10 posts tagged “inspirations”

Today I received a very nice hand written note informing me that my photo, "Waterfalls", was chosen for "The Eye of the Quilter" exhibit that will be at International Quilt Festival in Houston later this month! The exhibit will be a group of photos taken by quilters that give an idea of what inspires our quilts.  We sent digital images, and those selected will be printed and framed for the exhibit..... It should be a great selection of photos.... Here are the two photos that were not chosen...

Yellow Roses 1

Inniswood Arbor

Now that it has been two weeks since our trip to the Morris Arboretum, Philadelphia, PA, I am finally getting some of those photos posted... I took well over 300 photos.... here are just a few highlights.....

Morris Arboretum Nest

Morris Arboretum 1

Morris Arboretum Fernery 1

Morris Arboretum Fernery 3

Morris Arboretum Fernery 2

Morris Arboretum Cool Tree

Morris Arboretum Swan Pond

There are lots of interesting garden structures.... Here is one at the Swan Pond. We saw one swan, napping along the edge of the water... There were a number of geese and ducks happily swimming in the pond while we were there.

Anemone Pink

I did take lots of flower photos, but won't over do things with them... Here are a couple of pale pink late blooming Anemone flowers... They are great shade flowers that grow about three ft. tall.

Morris Arboretum Ginkgo

Ginkgo leaves!!! I love Ginkgos, and as we were walking along, I noticed some of the leaves from this tree on the ground before I found the tree. There must have been a nasty storm the day before, because there were small branches and lots of  leaves scattered about. Here are some leaves with the bright blue sky behind them. This tree was the biggest Ginkgo I have ever seen.... Arboretums are so great.... they have such a wide selection of trees, and some really huge, old specimens.

Morris Arboretum 10

Here is one of the last gardens we wandered through.... I love the gates that are at the entrances..... This garden was filled mostly with plants with foliage or flowers in shades of orange. Alongside this garden was another narrow one with a long pond filled with fountains, separated from this one by a wall of climbing runner beans and other blooming vines. Like walking from one room to another...

This was just a tiny number of photos I have to play with now..... There was so much to see.... I am thinking that next year, we need to visit again maybe in the spring.... Then another trip to explore the gardens in Columbus, OH area. There is so much more to see.....  

Now maybe if I can get rid of this stupid cold or whatever kind of crud I have, I will be able to put some of these photos to use in a quilt or two....

Here it is the final day of August, and I am wondering where it went.... The month was full of visits from various family members, and here is a quick look back. My last post was written while my stepdaughter was visiting.... the day she left, we left for my sister's house and my family reunion. The reunion just happened to hit my birthday, so my sisters surprised me with a beautiful cake. The candle lighting didn't work with the outdoor breezes which was probably a good thing.... there are getting to be too many candles!

Reunion 5

Marriott Reunion 2009

Back home, I spent the next week weeding flower beds and cleaning and organizing the construction zone we are still living in so that our son had a place to stay while he visited for a week. The bathroom remodel got done enough so that we could use it again and move back to the bedroom temporarily. There is still much more needing to be done.

Nick on Bike

Here is a photo of Nick on his Motorcycle. This mom worries about him driving it, but I guess driving anything is not always safe. We had a nice visit with him, it was nice that he was home on vacation without things he HAD to do.

Watkins Glen Falls 01

The day Nick headed back to Georgia, we left home again. This time to New Jersey to see our granddaughter, Eva perform in a musical not far from Atlantic City. Thanks to busy traffic and an accident, we missed a few minutes of the performance, but saw most of it. The next day, we brought both granddaughters home with us for a week long visit. They live in a city, so staying with us in a rural area was an experience. I guess there aren't as many bugs at home. One day they were here, we took another local Vacation Day. We traveled just over an hour away to Watkins Glen, NY. I have traveled through the town many times, but had never stopped to check out the beautiful gorges and waterfalls.

Watkins Glen Falls 1

There are trails that take you hiking along the edge of gorges to see many waterfalls, and even places where you walk under them, too. The brochure says there are 800 steps in all the trails.... that's a lot of step climbing!

Watkins Glen 2

There are also a few tunnels where you walk right through some really rocky areas. Most of the walkways are like this one above, with natural or man made stone walls and walkways.

Watkins Glen Falls 3

This photo shows some waterfalls with deep pools cut out of the rock. The trail follows along right under the water you can see falling in the distance. Many areas of the trails were wet from water weeping out of the rocky walls. The weather was perfect for trekking up these trails with many steps... not too cool, or too hot.

Watkins Glen Falls 4

Here is a view of the falls that were in the distance in the previous photo. The gorges have been cut very deep and the walls are very steep.

Watkins Glen 5

A view of another part of the trail with little waterfalls flowing beside it. As you can see, there were a number of other people enjoying the sights that day, too. It wasn't too crowded, so we could take our time taking photos and occasional rest breaks.

Watkins Glen Parking Lot

When we got to the end of the most scenic falls, we took another trail that went trough the woods high above the trails we climbed up on. I did amazingly well walking the steps, probably because we took our time going up, resting often. Most of the way down was much faster with 2 pre-teen girls and a husband who seemed to run on the trail with no steps...

Watkins Glen View from Top

This photo shows a trail below we had already traveled. The water is realy a long way down from here! My fibro decided that quick walking downhill was not a good thing.... Then we arrived at the steps we had to take to get all the way down to the parking lot.... (for anyone who only wants to go up and not back, there is a shuttle available at each end of the park to take you back...)

Long Way Down

This view made the trip down those last steps look very daunting. The girls are way ahead of Ken who is way ahead of me in this photo.

Fern in steps

Little treasures like this fer growing in a crack along the steps. These little guys had to be pretty hardy to survive here.

Eva on Stairs at Watkins

This is Eva posing on a set of steps.... this was not too far from the beginning.

Watkins Glen Gift shop building detail

The gorges and falls weren't the only interesting things to look at.... This painted stone and brickwork is on the gift shop building at the South entrance of the park. I loved the colors and patterns....

Eva, Maia at Corning

After our trek through the park at Watkins Glen, we drove on to Corning, NY and the Corning Museum of Glass. Here are Eva and Maia applying tape to glass pieces that were sandblasted to leave designs on the glass. I also gave flamework a try by making a bead. I have trouble doing more than one thing at once, so it was a bit tricky, but I loved the experience. I love glass, and would love to play with it more in the future... The exhibits there were fantastic, too. Lots to see and do.... It made for a very long, but enjoyable vacation day. We are very lucky to live in an area with so many beautiful places to visit not too far away.

Fungus

A couple more Flora photos.... Above is an interesting fungus that was growing in a yard near where our granddaughters live.

Datura

My Datura flowers have been hard to photograph this year with all the rain storms. Most of the flowers have been flattened onto the ground by rain. Here is one that didn't get rained on.

Maia and Eva's Quilts

Here are Eva and Maia with art quilts I helped them make using photos of them with friends. They chose the photos, fabrics, yarns, etc. and I helped with some construction. They even did pretty well with the rotary cutter. Maia created a collage of photos for hers. She was really good at using the photo program to arrange the collage.

Bee Hole

Now things are pretty quiet around here with no one visiting.... except for the local wildlife..... We were finding bees flying around our livingroom for a few days, and finally noticed the little hole in my office ceiling (in the center of the brown spot). There was a huge nest of them between the ceiling drywall and the roof between the rafters. Another nest was above the ceiling in my studio, but they didn't come through to the inside. Hopefully they won't return....

My stepdaughter Marla and a friend are visiting for few days, and I was invited along for an afternoon of traveling around the area "tourist style". I have lived in this area since 1981, and love the rural beauty around here. We began at a local restaurant for a very late lunch, or very early dinner, and ate outdoors on an open deck. The weather today was rare for early August- mid 70's, and partly cloudy, beautiful for a lunch outdoors with a different view from our deck at home.

Villa Sena Gazebo

View from Villa Sena

Neat Old Cedar Tree

Here is one of the really interesting old trees. The branch structure is really neat...

Vine Covered Old House 2

In our wanderings, we checked out this really great old abandoned house partially covered in vines. The decorative door seemed to not fit with the really simple block structure.

Vine Covered Old House 3

Another view of the front of the house with things growing on the roof and even a little tree growing next to the chimney!

Old Arched Door 1

This door was in the end of the house going into the second story. Another interesting door.
I am not sure why, but I have been really fascinated with old abandoned houses and especially old barns.

Towanda Tobacco Barn 3

Here is a local old tobacco barn that I have seen while passing by on the road, usually too fast to grab a photo. This is a shot from the road.

Towanda Tobacco Barn 2

Here is a photo of the barn from a closer vantage point. I love the pattern the boards along the sides make... Not knowing anything about tobacco barns, it looks like it may be where the sides could be opened up for ventilation.

