Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.
Linda Schaub
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Linda Schaub
- Mr. & Mrs. Cardinal (and a pal) partake of peanuts at the Park. #Wordless Wednesday #A favorite vintage ornament.
- Lean, mean and green.
- Which way is Santa Claus? #Wordless Wednesday #Remember those days?
- When there’s wicked wind, wildflowers and …
- Before and after a cup of Joe. #Wordless Wednesday #Sadly, we don’t ALL rise and shine!
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FIFTY FAVORITE PARK PHOTOS
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- Parker noshin’ nuts
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- Fox Squirrel
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- Black Squirrel
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- Parker, my Park cutie!
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- Pekin Duck
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- Mallard Hybrid Duck
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- Midnight munchin’ nuts
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- Mute Swan
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- Goslings
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- Mama Robin
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- Seagulls on ice floe
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- Great Blue Heron
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- Parker chowin’ down
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- Mallard Duck
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- Northern Cardinal
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- Great Blue Heron (“Harry”) fishing for shad
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- Parker: shameless begging
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- Viceroy Butterfly
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- Great Blue Heron
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- American Goldfinch
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- Seagull
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- Robin baby (not fledged yet)
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- Mallard Ducks
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- Robins almost ready to fledge
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- Parker angling for peanuts
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- Robin fledgling
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- Parker making a point that he wants peanuts
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- Parker smells peanuts
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- Parker with a peanut
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- Red-Winged Blackbird
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- Seagull
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- Red-Bellied Woodpecker
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- Pekin Duck
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- Starling
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- Canada Geese family
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- Canada Goose and goslings
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- Red-Winged Blackbird
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- Parker says candy is dandy.
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- Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
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- American Goldfinch
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- Hunny Bunny
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- Parker looking for peanuts
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- The pier just past sunrise
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- Mute Swan
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- Parker in the snow
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- Parker and a treat
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- Great Blue Heron
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- Me and my shadow (a/k/a Parker)
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- Fox Squirrel
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- Seagull
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- Canada Goose
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- Mallard Ducks
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- Mute Swan
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- Fox Squirrel – Parker
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- Northern Cardinal
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BADGES
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- 02-02-2018
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- 03-13-2018
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- 03-25-2018
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- 03-26-2018
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- Year #6!! 02/2019
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- 04-13-2019
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- 11-21-19
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WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
So pretty. Someday we’ll see them again.
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I hope so too Dawn – Spring continues to load slowly!
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So pretty Rose 🌹. I like & love Rose 🌹.
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Glad you liked the roses Raj – the are from two different bushes, the one with the bees is a shrub rose (“Home Run”) and the other rose is a climbing rose (“Stairway to Heaven”).
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Thanks, Linda. May be so happy 😀. Yes,Two different your Rose photos. Home run & Stairway to heaven. I like.
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Roses are beautiful and after the rain, the scent is wonderful!
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Yes,Scent so sweet & wonderful! I like. You like it is?
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Yes, I do Raj, very much.
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Thanks, Linda u do its! ❤️
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Gorgeous!
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Thank you Anne! The pics with the bee were “Home Run” shrub roses and I still have them, but their glory days are long gone and the other roses were from my first and only climbing rose called “Stairway to Heaven” which got black spot and mildew so much I finally yanked it out. I used it to make a memorial garden.
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Pretty!
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Thank you Linda – the roses with the bee were “Home Run” shrub roses and I still have them, although their glory days are long gone and the other roses were a climbing rose called “Stairway to Heaven” which was not hardy and it consistently had black spot and mildew, so I finally pulled it out.
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Roses for the win. They are amazing.
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Thank you Ally. I was pretty proud of these roses in their glory days, but the shrub roses (with the bee) almost died from the same Polar Vortex and I resurrected them, but they never looked as healthy as before. The other rose was a climber, three bare-root roses bought online from Jackson & Perkins and I yanked them out as they were diseased and I didn’t want the leaves contaminating the other roses.
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Beautiful!
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Thank you Kate – another part of the yard was devoted to roses, “Home Run” Shrub Roses (where you see the bee) and my first and only climbers, “Stairway to Heaven” which was for a memorial garden, but those roses had blackspot and mildew issues and I pulled them out – there were actually three bare root roses I ordered from Jackson & Perkins along with an umbrella trellis. I would never do bare root again – I babied it too much, even the umbrella trellis went out in the garbage that day. I probably spent a couple of hundred dollars on fungicide spray for it.
