Yesterday we picked two pailfuls of blackberries from our garden. The kids report that they are the sweetest ones ever. I am going to try my hand at jam again. It’s been a few years….
Category Archives: garden
everything
Photo: closeup photo of some small daisies. The daisy in focus is just barely opening up its petals.
“On [Friday] she woke up and realized that she’d forgotten the definition of the word ‘Impossible.’ She decided that it must not have been important.”
~From The Persistence of Being Yellow: Book of Recipes for Life”
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twins
Photo: Closeup shot of two white honeysuckle blossoms.
I’m not sure why, but I really like the way the lighting on this photo turned out–how the background is in shadow and the white blossoms contrast with that. Honeysuckle are such oddly-shaped flowers, don’t you think?
mystery
Photo: A close-up picture of a funnel-shaped purplish-pink flower calla lily.
This plant recently emerged in the middle of my flower bed. I’m not sure where it came from or what it’s called, as I didn’t plant it and I’ve never seen another like it in the past 5 years of gardening the same plot. I’m not complaining, though–I love garden surprises! When my kids were smaller they would always attribute such serendipitous blossoms to the work of the faeries that inhabited our garden.
Any guesses as to what it is? Perhaps it has an unusual 5+-year life cycle?
🙂
white light
Picture: Row of three white honeysickle blossoms against a backdrop of blue sky.
I love this way this photo turned out. It was a tough one to take–it was really hot outside and bees were annoyed that I was disturbing them as I traipsed around in the honeysuckle vines. The smell of these flowers was so strong that it was impossible to resist sampling a few. The taste of honeysuckle always brings me back to those days in Oklahoma when we would run around the neighborhood in packs and sip on honeysuckle nectar until the ground was thick with spent blossoms.
Note: Can you find the ‘hidden’ bugs in this pic? 🙂 Click on the photo and it will take you to flickr. Then click on “All Sizes” and look at the photo in the largest possible view. You migh just be surprised at what you see…
heaven is beyond my hopes…so let me stroll through the bright hours
Picture: a small cluster of lamb’s ear leaves adjacent to a rough grey rock. [Note: The lamb’s ear was a gift from a woman in Cambria–a few years ago our family was walking to the Tea Cozy for a cuppa when we passed the most charming all-purple cottage. The owner was in her yard gardening and we struck up a conversation and she generously offered a cluster of plants to add to our own garden. 🙂 }
One of my favorite birthday gifts this year included this quotation on the card:
“Ah, how short a time it is that we are here! Why then not set our hearts at rest, ceasing to trouble whether we remain or go? What boots it to wear out the soul with anxious thoughts? I want not wealth; I want not power: heaven is beyond my hopes. Then let me stroll through the bright hours as they pass, in my garden among my flowers, or I will mount the hill and sing my song, or weave my verse beside the limpid brook. Thus will I work out my allotted span, content with the appointments of Fate, my spirit free from care.”
~Giles, “Chinese Literature”
questions…
“Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers which could not be given to you now because you would not be able to live them–and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now, perhaps then someday far in the future you will gradually without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
– Rainer Maria Rilke
This week has been a flurry of busy-ness. Thank you to all for your kind comments and personal email messages. I am in the midst of many projects right now, including plans for summer research, reorganizing my home to accommodate for various recent acquisitions (i.e. we have some comfy upholstered furniture now that warranted a wholesale re-thinking of our LR space), and I’ve been reading and acting on the advice of Plenty
And of course, there’s the garden…this time of year the garden demands so much! I got my cucumbers and more flowers in this week (yay for free flowers from Aunt Suz’s yard!). I discovered from a garden neighbor that many are suffering from a complete lack of pollinating bees–she’s only seen one (ONE!) bee in her plot at all this month. My garden: bees EVERYWHERE. They love love love the lavender and the sage flowers, especially. I am so glad that I made flowers a priority as they will bless my veggies, too. 🙂
Well, ’nuff of my rambling for now. The garden is beckoning…(and, yes, I will be taking more plant photos for you this weekend–I especially can’t wait to show you the kiddoes’ purple bean teepee. The vines are nearly 4 feet high and it’s such a magical space…)
PS: What questions are you living (a la Rilke)? My question for life right now: “What is it like to live without fear?”
columbine
This flower is a ‘volunteer’ in my garden–perhaps growing from some seeds that a friend shared with us 3 or 4 years ago. Now there’s a big cluster of them growing in the center of my flower garden. Just lovely.
This afternoon our family attended a party at the home of some folks that I met while traveling in China two years ago What fun to see them and many of our other traveling companions again! They have a gorgeous garden, primarily composed of unknown plants that T dug up for other folks’ gardens (with their permission, of course). He readily dug up a funky yellow flower and a cactus-y type plant that he’s nicknamed ‘the pickle’ for me. I can’t wait to get them in the ground in my own garden. And I love that every time I see them I will think of my good friends from China. 🙂
fly
Picture: closeup photo of a dragonfly–green body with translucent wings–perched on the deep green leaf of a clematis vine.
This little guy greeted me this afternoon by perching on my rapidly-growing clematis vine. If you click on the image it’ll take you thru to the flickr page. Click on the “All Sizes” link above the photo and you’ll get to enjoy him in greater detail. If you look at him at the largest possible size you can see the fuzzy little hairs that emerge from around the area where his wings connect to his body. Amazing. Who knew that dragonflies were so complex and fascinating?
sunflower
Picture: closeup photo of a sunflower with yellow-reddish petals.
This sunflower is from a seed mix called “Moulin Rouge.” the name charmed me (being a Francophile) to I had to try it out. So far the flowers are quite small compared to the typical Mammoth varieties that I usually grow.
Did you know this?:
“In the head of a sunflower, the tiny florets that turn into seeds are typically arranged in two intersecting families of spirals, one winding clockwise and the other winding counterclockwise. Count the number of florets along a spiral and you are likely to find 21, 34, 55, 89, or 144. Indeed, if 34 floret (or seed) rows curve in one direction, there will be either 21 or 55 rows curving in the other direction.”
This fascinating article explains the mathematical patterns found in sunflowers. Interesting, indeed!