(Official) Spring in the Garden

The last day, of the strange yet wonderful winter of 2015, found my best friend and I toiling away in the garden and after months of virtual neglect we had much to do! During the 4 hours we worked we pulled out blackberry vines that seem to LOVE all rural PNW gardens, removed some of the naughtier, most unruly running bamboo and we weeded, raked and watched the burn pile grow.

 

A lot done and there's a LOT more to do!

Somehow though it seemed quite pleasant working under a blue sky and temps

 that seemed more like early summer or late spring than winter.

 

Of course there's a lot of blooming going on right now because of our VERY abnormal winter temps.

the sunny yellow blooms of forsythia, daffodils and Oregon grape,

the lovely white of a magnolia, pieris, other daffodils and many fruit trees,

the always pretty pink blossoms of one of our bleeding hearts and azaleas,

and the unexpected small blue blossoms of the brunnera and light purple of the rosemary.

 

The blueberries and evergreen huckleberries are in bloom as is our most lovely native kinnikinnick. In the bud stage is one peach colored rose and there are buds not quite showing color yet on some of the other roses. Our prairiefire crabapple's buds are right on the verge of opening and yesterday I noticed that our one and only beloved trillium has emerged from the ground (yippee), as has it's nearby neighbor, a hosta. Some of these plants are about a month ahead of schedule I think and others are pretty much on time or a bit early. Our forecast is calling for cooler temperatures for a few days and rain (yea, yea, yea) so maybe things will slow down.

Well I should be in bed (or doing the dishes my hubby, who just came out for an early morning snack, says) but I am, as usual, not tired yet so I'll share some photos...be forewarned the lighting was not the best and I still had on my zoom lens from our last trip with Small One. Anyway here goes!

 

Oregon Grape

 

Resident toad who offered to pose for a picture--

ok he didn't offer and I took much more than one picture :)

 

Camellia--a japonica

 (our camellia sasanqua finally decided to stop blooming after some 5 months of color)

 

Fruit tree blossoms

(I think this is one of our pears)

 

 

Pieris

(borrowed from a post I made 2 years ago. One can only take so much bad lighting you know. LOL)

 

 

 

Brunnera Jack Frost

(also borrowed from an older post.

 I love the leaves and forget-me-not type flowers on these shade loving plants).

 

Oh my! There's the most wonderful violinist playing on TV right now.

Dreamy...

I have thought for the longest time that the violin most closely matches the melody of my heart--

well at least the sadder tunes.

I think the flute captures the peaceful, happier tunes.

 

What instrument would you say is most like the melody of your heart?

 

Well I guess I'd best get to sleep as I am officially exhausted now.

 

Blessings + Happy Spring (or Autumn) to you!

Aimee 

 

A favorite couple of verses for your springtime...

(even if it's not Wednesday)

 

For, lo, the winter is past,

the rain is over and gone;

The flowers appear on the earth;

 the time of the singing of birds is come,

 and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.

Song of Solomon 2:11-12