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Roses are tough unless they are in the perfect place. I had a hedge of the knockout roses which were beautiful until the deer found them. They must be tasty too!
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Those are some brave (but hungry) deer to risk rose thorns to eat the roses. That’s such a shame. I know my friend just finally gave up on her hostas and berry bushes. What the deer didin’t get, the raccoons finished off!
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They nip off the flowers and leave the sticks. Then a rose disease came through. Argh!
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That amazing that they don’t damage their tongues. I know I get caught enough on those thorns, no matter how heavy or long the gloves are. I just checked my shrub roses today when I got home and was happy to see some life in them. After this colder-than-usual Winter, I figured they would have bitten the dust.
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We got a light dusting of snow this morning. It was just supposed to be scattered flurries. Sigh! That can bust spring fever fast! It’s going to be a cold rainy day.
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Oh for goodness sake – you are usually warmer than here. Yes, between the snow we had the other day and we have rain off and on through next Friday. Today was a nice day, Wednesday is a sunny day, but walking anywhere that you have to go off an asphalt path means muddy feet after so much rain. Ugh. Our trees have not even leafed out yet.
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Our trees are starting to leaf out but mostly the early ones. The pear trees are blooming along with some early cherries.
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We don’t even have any blossoming trees yet. My neighbor’s Magnolia has buds, but it has looked like that for about two weeks and I’m no certain if they were frozen when we had that bitter cold spell last week along with the snow, which would be a shame. Spring has been a disappointment so far … we have rain off and on all week. It’s not doing much for my walking regimen these days.
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😍 Beautiful! You know roses are my favorite flower. I have planted roses in every home that I have lived including my apartment patios. Corpus Christi is the first place that I have not planted roses, though they do thrive here. I know a lot about caring for rose. I so badly want to plant roses on this property. I know exactly where I want roses planted. I do not have the muscle strength to dig the holes. I could manage the cuttings, pruning back in February and fertilizing as needed (I think).
February 12th I hired my mower’s nephew, a strong young mature man, to rake 8 bags of oak leaves that I’m allergic. He did a great job at an hourly rate that I set. I avoided the sinus infection and vertigo!!
He is coming this Saturday and Sunday to rake the final spring oak’s leaf and flower droppings. I am so tempted to ask if he would be willing to dig the holes for me for my love roses! 🌹
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TD, I think you should definitely have the guy did and plant the roses on Saturday. You should consider the Jackson & Perkins Simplicity Hedge Roses – they are easy to grow and maintain and bloom all Summer. A former blogger had them around the edge of her yard and they were gorgeous.
I am glad you like my roses. These were in another part of my yard, separate from the butterfly garden. When I first started my perimeter gardens in 1985, I dug out all the irises my father had around the outside edge of the yard, put in railroad ties and mulch and all tea roses. I thought they looked pretty but they didn’t have many blooms and it took so long for one bloom to happen, so I tore them out and put in all red shrub roses called “Home Run Shrub Roses” … this is a very hardy species of rose. I have had them a long time, but the same Polar Vortex of Winter 2013-2014 that decimated my butterfly garden, almost killed the five Home Run rose bushes which were almost as tall as me (5′ 9″). I knew the roots would be huge, so I pruned them down to about one foot and intended to have someone pull them out when they came to clean the gutters. But that was April – he would not come til June for gutters, so I took all the Rose-Tone fertilizer I had and mixed it up in the watering can and fertilized them once a week and brought them all back! But even though they came back, they have not looked as good as they used to but they are prolific bloomers, but they have a lot of dead wood that I cannot get to in the middle of the roses. I haven’t looked to see if they came back this year after our brutally cold Winter.
The other rose is now gone … it was my first and only climbing rose purchased in 2010. It was called “Stairway to Heaven” and I wanted it for a memorial garden, but ironically, IT did not make it as I pulled it out. I ordered three bare-root roses from Jackson & Perkins online along with an umbrella trellis to get them started. They were gorgeous and bloomed profusely, but were susceptible to blackspot and mildew and I spent a small fortune on fungicides for them. I finally yanked the whole contraption and roses out as their discolored leaves were fluttering around the yard and I had some pink shrub roses nearby and didn’t want them to get the disease.
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Thank you Linda for the suggestions! I spent some time this morning on the website that you recommended. And then went out in the front yard with holding Yorkie on my arm to really determine if I wanted to pursue taking care of roses. And I found my answer: Wise Freedom!
