Friday, March 18, 2011

Spring Fever 60 and Rising

With the snow melting, I was unbelievably excited to get outside with the camera today. I know my photography teacher would say this is a picture of dirt and so it is, but isn't it gorgeous? The plant in the center is one of Ed's beloved cardinal flowers. In spite of being inside a cage it has been trimmed level to the ground. Now who do you suppose did that?

The trumpet vine has a firm grip on this weathered locust fence post.



Can you believe the number of spruce tips scattered on the ground by the squirrels? I wonder just exactly how unhappy I am about this? They are cute and funny for a rodent, but have they crossed the line into unwanted varmint status?


Ahhh! Here we have more dirt, a catnip that needs pulling, emerging bulbs and perhaps some Siberian squill from seed!


Just yesterday snow had these plants covered and flattened. My salad burnett and this Johnny jump up flower are well pressed. One has to wonder if that flower was there last fall and got pressed to the ground by the snow, like the flowers Mom used to press in the dictionary.




The snow drops and tulips don't let the tree peony leaves stop them from growing. They just pierce the leaves and head upward. Rose campion had a great winter here. There are way too many of them at the top of this picture.




Never before have I seen fringed polygala leaves in the spring. Last summer Ed moved this plant from the back woods to the shade garden. It had always been May before I even looked for them. Located in my front yard, they will now receive daily scrutiny. The dark green leaves with purple underneath make me see how this plant once was called flowering wintergreen. It is too soon to declare the transplant a success but these new leaves are certainly encouraging.





This picture of lichens, moss , stones and oak leaves is no doubt a result of my reading Wiseacre's blog. In the past I might have ignored these things completely, but now I have to stop and get a picture. I didn't want to stop, but the camera insisted on a battery charge. Well fine then, even more snow will be gone tomorrow!






3 comments:

Donna said...

feels good to be rid of much of the snow doesn't it...but then I looked at the sad state of the garden and went back inside...of course I took a few pictures of a few bulbs in bloom...enjoy the nice weather!!

Jenny said...

Great photos, even the ones of "dirt." They definitely give you the sense of earthiness regarding what you're writing about.

Have a great day,
Jenny

WiseAcre said...

after a long snowy winter dirt is a welcome sight :)

lol,
glad to know it's my fault you've taken a lichen to the little things.