Just When You Think All Hope is Gone

This spring I ordered a maidenhair fern. I wanted it for the shade garden. There used to be one in the woods in the back, but I could no longer find it. When it arrived the  plant didn't look very alive, but we put it in a pot to await its time to be planted outside.  I had placed the empty looking pot  on the shade  garden wall near where it was to be planted. It had been there for several days when Ed came in and told me that something had dug in the pot. When I went outside I saw the flash of a chipmunk as he darted into a small hole in the stone wall. I was angry! "* &%! chipmunk" I muttered to myself. I reached out and dumped the pot of dirt, and there to my utter amazement I found some black roots and a tiny bit of green growth . Ed planted it for me immediately! The tiny little green frond is just above the "a" in Maidenhair. My apologies to Mr. Chipmunk. This time at least, I was wrong about him. Hopes for Maidenhair fern live if only by a tiny bit.

 Here we have my clematis. Last year with the late frost this plant looked dead! So very dead in fact that I ordered its replacement. It just goes to show you what I know. Not only is the plant alive, but check out the flowers. I gave up way too soon on this one.
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Here we have some lilies that were frozen to the ground by last June's hard freeze.  Fall cleanup found a pathetic lily leaf lying on the ground.  That was all the growth they managed last year. It was a complete surprise to see them this year. I have to wonder how a plant can stay dormant for an entire season and then come back looking great. I know it happens, but is is miraculous to me!

Early this morning while I was drinking my coffee and staring out the window at the misty morning, a male indigo bunting landed on the ledge just outside my window. He stayed for several seconds and I was transfixed. Before this I have only seen  brief flashes of that incredible blue among the treetops. This time we were  very close to each other and face to face. What a picture it would have made, but all I had in my hand was a coffee cup.  I've never seen anything like the blue of that indigo bunting. I'll probably never get that close again, but it made this morning special and there's always hope!

 Ed and I were lucky enough to see a green heron today too. Cloudy rainy and gray or not, it was a great day!