Tulips

Tulips in my garden.

Giant Poofy Peonies

Giant poofy peonies. These grow in the back, between the garage and the house, so they always bloom a little later than the ones out front. Most of this bush is still closed up tight.

Weigela

This used to be a tiny, sickly half-dead thing that we nearly dug up when we had to do work on the house 3 years ago. It's come back with a vengeance now!

Spring has definitely sprung

Princess inspecting apple blossoms.

The whole yard has exploded in bloom, in large part because of the enormous amount of rain we've had! We took advantage or a few minutes of sunshine to go out and inspect...

Blooming

The fruit trees in our little 'orchard' (what C calls it, but I don't think 6 trees really counts as an orchard :) ) are starting to flower. It's one of my favourite sights! The sour cherry tree (pictured above) is in full blossom (though I have to say there appears to be fewer blossoms this year, which doesn't bode well for a good crop of sour cherries) and the plum is in blossom too (we've never really gotten fruit from the plum, a couple of tiny plums last year, almost more like olives). The crabapple is just starting to bloom and I imagine by next week the apples and pear will be blooming too :)

Tulips 2011

Tulip Fest 2011, Major's Hill Park, Ottawa.

Took a little walk at lunch time to enjoy the sunshine and check out the earliest of the tulips. They definitely did not disappoint! Amazing!

Tooolips...

I love living in Ottawa :) Tulip Festival hasn't officially started yet, but everything is in full bloom.

Near the War Memorial

Lilacs 2010

I love lilacs. My parents bought me a pair of little lilacs for my birthday last year, a purple and a white. They're small, but they're thriving, and rewarding me with a handful of small fragrant blooms this year...

Blooming

Our fruit trees are mostly in bloom (the pear isn't quite there yet, but is only a couple of days away from full flower). The smell in that part of the yard is intoxicating, particularly from the plum tree, those blossoms are amazingly fragrant.

Faux Karsh

Inspired by Karsh's iconic pictures of the tulips on Parliament Hill with Parliament looming in the background here are a couple of the tulips in my front yard with a castle of a different sort :)

Return of the two-tone clematis

I wrote, briefly, about it last year, how the clematis outside of my home office window appeared to have two different colours of flowers.

This year, after a really late start, the two different colours are WAY more obvious. Is this a fluke? Is there actually 2 different plants growing here?

edited to add: my mom (who knows everything botanical) says these aren't clematis but are instead morning glory and two colours isn't unusual. Wish she'd move closer and help me figure out what is what in my garden... and maybe weed it for me too :)

the days drift by

I can't believe I haven't blogged in two weeks. I'm here, but the weather has been pretty, and there are gardens to weed, garage sales to peruse, games of flatball to be played, baby quilts to be made, life to be lived.

School is almost over for the year and the bits are anxious to be done. I'll be taking a couple of weeks of precious holiday time at the beginning of July and I, too, am anxious for days of enjoying the sun and the pool and summer.

Around the yard

Just a few pictures from around my yard. It's our first Spring here, so these were all planted by the previous owners (or in the case of the plum blossoms and crab apple blossoms probably the owner before that).

Random flower shot

Pretty purple flowers (possibly weeds, what do I know about horticulture) growing in the yard, macro style.

Smile

When he was digging a trench to re-route our sump discharge, I begged C to work around an interesting bush planted at the front of our house. It rewarded me by flowering. I have no clue what it is, but it makes me smile.

Visitor

I was trying to take pictures of the echinacea... I didn't count on seeing this little visitor.

Clematis

Stunning clematis that grows just outside of my home office window. The flowers are a deep purply-blue where they're shaded by the big leaves, and this amazing reddish-pink where they receive full sun. I had no idea one plant could produce two different colours of flowers?

Busy bee

These guys just love one of the rose bushes out front. Try as I might I couldn't get a decent shot of this fella taking a pollen bath in the little rose bowl, he just wouldn't hold still, but you get the idea. He rolled around and rubbed himself well with the pollen - so neat!

More flowers for mama

I love being off work, time to play in the yard, smell the clover, remember why I had kids in the first place...

bokeh

Bokeh is a photographic term referring to the appearance of out-of-focus areas in an image produced by a camera lens using a shallow depth of field.

Playing with the camera while the bits and their friends collect wildflowers.