I like my spic-n-span, uncluttered, maintenance free yard, exactly as it is. While it is dreamy to desire a botanical, butterfly or rose garden right out my window, the dollars spent and human labor to create such beauty is not at all what I want to be doing with the little life and small fortune that I have left.
Wise Freedom ❤️
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That’s kind of how I came to my conclusion as well TD. Climate change played a big role in this decision too. Last night we had 1 1/2 inches of snow in my city – it melted because it rained, but it is all the wacky and also dangerous weather anymore, all across the nation. You have experienced it yourself with the cold. It is best. You should look around for a nearby botanical garden of some type where you can enjoy those flowers without lifting a finger, nor spending a dime. Wise Freedom indeed!!
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Egads MORE SNOW!!!
The botanical gardens charge fees to enter and it is crowded with people, kids and tourists so I never go. It’s not spectacular. Actually gardening really isn’t a big thing here. Corpus Christi is a coastal beaches and bay water type of city.
I was able to walk Yorkie on the sea wall 1,000 steps to celebrate her 13th birthday on Tuesday! It was gorgeous and absolutely no tourists or crowds. A couple of local people walking and one friendly small doggo that gave Yorkie a kiss on her nose. It was sweet.
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We have some nice botanical gardens, not near here, that do charge. One has a butterfly exhibit every year. You go into a temperature-controlled room where butterflies roam free and sit on you. That would be nice and there is a charge and it’s likely crowded even if you went during the week. Yes, that’s true … a beach and shoreline town.
Well congrats to Yorkie on becoming a teenager. That’s sweet about the other small doggo.
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Are these photos from your three remaining rose bushes in your yard now or from your previous rose garden from years past? Being Aril with at the rain that you are having I thought these might have surprised you! ❤️🌹
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Hi TD, I wrote about the roses more in the other comment as I didn’t see this comment (going up in reverse chronological order in Reader) – they have a past too. 🙂 As of today, these three remain in the yard on the other side. I look at them every year to determine whether they should go and now that I’m not planting anything, I guess they will stay for some color. I just didn’t go in the backyard yet to check them out as it was wet since we have rain so much lately.
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Years ago I planted roses in the backyard of my first house. They were a lot of hard work, but having a ready supply of cut roses during the summer was nice. The red ones are my favorites. I have not been able to “like” for a few months – it is sporadic. I cannot even “like” comments made on my blog half the time. WP said to “clear your cache.” But it has not helped.
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Also, for some reason, WP will not let me “like” anything.
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Roses are a lot of work JP – I agree. After I became the “gardener of the house” I ripped out all the irises my father planted and planted tea roses, but they were fragile and didn’t bloom very much, so I took them out and planted shrub roses which were much hardier. I like red roses too.
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So pretty! I have to assume these roses are not from this year. Roses here in PA are not even close to blooming yet.
I am hoping I can work in my flower beds this year. I am supposed to be taking it easy. It’s not easy taking it easy! 🙂
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Thank you Laurie! This was part of my garden from 2010 – we are just getting Daffodils here – it has been cold and we will have a wintry mix tonight. I had other parts of my yard that were not butterfly gardens and a large area was devoted to roses. I still have my “Home Run Shrub Roses” though they have not looked the same since the Polar Vortex of the Winter of 2013-2014. I tried my hand at a climber but it was disease prone, so I had to pull it out before it contaminated the others with blackspot. Next Wednesday I’ll have a clematis plant – I had several of those but they all bit the dust that year as well! I know you have to take it easy for a while, so please leave the mulch project to Jim and you can do the planting and tending!
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Lovely roses! Our weather is still too winter-like, so they were nice to see. 🙂
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Thank you Debbie. These roses were on the other side of the yard, separate from the butterfly garden. I still have some of them, but not the climbing rose which was disease prone, so I pulled it out. We have rain right now, but are supposed to have a wintry mix tonight in my area, but snow in the northern suburbs. It was below freezing when I went out this morning on my walk, a real feel of 28F (-2 C). It’s more like the first week of March, than April!
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Our weather is about the same! 😩 Worst spring in years.
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Yes, awful and we are supposed to have above-average temps and a lot of rain April through June, so it will be like we just bypassed Spring!
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Not a great year weather-wise! 😩
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No, not at all. We got 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) of snow overnight her in my city, but it has since melted because it rained this afternoon.
