Weird Year

And no, not just because of a pandemic!

We had a super mild winter (which I LOVED!) and then a much colder than usual spring, including a few later than normal frosts, so I thought it could be a rough growing time for plants.

Instead, it ended up being an oddly wonderful year for many things!

I  mentioned  how once spring warmed up, all the bulbs started taking off at once!

The biggest surprises were that our very sad cherry tree, which normally has a few sparse blossoms followed by a few cherries that the birds eat before they are ripe, still had only a few sparse blossoms, but EXPLODED with cherries! There were so many that the birds couldn't keep up and husband got several bowls full!

His blackberry bush is also producing splendidly after a few years of nothingness.


With the mild winter, I heard mosquitoes would be ATROCIOUS, but turns out by the end of June we had seen a total of 3! 
There are more now, but they're small and sluggish and rarely bite. So odd!
I did keep up with my BTI pellet traps better than most years, but it seems like they're also just down in general.

But the BIRDS!!!
We had a robin nest and got to see the little babies hatched and begging for food for a week or so.

We had Cedar Waxwings for the first time picking at the cherries, in addition to several other kinds I was too far to identify, but have never seen before. (The cherry tree was VERY popular! Two kinds of woodpeckers, who are regular visitors to our yard, were very extra excited about it!)

During migrating season, there were several kinds of new little wrens or finches that passed through. And BLUEBIRDS!!! We've never before seen bluebirds and we've had dozens over the course of the summer! 

My favoritest of all, though, are the most adorable little birdies you'll ever see. I've only ever seen them in Ohio where my sister-in-law pointed them out as her favorite....it's like an adorable little pudgy wren and a chipmunk combined!!! The way their little shaped tail points up?! Beyond cute.

The Carolina Wren - cutest of all the wrens!

Never seen them, so figured they just don't come this far east or whatever.

UNTIL THIS YEAR!!

Husband goes, "that looks like that little bird from Ohio". We looked it up and sure enough!!!

We've had a bunch of them and discovered THAT'S the happy, singing bird that made a nest in our huge front shrub right near our front window.

So excited!!


Not only outdoor plants doing well (until a massive heat wave in and drought are sort of pummeling them 😒), but craziest of all is the INDOOR plants!

My violet bloomed! 
Orchids and violets are the two plants I thought I'd never have because I've heard they are so finicky. But in the past year and a half, I was given both!

Soooo...basic watering and who knows what else I'm supposed to do...?

But obviously it worked!

Not only did the violet bloom, but my orchid is putting out a new leaf! (Still hasn't bloomed, but hey, one step at a time!)

And then this plant that I've had for probably close to 10 years randomly shot new growth out of the dirt!! Didn't know it could do that!



The biggest surprise of all, though has been our wax/hoya plant.
A friend gave me a clipping off hers - maybe about 3 leaves and it has slowly grown over probably close to 10 years as well.

I prune it and give clippings away and one time one of them bloomed with these bizarre little flowers. No clue it did that!

I later found out that they do bloom and smell really good, but to help that process, these plants like to be root-bound. So basically all the up-potting I'd done as it got bigger was no bueno!

The last time I re-potted it was maybe 2-3 years ago. Last year we started letting it grow around our window because hey, why not live in a jungle?!

And lo and behold, what should appear this year, but blossoms!!!

 A bunch of little clusters! And after they died off, more have come!!

They are so crazy-looking; like little plastic flowers! But they smell delightful!

 So yes, super weird year for so many reasons, but some really fun, unexpected surprises!

Granted, now everything is sad as can be after a record-breaking string of 90°+ days and little rain, but hey, when it really counted - April through June where we were all getting used to outdoor social distancing events - were wonderful!