Things are stirring...

I got up in the middle of the night as I often do.  It was the night before the full moon and it was bright out.  Looking out the window and down into the yard, I saw a fox walking across the stone wall in front of our house.  He hesitated right below my window like he knew he was being watched and then sauntered off toward the woods.

The next morning when I went to the garage, I noticed that suet feeder was down on the porch.  It had obviously been pulled off the hook where it hung through the winter.  I think we had a visit from a bear.

Things are stirring around here, folks.  Yep, things are stirring.

Our crabapple tree has set its buds.

The squills are starting to go and the bluets have sprung up.

We even have a tulip blooming.

The magnolia buds are getting ready to burst open.

Of course, the may flies are out, too.  But I'm doing my best to ignore them.

Linking up with Our World Tuesday.

Lovely spoils and unwanted beauty…

The tulip's petals shine in dew,

All beautiful, but none alike.

~ James Montgomery

I really, really like tulips.  Maybe they aren’t my very favorite flower, but they are right up there on my list of favorites.  One of the things I like about tulips is that they look good even when they are on their way out of this world.  I’ve taken quite a few photos of tulips in their various stages of life.  The other day, I came across some photos I took when we were in Norway in 2013.  I edited the photos and stuck them in a folder on my hard drive and they have yet to see the light of day except in my cluttered office.  I am going to fix that right now.  Here they are.

It's true that I really like tulips, but I’m going out on a limb here to say that it's entirely possible that my very favorite flower is one many people would like to see eliminated from this world.  It is this:

Yes, it’s the lowly dandelion, one of the most charming and most cursed flowers on earth.  We yank it out of the ground and mow it down only to have it pop up time and again.  It is an elegant, beautiful thing in the early spring when it is caught by hoarfrost on a cold but sunny morning.  It also has an elegant and beautiful history and is sometimes described as "a plant for which we once knew the use but we've forgotten it."  Many cultures have used the dandelion in salads and soups and to make wine.  AND, get this, a coffee substitute can be made from the roots.  However, I’m not sure I’ll go there.  I like my caffeine too much.

  Andre Mason said, “If dandelions were hard to grow, they would be most welcome on any lawn.”

  I think he’s right.  It seems to be human nature to want things that are more rarefied and hard to get than the likes of the humble dandelion.

Okay, so I’m a little weird about flowers.  Are you?  What’s your favorite flower?

Willy-nilly Random Stuff: Spring? Maybe not...

1.  They say it’s the first day of spring here in the northern hemisphere.  While that may technically be true, it’s snowing here.  So what else is new, eh?  Well, to me that calls for a trip back to the Smith College greenhouse.  Sure it’s snowing out, but I’ve got my memories and my photos of those gorgeous flowers to hold me over until the local thing feels safe to pop its head out of the frozen ground.

2.  I love orchids!  They are such happy flowers.  Before I read the book The Orchid Thief:  A True Story of Beauty and Obsession by Susan Orlean, I had no idea how crazy people could get over a flower.  But when I look at orchids, I can kind of understand it.  By the way, the book is a good read and the movie based (loosely) on the book Adaptation is worth a look, too, in my humble opinion.  I think I have a new favorite orchid and it’s this one:

3.  One of the things I truly love about spending time at a place like the Smith College greenhouse is seeing the grand variety in nature. Apples and oranges...succulents and orchids.  It's all good and it’s nice when people have taken the time to pull all these great elements together.  I appreciate it.

4.  But going from the relatively cool climate of the spring bulbs to the tropical area can cause the camera lens to fog up and the need for a bit of creativity in the photo editing department.

5.  No matter where your hallways lead, I hope you have a great Spring!

Linking up with A Rural Journal's Random Five Friday &

Around Roanoke's Willy-nilly Friday 5.  Thanks, kids!

Saturated in Spring Color…

I've been thinking that I deserve a little color after this winter.  So yesterday, I met my daughter Carrie in Northampton and we went to the Spring Bulb Show at Smith College.  It was a wonderful celebration of exuberant color.  When I started looking through and editing my photos, I decided I also deserved to be a little exuberant with the color so here’s my interpretation of what we saw yesterday.

Here's Carrie showing off her new hair color. The ends seems to match those nice orange flowers pretty well.

The theme of the show was Monet's Gardens.  Here's the man himself in the flesh...well, maybe in the cardboard.

Our snowmelt continues even though today was pretty cold.  It's only a matter of time.

Worth waiting for…

I think I can say it out loud.  Spring is finally here in central Massachusetts.  I knew it when I saw that my tulips had pushed their heads up through the ground.  You just can’t trust the daffodils to tell the truth about spring.  But I trust tulips.

Thank you, Nancy, I used texture nc_0416-1 when I processed this pic.

  Having your textures on hand is wonderful!

LINKING TO A RURAL JOURNAL'S 

TUESDAY MUSE.

It’s sprung!

Well, I guess spring hasn’t sprung officially yet but yesterday I got a really nice spring preview.  Carrie, my daughter, and I went to the Smith College Annual Bulb Show and we got enough spring there in one dose to take us through the next few days of winter.

 

Though we have been to the Smith College Annual Mum Show a couple of times in the fall, this was my first time at the spring show.  I must say, it was a wonderful color and fragrance blast after the gloomy winter we’ve had.

 

Of course, I took a lot of pictures.  But the ones I like best are the ones of the tulips and that is what I am posting today.  Here’s to spring!

Here we are enjoying the show.  This was taken in a gazing ball so we are a little distorted.  Well, at least in real life, Carrie's nose doesn't quite lean so far to the right.

Nemo is here!

Well, we’ve been told that the Storm of the Century is happening today here in New England.  The prediction is that in our part of the state we will be getting from 18 to 24 inches of snow.  But if you look at the map, we may be in the 24+ area.  What can you do?  You might as well hunker down and enjoy the down time.  Mother Nature reigns supreme.

Clearly someone here is not concerned about the nefarious NEMO.

At 11:00 am, things weren't so bad.

At least we don't have to stand out in it all day like this birch tree.

I'll leave you with a pic the sunny side of my red tulips.

They don't give a hoot if it's snowing.

The power of red tulips…

I’ve been a little off my game lately and just haven’t picked up the camera.  So I figured the best way to remedy that was to pick up some red tulips at the grocery store.  Nobody can resist taking pictures of red tulips…well, at least I can’t.

Spring cleaning redux…

All these flowers have gone away for another year but they live undisturbed on my hard drive.

Bare and beautiful…

Now and then for a little pick-me-up, I bring home some flowers from the grocery.  I’m not a gardener but I do like flowers and a little color in my kitchen here and there sure is nice.  Last week I decided on some tulips.  So I bought them, brought them home and put them in my favorite blue and white pot.  They were jaunty and uplifting.  I enjoyed them.

But then about four days after I brought them home, I came down to the kitchen in the morning to make my coffee and only two of the tulips had any petals left.  The rest of them had dropped them off during the night and they lay in a heap on the counter.

Not to let that discourage me, I took them outside and tried to make the most of them.