Ferns and Ivy

Here is a planting of ferns and ivy that are looking very lush this summer. We traveled on a lot of back roads, checking out the views... It was a nice "vacation day" seeing the sights with others who spend most of their time in cities. Sometimes it is hard to think of where I live as a vacation destination, but it is a very beautiful area and I am blessed to get to see bits of it every day.

Twirled Flower Photos

  Final photo for today... a bunch of flower photos "twirled" in the computer and printed out onto cotton fabric. These are being cut up for an idea I have for a new piece.... More to follow....

After spending a few days in my own gardens, I thought I would get back here and show off a few of the over 600 photos I took after QSDS.

Mini Rose Bud

Rose Cinco de Mayo 1

Pink Roses

Fountain at Rose Gardens

Yellow Roses 1

Evening Pink Roses

Inniswood Entrance Building

On Monday, after getting lost in Columbus trying to find the Dick Blick art store (I did finally find it- I'm not a city gal), I found my way eventually to Inniswood Metro Gardens. It is a very large garden that  is free and open to the public like the rose park. This is the building at the entrance to the gardens. It has a lot of interesting features.

Hosta Planters

Not too far from the entrance were these large pots of Hosta plopped in a shade garden. The plants are probably nearly 4 feet wide- beautiful!

Waterfalls at Inniswood 1

Just hitting a few highlights, here is a photo showing a couple of waterfalls with the plantings around them. It was a beautiful, sunny day and not too hot- just perfect for visiting.

Stonework Arbor at Inniswood 1

There were lots of architectural features through the gardens. Here is one of my favorites- an arbor over a walk lined by the curved stone wall with stone benches built into it. There was a small flowered Clematis blooming on the arbor.

Vine Gate at Inniswood

This gate was not too far from the arbor (I don't think... I did get a bit lost at times). I love the design with the leaves. Each leaf had a name of someone who had contributed to funding this part of the gardens. It must take a lot to keep everything looking so great.

Flowers with Bee

I guess some flower photos would be in order.... Here are some coreopsis flowers with a yellow Shasta Daisy, and I just happened to catch the bee at work.

Echinaceas mixed colors

There were lots of Echinaceas in bloom. Everything seemed to be blooming sooner than here at home. There were orange ones mixed with the traditional lavender ones here.

Inniswood Arbor 1

Another favorite bit of architecture.... I love the opening in this arbor, you can see what is growing inside and it makes you want to go in for a closer look.

Brown Hellebore Flowers

There are lots more photos of flowers from here, but here is the last one for now. Others will surely be popping in here and there as I pull them out to use in the future. These Hellebore flowers were really interesting.... I am not sure if they were brown to start with because most bloom very early Spring, but they didn't look dried up. The centers were chocolate brown with beige petals. 

Mud Splattered Planter

Thankfully upon returning home, I found most of my flowers had done well. These are spilling nicely out from their planter that has become very mud splattered from all the rain while I ws gone.

Stormy View

This has been a common sight.... We did get 2 days on the weekend without rain!! It is totally hiding much of our view in this photo.

Blackcaps

I got home just in time for the first blackcaps, or black raspberries to ripen- Yum!  These bushes are going to be pulled after the berries are gone- they are covering my water garden and there are more bushes in other places. It will be much easier to pick without all the old canes and new growth that I have cleared already.

Bodacious Returns Hemerocallis

Last photo before this post takes the whole page..... This Hemerocallis (Daylily) flower was Huge!! I guess it lives up to it's name- Bodacious Returns. It should rebloom later in the summer after the buds it has now are done.

As anyone can see, I have gotten a lot of new inspiration from my trip to Columbus and back at home. Now to just get myself back on track and back into the studio.... It has taken longer to recouperate from the trip than I hoped for, but it was worth it!

I have finished my first 3 days of my class at QSDS here in Ohio. I have been trying to pace myself so I have enough energy at the end of the week to keep creating. This has been a great escape for me from the worries of home, etc. I have painted a few more pieces of canvas and muslin as well as auditioning ideas on my wall, and contemplating the photos of what I have done that are hung there, too. Of course, one piece that began to form needed another color of fabric that I don't have with me.... Since the fabrics I wanted to coordinate with are painted pieces, I needed to paint another to intentionally go with what I have.  My camera is in the classroom right now, so no photos today... next post...

Front Yard Garden after Mowing

Lots to ponder while at class today....

My camera and I went walking on Water Road again yesterday to see the progress of the opening Mountain Laurel flowers.

