Sunday Stroll - Rain-kissed

I walked, with rain falling all around me, through sodden grass and down a slick garden trail. The daffodils which have opened in the last several days are ragged from wind and storm, and dripping with rain.

Each cupped leaf in the garden is like a chalice, saving precious water for thirstier days.

This season is running past so swiftly... Soon the daffodils will be fading and tulips will be the most colorful stars in my garden.

For now, the daffodils, and hyacinth, and two early miniature tulips are brilliant and sunny, despite the overcast skies.

1) blue-light clematis leaf buds in butterfly garden 2) daffodil in herb garden 3) atypical daffodil 4, 5, 6) alchemilla mollis and lupine leaves 7) daydream tulip buds 8) red impression tulip bud 9)miniature yellow and red tulip 10) a little corner of the butterfly garden 11) the south end of the trail in the butterfly garden



all photos by Aisling, April 26, 2009

Lingering...

I read this on my box of green tea this morning, "The afternoon glow is brightening the bamboo, the fountains are bubbling with delight, the soughing of the pines is heard in our kettle. Let us dream of evanescence, and linger in the beautiful foolishness of things." ~ Kakuzo Okakura.

This post offers glimpses of some of the beautiful foolishness that we have been lingering in over the past few days. Evanescence is everywhere in spring... In the bouyancy of a kite rising to the blue sky, catkins bursting on willow trees, sunlight sparkling on the water. Even Maude forgets her years and frisks about, bouyant and joyful on a ramble to the lake with Tanka and Haiku.

The afternoon glow brightens everything on a sunny April day, until the beautiful moment when the sun's warmth melts across the western sky.

Kite, Sparkling Lake, Maude - by Haiku
PussyWilllows, Crocus, Sunset - by Aisling
All photos, April 7 - 10, 2009


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Sunday Stroll - Looking Closely

Above, are Tulips in my front garden bed. Several varieties of tulip are emerging. I see these little rosy-hued green leaves with their frost-bitten tips and I think in shades of red, purple, pink, white, orange, or yellow... depending on where the leaves are peeking through.

Below, the first delicate chives are shooting up. I tasted a tiny blade today... my first "harvest" of 2009. lol!
Aquilegia (columbines) and poppies have appeared .. just young leaves but they add color and texture to the garden in pale red and vibrant green.



Crocus buds remained closed, as the sun hid behind a heavy veil of clouds all day. The first purple crowns of grape hyacinth (muscari) are appearing along the butterfly garden trail. Daffodil buds are plumping up all over the garden, and that first iris blossom is tattered and faded, but hanging in there. It even survived our 10 inch snow fall last weekend.

The snow still lingers in some places, but temperatures in the upper thirties for the past few days have slowly but surely melted most of last week's snowfall away. There are tiny bubbling springs and little freshets in low places that are dry most of the year.

Inside the Quiet Country House, a few things are blooming. The Poinsettia from Christmas is still brightening up the dining room. There are now some tulips blooming on the kitchen counter which I bought myself in honor of my first child's birthday (someone ought to buy the Mom a gift on her child's birthday, right?) Wherever you are, whatever the weather, I hope a little beauty has brightened your day!

... all photos by Aisling, April 5, 2009

For the birds

Each time I look outside my windows I see birds in these days of early spring. I watch blue jays swoop around boldly as I wash dishes. Turkeys in the front yard distract me as I sit down to the computer to do school work. Normally cheery robins look a bit worried as they hop about on the cold ground, looking as if they weren't counting on there still being snow when they returned to the north. Here are a few images... none of them good, many of them taken through window screens. The focus on several is blurred by the frenzy of falling snow. The flower photos are from yesterday when it was cold but sunnier.

