Signs of Spring

This is the first year our flowering tree gave us more than a few blooms! It greeted us with hundreds of beautiful white blossoms when we came home from Mexico on Cinco de Mayo!

This sprig is from a bush or tree in Ryan's yard.  A prize for the first one who successfully identifies it for me!  We are not sure what it is, though we have a couple of ideas. I would love to buy one for my yard!

My geraniums overwinter in a slightly heated green house, so when I finally pull them out for the back deck, they are in full bloom.  Instant spring color :-)

Medicinal Herb Gardens

On the wonderfully sunny Sunday just past, Darrell and I went to Seattle to have lunch with Bethany and take a walk through the UW's  Medicinal Herb Gardens.  It was supposed to be a guided tour, but apparently the budget cuts hit in this area, too, as the tours were cancelled, but the gardens could be investigated on our own.

 Several large greenhouses are just to the south of the herb gardens.  Those are scarlet runner beans vining up the ropes.  If you have ever grown those, you can imagine what a riotous mass of scarlet blooms will adorn this massive area before too long!

The gardens sprawled around on what we hear is about 2 acres.  There were hundreds of plants, some of which I recognized and even grew, others I had heard of but never seen, and then a host of plants I had neither heard of nor seen before! It would have been fascinating to hear what they were all used for!

A couple of cool ones: This cactus looked like a 4 foot tall 'hen' of Hens and Chicks, so I will give it the name of 'Rooster".  The amazing pink flower was actually not a part of the herb gardens, but was some tall bush we passed on our walk back to Bethany's apartment, just a few blocks from the campus.

One of our favorites, we think stiff tickseed has a quiet character of its own, but not to be overlooked!

Flowers and Pepian

This has been a very cold spring, with the weather outlook promising more of the same through June.  Spring may not want to come to us, but we can bring a semblance of it to us! 

My daughter bustled in for Mother's Day with this beautiful, colorful tulip bouquet !

Laden with a plethora of blooms, this wonderful fuchsia was a gift from son Ryan! 

Nothing shouts spring more than bright yellow flowers!  Love this bouquet from Darrell :o} 

Bethany also cooked up this Guatemalan dish, Pepian, for all of us.  Made with chicken pieces, potatoes, carrots, squashes (like Guiskil) and cooked in some kind of Guatemalan sauce, it is served over rice.  It was very good! 

Roasted Asparagus with goat cheese and toasted walnuts..... YUM!!!

Bean Dip and Chips for an appetizer, and Hot Fudge Sundaes for dessert... so good!

Thanks to the family for a wonderful Mother's Day!

Ahhhh! Spring is on the Way!

,

First a howling blizzard woke us,

Then the rain came down to soak us,

And now, before the eye can focus,

Crocus!

~ Lilja Rogers

Christmas Poppy

That we find a crystal or a poppy beautiful means that we are less alone, that we are more deeply inserted into existence than the course of a single life would lead us to believe. ~John Berger

Gathering of Summer

Hollyhocks are another favorite of mine, stirring up feelings of nostalgia in me, I suppose from different children's books or perhaps gardening ones. Can you see the busy bee gathering pollen?

Here is a closer peek at the buzzing bumble bee!  It hit the jackpot with this flower!

Garden Bouquet

Wild Sweet Pea (Lathyrus latifolius)

"Always before about my dooryard,

Marking the reach of the winter sea,

Rooted in sand & dragging driftwood,

Straggled the purple wild sweet pea."

-Edna St. Vincent Millay,

This beautiful weed weaves its way throughout the canes of my raspberries :o}

Sweet Peas

Sweet Peas are one of my favorite summer flowers, primarily because of their wonderful aroma.  They are growing along the back fence of my vegetable garden this year, and welcome me with their sweet scent :o}

Sweet Nectar!

            The Bee and the Foxglove

Summer Beauty

First peony I have ever bloomed out at Harmon Hollow!

Tranquility

I was bird watching and enjoying the flowers on the deck a while back, before this month long seige of rainy weather hit.

Around the Yard

Tillie enjoys a moment of sun.  So content!

                                                               

The incubated ducks are no longer very small!

Bigger yet are the oldest ducklings, hatched by Mama Mallard about a month ago.  The black one in the front is the one I helped out of his hard shell after the rest fled the nest.

Yellow Tulips greeting the daylight.......

Hosta shooting forth from the cold ground.

Grape Hyacinth, one of the first to grace the gardens in the spring.

One of my favorites every year, this bright bold, red tulip with a beautiful center.

How strange that Nature does not knock, and yet does not intrude!

 ~Emily Dickinson, letter to Mrs. J.S. Cooper, 1880

Mustard Weed

I first fell in love with mustard weed in the spring of 1977.  We had moved to Santa Rosa and rented an apartment on Stony Point Road that looked out upon stunning yellow fields of blooming mustard weed.  Ever since then, my eyes and heart are drawn toward them.

This incredible field is situated next to the bridge into Monroe on Hwy 203.

Some folks take photos of the wonderful Mt. Vernon daffodil and tulip fields.  But I get just as much pleasure from acres of mustard weed.  Like seas of bright yellow happiness :-)

 A weed is a plant that has mastered every survival skill except for learning how to grow in rows.

~Doug Larson

A Ray of Spring

Last night and today were ridiculously blustery and wet.  Trees down, pools of water everywhere.  Soggy, soggy, soggy.  Winter has finally arrived. Just in time for the start of Spring!

To brighten my day, I am going to post a photo taken of my Flowering Quince before the storm hit.  Ahhh!  Now isn't that better?

Spring Blooms

Springtime is the land awakening. The March winds are the morning yawn.

~Quoted by Lewis Grizzard in Kathy Sue Loudermilk, I Love You

Bouquet Variations

Last night my thoughtful husband brought me a pretty bouquet of flowers. Being inspired by my daughter-in-law Bethany's amazing blog header, I played around today with different effects on this original photo:

Wild Effects!

Black & White


?

Odd Assortment

Brights

My personal favorite!

Which do you like the best?