October, Hallowe'en, and Spiders, Oh My!

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The Hallowe'en month of October seems to be my month for discovering spiders.  And I've got a few photos coming that I took before the rains came down and washed the spiders out, along with their glorious webs.  Stay tuned.

 Copyright 2006-2016, Raven Ridge Gar©dens. All rights reserved.

Morning Walks: Azaleas

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Early morning walks around my garden beds reveal small treasures: A deep pink rose perched high atop a climbing branch, way too high for me to capture; then this. I almost missed it, blooming so low while I was looking higher up; the azaleas and the rose are the same color. Hopefully I'll get to display the rose when it blooms within my camera's reach.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Sparaxis In Red And Yellow

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Get your yellow on!  

I took this yesterday (Saturday in the northern hemisphere) when the sun came out for a few precious minutes. I love the contrast of the bright colors of the petals of this Sparaxis, also known by its common name Harlequin Flower, against the brown earth.

Sparaxis comes in many colors, another of which you can see here. They propagate easily by dropping bulblets that form in the stems when they die back, and then pop up everywhere in my yard in early Spring - even in the lawn.

Photographers are posting photos featuring yellow over on Monday Mellow Yellows.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Yellow

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The shrub lives behind a thicket of blackberry canes, a large Rhododendron, a Japanese maple, and many low-growing bulbs and violets.

Sometimes I almost forget that it's there.  This spring it stretched its branches out beyond the rest of the tangle of flora and proceeded to bloom like never before.

Deep yellow blooms that pop against the background of green.  I'm embarrassed to admit that I've forgotten its name.

[Ed note:  I found an earlier post of this flowering shrub and now have the name - Kerria Japonica, 'Pleniflora'.]

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Calla Lily and Spider

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I've posted several variations on this theme over the years but never tire of taking photos of these intriguing spiders that change colors with the plant they are inhabiting at any given time.

They usually hide out deep in the stamen cup, waiting for unwary bees and bugs.

I can bring them out by gently blowing on them. They will come up the stamen ready to attack the interloper, but this one just kept on climbing up and out of the flower and was getting ready to slip from view when I clicked the shutter.

Ah, life in the garden.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Nodding Daffodils

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These small daffodils (a mere 8-inches tall and the same ones from this photo), with their nodding heads, are difficult to photograph without laying down on the (wet) ground and shooting upwards, making it a challenge to capture their pretty little yellow faces.

Still, it wouldn't be Monday without Monday Mellow Yellows.  Check out the photos featuring the color yellow from photographers all around the world.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Swallows and Freesias

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In our neighborhood, no matter what the calendar says, Spring begins the day the swallows arrive. This year it began on Thursday, March 12th, which is the day my friend and neighbor D spotted a pair of swallows flitting and swooping overhead.

She and I engage in a friendly who-will-see-them-first competition.  This year she won. I didn't see them until the following day, but what a thrill.

This is why I love the swallows: They have their babies in our barn and under the eaves of the house, making me a baby swallow grandmother of sorts, as I watch out for their well being all season until they fledge.

Another sure sign of Spring in my garden is this deeply scented Freesia, which I found blooming when I went on my camera-in-hand garden rounds Friday morning.  I took these photos early in the morning under cloudy skies with no flash.  I am enamored by their rather fuzzy, sultry look, surrounded by yet-to-be-cleaned-up winter weeds entangled in new spring growth.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Early Spring Sparaxis

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This is another one of those harbinger-of-Spring flowers that will pop up anytime in February or March. They are a sweet indication that Spring is just around the corner - and, yes, I do purposefully capitalize Spring; it's been a long time coming for so many.

Sparaxis are easy-growing, care free little bulbs that will drop their bulblets at the end of the season, which will then sprout and multiply for the following Spring. They come in myriad colors and patterns, seem to be slug-proof and deer-proof, and will bring a spot of much needed color to late winter/early spring.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Spring Primrose

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These days, when the weather permits, I stroll around my garden beds picking up detritus from the winter storms, trying to not disturb any salamanders, just moseying from one bed to the next - my husband calls this my Zen gardening.

Yesterday as I lifted a few dried fern fronds from a wet and messy border, this perky little primrose seemed to pop out of nowhere.  I'd forgotten where I had planted it.  Now it is found.

Monday Mellow Yellows features photos that celebrate yellow every Monday. Check it out.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Signs of Spring

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Signs of spring are appearing everywhere in the garden, around town, and throughout the county. The robins are back in droves denuding the Cotoneaster tree of its berries, small Ruby-Crowned Kinglets and Golden-Crowned Kinglets are flitting in and out of shrubs, catching the newly hatched gnats and other sources of food that are invisible to my eye. The grasses have grown to almost knee height, making the time when I can get in and mow (when it's dry enough) a hard and odious chore.

Yesterday and today have been so full of glorious sunshine that the chilly breeze accompanying it can largely be ignored.

Rhodies and azaleas are blooming, tiny irises are blooming, there are new green tips on the redwood trees, salamanders are beginning to stir, the deer are back (and eating my just-leafing-out roses), tiny hummingbirds are pulling the fluff from Japanese anemones to line their nests, what I like to call our bevy of resident quail have made their appearance - their sudden en masse burst of flight always startling -, small bumble bees are bumbling around the ever-blooming tiny Fuchsias, and I could revel in this season forever.

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Nasturtiums for the New Year 2015

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I am so glad I took this photo two days ago to share with you today because last night's hard frost turned this semi-hardy plant to mush.  And, two days ago, it was just one of a small handful of blog-worthy blooms in my garden, which I will share with you over the weekend.

Happy New Year bloggers!!

© Copyright 2006-2015, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Last Rose

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Cold-kissed petals valiantly opening in spite of dropping nighttime temps and shorter days. What a trooper!

© Copyright 2006-2014, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Spring 2011 - Pink Rhododendron

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[Ed. note: This photo, taken in spring of 2011, was left in my drafts folder with the text you see below; I don't know why I didn't post it. So I'm doing it now - just as I left it.]

All the Rhododendrons in my garden have bloomed.  A few, such as this one, basked in the fleeting sun of last week.  Others bloomed over the weekend in the rain. Still others bloomed back in February and are pretty much spent.

2011 wasn't one of the more stellar springs for the Rhodies in my garden, there being too much rain, hail, and cold.

 

© Copyright 2006-2011, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

White Clematis - Late Autumn

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I see many garden bloggers preparing their garden beds for winter now.  I still haven't begun.

Today I went out with pruners in hand and didn't cut a thing.  Bees are covering the Mexican sage, the flowering/seeding parsley, and, until a few minutes ago, this clematis flower, the vines of which seem to be going into a late autumn bloom cycle.

If I keep letting the plants rule, I probably won't get to pruning until January.

© Copyright 2006-2014, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Cosmos at Sunset

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Late afternoon. I was stopped in my tracks by a magenta glow coming from my garden:  Cosmos in full bloom, backlit by the setting sun.  Oh, Autumn, with your golden light and long afternoon shadows, you are my favorite season.

© Copyright 2006-2014, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Iris

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I have decided not to put up more photos of goat destruction.  There are simply too many lovely flowers and shrubs blooming now to revisit the few that were eaten.  Besides, the neighbors have contained the goat in a pasture from where he cannot escape and all is well in the 'hood.

Mr. CC and I were away for a week and, what with the longer days, much rain, a little sunshine here and there, my garden was in full bloom when we returned.

These are the iris that bloomed in our absence, wet from a morning shower. Sweet.

© Copyright 2006-2014, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Of Spring and Goats

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I have been looking and looking for the quintessential image of spring in my garden.  And while there are many flowers (I'll tell you about the goat in a minute), and many lovely green leaves on the trees and shrubs, and even blue skies, which are sadly not filled with Swallows yet, not one of my photos actually shouted Use Me!

Then this lovely African violet, sitting near the breakfast table in east light, began to bloom, with her spun sugar-like petals and soft spring-pink blush.  This is the one who shouted out loud - demurely, of course...

Happy Spring!

And spring it is, in all her glory on Raven Ridge. If it weren't for the marauding goat.

This goat is one of many that live on the property next to us.  I have no problem with goats. What I have a problem with is the owner of the goat who lets it wander - up the road and into my yard.

On its way around my garden this past week, it ate the new growth and buds off of several roses, completely consumed my blooming and about to bloom tulips (it came back the next day or several to finish that job), ate the tops off of the tiger lilies that were just setting buds (came back again and nibbled on the stalks), tasted and found lacking some sparaxis leaves, ate a few Douglas iris leaves (came back again to finish that job), and then left.  Mr CC only saw him one time and chased him off and down the road. But the goat came back.

Over the years, I have asked the property owner to keep her goats penned; that they have been wreaking havoc in my yard. She will comply and all will be well for a while, sometimes for several years. Then it starts all over again. This particular goat is a sweetheart and will compliantly scoot away when told. Too bad the owner can't be as compliant.

Photos of destruction coming soon...

© Copyright 2006-2014, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Mini Iris: A New Beginning Amid the Spoils of Winter

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After the deep freeze of early December, followed by a mild and sunny January, February has begun its watch with rain.  Rain, rain and more rain.  Rain that is much needed to parched California.  And along with this shift in weather pattern, peeking from the brown and dried vestiges of last summer's flowers, come my adorable, always surprising, 6-inch tall mini irises.

What a pleasure.

© Copyright 2006-2014, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Japanese Maple and Clematis

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Fall colors are ablaze these days on Raven Ridge; from pure yellows to orange, copper and fiery red.

This vignette is comprised of Japanese maple and a white-blooming clematis - a little shy of flowers but quite a prolific grower. I cut it back several times during the summer to keep it from completely engulfing the dwarf maple tree.

© Copyright 2006-2013, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.

Frilly Red Poppy . . . In Black and White . . .

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. . . losing her skirt.  See the color photo below.

I've been away most of the summer but between trips have taken many, many poppy photos,

which are awaiting their walk-on to the blog.

August will find me better situated to post them.

This is how they look now: sadly coming to an end but providing

a million seeds for next summer.

© Copyright 2006-2013, Raven Ridge Gardens. All rights reserved.