Lupin

Your lupins or your life.

Non-pastels

Our front yard looks quite lovely this time of year.

Poppies

One poppy plant has forced its way through the obedient plant and the loosestrife. It has more buds this year than it had in any previous year.

Trellis

I hope that our trellis does not collapse under the weight of three climbing plants: antique rose, clematis, and glorious wisteria. Our wisteria blooms late, compared to other examples that we've seen around the state. But then, everything in our garden blooms late. We still have a peony bush in BUD.

Rear Window

Victor complains that, from our windows and even from our patio swing, my iris bed obscures his view of his hosta garden. So here is his hosta garden, which on the ground is to the rear of the iris bed. Following the hosta garden is an image of our first iris in bloom this year.

Yummies

This year, our produce garden was designed to supply eggplant, tarragon pizzas blanco (with our herb garden: no pictures of that, I realize!), and salads, comprised of lettuce (2 types), bok choy, arugula, peppers, radishes, nasturtium or dill (these individually give a salad a different edge), cucumbers, and tomatoes.

There is no sign of the eggplant, sadly. For the pizzas, we're growing two types of squash and, of course, tarragon. I'll have to snap some pics of the herb garden.

Baptisia

I do love baptisia. The only image above that is not baptisia is an allium growing at the base of a baptisia.

Backstop

These are the flowers that, across from our iris bed, provide a spring backstop for our patio.

The North Face

The rear of our garden (directionally north) is shaded by a yew on one side, and an apple tree on the other. Hostas and ferns look so lovely back there.

Sun

My sun garden used to have a great variety of plants within it. These two, which surfaced earlier in the season, are now in the minority. This year the gooseneck loosestrife, monarda, and obedient plant have taken over.

Vic wants me to leave the monarda alone because that's what drew a hummingbird last year. However, I need to pull up lots of loosestrife. I think it's even drawing nutrients from outside the bed; the earth on the other side of the plastic stripping isn't growing grass!

Lenten

The lenten rose lasts such a long time. It was one of the first blooms in our yard, and it's still blooming. The columbine and creeping phlox are well past their primes at this point (earlier stages depicted above), but not the rose.

Backyard

Along the western edge of our backyard, April into May, are a lilac and a daphne. Both smelled amazing.

Windy Day

Vic flies his stunt kites -- not today, as Good Harbor would have been PACKED today.

Start

I find only a scant few images of my 2010 garden on this blog, from before we went to New Zealand in April. Considering this is seaGARDENSandglass, I am not honoring my space! I have been taking pictures, but not transferring them to my laptop (at least, not until yesterday).

Above please see my yellow scene from early spring. These plants are now confined to the side of the house (previously, one of them bordered the patio, but I moved it).

BTW, we plan to paint the house's basement level, now maroon, a dark blue.

Closed

I know, it has been a bit since I posted last. After Cathy's death, I had to focus on preparing for layoff. That included shutting down operations where I work--as of yesterday.

I do have one job offer, but it's in Lawrence, 53 to 56 minutes away. Where I shut down is 4 to 6 minutes away.

I'm sad and angry. That's no surprise to the many other formerly employed people around the world, I'm sure.

For Cathy (first draft)

I. Quarters

Halve and halve again
The whole in segments
Profanity in
Peeling and cutting
Violence in the
Action of eating
Having now only
Parts of what once was
Whole

II. Geometry

Four in one are square
Yet the world accepts
Triangles as wholes
It sees as complete
Lobed leaves of maple
Iris petals and
Pinnate strawberry
Clover’s three errs as
Four

III. Growth

In April this year
I dug up one bed
Planted hollyhock
(old-fashioned, single)
Dumb to all but sun
And water, striving
Toward stalks of blooms; just
The middle one is
Pink

Sea Glass at Peabody Essex

http://www.pem.org/calendar/event/305-museum_shop_trunk_show

Seals

Here are some of the seals that we saw in New Zealand:
http://www.youtube.com/user/vjs1958#p/a/u/0/ncY6aRRS94w

Video taken just north of Kaikoura on April 10, 2010.

Mud

Here are the Waiotapu mud pool videos that I promised:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Js3_ddsB0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1h2lpOR628&NR=1

Both were taken by Victor on the morning of April 15.

Mother

I was going to post about taking the MTEL exams yesterday.

I was going to add in something about Mother's Day.

However, this morning, my husband's 42-year-old sister died suddenly. =Her= mother (my mother-in-law) said to us, "I'm glad that it happened on Mother's Day. This way she could be here with us." She is a woman who is self-described as "strong in her faith." More power, and much sadness, to her, to my husband, and to all the members of his family, near and far.