More Yard Stuff

I bought Hollyhocks today! I'm not going to plant them just yet, as we're having a bit of a cold snap (and I should probably cover up the Clematis plants tonight, just in case).

I did plant a few bulbs on Monday. I dug roughly a two foot circle in the front yard, sifted a bunch of gravel out of the dirt (remnants of the old gravel driveway, I presume), dumped in some of my leftover sand, a bag of bulb-starter-soil, a bag of manure, and another bag of bulb-starter soil. Then I stuck the bulbs in at the appropriate depths. I haven't had much luck with bulbs in the past, but I haven't been as in tune with things either. *shrugs* We'll see if they grow. As for the stuff I've planted already, the black raspberry has a leaf that is definitely growing, and looks to be ready to put out another leaf or two. I'm not sure about the golden raspberry; I think that there are some buds growing out of the, er, stick that weren't there before, but I'm not 100% sure.

I've got a little cat that's been coming around lately. She looks Siamese, mostly. A bit of research and I found out that the Siamese coloring is carried by a recessive gene. Two copies of the gene, and any cat will get the distinctive points, etc. I'm reasonably certain this one's not a purebred, as there are faint stripes that show up in the tawny part of her coat. Though she is slightly cross-eyed, as many Siamese are. I've been calling her Dovienya ("luck"). She's been coming by roughly once a day, usually extremely hungry. She likes being petted, but isn't too fond of being held. I've offered to let her inside, but so far she hasn't done more than step just past the threshold. *shrugs*

Between Dovienya and my hiking wanderlust of last summer, I've been paying a lot more attention to the seasons, the outdoors, and my own yard. Attentiveness is the first step to getting it the way I want, and an important part of keeping it that way. Anyway, when it warms up again, I'll plant the hollyhock between the two new raspberry plants. I got one "black" hollyhock (which will probably be a deep, deep purple) and two that could turn out to be any color to go around it. And speaking of raspberries, my established red raspberry plants are well on their way: