Carolina Jasmine

This is picture is from my Dad's garden. The Carolina Jasmine (Gelsemium sempervirens) blooms in early spring and puts on a show with its bright yellow flowers. In Louisiana, it is a reliable deciduous perennial. The flowers smell sweet and attract bees.

Carolina Jasmine is known by a few other names like Carolina Jessamine or Yellow Jessamine, but in Louisiana it is widely known as Carolina Jasmine.

My Dad planted this vine years ago and every year it get bigger and bigger. You can't see it from this angle, but the vine has swallowed a bluebird house! The bluebirds still manage to use the birdhouse. Since bluebirds are shy, I think they welcome the privacy that the vine gives them.

Farmers Market

Every Saturday morning local farmers gather in downtown Baton Rouge to sell produce. The market is called Red Stick Farmers Market (Baton Rouge means Red Stick in French). The market opens at 8AM but the farmers get there very early to set up.

Everyone seemed to have strawberries for sale!

This family of pecan farmers was handing out free samples. They were really good!

Our main reason for going to the farmers market was to buy local honey. Dave loves honey and its also very healthly!

There were also vendors selling art work, food, and soap. Check out this King Cake Soap! It smelled just like King Cake too!

They also had flowers for sale, but I didn't get any.

New Leaves

Yesterday I noticed my Red Buckeye (Aesculus pavia) tree beginning to open new leaves. This tree is always the first plant to leaf out. Its an indication that spring is almost here.

This is a picture of a perennial saliva, Victoria Blue Salvia. New leaves are sprouting from the base and in a few months it will be blooming!

Quilt the Swamp

Quilt the Swamp is an annual exhibit at BREC Bluebonnet Swamp in Baton Rouge, LA. The exhibit featured small quilts inspired by nature. Many of the quilts were sewn by locals.

This picture (below) is my favorite! I thought it was the best quilt there. I especially love the Barred Owl at the top. The Bluebonnet Swamp has plenty of Barred Owls but I haven't seen one yet. After we looked at the quilts, we walked the nature trails and I spent the whole time looking for owls. I was sure I'd spot one since the trees are without leaves.....but I didn't see any!

The Bluebonnet Swamp also has tons of snakes on display! Thankfully they are kept in glass cages and can't get out. Most of the snakes are native non-venomous snakes, but some are venomous. The snake in this picture is venomous, I think he is a rattlesnake but I can't remember. All I remember is how big is he was! He was bigger than my arm!

These are newly built wood duck houses. I'm hoping the next time I visit I see some wood ducks!

I think this turtle is a box turtle, but I'm not sure. There is small pond near the front entrance parking lot and the pond is full of these turtles!

Spring pictures

January is a bleak month for gardening. In my yard, not too many plants are blooming and most plants haven't come out of winter dormancy. Basically I don't have anything to write about; so I've decided to post some flower pictures from a vacation we took to St. Louis, Missouri in August 2009. Enjoy!

Plants Don't Know Its Winter

A few days ago I noticed that several plants were breaking out of winter dormancy, which is not so unusual to see in south Louisiana as we have mild winters. Lately we've had day temps in the 60's and night temps in the 40's. Every now and then a cold front will move in and it will be cold, as in a day high of 40-50. Here are a few pictures from around my yard.

Here are pictures from two of my petunia hanging baskets. Last year's petunias set seeds and now the seeds are just beginning to grow. I planted these petunias 2 years ago and they always set seed! In a few months I'll have blooms.

This is the only flower in my garden! This is a dianthus and it mainly blooms in colder months.

Here is one of my hydrangeas putting out its first leaves of spring. The hydrangeas don't realize its still winter; I guess they have been fooled into thinking that it is spring since we haven't had very cold weather.

This is a new leaf bud on my Red Buckeye tree (Aesculus pavia). Its a slow growing tree and is always the first tree to leaf out in spring. Red Buckeyes also have very pretty red flowers. I'll be sure to post pictures of them whenever it blooms.

Fishing trip

Last Wednesday Dave and I drove up to Clinton, LA to our grandparent's camp. They own lots of land and the family members use it for hunting and fishing. The goal of our fishing trip was to break in our brand new baitcasting rod and reels that we bought at Cabelas. I wasn't expecting to catch anything because it was cold and windy and not a good day for fishing. We had been casting for about an hour when I caught a largemouth bass! I caught him on a white spinner bait and I'm guessing he weighted about 2-3 pounds. After the picture was taken, I threw him back in so he can grow big!

We didn't catch any more fish so we left around 1PM and headed to my grandparent's house. As soon as I got there, I showed them the picture of my fish. They said it was a pretty fish! I agreed....it had nice color and was fat. Then, we sat around the fireplace, talked, drank hot tea and ate cookies.

After that, we walked outside to visit my uncle's donkeys.

They love to be petted and I think they wanted some food, but I didn't have anything for them to eat.

Dave and I petted them awhile, then walked around to the other side of the barn. The donkeys followed us! They look so cute here.

We left the donkeys behind and headed for the back porch. We sat in rocking chairs and watched goldfinches root around in leaf litter. They got close to us and I was able to snap a few pictures. I'm not sure what kind of bird is in the last picture. Maybe its a female goldfinch.