Pam – Page 105 – New England's Narrow Road

Buying Succulents at The House By The Side of The Road

The House by the Side of the Road is the name of a plant nursery in Wilton, New Hampshire. I only recently discovered it when my Realtor sent me a gift certificate from there after I closed on my house. It’s a family run place with loads of plants and I stopped there one day this winter looking for something to have growing in my house.

I needed to buy some kind of plants that Skittle the Cat wouldn’t eat. She is one of those cats who constantly wants attention and to get it one of the things she does is eat the plants. I figured if I bought non-leafy ones she might not be interested and I was looking for succulents in particular.

As you can imagine, buying plants in winter doesn’t give you much choice, but this place had a whole little section of interesting cactus and succulents. I don’t really know much about this type of plant, so I chose three that looked interesting.

The ones I chose needed re-potting, so I picked up a couple of new pots for them. The one in the blue pot here had a “baby” growing from the stem and it’s roots were just dangling in the air! So I gave it it’s own little pot (see it to the left in this picture).

I don’t have names for any of these, but one has soft, fuzzy “leaves” and another looks like a bunch of hungry mouths ready to chomp down on anything that comes by (second photo down). It reminds me of a venus fly trap type plant. I use isolated plant images to create Succulent Wedding Paper.

fuzzy leafed plant — This plant is soft and fuzzy.

On nice days I put them outside on the deck and they seem to love the sun. If you like having plants but don’t want to fuss with them, try a succulent. And don’t water them… seriously, they can go for weeks and even longer without water.

Memories of Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

grilled tomato and cheese sandwich — Grilled tomato and cheese sandwich

I seldom eat a sandwich any more but I had stopped by the neighborhood organic grocery store and picked up some whole grain bread made by The Bread Shed, and a nice tomato for my salad and decided that I needed to grill up a sandwich.

When I lived in Florida, grilled cheese sandwiches were an ‘after church’ ritual. Usually some friends of my kids would stop over and I’d make everyone sandwiches, and grilled cheese became the favorite. We’d stand around and eat and talk in my sunny, air-conditioned kitchen. We all have some memories of funny stories told in those days and one of the kids (grown now) still asks me to send him a sandwich. He insists I made the best grilled cheese sandwiches ever.

So, after my shopping trip, with that nice, thinly sliced bread and fresh, red tomato just sitting there on my counter I just had to grill me up some deliciousness.

And it was good.

The Chickadees are Building a Nest

Nest building by chickadees — Birdhouse and chickadee

I just noticed yesterday that a chickadee was peering into the birdhouse I’ve had hanging on the slanted post out back. I was so excited to see that maybe she was considering using it to raise a family, so I watched for a while and sure enough she went in. And another chickadee came along and he / she ? (who knows with chickadees) went inside too.

Then, today I ate my lunch outside on the deck and watched as they brought mouthfulls of grass into the birdhouse.

Chickadees are one of the most beloved birds. They are relatively unafraid of humans, and never squabble amongst themselves. They appear to be the best natured birds fluttering around the yard.

The birdhouse is one I’ve had for many years. When I lost my home, I took it (and others) with me and put them up at the various rentals I’ve had over the past six years, but no bird ever used it to build a nest.

Now that I have a home of my own, the house will be used! I think that is awesome. So I will enjoy watching the parents occupy the birdhouse, which sits just a few feet from my deck out back, and I’ll listen for the chirping of the babies one day!

I am not very good at photographing wildlife, but I’ll try to get some good shots as the babies appear.
You can see in the photo below how close they will be to my deck.

backyard deck and lawn — The proximity of the birdhouse to the deck.

Photos of Spring – Tulips and Daffodils in New Hampshire

So we are all thrilled that the warm weather has arrived. We are not as happy about the lack of rain, but this next week will hopefully bring relief to the dry and dusty yards and gardens.
I’ve been photographing the plantings at my new house and these orange and white tulips were a nice little surprise for me.

I think that everyone takes their plants outside, if they have a porch or deck, once the weather warms up so the poor things can get a taste of sunshine! I know that my plants look very happy out there.

deck with table and chairs — Plants on the deck - they love it!

I planted the tulips and some are coming up nicely but others are looking a bit funny. This red one doesn’t seem quite right, but the color is stupendous! Sorry, the photo is a bit blurry, but I just love that color.

bright red tulip — Red Tulip - not a great picture, but love the bright red!

I finally got the hose hooked up so I could give these babies some water. It’s as dry as a bone around these parts. I guess I planted all the peach ones together. Who can remember from last Fall..?