The Winds of Change

My garden is a reflection of my visions as a life painter. It shows my voice and the joys, pains and hurts that colors my life in the rolling mounds of green that are a precursor to the flowers that are to come this summer.

I love the varying shades of emerald and forest that shine through the leaves of the various kinds of flowers that populate my little triangle in our sea of grass and all that is wild in an unfertilized space of green. I also have some of the problems that go with the natural world - like an over abundance of ant hills. But it's not hard to live in this kind of place. It does not yell or change its mind as the wind changes.

A Garden Walk

As I've said before, gardening is a love of mine. Spring and early summer brings out some of the best of that triangle of soft earth and compost that harbors my array of the annuals and perennials. I also have a small table and window box to fill every year too! These gerberas are one of my favorites - and the bunnies too! I have to make sure they are up off the ground far enough or the daisies are chewed off at ground level.






I like the greens in the garden too, and these are some of my favorites! The texture and colors are crisp and cool on blisteringly hot summer days.






My clematis likes to play hide-n-go-seek on the trellis, and so do I when the sun's hot. I hide in the shade of one of our huge trees for a time of cool.



I think that the peonies in my garden are my favorite because they are so
delicate and hearkens back to what I remember of my Grandmother's garden.

Gardens for me are a place of work, beauty, and rest in the summer time. I look forward to planting and enjoying them every year.

Thanks for taking a walk down my garden path!

Daffer-Down-Dillies

The daffodils are beginning to bloom here. When I was little there was a name for them that use to make us all laugh. Those bright yellow pieces of spring sunshine were daffer-down-dillies and we use to skip along the field that led to the hill down to the creek where what seemed thousand of those golden flowers.

When we got there we'd all sit amongst the flowers and watch the wind and bees brush past them and then get up and run through them as fast as we could. Those days the blur of yellow and green gave an image of spring in the fast lane.

Today I can spend more time sitting and enjoying the daffodils, I can even contemplate the flower and it's soft crape paper like ruffled edges.

But I still call them daffer-down-dillies!

The First Colors of Spring

And so begins spring...The first of the spring colors are arriving, from the daffodil fronds, to the purples, whites and yellows of the crocuses in my yard. I've seen to tips of tulip leaves for weeks but to actually see color is a real gift.

Tomorrow will bring rain and spring-like temperatures so I am in hope sof capturing more flowers with my lense!

A Long Drawn Out Good-bye

Life has gotten more than a bit crazy for me lately, things breaking down and needing to be replaced, all the stuff that makes for an interesting spring time. I want to work in my garden!! I'm sick of snow, cold weather and simply winter in general. We washed my car today so of course it's going to snow 3-6 inches tomorrow. UGH!

Weather all over is crazy, and extreme too. So my wish for the coming week - after all this craziness is 45 to 50 degree temps and just a little bit of spring...please!

Winter's Still Here!

We have more snow coming tonight, and possibly more later this week. The temps are warmer, but it sure doesn't feel or look like spring! To some who are sick of winter this last hurrah of the season of cold, snow and frigid temps is just plain frustrating! But the warmth of spring the smell of the soil and the colors of those early flowers will come.

But now the season is the back and forth between winter and the mud and pot hole season. The pot holes in the road have grown in both size and number and the poor road commissions here up North are doing everything to keep up - but if you live here you know they're not. Some pot holes are canyons and you just have to drive like you're on some back road - slow and carefully.

But it isn't simply the holes that have our attention, it is the wet and the mud that seems to be everywhere. By the time this season is in full swing people are really beginning to compare which was worse, the snow and ice or the holes and the mud! And then with just a few warm days there are bits of green, and then the first bursts of color that break free from the those first attempts at spring.

I like winter, but those early spring colors are so special. I love those first touches that are truly signs of spring. It's when winter finally takes off the snowboots and puts on the garden shoes, and the wellies!