Oops

So I am pruning away all that dead wood, and trying to be as careful as possible, but I tend to plant heavily and love how the boundaries of plants get blurred, when I realized I had just knocked off the head of an allium, just opening to flower. Oops. I took it inside and put it on the scanner, and it wasn't until I came to work on the scan and wondered how the scanner bed had gotten so dirty, that I realized that the stamens were covered with pollen. Some time later the pollen was removed and I was amazed at the color variations in the petals. Quite wondrous.

allium, 2014

the gorgeous colour variations of the alum, 2014

Lily of the Valley

Today you can walk out the kitchen door to the soft, sweet scent of lily of the valley, a nostalgic scent for me as my grandmother used to wear it. So all morning that old song has been running through my head; you remember the one some of us leaned around campfires, "White coral bells upon a slender stalk, Lillies of the valley deck my garden walk, Oh, don't you wish, That you could hear them ring, That will happen only when the fairies sing." A magical morning.

the bells of lily of the valley, detail

the stems are so beautiful, detail

lily of the valley

Beautiful Decay

While cleaning up my mess from all the pruning I reached down to put old leaves in the tarpaulin to haul away and found this beauty; barely there but the structure is still holding though very dry and brittle. It will make the best compost. Lovely pondering the great cycle of life as the sun warms my body and clouds drift by, a gentle spring breeze blows and the budding increases its pace.

the heart of a leaf, 2014

That Blue

Every spring I eagerly await what I call "that blue",  the scillas.  Their intense colour is a wonder and one that I have never felt I captured with the camera. So I tried scanning them and against the black background they are almost iridescent. More how they feel in the garden, especially in the rain. They are so tiny [probably 3 in. high] that every year I look forward to see how they are spreading. I have dreams of swaths of them, blanketing the woodland gardens. [link here] And the 1st daff bloomed, complete with a leaf from last fall pierced through. That for me is another garden wonder, how those tiny, frail shoots of green can rise through the blanket of leaves and become.

lovely scillas, 2014

the 1st daff, about to raise its' head,  2014

Making Pizza

A couple of weeks ago as we made pizza for dinner and I was cutting the red peppers, I put one of the rounds of pepper on the scanner, intending to come back later and scan it. Yesterday I needed to do some scans and found this very dried out, and very beautiful pepper on the scanner bed. So I scanned away and last night as we made pizza again for dinner [we make, well actually J., makes the BEST pizza in the world] the core of the pepper has these beautiful shapes and 2 little inner peppers shown at the top right of the 3rd photo.

after 2 weeks, transparent in places

detail of the above shot, love the structure

core with babies

Almost Over

It's almost over, this time of magnificence of the land. There will be a frost soon; the latest I have known, and the land will tilt towards winter. But for now there are still gems to be found and today my eyes saw these dried ferns and milkweed pod blown open, having done their job and scattered their seeds to the wind.

Ferns

Fern

Milkweed leaves...I think

Saving Seeds

Seed heads, seed pods, even just plain seeds fascinate me. At this time of the year, as I begin to cut down the garden, working in the clear golden light that has been the last week, and knowing that soon this glory will be past, I am made aware, again, of the cycles that govern our lives. I found these grasses with their intricate seed heads in a bag in the studio the other day; a lovely reminder of our prairie adventure [link here]. They were a low grass, maybe a foot high, growing in clumps along the sides of the roads, and what made them so special to me were their soft tasseled plumes which became the seed head. I hope they will grow in my garden.

Beautiful Decay

Our wondrous weather continues so I spent the weekend wrestling with the wicked weed, which has had a banner year with all the rain. It's growing among a bank of day lilies, so I am getting a lot of stretching in. There is a very early day lily called 'Flavia" that forms the most beautiful pod and if I leave it late enough the structure of the pod becomes more apparent as it decays. These images are scanned but a few years ago I photographed them.[see link here]

scanned day lily pods, 2013

scanned day lily pod, 2013

Charles De Mills

One of the most beautiful roses in my garden, with the softest, velvety petals, vicious tiny thorns and a wondrous scent. Fully quartered with a tiny bright yellow center. Did I mention he's prolific? Blooms only last 3 weeks or so but what a show. And as an extra bonus he likes to spread about. Some might say he is a wondering fellow, but I love being able to give friends rootstock so they can grow this beauty.

Charles de Mills

Petals, Charles de Mills

Dried Petals, Charles De Millls

Moles, Voles and Tulips

A few years ago I planted 60 purple tulips in the front bed. Along with the same number of purple alliums thinking the allium, a member of the garlic family would keep the moles away. Plus I thought the combination of the blue purple [allium] and magenta purple [tulips] would be wonderful. The first year was a great success. Every year since there were fewer and fewer tulips. Even the allium numbers were down. This year there are 2 tulips left. Final score, moles / voles 58, tulips / Liz 2. So this is The Tulip Requiem.

