Saturday, May 16, 2009

Before The Storm

Ladybug enjoying the early morning

A beautiful morning greeted me when I crawled out of bed this morning. I've got lots on my to-do list as normal, but I decided to pause and wander around, camera in-hand, and take a few photos of some of God's wonderful creations before the predicted thunderstorms arrive. Some days it just feels so good to be alive...today is one of those days. We truly live on a magnificent planet.

Frog enjoying the cool, moist shade between a flower and a pot of seedlings in a flower bed

Frog eye up close

I noticed that my Miss Bateman clematis was blooming for the first time since I planted it last year.
I've planted several clematis along the fence that keeps our dogs in the backyard/orchard. This is the first one to bloom of the clematis I planted last year. I counted 4 blooms on it this morning.

Miss Bateman Clematis--first bloom of the season

Miss Bateman Clematis up close

The fruit trees are mostly done blooming now, their once snow white blossoms now turning brown where they've fallen on the ground and the picnic table. My quince tree has a few blossoms left, but there is just one that I could find that was intact.


The last perfect quince blossom

My azaleas are a riot of color, and the rhododendron buds are beginning to pop open. The front yard is very colorful at the moment with the various flowering shrubs. Everything looks compressed in this photo, but there is a stream and another small yard area between that row of spent daffodils and the yellow shrub in the background. Yeah, we need to mow, weed, and put down mulch, but there always seems to be something more pressing to do.

Some of the azaleas in our front yard in full bloom. Rhododendrons are not far behind.

And I'm excited to report that of the 11 bamboo shoots that I transplanted, they all seem to be alive to some extent...I realize now that I didn't pick the best time to transplant them, so I'm hoping they all survive. I did notice this morning that one transplant has actually sent up a baby shoot.

Baby bamboo shoot

Now that I've enjoyed the outdoors, bring on the rain and thunderstorms! I've got plenty to do on the sadly neglected inside of the house.

2 comments:

  1. I told dad that you have bamboo growing like crazy around you and he was amazed. He (and I) didn't realize that bamboo would grow in the mountains!

    I know what you are saying about needing to get stuff done INSIDE. I have been doing all of Deven's chores the last few weeks and mine too. I get his done first because he feels beeter when he sees that they are done. Then I am stuck with piles of laundry, and a messy house. I wish he and I could trade chore for a while!

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  2. I love bamboo! Not all types of bamboo will grow here, but this is a hardy variety that seems to thrive. You could probably grow it there since we're pretty much in the same zone. When I was digging these bamboo shoots, I was out in the middle of this large bamboo "forest". It was AMAZING! The sound of the leaves, the lack of anything growing other than bamboo...made me feel very small :-) And I hear ya about the chores!!

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