The Late Spring Garden

Late spring is one of the best times in my flower garden. Irises and peonies, my favorites. I went to the plant nursery this morning to buy vegetable plants for the vegetable garden. Picked up afew perennials, then came home and weeded the flower gardens all morning. Very therapeutic.

Rhododendrons


Red Rhododendron. Very pretty flowers, but this plant has never grown very large.


Spiderwort. Just planted this today


White iris


Variegated Weigela


The first peonies


Lavender Iris

Blue

Blue is one of my favorites, but it's rather difficult to find true blue in nature, other than in birds. Most things that are "blue" seem to be more purple than truly blue.

Obviously, there is the blue sky


I want a peacock. One of these days I may get one, although I know that they are extremely noisy and tend to be unfriendly!


Our blue point Ragdoll cat Iris has beautiful blue eyes.


After the ice storm. I wish that the camera would have captured how beautiful everything looked when the sun came out after this ice storm. It looked as if the trees had been sprayed with liquid diamonds.


I have mixed feelings towards large marine mammals in captivity. They should NEVER be taken from the wild unless it is to rehabilitate them from an injury. However, I also see an educational value in keeping some captive born/can't return to the wild marine mammals in situations (non performing situations in which they can be properly cared for) where the public can view them. Seeing an animal up close does raise awareness, and can spur more donations to charities that help wild populations to survive.

Yellow

Yellow

I have to admit that yellow isn’t normally one of my favorite colors. I painted my laundry room yellow and ever since then I’ve been trying to figure out what color would work better for me in that room. However, I do like yellow outdoors, especially in the spring and fall. It’s nice to see that first pop of yellow daffodils after months of snow.

Still life in yellow


I’m not sure what this plant is. Looks like a cactus, but this photo was taken on Assateague Island in June.


Sunflowers are fun. Easy to grow, and a big statement in the garden for very little expended effort


The humble dandelion. I find dandelions to be very pretty. When we lived in town, I’m sure the neighbors cringed because we had dandelions in the yard every spring. The rest of the street doused their lawns in chemicals. Living in the country, nobody cares about dandelions


Sunshine on a fall day

Orange

Halloween, pumpkins, sunsets, autumn, bonfires.... Orange is good


Can’t think of anything better for orange than this sweet orange kitten!



Cold, rainy day at the pumpkin farm



I do envy some of the beautiful tropical plants that friends in warmer climates can grow. Took this on my visit to Los Angeles last year.



I would absolutely love to have a koi pond. The maintenance doesn’t look like that much fun though, and we’d struggle daily to keep our golden retriever out of it.



Beautiful fall day



Summer bonfire at my brother in law’s house

Rainbow/Red

I got the idea for a Rainbow photo project from my friend Susan at her blog http://darlingpetunia.blogspot.com/2010/04/quilty-cat.html. I am always looking for "assignments" to foster creativity, I love color (no beige walls and beige carpet here!) and the idea of doing a photo series for each color of the rainbow sounded like fun.
Today's color is RED.



This rooster is "Platinum". He was hatched here at our farm last summer. He is actually very friendly, and will probably be shown at the county fair this year. His father "Silver" attacks me every time I go into the barn. I am the one who feeds him most of the time, so I can only discern that Silver isn't too bright.



These 3 day old piggies are keeping warm under the red light.



I can never get enough of the beautiful fall foliage here in Ohio.



Red dahlias in my garden last summer. Dahlias are a flower that I love, but I don't grow more of them because they have to be lifted in the winter here in northeast Ohio. The bulbs are generally fairly expensive to buy, and although I start with the best of intentions, I never get around to digging them up in the fall.