Mountain Laurel 3

Roadside

Baby Maple

Struggle

Ever felt like this poor flower cluster??? I think this shows just how I feel when my fibro decides to flare- Smashed down by a tree (or branch in this case). The flowers are still opening dispite being nearly buried.

Fuzzy Babies

Something more to keep my eye on.... Not sure what these little plants are. They are growing on a clump of moss on a pile of rocks. Looks like it might be a vine-like grower.

Feathery Ferns

Ferns are unfurling everywhere, now. This group looked so soft and feathery.

Baby Fern

A baby fern hiding among the other plants and dead branches and leaves.

Fern in Rock

How's this for overcoming obstacles!! This little guy is growing in a crack in the rock, and some days I think it is hard living where I do....

Another Fern

Final fern photo of today.... Not sure of the variety, different from the lacy wood ferns. Check out the upper left of this photo- a leaf from the Anemonella I found blooming earlier.

Pink Wild Rose 1

The tiny flowered wild roses can become very invasive, but this plant has pretty pink flowers instead of the usual white. I like the pink much better..  OK, I love the color pink..

Hemerocallis Pandora's Box

Back home..... Here is a Daylily we bought in Georgia- I had not seen this variety up here in PA. It is very different from any others I already have and they are super hardy and easy to grow.

Baby Cobweb Chicks

Baby cobweb chicks I got on our way home... I had been looking for these for quite a while- mine all died in a weed infested rock garden.

Double Balloon Flower

This pretty flower is another on a plant we picked up at one of the garden centers we stopped at. I hadn't seen the lavender available here- just the blue. This plant is now in it's new home in my biggest flower bed.

So far not much going on in the studio still.... today is a bit rainy and dreary, so a good time to hibernate in there while I can't "play" in the gardens. I am getting a lot of great photos to play with for when my creativity returns....

As promised, here are photos from a walk along Water Road to see the Mountain Laurel. I was sure to have freshly charged batteries in the camera, parked the min van and started discovering lots of treasures.

Mountain Laurel 2

Mossy Rocks

Another Mystery Plant

Lower Side of Water Road

View Down Water Road

Plumbago 1

Pink Verbena

Hawaii Coral Peony 1

My coral Peony flowers opened up! I love the color! They are quite bright and much different from any other I have seen. They only have a double row of petals, so hold up nicely in rain.

Single Pink Peony

This Peony plant was supposed to be a yellow tree Peony that turned out to be a bright pink fairly single regular one. It has been beautiful for years, but got moved today. You can see the evergreen branches in the background of a Balsam Fir that was a little Christmas tree planted many years ago. It has now almost covered the whole plant, so I cut the flowers, dug it up and planted five chunks in various locations. It is probably the worst time to move a Peony, but it was in a really hostile location.

Spirea Goldflame

This Goldflame Spirea is so beautiful when the leaves are unfurling in the Spring. They start out hot pink and change to bright gold, then deeper green as the summer progresses. It will also bloom with pale pink flowers.

Geranium lancastriense on a Rock

This little hardy Geranium is a very hardy little plant. I love the lacy foliage and delicate flowers for my sunprinting. I hope the weather will begin to cooperate so I can get my outdoor studio tent set up soon.

Iris siberica Deep Blue

My blue Siberian Iris have been seeding themselves all over. This is one of the babies that is a very deep color. The original plant was a lighter shade of blue purple. I love these Iris and wish the flowers lasted longer.

Front Yard Garden after Mowing

This is tha garden shown in the previous post after I got the grass mowed. It looks much neater, but still needs weeds removed. Three clumps of the blue Iris are in this bed.

Campanula persicifolia Alba

Right outside my front door are these flowers that are beginning to bloom. The white Campanula flowers are great to use as cut flowers.

Hungry Babies

The poor baby plants that got water but no fertilizer while we were away. After getting a drink of some liwuid fertilizer, they are starting toshow a bit more green color. The tomatoes and squash should recover. The plants in the pots look much better, after having their dose of long time release fertilizer- What a difference!

Garden Mess

This is my next major project..... The front of my huge Maple tree garden has been neglected for too long. Under the berry brambles is a water garden that has overgrown with water plants so the water barely shows. I used this area for veggie plants year before last, nothing last year. I did start to remove some old brambles, but didn't take the time to get a long sleeved shirt. Not a good idea- lots of scratches.... Always wear long sleeves when battling brambles. I am going to leave some of the black raspberry plants that are loaded with fat little green berries, until after I can pick them.

Our visit to GA came to an end and we headed home. Here are some more photos from the trip home, our stop at Kenilworth Gardens in DC, and what we were greeted with at home.

