Thursday, 2 April 2009
Around here, April showers bring*…April flowers! At least rains this early in the month!
These were open yesterday midday, but with the rain we’ve had off and on (and sometimes ON-ON) since yesterday evening, I guess they opted to stay safely closed today….
* Apparently this is from a proverb known at least from the nineteenth century….
Wednesday, 1 April 2009
Some people have been quite clever today. Me—not so much. The best I can do is to caption this Wisteria* Lane.
* Wisteria species are native to eastern North American and northern Asia. Two easy ways to distinguish among them are that the New World ones have unscented blooms and smooth (not velvety) pods—depending on what time of the year you’re doing your taxonomic investigation. So says Wiki-P.
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
When the flowering trees and bulbs, etc., are so showy, it’s easy to skip by the less flashy plants. Here’s our hosta, just leafing out, christened by the rain….
I was confused by the word “burgeon” when I first encountered it because several of my schoolmates had the family name Bergeon, so the word was anchored in my brain as “just a name.” How many times did I go wrong with assumptions like that?
Monday, 23 March 2009
Six years ago this day we wandered the Bot Garden. Outside we saw redbuds and ornamental fruit trees. Indoors we saw orchids orchids orchids. The waxiness of their petals amazes me (some species, anyway).
Sunday, 22 March 2009
The landscape we saw on Friday had a lovely blue cast, supporting the name Blue Ridge Mountains. Scenery around here today: leafing out and springlike. Or becoming green.
Thursday, 19 March 2009
Unforced forsythias. Brilliant yellow glory. Sunshine as petals.
Monday, 16 March 2009
Recipe: take one ornamental pear tree just past full bloom when the leaves are beginning to emerge. Add at least two days of drizzle. Examine the ground below.
Enjoy the pattern of still-fresh petals.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Forsythia: half aging blooms, half new leaves a’comin’.
Ornamental fruit trees: full bloom.
Daffodils: still vibrant, but almost ready to begin fading.
Redbud: almost out to full out.
Rainy walk today, but fun, ’cause it wasn’t that warm, so pleasant to stroll bundled against the precip.
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Darned sneaky spider!
I have it on good authority that this daffodil coloration was fashionable the mid-twentieth century. (Came with the house, so that makes sense.)
* You’ve heard of witness (bearing) trees? Not the same at all….
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
I quite enjoyed spotting this lovely teeny fern snugged up against a lichen-decorated rock wall in a yard not far from here, and imagining a spider or lizard living in the cavelet it protects.