Sunday Stroll - Old Friends

Year after year, the buttercups appear in the fields and wild edges. One might imagine it would seem common place after a while, and yet, when I spied the first one two or three days I ago, I exclaimed aloud "A buttercup!" and I felt that spark of happiness one feels upon meeting an old friend. The buttercups blooming in the creek bed are sturdy guys and gals (who can tell?) with hefty stalks and extra large blossoms.

My sensation lilac has bloomed for the first time, with snapdragons blooming cheerily beneath it. The new section of the garden is coming along. Yesterday, I transplanted some dark purple iris which weren't blooming in their old location. It has become to shady, I believe. I moved a few small lavender plants that were becoming too crowded, as an edge to the new garden. I think it will be beautiful when it fills in. What a pleasure it was to move it, with a lavender aroma wafting up into the air mingled with the fragrance of the lemon thyme that I scooched over to get to the lavender. My hands were dirty at the end of the afternoon, but they smelled good!

In the front garden, the special clementine aquilegia that I bought last year is politely offering a small first blossom, while next to it a wild, self-planted cinquefoil is taking over the space and getting ready to bloom in sunny, yellow profusion.

I trimmed some weeds and tall grass from around Haiku's rose and herb bed yesterday also, and lo and behold, there was still a garden under all that overgrowth. These little geraniums are blooming there amid rose leaves and a wild tangle of several kinds of mint.

Sunday Stroll Invitation

If you have time to stroll today, and if your weather permits, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who is strolling:
Cloudhands at Uncarved Block

Ruth at Musings of an Everyday Woman

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

Joyce at Tall Grass Worship
Me here at the Quiet Country House

Sunday Stroll - Each Leaf a Miracle

It is an almost perfect day here... Light wind, blue skies, and plenty of sunshine cascading through the garden. As if in celebration of this gorgeous day, my first iris opened today. It is a stately lavender-blue blossom, of an unknown cultivar, given to me by a friend from his own garden.

This week I planted annuals, to fill in some empty spaces between my perennials and to add instant color to a predominately green garden. I got rich "burgundy" wave-petunias for the front garden beds on Friday. Yesterday morning, my sons helped me pick out pansies (an annual event for them) and snapdragons. They were unenthusiastic about the trip to the nursery as we headed out, but they were a joy to watch as they trotted up and down a very long row of pansies exclaiming things such as "I found the prettiest one!" and then a minute later regarding a different pansy, "This is the most beautiful pansy ever!"

I have been meaning to add primrose to my garden for several years now and finally bought one this past week. Each blossom opens up a soft buttery yellow, and then sunlight seems to paint it's petals with rose-colored patterns over the course of several days.

Last fall, Limerick tilled a new section of garden for me. A week or two ago, I added a trail of log-rounds and have been working the soil by hand to prepare for planting. I plan to sow seeds, some Cosmos for one thing, but also to use the new space as my older perennials need dividing.

I haven't caught a glimpse of it yet, but there is a bird that sings from the trees on the hill while I work in the garden. His song sounds like "Pretty, pretty, pretty!" and when I hear, I can't help but sing along.

photos by Aisling, May 24, 2009 1) first acquilegia to bloom (self-sown; cultivar unknown) 2) lavender-blue iris, a gift from a friend 3) single marigold 4) two marigolds 5) pot of red and orange pansies 6) burgundy wave petunias 7) bicolor pacific giant primrose 8) a small bit of the new section of the garden, where it adjoins the old section 9) a wistful gargoyle 10) a sign that Senryu made for the snapdragon corner in the new part of the garden 11) a mischievous gargoyle under the snapdragons

Sunday Stroll Invitation

In the dooryard fronting an old farm-house near the white-wash'd palings,

Stands the lilac-bush tall-growing with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

with many a pointed blossom rising delicate,

with the perfume strong I love,

With every leaf a miracle - and from this bush in the dooryard,

With delicate-color'd blossoms and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,

A sprig with its flower I break.

~ Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass, 1865

Lilacs are blooming in the village six miles south, and along the highway just a mile from my front door, but my own lilacs are in the "swelling bud" stage. I await their blossoming with great anticipation. I know lilac-time may have come and gone already where some of you live... but perhaps your iris are throwing wide their petal-arms, or perhaps your peonies are drooping with lush heavy blossoms and sweet perfume. We're getting close to those days too, here on my northern hill. The sentiment Walt Whitman expresses about the lilac bush, "every leaf a miracle," I feel that way about the whole garden... and all of nature.