Planters for Nick

The horticulturist in me won't go away.... Here are a few planters I potted up for Nick and the guys to have around the pool. We visited a few garden centers while in Valdosta, GA.

Lolipop Trees

A photo of "Lollipop Trees" as Nick calls them. Trees in the South grow differently than those we have here in PA. He grew up with evergreens more in the shape of Christmas trees, not shaped like Lollipops.

Kenilworth Sign

We stopped at Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens on our last day of travel. We had visited these gardens 25 years ago, a month before we got married. Things have changed a bit, but the many ponds are still there. That first visit was in mid July, we were a bit early for many blooms this time.

Early Morning Lilies

The morning we arrived was a bit cloudy, so the Lilies were not fully open. There had  been very heavy rains the day before, so the water in the ponds was very muddy.

Lotus with Raindrop

The Water Lotus are a month or more away from blooming, but the leaves were interesting with the puddles of rain from the day before.

Pickerel Rush

The Pickerel Rush were in full bloom, but the muddy water made for a different background. We also had to watch where we walked due to a few over flowing ponds.

A Beautiful Boardwalk

We don't remember the boardwalks from our previous visit. I love the design of them, with the angles and interesting railings. There are two that take you out into the marsh.

The Sad Part

this was the saddest part of the visit- seeing the trash that was being caught in the plants and fallen logs. One of the important things the marsh does is to help filter out stuff that makes the waterways very unhealthy. It makes you really think about how our actions can affect more than our own little parts of the world.

Great Texture on Tree

From the ugly to very interesting.... This tree has great texture from the many vines that have climbed it. the vines had been cut off at the base, but the remaining vines that had rooted in were still intact.

Peachy Lily Bloom

We did find a little area that wasn't muddied by the rains.... There are a few display gardens with the plants in planter boxes. There were more flowers in bloom here. This one is a beautiful shade of peachy pink and huge.

Lilies in display pond 1

A few more flowers in the display pond. I had to go to the van to steal batteries from my laptop mouse to get these. I was sure to download the photos to have space on my card for photos,but forgot to recharge the batteries for the camera....

Blooms and weeds

Home Sweet Home! We were greeted by a lot of flowers blooming that were not even hinting buds when we left. There are many weeds to contend with too.

White Peony with Iris

My white Peony is full of big fat flowers. In this photo, the blue Siberian Iris are in the background. The smell is so great near this plant!

Blackberry Blooms

  Along the edge of the yard, the blackberry brambles are in full bloom- I love the details that aren't always seen just walking by them.

Whit Iris

Here is the final photo of this post.... One of the white Siberian Iris. I have a huge clump of these in full bloom.
Until I put these photos together here, I didn't realize that most of the flowers blloming right now are white.

Now the real work begins again.... I have weeds to pull, annual flowers to plant and the veggie garden to plant. I will need some more rainy days to keep me indoors to get back to quilting.

Stay tuned for the newest treasures from my gardens and travels. As a tease..... I found that the Mountain Laurel are beginning to bloom on Water Road..... A walk there with my camera is in order.

Today is the first day since last Thursday that Ken and I have not spent many hours in a car. We drove from PA to Georgia, then to Florida, then back to Georgia. We came down South to bring our youngest son Nick's dog home to him. Roxie has been a member of our family since Christmas, and now in a new home shared with buddies he works with, there should be no shortage of guys to watch her when he leaves for training missions and deployments. When we head back home, it will seem like we will be leaving a child behind.

While down here we have been doing some visiting and sightseeing. We began with the weekend in FL visiting our daughter-in-law and her furry roomies.

Trouper

Mo Jo

Here are Bonnie's dogs, a little tricky getting photos- dogs don't always cooperate with cameras. Both are sweethearts. She also has 3 cats, but you know cats, they cooperate worse than dogs.

Gecko

This photo may challenge your eyes. These little gecko's were everywhere, and pretty hard to catch staying still for photos. This little guy sat for quite a while.

Bougainvillea

These flowers were on a huge, beautiful Bougainvillea at the corner of the house. I really wish these were hardy in PA, but they aren't. The only way to have one would be to keep it in a pot.

Murreya paniculata Orange Jessamine

 

These little white flowers were super fragrant on a hedge of great glossy deep green leaves. I had to do a bit of research to find out what they were. Found they are Orange Jessamine- the fragrance is very similar to orange blossoms.

