On Saturday Dom hung up our new flag. I keep catching glimpses of it out of the corner of my eye as it flutters in the front window. I keep thinking it’s someone out there. I do love the bold bright look of it waving in the breeze, though. While Dom was hanging it I sat on the hood of the minivan and Bella joined me in an off-key rendition of the Star Spangled Banner. What fun.
The azalea bush under the front window has burst into glorious flower. The bees are happily buzzing among the blooms. One fat bumble bee wandered into the kitchen the other day, much to Bella’s dismay. Dom had to usher it out.
There’s also this bush of delicate white bells at the front corner (I almost typed “bella” for “bells”). I know a kind reader identified these for me year before last but I cannot remember what they are nor find the blog post. Maybe the same friend won’t mind repeating the information. Maybe I’ll remember it this time since they are in my very own garden.
These are shooting up in four different places along the back wall of the house. These are what I think, from seeing the leaves last fall, are lily of the valley. Time will tell.
I pulled away a bunch of weeds that had shot runners all over the tops of them to reveal these beautiful green spears. I also cleared away tar paper and shingles that seemed to have been dumped mainly on top of these poor plants or maybe they were caught among the stems before they died off. Anyway they make me so happy. I love the way the golden evening sun shines on them. It took me a couple of tries to get this shot without catching the shadow of the camera on the wall.
A little treelet in the back corner put out a bunch of leaves I noticed for the first time yesterday. They also shone beautifully in the light of the setting sun.
Now I’m positive these are tulips. They’ve put out a few buds and I’m waiting eagerly to see what color they are. This one looks like it might be yellow to match the daffodils behind it. There are a few back by the daffodils in the back corner and two poking up under the rosebush in the bed at the front corner of the house.
Don’t these look like strawberry leaves? I found a whole bunch of them in the other back corner while picking up trash. A bunch of rotting netting caught my eye and when I went to pull it up and throw it away I noticed these little leaves nestled among the rocks and weeds.
The purplish plants that surround the strawberries are ubiquitous in the yard and flower beds. They seem to spread by runners and were what was choking the lilies of the valley. I wish I knew what they were called. The ones by the back wall of the house, which I pulled up before I thought to snap a photo, had bright purple flowers.
A packet of nasturtiums caught my eye at the store and I bought them, inspired by the scene in The House at Pooh Corner in which Pooh tells Piglet that he has planted a “mastershalum seed”:
“Besides, Pooh, it’s a very difficult thing, planting unless you know how to do it,” he said; and he put the acorn in the hold he had made, and covered it up with earth, and jumped on it.
“I do know,” said Pooh, “because Christopher Robin gave me a mastershalum seed, and I planted it, and I’m going to have mastershalums all over the front door.”
“I thought they were called nasturtiums,” said Piglet timidly, as he went on jumping.
“No,” said Pooh. “Not these. These are called mastershalums.”
We planted a few seeds in a pot and they seemed to jump up overnight from little half-inch sprouts to these long six inch stems craning for the window.
Tomato plants lined up in the office window. We planted four different varieties, I think: one variety of heirloom, one variety of hybrid, one variety of cherry tomato and one yellow pear tomato. We were perhaps a little pessimistic about what would survive and so we did six of each. Most of them have survived this far at least. Don’t they look cheery all reaching for the sun?