2 Tulips or the Tulip Requiem

It's That Time Of The Year

For dandelions. The so called grass is covered with them, our neighbours field is covered with them. I think it's a glorious sight. We drink our coffee watching the sun warm them until they open those yellow heads once again. "Hello World" they shout. "I'm here." A few days pass and those once bright yellow heads have turned to a silvery gray puff ball waiting for the wind the blow the seeds all about and start the whole dance again.

Hello world, I'm here

Seed Head

Watching Things Grow

I spent the whole day in the garden, my idea of heaven, pruning roses, weeding, trimming. I hate having to miss a day there as growth happens so quickly . The daffs are almost finished, the scilla making their seed heads, the cotoneaster needs a trim, so does the dogwood. The path around the pond needs to be widened, and the ferns are unfolding for the second time. [Link to the frost and ferns]

Narcissus Poeticus

Every spring I fall in love with these beauties. I love their name, I love their slender stock that folds as the flower head emerges, I love how tenderly the flower head is wrapped, I love their simple shape and I love their perfume.

Narcissus poeticus

Frost and Ferns

Last weekend was all frost, snow and blustery winds, and I found the ferns, which had been about 8 or 9 inches high, shriveled to brown and laying on the ground. By yesterday new fiddleheads had not only emerged, they were already several inches high. Such instinctive knowing awes me. If we get another hard frost will they do it again? To see the ferns at a better size just click on the image.

Fiddleheads, after the frost and snow

Fern Leaf Bleeding Heart

A friend and I were talking the other day about how our work had changed over the years. And how many of our preoccupations in the work had not. But for me the size and scale of work has changed radically. Maybe it's age where you don't have the same energy, but we were hoping it was ego. That perhaps we weren't trying so hard to impress people, to make a dent in the art scene, that big statement. Look at me, look at me. Whatever it is, I must say I am also hoping there is some hard found wisdom here. I am enthralled with what I used to consider the small, the insignificant, the mundane. There seems to be whole worlds to discover, to notice, to savour.

Fern Leaf Bleeding Heart

Gran's Johnny-Jump-Ups

Years ago when I started to garden, there were a lot of bare spots as I waited for plants to grow and colonize areas, and one of my favourite ways of keeping the weed population down was to plant theses little beauties from my sister's garden, which had been my aunt's and grandmothers garden.They have seeded all over the place and earlier in the week, taking my coffee outside, I stepped out the door, over the stone step and there they were. Just a few flowers nestled in a sheltered spot.

Johnny-Jump-Ups

Johnny-Jump-Ups, detail

Moss On A Stone

Outside the front door is a collection of my favourite stones and the other day I noticed that a black beauty, which had been egg shaped and broke a few years ago, was now wearing a toupee of moss. Reading a bit about mosses, Wikepedia says mosses love a reasonably stable surface on which to grow. This phrase enchanted me as I suspect we all like a reasonably stable surface.

Scanned Moss 1

Scanned Moss 1, detail

Scanning Bits And Pieces

Time seems to have gone missing lately, but yesterday afternoon, after a snooze, and waiting for the internet to work, I found some small treasures in the garden. Strong winds for the past couple of days had blown some lichen off a branch of a tree. I love the gray-green color.  I love it's coral like texture and shape and I keep meaning to read more on how it grows. It seems an ancient plant to me, full of knowledge of how to exist in the world, how to adapt and especially how to do things very slowly.

Litchen

Pruning the Hydrangeas

Working about the garden, pruning, raking, rebuilding stone walls that Zoe took apart looking for the chipmunks or squirrels that tease her so. I looked down to pick up a pile to take to the compost when I saw these. Pee Gee hydrangea flowers, dry and brittle and so beautiful. Put them in the scanner and although parts are out of focus, the scan really gives the feel of the fragility of these spent flowers.

I just went outside to see if the stars were out, overcast so no stars but the frogs and peeper are singing away. I love spring.

Hydrangea 1

Hydrangea 2

Those Little Yellow Flowers

I have never known the name of these flowers,[ some people call them weeds,] until I was reading Altoon Sultan's blog [ link here] yesterday. They are called coltsfoot and look like miniature dandelions, Same wonderful cheery yellow but tiny in size with a red stem. They just appeared one year about the pond gardens, and me, thinking they were weeds went after them with a vengeance. I have relaxed my standards and am now delighted to see them, especially as the daffodils seem to be very slow to show their color.

coltsfoot

coltsfoot