More Blooms

In one of my earliest posts, I wrote about the Mophead Hydrangea pictured above. It was planted in the spring of 1965. At the time, it was just a florist's potted hydrangea that had been sent to our family at the time of my father's death in January of that year.  It has grown quite large over the years and is one of my pride and joy plants.  Yesterday morning, it was covered with blooms in various stages, as shown below.

 Just opened; still greenish white.

 Beginning to show a bit of blue.

 Getting there. Green gone; now pale blue and white.

 All blue, and about 6" or 7" across.

Other plants now in bloom in my front garden are:

 Heuchera Southern Comfort (coral bells)

I love those huge, bronze leaves!

 Variegated Hosta



Calibrachoa (million bells)

a gift from Gardening Daughter.

I do love this time of year!  

I suppose I could have used these photos for several posts, but other plants will be blooming tomorrow and in the following weeks.  I'll have "Springy" blog fodder for a while before the interminable summer heat arrives.

Tomorrow is also a day.

Heucheras, Hostas and More, Oh, My!

I was out in the yard again today. All the leaves that had been piled under the maple tree, on the west side of the yard, made their way to the curb, where they will be picked up by the city.  When I moved to the east side of my lot, I became distracted by the Mop-head Hydrangea bush, which still bore last year's blossoms, now skeletonized and dried to a pale tan. Those had to go, so I worked for some time getting the 46 year old shrub trimmed back into a semblance of order; lots of new growth there. That task 'shot my wad' and I had to retreat inside without raking the east half of the yard (but see end of this post.*)

I wrote yesterday that  some of my plants are up/newly leafed, etc., among them my Hostas and Heuchera, or Coral Bells. The photo above shows one of the Heuchera with Hosta shoots behind and to the left. The next photo is a closer look at the Southern Comfort Heuchera. The copper-colored leaves are beautiful, I think.

All photos should enlarge with a click, if you're interested.

I actually stopped to count the Hosta clumps today; I think I said yesterday that there were ten of them, but I counted only seven while I was mulching around the plants with pine needles (generously contributed by my across the street neighbor whose back yard is full of pine trees.) Right now, all that can be seen of the Hostas are these spiky shoots, but there will soon be leaves.

 Before I came back into the house after taking the above photos, I thought I might get some close-ups of the blooms on my Japanese Maple tree. Although quite small, I think they are pretty.  In the process of taking the photos, I made a discovery about my camera. Why this particular effect occurred, I do not know; someone with more photographic experience than I can probably furnish a simple explanation. Both the photo to the left and the one below were taken within seconds of each other. There was still light in the sky, as is evident at left.


My camera was in Macro mode (I was not using my Macro lens, just the camera setting). I activated the flash to take a photo of the same group of blossoms, and .... huh?  It looks like it was taken in the dead of night. (Photo below.) I love the effect, but I don't understand why it happened.

I tried it again on another cluster. Photo to the left - no flash. Photo below - flash.

Inquiring minds want to know -- and they really would like to know without having to read a photography manual (can you say "lazy?")  Anyone out there who would care to explain? Preferably in words of no more than two syllables?


* The east side of the yard: When I returned from a Friday evening church service (we have more services than usual during Lent), I found that the east side of my yard had been raked clean. ??  Some good fairy had been busy.  Making a guess at the person to whom I should be thankful, I phoned Gardening Daughter. Yes, it was she that I had to thank for finishing this tiresome chore. Now I can concentrate on the back yard.


Tomorrow is also a day.

Bits and Pieces

I awoke early, after starting late and then staying up until after midnight pulling together the scriptures, Psalms and prayers for the service of Morning Prayer for today.  Morning Prayer is one of several Episcopal Church services at which trained lay persons may officiate.  At 10 a.m., I led the service at the church, with three retired women and myself in attendance; the small number of attendees is not unexpected for a weekday morning when almost everyone else is at work. I've taken on the joyful obligation of leading Morning Prayer every Thursday morning during our church season of Lent.

After the service, I took care of some other church business, then came home for lunch, leftovers from last night's Soup and Salad supper at church. I had made a big pot of chicken-rice soup for the occasion and brought the uneaten portion home with me - enough for three generous servings. I can make a meal out of soup and a few crackers.

About two o'clock, that pesky Wan'tu, about whom I wrote a few weeks ago, sprang into action again and forced Can'du out into the yard to work at getting the leaves out of the front flower beds.  It was quite warm, 77 degrees F, with bright sunshine, and Can'du got hot and quit working after just over an hour. She may have received a light sunburn on her face, even with that relatively short exposure.

While watching Can'du sweating away, I observed that the Hostas planted on the north side of the house have pushed up thick, spiky new growth, leaves still tightly furled, and the three Heucheras and a Black-eyed Susan planted in front of them are growing like crazy. All it takes is a few warm days to get things up-and-at-'em. I didn't think to take any photos of my own emerging plants, but perhaps I will do so tomorrow.  Just to keep things interesting, I'm sharing photos of Hosta and Heuchera from the Internet.

Hosta, at least two varieties

Heuchera Southern Comfort

the leaves on my plants are not this large yet

but my plants are the Southern Comfort variety and
I love this color!

After a period of rest and re-hydration, I busied myself paying bills, a dreaded but necessary chore. Most of my bill-paying is done online, so it's not as onerous a task as it could be, but it still takes time.

I'm ready to wash up and turn in.  Tomorrow is also a day.