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Ah, glad to see there’s still some semblance of a garden, Linda! I remember your story of something other than roses being too much trouble to maintain. Looks like the roses are cooperating well.
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Dave, yes, the roses rallied back from the Polar Vortex that occurred in the Winter of 2013-2014, but after considerable coaxing and copious amounts of fertilizer on my part. But they have never looked as good as they did in these photos, but I kept them anyway. I have decided after two years of wavering back and forth to NOT plant the butterfly garden to recreate what I had before. We had not only the Siberian Polar Vortex this Winter, but four other bouts of brutal cold. Now we have a wintry mix tonight and when I went out to walk this morning it was a real feel of 28. With a rainy Spring on the way, I just decided climate change and wacky weather is here to stay and I don’t want to lose everything like before.
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Pretty flowers, I hope we get spring soon so we can see our flowers pop up !
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Thanks Susan – more flowers from my 2010 garden. I still have most of these bushes, but they have seen better days. 🙂 We still have only daffodils and forsythia providing the only color – the tree/bush leaves aren’t even out yet. Spring is loading very slowly here too!
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Unusual to see bees on red flowers. They say bees don’t see red.
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I didn’t know that about bees Ruth – that was interesting. These were my “Home Run” shrub roses that the bees were busy with. They were damaged in the same Winter of 2013-2014 Polar Vortex where I lost the butterfly garden. They rallied back thanks to Rose-Tone fertilizer, but they have never looked as good as they did back then.
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I want to smell those roses
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Hazel – the roses do smell very nice on a hot and humid day or after the rain.
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Just by the photo, I’m pretty sure of that, Linda. Thanks for sharing
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Thank you Hazel.
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It’s my pleasure, linda
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There is something about dew drops on roses… so beautiful. I hope you will have roses soon!
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I agree Barbara, the dew drops seem to enhance their delicate beauty. I forgot to look when I was outside running the car this morning as we had 1.5 inches of snow on the grass, but it has since melted. I hope they show a little green on the stems.
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Very pretty Linda! Flowers always brighten my day.
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Thank you Diane – these were in their glory days – two different types of roses, “Home Run” Shrub Rose and “Stairway to Heaven” climbing rose. I resurrected the shrub roses after that Polar Vortex the Winter of 2013-2014 as they turned brown and looked dead, but I don’t know how they’ll do after this Polar Vortex and four bouts of bitter cold weather. You definitely have a green thumb!
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Your roses are so lovely, Linda! Sorry I’m late to the party!
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Thank you Terri – they were so pretty after the rain and smelled heavenly!
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Lovely red roses. They remind me of the rose buds that my Mom use to pick and pin on us for Mother’s Day.
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Thank you Rebecca. I like when roses are dewy looking like that and I also like the idea of your mom pinning rosebuds on you and your siblings for Mother’s Day. Those are very sweet memories.
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Beautiful roses, Linda! I used to have roses in the yard by the river but too much competition from surrounding trees ended their blossoming. Roses need more sunlight than what existed.
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Thank you Tom – my garden was my pride and joy once upon a time. I just looked today and my shrub roses have some life to them and tiny leaf buds. I wasn’t sure since they were almost decimated by the Polar Vortex the Winter of 2013-2014. This year’s Polar Vortex I understand was worse. My shrub roses (with the bee) did well with full sun, but my climbing rose also in this post, just could not make it as it was susceptible to disease from the time I planted it. It was actually three bare-root roses and an umbrella trellis for a memorial garden. I should have stuck with hardier roses.
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So beautiful!!
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Glad you like these roses Esther.
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You had a green thumb!! If you decide to garden again, I think you’ll do great with the flowers, but do you want to spend that much time and energy out there?!
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Yes, I did – once upon a time and this Wednesday you’ll see one of my pretty Clematis plants. You are correct about how much time I want to spend to create another garden, then tend to it. It took me two years to come to that conclusion and this past Winter with its brutal cold weather and here we are almost halfway through April and there are no leaves out, very few buds and a week of rain off/on coming up, 1.5 inches of snow last Thursday … none of this weather is normal anymore! In the Spring of 2024 we had too much rain, then in the Summer of 2024, we had too much heat and zero rain for weeks. It just makes me think that creating another butterfly garden and planting bushes and other plants is too much of a gamble.
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Gardening is tough! Maybe get a nice plant or two to take care of, if you want.