If you have time to stroll today, and if your weather permits, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

...

Look who's strolling:

Linda at The Crafty Gardener

Abbie at Farmer's Daughter

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Me, here at the Quiet Country House

Mibsy at Classical Calling

Cloudhands at Uncarved Block

Heather at Heather's Homemaking

A little note

Several gardeners posted their stroll after I was off the internet for the day yesterday. I've added them to my list from Sunday Morning, so please scroll down and wander along for a visit if you missed them!

photo by Aisling, May 17, 2009... alpine strawberry lipstick pink

Sunday Stroll - A Parade of Tulips

It is cold and windy on our hilltop this afternoon, but blue skies lured me outside. Walking the garden at this time of year is a veritable parade of tulips... some just opening to the light of May, some already on the wane.

As the tulips blaze with color in the gardens, delicate blossoms are appearing our tiny orchard. Like the little bee (in the second photo below), I think it would be wonderful to nestle inside a pear blossom savoring the sweet nectar... but I guess I will savor instead the beauty of the days between first bloom and autumn harvest.

all photos by Aisling, May 17, 2009 1) double cheerfulness daffodils 2) Red Impression tulips on the wane 2) Black Hero Tulip 3) Appledoorn Tulip 4) Daydream Tulip 5) Angelique Tulips 6)Red Haven Peach blossoms 7) Pear Blossoms and pollinator 8) Pear Blossoms and blue sky!

The Birthday Girl

Today is our Maude's fourteenth birthday. This photo was taken last weekend as she ran with Haiku down to a little lake near our home. If anyone is interested, here is a link to a query on my blog for "Maude" with a lot more photos of our cute old girl: Maude

photo by Haiku, May 2009

Sunday Stroll

Just in time for Mother's Day, the decendents of last year's Mother's Day pansies opened their sweet faces in the front garden. I will probably wait a week or two, for a really beautiful day, then take my sons to help me pick out flats of colorful pansies and petunias to fill in some of the empty spaces in our gardens.

Clouds and brisk winds propelled me along my walk rather quickly. As I walked, I zipped my winter coat, as if in agreement with the tulips that remained tightly closed this morning to brace themselves from the chilly air.

Our flowering thundercloud plum is blooming now, and the peach and pears are in bud. Leaves are unfurling; delicate blossoms will follow any day now.

I will leave you with a few blossoms that are open, fresh, and new. Wherever you are, however you are spending this day, I wish you joy.

photos by Aisling, May 10, 2009: 1) white and purple pansies 2)daydream tulip in apricot phase 3) thundercloud plum blossom 4) bleeding heart 5) double cheerfulness daffodil 6) "pink" daffodil

Sunday Stroll Invitation

"Usually children spend more time in the garden than anybody else. It is where they learn about the world, because they can be in it unsupervised, yet protected. Some gardeners will remember from their own earliest recollections that no-one sees the garden as vividly, or cares about it as passionately, as the child who grows up in it."

~ Carol Williams

If you have time to stroll today, and if your weather permits, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too.

Look who's strolling:
Margaret at Periodic Pearls
Abbie at Farmer's Daughter
Cloudhands at Uncarved Block (strolling memory lane!)
Joyce at Tall Grass Worship
Jena at Becker Farms
Tabbie at Tabbie's Garden

Poetry Thursday - One Bloom

One of my favorite tulips is a sweet rosy purple variety called Purple Prince. This little poem that I wrote, a tanka, tells why this year only one of this variety bloomed.

a purple bud blooms
alone in a pool of green;
at dawn in the spring
with their shy white tails waving
deer ate tulips for breakfast.

tulips for breakfast, a tanka by Aisling, May 7, 2009

photos by Aisling, May 6, 2009

Wordless Wednesday - The Poet's Flower

photo by Aisling, May 5, 2009; Poet's Narcissus

to see more Wordless Wednesday offerings, go here.

Sunday Stroll - The Flowers Speak

There is so much light and color in the garden in these early days of May. I will let the flowers speak for themselves, through these photos. They sing their own prasies quite sweetly!

1) red impression tulip 2) dwarf red and yellow tulip 3) white emperor tulips 4) blue violet 5) poets narcissus 6) unknown narcissus cultivar 7) jetfire narcissus 8) blue vinca 9) creeping pink phlox 10) the same tulip from the first photo, closing up as the sun sinks down in the west

all photos by Aisling, May 3, 2009