Good Grief!

                                                                                                                                                                   First day of spring and our deck still looks like this. 



                      

First day of spring 2012,

crocuses were blooming.

I'm not much of a garden blogger these days, but not ready to give it up. Will keep plugging along and see if the upcoming growing season motivates me.

"It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!"    -Mark Twain

Dreams Vs. Reality

Dreaming of days like this when the sky was blue and the sun was shining down on my sunflowers.

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned

that there was in me an invincible summer."

-Albert Camus-

But, sadly, this is the reality of late February in WI.



On a cheerier note, the celery is growing nicely in a containter hand-painted by a local nursing home resident.



Looking forward to the snow melting, spring rains and the blooms that follow.

I better hurry and hit publish if I want to claim I blogged at least once this month.

                                                                                                                               





Real or Fake?

Found myself at Home Depot in hopes of finding something in bloom and wasn't disappointed because there was a full shelf of colorful blooming cacti. Didn't buy one because P3 already has a couple cacti at our house which, by the way, never bloom. See photo of him below doing a little repotting on the kitchen counter.

Back to the cacti in bloom. I started wondering about this and did a little digging. According to MrBrownThumb, the growers glue on straw flowers to make the plants more appealing to shoppers. Maybe everyone knows this, but I didn't and now must go back to Home Depot to check it out for myself.



Saw this squirrel out in the yard and was happy that he'd found something to eat, but had my fingers crossed that it wasn't one of my tulip bulbs.

'Passionale/Shirley' Tulips

May, 2012

Deep Into January

It is deep January. The sky is hard.

The stalks are firmly rooted in ice.

Wallace Stevens

No Possum, No Sop, No Taters

Saw these sunflowers today as I drove the country roads. They've motivated me to get back into blogging.

I've missed seeing your gardens.

The Lushness Of It All

It's not even officially summer and already I feel overwhelmed by the lushness of the season.

This is the east side of our house where the landscape is allowed to go natural and sometimes it feels like it might grab me as I pass through.



Jack in the pulpit, a wildflower and a survivor.



A view of the front yard. This lightly shaded area has a more tranquil feel to it than the east side jungle.



Meet some of the happy faces in my garden, violas.



Took some time to sit on the porch swing over the weekend and this Comma butterfly landed on the landscape stone only a few feet from me. So many butterflies already this year.



I don't blog often, but continue to garden and take photos like a madwoman. I've planted 29 containers with flowers and vegetables. Most likely there will be more.

Wishing all of my blogger friends a successful growing season.

Don't Do This

If you want to be a garden blogger, don't do this. Don't put your camera on the back of the car and then drive away. The camera won't survive and the spring blooms won't wait for you to buy a new one.

That being said, here are a few photos taken before the incident. 

Of all the daffodils growing in our yard, the Poeticus-Actaea are a favorite of mine. Also known as the "Pheasant's Eye" daffodil because of the small yellow cup edged in red. The flowers have a spicy fragrance. A little past their prime in this picture.

The pink pine cone flowers on the ends of these evergreen tree branches caught my eye. 



Like almost everything else, the hyacinths bloomed early and were as pretty and fragrant as ever.

Bloodroot blooming in our neighbor's woodland area. The name comes from the red color of its roots. One of my favorite early bloomers although the flowers are short-lived.

That's it for now. Can't be accused of not posting at least once a month. New camera in my hot little hands.  

Happy May Day To All Of You!







Pull Up A Chair And Sit A While

Pour yourself a cup of coffee, relax and then make your way over to visit Lesley. She's the gracious host at signs, signs.

This antique shop wasn't open, but that didn't stop me from looking at the outdoor merchandise.

How long have these chairs been sitting out here?

My personal favorite.

The chair built for two with no legs.