My beautiful Charles Joly lilac
Pink Bleeding Heart, looking wonderful
One of a kind in my garden.
After my husband's mother died a few years ago, we got her red Bleeding Heart. (Oh my goodness, that sounds terrible! Technically correct, but terrible! May my father-in-law never read this. Although he was the one who gave it to us.) Anyway, I had forgotten that we got it until I saw the red blooms this spring. What a nice surprise.
The Forget-Me-Nots that pop up everywhere in the spring.
Love them. They brighten up the shadier spots.
The Rhododendron that came with the house
Love the way the light plays off the delicate, paper-thin blossoms
Sunlight on my Juneberry bush
(I think they are almost better tasting than blueberries)
(I think they are almost better tasting than blueberries)
My favorite Hosta for shady spots
Paper-whites(?) Whatever they are, they smell great!
Front-lit late-blooming Daffodil
Back-lit
The only tulip to survive my crazed rampage against them years ago
(I tried to destroy them all so that the deer would stop coming to nibble on everything.)
This is a store-bought tulip, but I love the way the petals shimmer in the sunlight
My big, beautiful patch of Rhubarb, taken as cutting from my grandmother's garden
(Hi, Johnny Zombie Scarecrow! You still freak me out every time I see you from the kitchen window and think that someone is standing at the back of the yard, staring at the house!)
First harvest of Rhubarb, washed stalks and cut-up pieces in a bag to freeze
(There was more than this, but I gave some to the neighbors. I say that if we all grew something and shared it, the world would be a nicer place.)
Look at the size of these stalks. Almost as big as my nearly-eight-year-old.
Love the texture of Japanese Anemone leaves
Bluebells, a happy accident whose seeds must have blown in from somewhere else.
I left them because they were so pretty.
What a difference a day makes. Already blooming!
Sweet, sweet Daffodils (my consolation prize for tearing out the tulips)
Azaleas (in early May)
Dew on the Bleeding Heart leaves, like little jewels
My favorite Coral Bells, gifts from my mom.
They remind me of a sunset with their brilliant colors.
Getting lost in the Crabapple blossoms
(I could take a ton of these pictures. I love the ethereal feel and the way the light dances on the petals. And you get a different look from different angles, lights, and times of the day. It's always neat to see what comes up.)
Yellow Daffodils (with a bee) in front of pink Bleeding Hearts in front of the Royal Raindrops Crabapple in the background (flower buds are still closed, but the leaves and buds are a burgundy color)
My favorite angel statue with Bleeding Hearts in the foreground...
And finally, this is the pair of wrens that took up residence
a few years ago in the homemade birdhouse.
(It's a bird-feeder that I made into a birdhouse. And it's a palace for tiny wrens who seem to hate those tiny wren houses that you make from a kit.)
We call them Optimus and Elita. (Can you tell I have a family of boys!)
This is the female, busy filling the house with sticks:
And now she's poking her head out of the hole to see what I am doing:
And while she works . . .
the male sits there and does what he does best:
watches her work while he sings to himself!
