...Hipstamatic flowers.

Pansies

Black eyed Susan

Hydrangea

David Austin Rose

Grosso Lavender

Black eyed Susan

Lace cap Hydrangea

Took a quick walk through the garden today with my "Hipstamatic" camera! Sometimes is good to look at life through different eyes.
It's surprising the perspective you can get with simply a different view.

...baskets of roses.

Fresh from the garden... just in time for Mother's Day!

...a peak of spring.

While working in the garden this first morning of Daylight Savings...I came across this little Lady in the stem of last summers Delphinium. She timidly poked her head out and, unlike Punxsutawney Phil, must have seen her shadow...for not long after I captured the moment, it started raining and I retreated back into the house to make a pot of winter soup. Yes...winter
is still with us, but on occasion treats us with a few wistful moments of spring.

...a prelude to spring.

What a beautiful day! The sun was shining, a few billowy white clouds graced the sky, and birds were singing a sigh of relief to have a much needed break from the rain. This is the best kind of day to be out in the garden. The air is sweet with the promise of spring and the ground, soft from days of rain, makes the usual chore of pulling weeds almost a pleasure! Once cleared away, long forgotten shoots of soon to be spring flowers, reached for the sun, thankful for the chance to breath. I took a break just long enough to take a look around the yard and capture a few glances of the season to come. The rain is returning this week and the garden gloves will have to return to bin they live in, but today was a wonderful prelude to what is blooming just around the corner.

...a "Pat's eye view".

click image to enlarge
For the first weekend in a long while, I woke up with absolutely nothing on the agenda. How glorious! Wandered out to the back yard with coffee and camera in hand, sat in my favorite chair, breathed deep, and took in the morning. Today is promising to be a hot one, the tail end of our Indian Summer. I'm not one for any day above 78, and this one should be building to the 90's. So with that in mind I settled in to enjoy the cool beginnings of the day. Daydreaming about the pumpkins and falling leaves to come, I picked up my camera and took some last summer shots of the garden. I decided to shoot only what I could see from my chair. A "Pat's eye view".
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

...the Queen of the Garden.

Jasmine, honeysuckle, tuberose, frangipani. All beautiful,white,creamy flowers that fill the air with amazing perfume. All stars of the garden in their own right. None however can come close to the Queen of them all...the Gardenia. Her flower has graced the wrist of many a young girl at proms and homecomings,her petals probably still dried and pressed between the pages of some long forgotten book. She has watched countless weddings from the lapels of anxious grooms everywhere, and has gained worldwide fame as the flower gracing the hair of the inimitable Miss Billie Holiday. Some have tried, unsuccessfully, to recreate her fragrance and capture it in bottles for purchase. All this, yet she can still be content to grow in the humble yards of those who choose to take the time. Mind you she is difficult and fickle to grow, often times dropping her buds well before their time. She doesn't like too much sun, can't quite take the shade, takes a huge amount of patience, but rewards those who dare with her intoxicating fragrance and creamy white petals. She lets us bring her into our homes to float serenely in crystal bowls, imparting her scent within our own four walls.
Next time you pass her at your local nursery, consider taking her home.
I guarantee, with a bit of love and patience, you will be rewarded ten times over.

...all creatures great and small.

Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of it's plain.
- Henry David Thoreau

...the signs of spring.

Remember those movies we saw in school, the ones in Botany class that were filmed in fast frame to show us how things grow. Well, right about now when I walk through my garden, I feel like I'm watching one of those movies. It's amazing how fast things grow this time of year. One day just the bud of a hydrangea, smaller than my pinkie nail, a few days later leaves an inch and a bit long. I few more months and the yard will be brimming with color and pageantry. What a show Mother Nature is, and it's free for all who want to watch...she doesn't even make us buy a ticket!