Irises, Snowballs and Poppies - oh my!

The weather has turned warm again. Please stay this way,  I do not want  the cold to return.

My flowers are blooming earlier than usual,  because of the extra warm spring we had. I am thankful most have survived the cold we've had lately.

 I love snowball bushes. They bring back  fond memories of Grandma. She had a bush in her yard and every June we'd all gather in front of it and take pictures. Wish I had all my cousins out here, we could strike a pose and make more memories.

The only thing I do not like about snowball bushes is that the big white flowers don't stay with us long enough. I wish I could  enjoy them all summer.

Okay, this last find is not blooming. But it made me smile when I found it a few days ago. I will add this tiny arrowhead to my collection. You can't tell  in the picture,but the color of it has the prettiest kiss of pink on the surface of it.

You can go here and look at my other posts about Indian artifacts I've found.

 

 What's blooming in your yard?

Posted by Janet F. Smart at Writing in the Blackberry Patch.
©Janet F. Smart

What's Blooming at your House?

We have a rainbow of blooms at our house, their colors bursting forth in the spring air.

Each iris is just as pretty as the other. 

The only one I ever bought was this one and it was supposed to be yellow. 

Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be this color. 

I didn't like it at first, but I have grown to love it's unusual shade.

A couple of years ago, I pulled up a few of them and traded them for these to a lady 

that came to one of my yard sales. 

A small yellow iris tinged with brown.

This is the first year they have bloomed.

 

This solid yellow iris was given to me last year. Isn't he beautiful?
Thank you, Gloria!

 

I have many, many purple irises.

 

 

And a beautiful white patch started by one given to me by my mother in law.

I also have many poppies that were started by ones given to me by a neighbor.

 

A snowball bush!
I grow my snowball bush for sentimental reasons.
My grandmother had two of them in her yard and they were always a backdrop for family pictures.

 

Bleeding hearts always show off at this time of year.

 

And, I am being taken over by hostas. I transplanted three from my flower garden.
I separated them and three became eight! They multiply faster than bunnies!
A fern surprised me by sprouting up in the middle of this one.

 

This little critter didn't seem to be interested in any of my flowers, he just wanted to check  out the garage!

When he gets a little bigger, I don't think he will be as cute as he is now, so we took him and dropped him off down by the creek. I believe he is a baby snapping turtle.

 

What's blooming at your house?

Have you had any unexpected visitors lately?

By the way, there is a great give-away over at The Blessed Hearth. Go check it out.

"Rainbow of Colors"

Iris comes with a lot of history. The flower dates back to Greek mythology. The Greek goddess Iris was the messenger of the gods who was believed to be the link between heaven and earth.

Iris is Greek for "rainbow."

Iris stands for faith. . .




hope. . .




wisdom. . .




courage. . .




and admiration. . .




I love irises and I am glad they are a strong, sturdy flower. Otherwise, they might not have stood up against the wind and hail storm we had Friday night.

>

Frosty, Foggy Morning

Fog

The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

Carl Sandburg

Fog rising from the pond and creek this morning.

We woke up this morning to fog,
and unfortunately,
frost on roof tops
and ice on windshields.

I just walked around and checked everything out and we were lucky, nothing got bit by the cold.
We have little clusters of grapes, small blueberries and blooms, the blackberries are just starting to bloom and we have tiny apples.
It is supposed to be cold again tonight, so I'm crossing my fingers that everything can withstand another cold night.

Here is my latest iris to bloom. . .

This is the only iris I bought at the store. The package said it was yellow, which is my favorite color, but this is not what I consider yellow. It took a while for this color to grow on me, so to speak. But I now like this brownish yellow iris.

Do any of you know what color iris this is supposed to be?

Pictures of the Day!

It's a very nice day today. It's breezy, but it feels great.

Look what I saw when I opened my front door a little bit ago.
Baby birds aren't afraid of anything, I was able to take quite a few pictures of her.
I don't know who's more regal, the baby robin or our statue of Nippy.

Here's another one. Isn't she cute?

I promise, this is the last picture of dachshunds and baby robins.

My white irises bloomed today for the first time. I love these,
I got the start from my mother in law years ago.
I wish I had more of them.

And my peonies are droopy, but they smell so good.

And last, but not least, my snowball bush. I love snowball bushes, I just wish they stayed pretty longer. The flowers disappear too fast. My grandmother had snowball bushes in her yard and every year on her birthday her children and grandchildren came down to her house and had a picnic in her yard. We'd take group pictures in front of her snowball bushes.

Hope you enjoyed seeing a little of my world today.
Now I'm gonna go back outside and see what that baby robin is up to.

Cleaning out the Iris Bed

Today, I cleaned out the Iris bed.

It was a mess!

A big mess!

I pulled out all the leaves and stuff and stood back and looked.

It looks a lot better. A little too crowded, but a lot better.

I have some babies now to transplant.

And a mess to clean up. Any volunteers?

I guess I need to get the rake and transport this mess to the burn pile.

And here is a picture of our first yellow flowers.

Aren't they pretty? Seems we never have any trouble growing the dandelions! But I do think they are pretty in their own way. I miss the small hands holding up a fist full of dandelions and violets for me to put in a little glass of water, and the pretty little smile on their faces.

Oh, the simple joys that children give their mothers.

Our house and yard are not like what you see in the pages of Better Homes and Gardens. But, I am happy with what I have. I am happy for our flowers and for the roof over our head. I am even happy for the yellow dandelions now flourishing in our yard, for they are a sign of renewed life and spring after a long hard winter.

Happy Spring! Enjoy the little blessings God has given us.