Since Monday, life has moved fast, and maybe that is a good thing. Tuesday the photographer (Dave Shafer of Dave Shafer Photography) for a magazine shoot showed up, and we didn’t slow down until the dinner party at the cabin that evening. We have a large garden group coming on an official tour this Spring and we enjoyed showing them around.

After some photo shots the next day, Dr. Welch and I headed off to Louisiana for a quick bulb trip. We stayed at his home near Monroe. It is a story in itself, but I will quickly say that I very much enjoyed his use of their native cherry wood for the mantle and flooring.

In his garden and many other gardens around the South, the naked ladies were blooming. Sometimes they are also called surprise lilies, but the scientific name is Lycoris squamigera. Ours on the farm have been very confused by all of this rain. After the blooms are done, we won’t hear from the bulbs until they send up their foliage in timing with the daffodil foliage. Their foliage will die in late spring, and we will again wait until sometime after the 4th of July for a bloom. This year, I particularly noticed the blue tints on the opening buds.

Also blooming in the yard were more Philippine lilies.

It is also time to start harvesting corn, if it is dry enough for the combines to enter the fields. Also in full growth is cotton. I find cotton, a relative of the ornamental hibiscus, to be very attractive, and I asked about other variable foliage coloration. I learned about brown cotton, that has a color similar to Casmir.

Once back at the farm, Dr. Welch and I took a quick walk around the property. When we were down in the ravine, I heard a noise that sounded heavier than normal. Then a squirrel fell out of the tree, followed by a large bobcat. Dr. Welch thinks it was too big for a bobcat and that it was possibly a mountain lion. I was very excited at first, and was ready to begin the chase as we normally did, but it wasn’t we anymore. Instead, I stood there with Dr. Welch and admired the cat and its single chasing leap half way up the tree. When it spotted us it abandoned the squirrel and ran away.

Later we prepared for another wonderful dinner, this time at the local restaurant, that included new friends and old. The next day (today) it was an early breakfast, some more social time with the overnight friends, and then back on the tractor. Also finished the new guinea cage and they are outside now in the pole barn. Everyone has gone home now. No Fisch so it's kind of quiet, except for the AC unit that shakes the place everytime it turns on.