Sunflowers and larkspur abound!

The self seeding annual flowers are showing their colors! I recognize the seedlings when they emerge with the peas in the early spring now. The hardest thing about planting larkspur is to get it in as soon as the ground can be worked. I plant them in mid April after the snow melts for lovely blue blossoms in July.

Not in a vase, but an unexpected surprise. My amaryllis didn’t bloom this spring. I discarded it in my seedling box and forgot about it. The pot tipped over and somehow the bulb woke up. I was greeted by this beauty on my morning garden inspection.

#2020GardenBuddies. #inavaseonmonday

Returning to the virtual world to share my dearest activities—growing the garden, tending living growing plants, creating wholesome nourishing food from garden bounty.

To me, my gardens are more than cultivated, plowed strips and sections of soil. Gardens are also places I share with the wildness, sacred sites of trees, herbs, grasses and flowers tucked away here and there around the land.

COVID times have brought physical isolation. I’ve turned again to electronic, internet based communication because I am lonely and miss my people—garden walks, tea parties, swapping seeds and cuttings.

FaceBook is problematic for me.  It is easy. But I am uncomfortable about a platform that spreads white supremacy recruitment propaganda, the commodification of my personal information and the need to fiercely guard my data. I’ve signed off for the month of July 2020 in support of Stop Hate for Profit.

I want to share flower love, germination hope and transforming the land with joy.

”Will you come with me? Won’t you come with me? Oh, I want to know….”

It is a glorious morning on the hill, Iris blossoms are here again.  The sweet yellow flowers remind me of songs from “Jacque Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris.”  I call them iris songs–If We Only Have Love….I Loved…. all entwined with iris flowers.  Isn’t is funny how flowers and songs combine with memory?

The little white flowers in the vase are from the rhurbarb. You can see its prehistoric flowers in the background. Miss Sally made us pie and coffee cake and Brian is making wine from the rhubarb.

If you look on the hill,  you will see the newly mown fields. They expect to bring in about 100 bales of hay.  Soon, very soon, we will gather in the fields to dance together again. “Yes! To dance beneath the diamond sky with one hand waving free.”

Thanks to Cathy Rambling In The Garden for hosting the weekly gathering of flowers In A Vase on Monday.  It has been a fun way to mark the changes in the garden.

So much going on everyday in our gardens and on the land.  The Memorial Garden has been left to its own devices and is growing strong! The sweet pansies are such an uplift.  I find that Flower Power is practice of opening my heart to the beauty that is right in front of me. In times of trouble, I choose beauty whenever possible and let my Self be comforted by the sheer yellowness or lilac essence of the living flowering plant.  Harry often advises to ” say it with flowers.”  I do concur.

Petunias have their first blooms!  I plucked them right off after the photo so they might establish a little bit more.  The Sweet William transplant has new growth in it’s new home.

The pansies are bursting with new blooms after being deadheaded severely. The flowering quince has new leaf growth after being moved, but still no flowers. I don’t know if it is past the flowering stage or not.

And the lilac bud I’ve been following has opened.  I do so love the smell of lilacs all around. Such a short time.  Another Flower Power teaching: Be here now, don’t miss the lilacs!

Beulah’s giant yellow flower is pushing up and growing daily.  This is the only clump allowed to stay.  I’ve been snipping off anything emerging elsewhere.

Another “what the heck is this?” plant popped up this week.  No idea what it might be, or in who’s memory it may be planted.  The Flower of an Unknown Loved One.

Another unknown, but there are some ideas floating around about what it might be. Sure is healthy though. 

There are little flower spikes coming out.  I think of the picture book Miss Rumphus when I see lupines. She left the world more beautiful by planting lupine seed everywhere she could.  Great idea!

Thank you Cathy at Words and Herbs for hosting The Tuesday View.  It is a great way to see the changes. Lots more to do for sure, mulching, a few more annuals, decorations and cutting a walkway around the border

Apple blossom time on The Hill! Dear sweet pink tulip only gave two blooms this year.  They match beautifully with the pink blush of the buds. I’m so inspired by the artful arrangements each week for In a Vase on Monday.  I took extra care setting the background and placing the tulips.  Harry had me set it up so the western light would light up the arrangement without sacrificing true color. 

The overhead view.  The little blossom nestling the tulip is especially endearing to me. Cuddling up.

Come and meet the apple trees on The Hill.  I had a lovely a photo inventory walk.  I plan to photo the apples that come from the trees.  They have different ripening times from mid summer to late fall.  I don’t know any names or varieties….yet!