I'd love to stay on line and catch up on blog reading, but I have much to do! We have a birthday in the family this week; my oldest daughter will be 19! Today is our party; just a quiet gathering here at home. I need to finish cleaning, bake a cake, and then my nine year old son is going to make a lazagna for his sister's birthday dinner. Wherever you are, however you're filling your hours, I wish you joy!

all photos by Aisling, April 2 & 3, 2009

Spring Nesting

As of this morning, or yesterday when school let out, it is spring break for those of us in the Quiet Country House. Even though there is snow in the forecast for Sunday, I am feeling the springtime... I feel as if I have just a little bit more energy to tackle some unfinished projects. I even gave my blog a spring makeover this morning! The new banner is a photograph of the eastern hills that border our property, just as the sun came up one morning this week.

Over the winter, my recycling has kind of piled up. I still don't have a good system of organization for recycling. I rinse things as they are emptied, and then they just pile up until I push up my sleeves some quiet afternoon, and sort items, smash cans, flatten boxes, and head off for the recycling center in our township.

I would love to paint a room this spring, or have some new shelves built... but with our school schedule and tight budget, this will instead be a season of cleaning and reorganizing. I've been emptying one cabinet in my kitchen at a time, cleaning the surfaces and then putting things back in better order. I also recovered a chairseat that had become soiled and dingy over the past two years. You can read the story of this chair here.

However you "feather your nest" this spring, I wish you joy.

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photos 1 and 2 by Haiku, new blog banner and chair photos by Aisling - all March 2009

Sunday Stroll - Hiding in the Wild Edges

I had to slip into some of the wild nooks and crannies on the edges of our property to get photos today. The flowers in the gardens are in constant motion with this chilly wind, and every photo I took was just a blur. Ah look, a purple blur... must be a tulip. This white blur? I think it was the foam flower (tiarella.) Finally, I made my way to the wild edges of our property, down in the low areas amid the native dogwood and viburnum, to take my Sunday Stroll photos.

photos by Aisling, May 18, 2008 1) wild strawberry blossoms 2) dandelion 3) looking up from the mossy wetland toward the house 4) moss under the native shrubs 5) chocolate mint in the creekbed, with the blue sky reflected in the water

My Sunday Stroll - Joining the Dance

photos by Aisling, May 4, 2008 1) Daydream tulip in the orange phase 2) Daydream tulips, in all stages of their progression from yellow to glowing orange 3) Creeping Phlox at the northern trail head to the butterfly garden 4) Red Appledorn Tulips and Poet's Narcissus 5) A fallen white tulip on the trail

Sunday Stroll Invitation

Alan Watts said, "The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance." This is one of the lessons the garden teaches us... if we are paying attention. Each time I step into the garden, something has changed: new shoots are reaching up through the soil, new buds have emerged, and the first petals have fallen away from a flower I've been admiring for days.

If you have time this week to "join the dance" of change in nature, 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. I'll check back often and try to keep the list updated.

Invitation to Stroll

John Muir said in 1890, "New beauty meets us at every step in all our wanderings." Today I invite you to find new beauty in your corner of the world.

If you have time this week for a Sunday Stroll, 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. I'll check back often and try to keep the list updated.

Looks who's strolling:

Linda at Vulture Peak Muse

Memaw at Memaw Bake's Memories

Good Morning, Spring!

Since I wrote my "Goodnight Winter" post on March 19th, I've been waiting for the day when I could write this post. In theory, I could have written it the next morning, but I had no spring-like photos to share, no spring-like weather for inspiration. Yesterday, finally, the first crocuses bloomed here. Yesterday, for the first time this year, the air was warm and fresh. The boys climbed the tree in the butterfly garden for much of the afternoon, and I pulled away some of the dry brown leaves of last year's garden looking for green. The first flowers of 2008 are more than a week later than last year's earliest blooms... and it has truly been a long, cold winter. Now, though more winter will come in an icy morning or a late snowfall, the walk into spring has begun and hope is blossoming along the trail.

photos by Aisling April 4, 2008: 1)crocus buds in the morning 2) hens and chicks 3) Tag on the garden trail