As you must be familiar with our spring routine, we planted a bunch of seeds, like green beans, cilantro, parsley, lemon, arugula, and some succulent. They’re seedlings and growing well although the lemon seed is not making a peep through the soil. We’ll see if they actually keep growing. Succulents, I’m a bit more confident with those.
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Do you worry about animals digging the seedlings up, like chipmunks or squirrels, or wild rabbits? Whenever I ever started a plant from seeds in the backyard, I had to put a glass jar over it until it “took” and when the jar came off, sometimes I planted small Marigolds around it to discourage animals nibbling on them.
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Your photos always say so much. Lovely.
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Thank you Barbara. Your comments are always so kind and appreciated.
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It’s a connection and sometime you need that.
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Yes, we do sometimes in this hectic world we live in, across the miles makes it even more special – thank you again.
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love all of these photos – and did you know that in 2005 I submitted some flower photos to a local art competition – amateur category – and they were titled “after the rain” – so your title reminded me of that fun experience – but my flowers were purple and I think pink – and I loved your roses in different states
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Thank you Yvette. I lost most of my backyard garden, except for the roses bushes, in the Polar Vortex the Winter of 2013-2014. I planned to start another perimeter garden this Summer, but with our very erratic weather lately, I decided against it. I like to photograph flowers after the rain – they look even lovelier than when the petals are dry.
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Yes, I remember us chatting about some of the stuff lost 0 and I lost a huge a Rosemary plant – it had become a large shrub and I was so happy to have it there – even though I rarely utilized it. Are you planning on doing more gardening now that you are retired?
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Yvette, I spent two years dwelling on what to do with the garden. I don’t know if you read the post I wrote about the fire, but the downed wire fire in December 2022 burned 1/4 of my yard, including my whole back garden. A branch from a neighbor’s dead tree fell on the electrical wire and pulled it down at 11:35 p.m., 25 feet from where I slept. Our energy provider came into the yard the next day and cut down the tops of my trees that had nothing to do with the fire so I had to have the trees removed as they looked odd. It looked bad back there. So I had the stumps removed and everything cleared in the Fall of 2024, all vestiges of the former garden, except three rose bushes – I intended to start my garden and butterfly garden from scratch, but after our brutally cold Winter we had this year, I decided I decided I was not going to put money and effort into a new garden, only for the garden to die like it did in the last Polar Vortex (Winter 2014). I did have landscaping fabric and mulch put down and my landscape ties removed, with a retaining wall put in, so that looks 100% better than before. The weather forecast for April through June was to be rainy, hot and humid, so that factored into my decision as well. I’ve been there and done that back in the 80s, 90s and aughts and now that I’m older, I said “no”.
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I knew about the 2022 fire but some of the other details are new – and LINDA! It sounds like you are being strategic and wise here. We really do have to decide where to put our time and effort and I think you are making the right call!
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It just makes sense to me not to put too much time and effort, not to mention money into a garden which may sustain weather damage. I always thought I’d have way more time once I was retired, but I am interested in learning how to draw and paint (eventually). I took two art sketching classes the weekend before last and am starting four weeks of online classes next Monday. So I am excited for that and studying French which takes time too.
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Oh that does sound super fun – and I am glad blogging is still included in your schedule
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I think I am wearing myself out trying to keep up Yvette. I was more regimented when I worked. Today I walked six miles and it was very not outside. I have to do better at reading though and decluttering, the latter which I’m not doing well with.
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well that makes sense that you were a bit more regimented when working – because sometimes a schedule or routine fuels momentum.
Like did you ever hear the saying that “if you want something done, give it to a busy person?”
also, I heard the first year – or the first six months – of retirement can be the toughest because of the new schedule – and so just give yourself time to find the updated blog approach – and maybe even expect it to change a little – (or not – ha)
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You know I did a pie chart of my day maybe at year end for a blog post and I wrote that more time does not equal more productivity. Several other people, just like you, said it takes a while to “find your groove” so I am hoping in year #2 to do better. I had hobbies planned in my mind for many years, but also some of those hobbies, like learning French and learning to paint/sketch, were before blogging and a renewed interest in photography, so trying to juggle everything is something I need to do better.
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well as you aim to do better – make sure you are still enjoying what you do – I am sure you are – but things can sneak up on us and become a drain
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Yes, I don’t want to take on too much. I started my online botanical drawing classes. I have all week to watch the videos and draw and send them in for feedback. I wish I hadn’t bothered with the two on-site classes with wax pencils – this is better. I have a little more time this week as we have a rainy week.
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🙂
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