Belated bloomers

Okay, I missed Bloom Day for reasons that I explained yesterday, but I came home from my vacation to find a few new, as well as some old, blooms happening in my yard, and today I thought I would share a belated personal Bloom Day with you. 

It's impossible to share blooms with you these days without also sharing pollen. Our air is yellow with the pollen of our many pine and oak trees. You'll be able to see a dusting of it on some of these blossoms.


The 'Mabel Bryan' camellia is in full bloom.

The 'Climax' blueberry is also full of its bell-shaped blossoms.

This little pink allium is just beginning to bloom.

The ancient azalea in my backyard has just begun to open its flowers to the world.

'Spring Bouquet' viburnum is blooming. 

The primrose has a very long blooming season.

Carolina Jessamine lights up the yard with sunshine even on cloudy days.

The little violas that have bloomed all winter continue blooming as spring approaches. 

This is 'Peggy Martin' rose. Isn't she pretty?

Finally, it is St. Patrick's Day, so let's end on a sort of shamrocky note. Well, faux shamrock anyway. This is the wild oxalis that invades flower beds all over my garden, but I tolerate it since it's such a pretty little invader.

 
Just a few more days and spring will officially arrive. We are going to finish our "winter" having had only one night of below freezing temperatures. I wonder what that will mean for all the insects and plant diseases that we count on getting knocked back by cold weather. We'll soon find out. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day, happy almost spring, and happy belated Bloom Day. I hope your garden is bringing you joy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rude people

I spent some time in a doctor's office waiting room today waiting for my husband. During much of my hour-and-a-half there, the room was very crowded with strangers. I had brought my Kindle and was trying to read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. It's a novel of manners about the way people treat each other and about their expectations of each other. It reminds me somewhat of Alexander McCall Smith's Isabel Dalhousie series. It has the same gentle, meandering feel to it. Anyway, I was trying to concentrate on my book, but at some point, it just became impossible. On the opposite side of the room from me several rather elderly - that is to say older than me - people were seated, and, as always seems to happen in these circumstances, one of them, a woman, had a loud and abrasive voice and manner and she insisted on telling the others her life story and especially her medical history. A couple of other people there entered eagerly into the spirit of the...
Read more

Poetry Sunday: Citizen of Dark Times by Kim Stafford

This poem is from a collection of poetry written by Oregon poet Kim Stafford after the presidential election of 2016. It was his effort, he said in an interview, to find the "flavor of unity" in divisive times. It seems particularly appropriate at the moment. Citizen of Dark Times by Kim Stafford Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid. When things go wrong, do right. Set out by the half-light of the seeker. For the well-lit problem begins to heal. Learn tropism toward the difficult. We have not arrived to explain, but to sing. Young idealism ripens into an ethical life. Prune back regret to let faith grow. When you hit rock bottom, dig farther down. Grief is the seed of singing, shame the seed of song. Keep seeing what you are not saying. Plunder your reticence. Songbird guards a twig, its only weapon a song.
Read more

My new Kindle

I love books. I love the feel of books, the smell of books, the heft of books, the look of books - their perfect symmetry. I am, as the phrase goes, an "avid reader." I've always got at least one book going and several waiting on my "to be read" shelf, so I consume a lot of books in a year's time. I am a fairly eclectric reader, although my favorite genre is mysteries, and specifically, historical mysteries, but I read a lot of other stuff as well, both fiction and nonfiction. My devotion to the printed page has been unwavering and I've never even considered getting an ebook reader. Until earlier this year. I got a Kindle for my husband, the technogeek, for his birthday, and after watching him use it and seeing his enthusiasm for it, I decided that maybe I should try it, even though I'm decidedly NOT a technogeek. I did try it and I was hooked. So, Santa, that jolly old elf, knowing that I had been seduced by the Kindle, stuffed my Christmas sto...
Read more