From My (Tu)lips to Yours

Just a few square feet on my back deck has become a paradise. I buy the bulbs on sale in the early winter from the big box store and then take about twenty minutes to plant them in good potting soil on the back deck. It is not much, but a terrific reward when I sit in my living room or when I wander out to the deck or crawl around on the deck for a better angle to capture them more permanently with my camera after the gray and brown winter. (That is my kaffir lime tree braced against the winds in the back.)

They are beautiful even in the gentle spring rains.

They are fun to digitally "Paint."

And they make a nice foreground to our spring sunsets when I am in a more flexible get down mood.

Hope this has brightned your day a bit.

Season of Despair/Despair Not

As the Irish poet, David White wrote, we have to understand despair as a season. Like all seasons it will move on and be replaced. These times may test us but we must concentrate on our breathing or seeing and our understanding of our place in the grand universe as all is temporary.

"So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not [l]arrayed like one of these. 30Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"  a familiar quote from the King James version.

Below some little white flowers that are not worrying.

Stuck at Home

I have enjoyed, as I do even when not sequestered at home, my spring yard. So many flowers are in bloom right now. The days are a bit of a roller coaster with temperature swings, but today is in the 50sF and we had a lovely soaking rain last night. Below are some of my beauties. Some are digitally painted and others just sharpened a bit. First are those that were planted months ago so that I could enjoy them this spring!

This one below is an old faithful shrub (Loropetalum) and seems to be even more beautiful this year!

Now for the wildflowers (weeds and invasives) that are what we mow and call our lawn...mowing after all the bees and pollinators are finished.

Hope all is big and small blossoms out your way!

You Think You Have Problems

One of the very swift hawks, perhaps a Coopers, came through this morning and my birds scattered everywhere from the feeders. A short while later this Cardinal showed up at the deck and seemed a bit dazed. I guess he has no means of clearing his vision!!

My Woods of Many Textures

My woods are Cornoavirus free and so I have taken some more 'texture' photographs. I find the twists, sweeps and crackles interesting. Did you know that oak trees are homes for over 500 species of insects? Many other trees, if native in your area, are the housing for so many beneficial insects that are in turn food for so many birds!

Above is the bark of the Hop Hornbeam (Ostrya virginiana).

My smooth crepe myrtle bark.

In the photo above a very large pine stands in the yard.

 

Something interesting and artistic above.  Something painful below.

Putting off work

Tonight we are having mussels that have come from Canada. We eat a lot more seafood these days. The fresh spring leeks in the woods will be cut to go into the coconut broth.

Before I cut them I check out the vernal pond on the land between my new neighbors and me just ahead and see that the frogs have started to lay their eggs in true spring form.

The red in the pond photo above is from the maple trees that are blooming overhead.

The birds are singing out territorial and mating songs as a multi-orchestra chorus. The air is cool but the warm sun on my back makes me smile and briefly forget that I have to go weed.

Loving Textures in Nature

I walked in the woods of a county park as well as the woods of my home a few days ago. It was after a rain, so the wetness boosted the contrast of the textures. Have you ever noticed how interesting the trunks of trees can be...even those lying horizontally on the ground?

Some trees are even smiling at me!