Spring on the hard drive

It's April and my hyacinths are perfuming the entryway, the tulips are almost ready to open, the forsythia is dropping yellow petals on the lawn, and the first hairy cat's ear (grrrr!) has dug itself in. (And I dug it out.) There are bluebells on the way, and mock orange, and Dutchman's breeches. I've been out cleaning up, trimming the hydrangea and weeding around the hollyhocks. Ah, spring!

And on my hard drive, I've been sorting spring flowers from years gone by. Here are a few of them; most I'd never finished processing.

Indian plum, aka osoberry. A welcome native.

Humble wood violets.

Back in 2009, in a patch of blackberry canes and nettles at Terra Nova, we found these snowflake flowers.

Leucojum sp.

The site had been, long ago, a homestead; there were daffodils and old fruit trees. These had been in someone's garden before the blackberries moved in.

Aka dewdrop

Lily of the valley. From my old garden in Delta.

Half hidden in the shade at the edge of the woods at Woodhus Creek, vanillaleaf in bloom. The flowers don't last long, but the drying leaves are fragrant all summer.

And it wouldn't be spring without crocuses, would it?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ya estamos a medio abril, y mis jacintos están derramando su perfume frente a mi puerta. Los tulipanes tienen grandes botones, rojos y amarillos; la forsitia cubre el pasto de pétalos amarillos; y las primeras "orejas peludas de gato", una hierba invasiva y nociva, se han establecido en el césped. (Y ya las arranqué.) Hay campanillas, naranja falsa (Philadelphus sp.), y Dicentra, todavía sin flores. He estado podando las hortensias, sacando hierbas malas de entre las malvas locas, y haciendo limpieza general. ¡Ah, la primavera!

Y regresando a la casa y la computadora, he estado revisando fotos viejas de flores primaverales. Aquí hay algunas que encontré, casi todas del mes de abril, pero en años anteriores.

1. Oemleria cerasiformes, llamada Ciruela India, o también frutilla de osos.
2. Violeta nativa
3. y 4.  Encontramos esta planta bajo un lío de zarzamora. Se llama "copo de nieve".
5. Lirio del valle, de mi jardín en Delta.
6. "Hoja de vainilla", una planta nativa del bosque. Las flores caen pronto, pero las hojas siguen aromáticas todo el verano.
7. Y no hay primavera sin crocus.

The long winter has ended!

All winter long, my garden sleeps in sunless shade. Sometime in the first week of April, the first rays of sunshine glance off the lawn, a few minutes at a time. Later, afternoon sun briefly touches the edge of the garden, and the potted honeysuckle, inspiring it to burst out in leaf.

And now, I have morning sun!

8 AM garden, with chickadee.

The first rays kiss my little juniper, and move on to highlight the Creeping Jenny, sneak through the Lily-of-the-valley patch, and settle on the violets for a few minutes.

Top o' the morning!

Then it moves on to waste itself fruitlessly on a bare wall, and shuts itself off in frustration. But it will be back in the afternoon, to encourage the sprouting perennials for half an hour.

We, my garden and I, are so grateful!

Begonia. Doesn't mind the shade; provides its own cheer.


I found this tiny wild violet around the corner, where the sun shines every day.

.