Iris Poem

 

The creeping rhizome is not your best feature

Perhaps the knife-like blades that are the first to pierce the air

Or, perhaps, the tall yoga poise saluting the sun that catches my eye 

Maybe it is your honey colored beard that is so nicely trimmed

Or the fragrant smell of fresh grapes which reminds one of wine

Certainly not the silky flags that you wave in the breeze

Like a spring fairy luring us into slumber?

Breathe, Just Breath

Today is the last big push day for a while.  I have tasks in the early morning--voting.  Mid-morning shopping for some food for a meeting tonight.   Mid-afternoon prepping for my math class and then prepping for a short talk I have to give in the evening at the meeting.  I have promised myself to keep the next two days open and free and careless, even if it kills me.  For you, my readers, some of the pretties that have raised their breathtaking heads in my yard because I know you have time to smell the flowers.

Clematis

Columbine variety

Iris

Cinquefoil

 

 

Aquilegia canadensis (columbine)

 

Half Full

Yes, everything ends for those in the world where the cup is half empty. 

 But in the spring the cup is always half full.

The Purples Have Started

These beauties self-seed across my garden, but they are lovely and easy to control. I have them in reds, blues, purples and pinks! (Columbine)

Daffy for Them

You know that lady that gets down on her knees in the damp muddy lawn in her pajamas with nary a brush through her bedhead hair?  Yep, that is me.  Please be forgiving.  At least I am drunk on something healthy...spring.  My daffodils are finally all over the place in my yard this year.  Below are just a few of these golden jewels that shine in the early morning sun.

Yes, my back deck is cluttered with various seedling flats, but those daffodils still take center stage.  They are a bit confused as I was trying to turn the pots so that they were more upright into the sun and clearly that have not a clue where the sun is!

Curtains

Trees are beginning to crochet their lacy curtains that will hide some of my magnificent sunsets.

Winging In

It is not even the middle of April and I have already come across these Lepidoptera visiting what few flowers are blooming.  I do not remember a spring when they have visited so early.  Is it because our winter was mild?  It is due to climate change?  It is because my yard has now grown into a good habitat?  There were two others, smaller and dancing in the air much faster, that I could not capture with my camera.

There was another Zebra Swallowtail that visited earlier and even went to the persimmon tree waiting for its blossoms.  The one above has one of the fuzziest coats of hairs and I wonder if these get shed as weather warms.

There are at least seven families of butterflies on the globe.  They have a life history that is most complicated as they reproduce on only certain plants, some use chastity belts for their female partners after they mate, some mate for HOURS(!).  Most have four life stages but one actually has the mother die when the young emerge from her abdomen.

These visitors were in pretty good shape.  I had taken a photo of an even earlier butterfly whose wings were so shredded I wondered how he/she could still fly.

Some lay eggs in batches and some singly.  Some eggs are attached with a special glue to the leaf of a specific plant and others have eggs that fall to the base of the plant.  Some eggs have a symbiotic relationship with ants that protect them.  And as most of us know the pupa stage can be the most fascinating.  That transition time when a caterpillar evolves into a winged beast.  The process involves hormones and various types of cells and is extremely complex, in my view.

The redbud, the daffodil and the apple tree all seem to be able to provide some sustenance for my visitors.  I guess spring has finally arrived.

Future Abundance

While the dogwoods will produce bright red berries in the fall for the birds

Other flowers such as these cherry blossoms will provide something for jams

And the daffodils need only show off during the month of April since our eyes are starved for beauty and we forgive them for doing their reproduction below the earth where we cannot see.

On the Green

According to science our rods and cones (those in our eyes, not the garage) see greens and greenish yellow the best even though we see thousands or perhaps millions of colors overall. It has been suggested that it is because of our need to eat greens as primates.  According to one website: "A "standard" eye can distinguish about 200 nuances per color. The human eye sees therefore approximately: 200 x 200 x 200 = 8.000.000 colors ! (Note that we are far from the billions of colors that some monitors or televisions are talking about)."  Scientists say that the eye has a more extended sensitivity towards greens than towards the other two primary colors red and blue, and perhaps, that's why digital cameras sensors have two green pixels for a red and a blue pixel when you look at it with a magnifier!

I think that green is a very peaceful and restorative color. When spring comes, all it takes is a glimpse of a lime green field of new growth or the green flags of spring leaves waving at us against the blue sky to restore us to a more peaceful mood.  

So I went outside to absorb some greens.

Sweet peas in the garden.

Hosta

Spring mosses

Just the Edges

Took the afternoon off yesterday and with camera in hand strolled around my front yard. Told myself to ignore the chickweed and other seeds in their emerging splendor and not feel guilty about not weeding. Forced myself to just look for some good photos representative of the peaceful day. The wind was starting to gust and so most of the photos were blurred, but the wind did not erase the color of spring, just the edges.