So. Which one of these hydrangea pictures would YOU rather look at? The one above? Or the one below?
Yeah. Me too. 🙂
After I took the photo on top last week, I remembered that I’d photographed the same hydrangea last summer. So I went back to find it and ended up wandering about my computer, looking longingly at my pictures from last summer and spring. Sometimes, when the world outside your window is gray and brown, it’s hard to remember that under that winter-hard earth and in those fat buds on the bare trees new life stirs, waiting for the right time to burst forth in its hallelujah glory, when we all emerge from our homes, blinking in the bright spring sun, amazed anew at the miracle of life after death.
Even though we had a small taste of spring over the weekend, snow is expected again tomorrow (and beyond). So I thought I’d post some shots from last summer of a few of the plants here at the Doublewide Ranch to help us all remember that Spring will indeed come again. And soon! I’m still very much a rank amateur when it come to gardening, but I’m pretty proud of what I’ve done here outside (on a tight budget) to add a bit of color to our lives. When we moved here, there was pretty much almost no landscape at all, save a couple of scraggly lilacs and rose bushes. There was nothing growing around the doublewide itself in the awful baked clay soil but grass and weeds that came right up to the foundation It was not a pretty sight. Not a pretty site at all.
But now, two years later, we are looking forward to a riot of color come March, starting when the peach tree blossoms and ending when the asters bloom in November. I spent far more time and money on our landscape (even, I must confess, our grocery money sometimes!) than I should have, but as you know, man (and woman!) doesn’t live by bread alone.
So here’s a few shots of our flowers that I’ve never posted before just in case you need a flower fix like I do. Should you need more (perhaps a butterfly fix or a honeybee fix?), feel free to click on Little Signs of Spring under Categories in my sidebar. Or Nature maybe.
And never fear…the days of sweet hallelujah glory will soon be here. Hold on. Have faith. Life is stirring. 🙂
Here’s some yarrow I planted near our front door. I love yarrow—all the lovely colors it blooms in, its toughness, and its delicate ferny foliage.
The view from our front yard looking up to the porch. As you can see, I’m not a very tidy gardener. The fancy garden magazines might call this “The English Cottage garden” look. I think I’ll call it that, too. Sounds so much better than “garden run amok.” 🙂 The petunias, in the porch flower boxes we installed, self-sowed last year. I’m hoping for the same this year.
This is a picture of the bee balm from the shot above it taken from the porch looking down. I love bee balm even more than yarrow. And so do the bees, the butterflies, and hummingbirds.
There’s beauty even in our vegetable garden. Last summer, every time I went out to pick our supper for the evening, I could hear a constant buzzing hum from the squash blossoms, always full of drowsy honeybees. I say “drowsy” because although I’d bumble right through the squash, brushing past the blossoms, the honeybees seemed undeterred (and unperturbed). They probably liked hanging out with the squash blossom fairies. 🙂