the vector for Lyme disease which is nasty, so deer are not welcome around this end of New England.  They have no natural enemies, except for a few coyotes and cars on the highway, but they prefer the rabbits and squirrels and tend not to bother the deer, and there is no highway near us.
So, sadly they eat our flowering shrubs and evergreens if we dont spot them first.
Anybody have any other suggestions of how to get rid of deer in your yards?
We are surrounded with woods and swampy areas, so there is no way to get them out of there, just want them away from our yards.
I sure would hate to own an apple orchard, they dont bother with our 2 old sickly apple trees, as they dont bear much fruit any more.
Jane

[krissel]

About the only thing that works is an 8 foot fence. The apple and peach orchard farmers  in the town where my folks live have put them in and they seem to work. Virtually nothing else does for any length of time. You can get lion 'doo' and similar but all that stuff lasts only until you have a few heavy rains. I've pretty much given up as the deer around here are so brazen they just look at you when you try to shoo them away.

[Gregg]

I vaguely remember green grass, buds, birds and sunshine. It will come...

[jcarter]

Hi Krissel,
Thank you for the suggestion, but to fence in all our property would cost a fortune.
I guess that I will just continuously apply the Coyote Crystals and put moth balls under the remaining azaleas.
I did contact a young friend who is a bow hunter, and he is going to come over very early in the mornings and see what he can do to 'help' us out.
Our coyote pack seems to be thriving, and soon will have their pups, so maybe they can be a bit more helpful too. For some reason, the coyote population is dramatically increasing around here.  If only the deer would stay in the thick woods and away from the yards.  They just multiply to the point that they start starving and spread out away from the woods.  This happens on the islands, and they are all diminished in size.  
I do have a lot of azaleas, and we just love them, its really sad to see them get ruined.  
Jane

[snuffysbluff]

5 versions of doggie doo is emerging from the snow in the back yard. Time for spring cleaning before 2 months of it thaws. Oh, oh. Too late.
Now where's my rubber gloves and respirator?
Wonder if the grass needs mowing yet. I can't wait...really.
Is that tree still alive or just a late bloomer?

Isn't it interesting that ol' Phil didn't see his shadow this year?
....and I never really believed the hype. I may have to rethink my opinion of Bush's administration.

[Gregg]

QUOTE(snuffysbluff @ Mar 14 2007, 09:43 AM) [snapback]121875[/snapback]

5 versions of doggie doo is emerging from the snow in the back yard. Time for spring cleaning before 2 months of it thaws.

Ah, Spring! When thoughts turn to.... cleaning up the yard?

With all the downtown condos, there are few places nearby to walk the dog. One lazy owner chose a narrow strip of weeds lined with parking meters. People have to stand there to feed the meters, and I cut across that strip also. So, after stepping in the dog's deposits once, I made some "burma shave" signs for the owner (using the back of my TruGreen lawn signs, and the plastic stakes). Well, somebody tried moving one pile using the signs, and I didn't see any new deposits before the snow fell.

[jcarter]

This is funny,  when people walk their dogs down towards the beach, they diligently pick up the doggie-doo into the bright blue plastic bags that are sold for this purpose.  Then when they leave the beach area where the houses are close together and have nice lawns, some people who know about it, walk up thru the path that goes thru the swamp.
It is there that they all toss their little blue poo-bags into the bushes, and they hang there with their contents enclosed for a long long time.  Until eventually the bags get torn or drop to the ground.  
Wouldn't we rather have the poo go into the ground and decompose rather than hang in the bushes for months on end, in their bright blue bags?
Nobody picks up the Coyote poo, and that decomposes right away, squirrel and rabbit fur and all.
OK, thats todays lesson in scatology.
Jane

[Paddy]

...hmm...yes...well...back to the deer, I think...

Deer are indeed a problem - and Kris is right, there is no repellent that works all the time or reliably. There are very few truly "deer-proof" plants too - deer will taste almost anything and will eat things you'd never think they'd touch. They usually leave rhodies alone - but azaleas may be a little more tender and more to their liking. They never bothered my azaleas in Corvallis though. I don't think they will eat holly (too prickly!) and they don't eat juniper. Too bad they don't eat poison ivy either - 'cuz there is no shortage of that in Massachusetts!! A friend of mine in Corvallis put out a booklet about 12 years ago on deer-proof plants, after years of testing supposedly deer-proof plants in her own deer-infested garden. Quite a number of purportedly deer-proof plants failed the test.

Jane, before you wish for an increase in the coyote population, consider your cat-owning neighbors who won't be too happy when Fluffy is carried off for dinner. An acquaintance of mine here in North Andover had all 5 of his cats picked off one by one over a period of a couple of months - he actually saw the last one get pounced on and carried off into the woods.