Thursday, March 19, 2015

Springtime pleasures

 Come wander with me in the garden.    It's in high 70s and a beautiful day.

First, take a pee4k through the knot/peep hole in the outer gate.     
 Then we'll pass the lilacs overhead.   
 Once into the main garden there are blooms everywhere.  These are the annual yellow allysum - a weed imported from my mother's garden in Hayward years ago.   One of the first things to come into full bloom, and short lived.   in a couple weeks I'll be pulling them all out, but they will have already reseeded for next year.
 This piece of garden art was o nce part of the old City Hall in downtown Stockton.     Thanks to my friends Len and Eileen - it's still in Sotkcton.     the windows behind are spary painted on the back side for a burst of color year  round. 
 You can see how crowded everything is.  This is supposed to be a little paved seating area and it will be in mid summer.   But for now, spring has taken over, I may as well enjoy it.
 One of my favorite geraniums - before the butterflies find it and lay eggs so the caterpillars can feed on the new blooms.
 the both is still findable, but the plants are encroaching.    There is something I've always loved about the sound of gravel paths under my feet.

Even the area under the little table in the corner is filled in with blooms now, this is the pink oxalys you see lining the paths.     these plants were given me by someone with a wheelbarrow full in Ione back in the early 1980s.     She was transplanting them and shared a half a dozen  - not I have propagated them to the point I've run out of people to give them to.    LOL
I've been marveling over the sights in my garden lately, with so many plants blooming furiously, and today I was almost overwhelmed with the smells.    At first I could not pick out one scent from another.    French Lilac, Lavender, Orange blossoms - all competing.    French lilac in SW corner, Orange blossoms in SE corner, Lavender in the center, white lilacs along the Eastern fence line.    I tell you it was a good experience.   There are other things blooming but not heavily scented, or at least not heavy enough to compete in the scent Olympics that was taking place.     Wish I could bottle it up and spray it around inside.

Come again and stroll with me.