Yellow Plumeria

Bonnie also had a pot of these beautiful Plumerias. Another fragrant flower. Everything smelled so great around her house.

Tree Question Flower

This is a flower that I saw at a truck stop while driving down. It looked a lot like a Magnolia to me, but up North, the ones we have only bloom very early Spring. I did more research, and found that these are a different variety of a Magnolia. Huge, fragrant and beautiful. some of the trees I saw along the roads were really huge.

Okefenokee Swamp 2

While so close, we decided to check out the Okefenokee Swamp. It was a beautiful, sunny day yesterday when we went there. There were very few people there, being the summer now. It was so great! We took a pontoon boat tour and I got many great photos. Since there has been a lot of rain recently, the water level was quite high. There was only one family on the tour with us and no other boats on the water. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Definitely worth the drive made a bit longer by a couple wrong turns getting there.

Sign

This sign greeted us.... Nick thought we were nuts, wanting to go to a swamp filled with gators. The first gators he saw were when we visited the Orlando area when he was 4, and we had a few swim near us while taking a canoe ride on a river.

Okefenokee Swamp 1

I think this is my favorite photo. A narrower passage with the trees and water lilies on both sides. The water is very black and it was quite still, with great reflections.

Ferns in Water

This was an interesting photo. The water was so still in this area that it is really hard to see where the reflection begins.

Gator 1

This is one of the gator photos I took just for Nick. None of the ones we saw were really huge. This was probably the biggest. They are hard to see in the black water.

Bug on Sign

After we returned from the boat tour, we wandered the nature trail. We found this big bug crawling on the sign with information about insect eating plants. I tried another photo with more of the sign showing, but he wandered under it too soon.

Snake-Like Root

This root on the path of the nature trail looked so much like a snake that I had to take this photo just to show my best friend who really hates snakes. Is that cruel of me???

We are spending a day just lazing around the house and pool here today. At least one day to rest up before heading back home before the end of the weekend. It is great that our oldest son lives so close to our home and has been taking care of things for us like watering plants, feeding cats, etc. Thank You Aaron!!

The rain finally stopped for a little while, and I wandered into the gardens with my camera again.

Anemonella thalictroides

Phlox Nettleson's 1

Peony Hawaii Coral Buds

Convallaria Variegated

Convallaria Pink

Phlox and Dandelions

Here is another flower that I was really happy to see return. I have planted this type of low growing Phlox in past years, but the deer ate them down each time I planted them. I tried a different garden and now have 3 fast growing clumps! The dandelions are everywhere, too.

Find the Hosta

Here is what I am battling in many gardens.... lots of weeds! Can you find the Hosta trying to show itself?? Thankfully Hosta are pretty sturdy, and battle with the weeds pretty well. This Hosta is "Krossa Regal" and will get to be really huge by summer.

Hosta with Lamium

This is how I wish all of my gardens looked. This Hosta with a clump of Lamium next to it only have a few weeds to compete against right now. I am trying to get low growing plants to take over the spaces under the Hostas and other taller plants to keep the weeds down.

Back Yard Shade Garden

After much time spent weeding, here is what one area of the back yard garden looks like right now. The Hostas in the previous photos are along the wall to the left of this photo. This garden is shaded by Black Walnut trees, and I have finally found a nice selection of plants that grow well with them. I keep dividing my Hostas and moving them around to fill in bare spots.

Viola Sylettas 1

Down in my garden in the woods, I found this little gem a few days ago. I didn't have my camera with me and didn't get this photo until after we had heavy rains, so the leaves are a bit dirty, but I am so glad this little new addition seems to be happy with it's new home. I planted a lot of new perennials last summer, many who had been living in pots for quite a few years like this one. It should be much happier in the ground!

101_0049

Up to the Lilac garden where they are all coming into bloom! We have many different varieties and colors of Lilacs collected over the years.

Strawberry Plant 2

The strawberies are blooming!!! I can't wait for berries this year... I just need to get mulch on these or they will be buried in weeds like everything else.

Cuddles

Here is the cat that got his tail in the earlier photo. He was checking out the surroundings from the trellis over one of the raised garden boxes that have been neglected for many years. I hope to put these back into use this year.

Pink Blossoms 2

The rain didn't take all the flowers off the almond tree... I got some really neat shots of some of the remaining flowers. I didn't know we had an almond tree until Ken told me what it was..... A nice surprise! Pink flowers instead of the white on the apples, pears and plums. We won't have almonds, though until we get another variety of almond or a peach tree to cross polinate with it, but the flowers are pretty in the spring.