May 6- the week in the garden

The clematis are blooming.  I am still amazed that these grow here.  I undersand that the viticellas, like this one, and the texensis do best in hot climates.

I like this yellow nasturtium. This one has come up from seed and grown this large just in a month.

Nigella.  One of my self seeding spring annuals.  Love the seed pods.

Larkspur is another favorite self seeding spring annual. 

Geum Mrs. Bradshaw.  Love the color of this easy ever green perennial.

The week in the garden- April 28

 Artichokes!  This one tasted great!

 Beautiful chard.  I prefer the red, but this is what grew from a mixed packet.  So pretty!

 Hydrangea opening.  This is the one Robby found for me.  I wanted a white one.

 My favorite rose, Evelyn. 

 Calla lily.

 Nasturtiums going crazy.  Can you see the wheelbarrow down in there?

The back garden with the roses in first flush. Someone is coming Monday to use the garden for a photo shoot!  : )

Sunday April 22, the week in the garden

This is the burgeoning spring season in the garden.  Very soon, if not already we are at the peak of bloom season.  The roses are into their first big flush and other flowers are blooming daily.  

 Crown Princess Margareta, a David Austin rose that grows as a short climber for me.  Nicely fragrant and gorgeous in first bloom.  More photos next week.  Both the individual flower and the shrub are lovely.

 This iris was a gift from Jen.  I am so pleased I picked this one!

My unknown peony from a bareroot start from Costco. 

Foxglove

Dianthus barbatus 'Sooty'.  I raised this one from seed and it is a biennial, which means it takes two years to get this far.  It has the typical clove diantus fragrance.  Worth the wait! 

The week: rain and fragrance

The week in the garden began Easter Sunday in Robby and Candace's garden for dinner.  Do you see Calla?

 I got to see bees swarm in a tree across the street and find a bee man to take them away to make more bees for polinating our valley.

The rest of the week was all fragrance and rain.  Have you noticed how moist air holds fragrance?  So lovely to step out to a blast of delicious smells.  And the rain!  Booming crashing gushing rushing downpours of rain!  So thankful for the water. 

 Snowballs growing bigger, turning whiter.  These are not fragrant.

Annual poppies.  One of my favorites.

 Lilacs!  One of my new lilac shrubs died coming into spring, just when we throught it was about to bloom.  Apparently we have a fungus in the soil.  : (  So sad.  I love lilacs.  Will have to research another blooming shrub.

 A new rose, Charisma. Nice to see it blooming. 

 Nasturtium leaves with water drops. 

 A quiet corner in shade.  Calla lilies, cyclamen, corydalis and azalea.

Shady garden blooms, Solomon Seal, hellebores and Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine', so fragrant!

Resurrection Sunday

Snowballs and lilacs

One of my garden dreams is bouquets of snowball viburnum, viburnum opulus compactus, with lilacs.  My snowball bush is gorgeous this year! I love the little green puffs of flowers that will continue to grow to about 3 inches and fade to white before fading back again to green and then brown. 

The new lilac bushes made it through the winter and this one is blooming nicely.  I can't decide whether I will like the white lilacs with the snowballs or the purple lilac, while the snowballs are still green. If this year is anything to go by, it will have to be green snowballs with white lilacs, or white with purple. Wonderful either way. 

new direction

For a few weeks I have been seriously thinking of going in a new direction.  I think I am going to do a .com blog type thing that will hopefully tie my many endeavors together.  I could do the thing where I have multiple blogs, but it appeals more to have just one big this is me type place.  I assumed I would call this new place debbiefeely.com  Then a few days ago I had an email from etsy that seemingly introduced a simple thought: what are ways to inspire yourself to work?  The linked blog post is here http://www.jonathanfields.com/blog/how-to-pick-up-a-stranger-or-produce-brilliant-work/     I started clicking links and reading, spent the whole evening reading actually.  This post most  caught my eye...   http://puttylike.com/addictive/
Apparently my assumption of a site name was not the best.  So for several days I have been thinking about this.  What is my overarching theme?  Does it matter, do I need one?  Do I think  this person is valid?  I don't really care if the idea moves me forward.  I am intrigued with the concept of multipotentiality.  Jerry calls me streaky, moving from one thing to another and never quite mastering any.  It is the same idea, just with bigger words.  The idea that everything I do could have a common theme seems so boxy, and boxes always move me forward, even though I rarely know how to create them.  I am starting to get a picture of what I want.  And I think the theme is sensory. 

There is of course another side to this and that is old tapes playing away in the background saying I am not good enough, have nothing of value to offer, and so forth.  At this point I see two encouragements.  Last summer I was reading Isaiah and was struck by the beginning scene where Isaiah is called and goes to the I can't do that I am not good enough bit, and then the burning coal is placed to his mouth and he responds, saying, (my words) Let's do this!   I thought OK, why am I not doing that?  And it has made a difference. Then just this week another thought, from James, that joy can come from anguish, that the 'stuff' in our lives can be as childbirth, pain leading to joy.  I want that.