Full Bloom

I'm sure that you're just about as sick of garden posts are you are puke posts - but what can I say - that's what the last few weeks have been - puking inside, garden outside.  Hurray for you though, this time, I pick garden. 

I can't say just what it is that I find so captivating about our little garden this spring.  Out of curiosity I looked back over the last few years of photo archives and as I suspected - not a one.  So why this year?  Is the garden better?  Perhaps.  It's certainly fuller - lusher.  Could also be that the last few years of my life are a blur, so I didn't actually ever really notice the garden aesthetically before.  But I think it's something more - if you'll forgive my blatant sentimentality, I think I associate the garden with my children.

Flower

When Bella was a baby she called flowers Mamu... I can't really say where it came from - Tony and I used to think it was a combination of Flower and Mommy because she knew that I had painted the flowers on her bathroom wall.  We still laugh about the night when we had both girls in the tub.  They were about 1 1/2 years old.  Emma pointed to one of the flowers on the shower curtain and said "flow-wuh".  Belle smiled and clapped:  "Mamu!"

...Bring May Flowers

They all arrived a few weeks early, coaxed into spring by our unusually mild winter.  The April showers were sparse and light, but May first brought with it a splendid array of flowers in our little garden.  After dinner, the girls, daddy and I took a tour of the yard.  The girls helped me snap these pictures.

Spring

The first tree that was planted at our home was a cherry tree, purchased for Tony and I by my mom and dad.  I know that there are all sorts of lovely trees out there, but cherry's have always been one of my favorites - I love those girly pink flowers that seem to so happily announce that winter is, once and for all, behind us for another year.  I have wanted to take a picture of the blooms every year, and every year I've failed.  Usually a storm blows through right as the blooms reach their peak and in the morning the still tender branches have dropped all of their blossoms on the grass below them.

Orchid

Originally posted on Saturday, February 25, 2012

I’ve had Orchids before.  They are so exotic and gorgeous and for me they are typically dead within a month.  Generally I think I’m okay with plants... but Orchid’s have proved the exception.  Last year, after PopPop Hilbert passed away the staff of the Musical sent me an orchid.