Spring Blooms and Abundant Beauty

Spring has arrived in a hurry, with abnormally warm temperatures it is all happening fast!

It is as though I left for Easter weekend in Virginia at the beginning of Spring bloom time, and returned 3 days later to the end of spring.

Fortunately, I went out with my camera last evening in my half acre wood and photographed the blooms. When I returned from work today, the 4th day of the heat wave.....most of the early spring bulbs were spent and browning in the heat.

The upside of this warm spell is sleeping with the windows open. I love hearing the birds waking up at dawn, and feeling the chilly morning air move through my room.

These photographs were taken in the evening light. Even though I had the setting on automatic....I held the flash lens down, and wanted to capture the true light. I did a quick edit and enhanced the photo's a bit, and I feel they represent very well energy of the pulsating and light filled spring season.

My garden is now 3 years old. It is maturing and fairly lush. Though, over the Easter weekend I visited my dear friend Carol, and her garden. Carol has had at least 20 years to naturalize her garden. I wish I had taken photographs of that!

Her Forget Me Not's are the offspring of seeds her son Shaughan scattered about when he was a 5 year old boy. They now bloom in drifts along her stone terraced walls. There are so many memories in her garden, of our children, our clients and gardening adventures lived over the last 30 years.

Here is a link to a slideshow of my blooming beauties this Easter week.

It has been a fun and family oriented Easter celebration with Easter egg hunts on Long Branch Farm with the grand children....with silliness and joy abounding.

I am most grateful for this magical spring and my amazing family.

Thunder

I slept with the windows open last night. As the sun rose I heard the neighbors rooster clearly for the first time since the windows shut last Thanksgiving. How nice to lay in bed and listen to the morning birds. As the sun rose it looked to be a warm sunny day. My gardens look so beautiful in the early morning light.

My Trillium are blooming.

I was thinking I may be able to go work in the community garden after all. I looked at the mountain towards Boone and thought, how dark and grey the sky looked above the hills, then I heard the thunder....Finn wanted back inside immediately after he heard the clap. For a dog that loves to swim he sure is wimpy about the rain.

Just as well, we spent the week mulching a garden that took 35 yards of mulch to get the job done. Of course most of it is up and down a fairly slopey area one wheelbarrow at a time. Mike did the bulk and the harder places gratefully. I hope he gets a quiet rainy weekend to recover. I may get my homework done for my watercolor class after all. Of course there is always the laundry to do, I can't believe how much soil I track home on my clothing. Most of my jeans have a hole in the right knee. (Note to clients...please pay your overdue invoices so I can pay Michael and buy some new work clothes.)

I have been out in the garden these early mornings taking photo's of all the new growth. I love staring at Pan ruler of the nature spirits, guardian of my garden when he is wet with rain.

The Peony foliage is wondrous at this time, deep red as the new leaves unfurl.

I am also enjoying the flowering of my dear old friend Twinleaf. Jeffersonia diphylla, one of Thomas Jefferson's favorites is a native wildflower that flowers before the trees leaf out.

The seed pods when fully formed look like Elf Pipes which my daughters loved to find when they were younger. I have transplanted this special creature to my many new gardens over the last 18 years or so. It spent one year in my daughters garden until I moved to this current home. This is one tough wildflower.

The spring flowers are so fleeting. The leaves on the trees are coming out the dogwoods have begun to bloom. The grass is growing and needing mowing. It all happens so fast!

An amazing season it is, with all it's intensity, beauty, thunder and rain. The music of spring is playing loudly. Enjoy!