Cheerfulness Under the Tree

My all time favorite bulb, cheerfulness.


I love the way it looks, smells, waves in the wind, everything about it! Really, this little flower reminds me of a spring break trip I took in high school to England (the one and only time I've been across the pond, so to speak). A friend and I were roaming the streets and stopped at a flower vendor. A lovely lady with a thick English accent told us that they all grew on her farm a few miles out of town and my friend and I just couldn't resist a 3 pound piece of English countryside. She chose red tulips and I chose cheerfulness. So here they are, my planted memory. I love the fact that the tulips and cheerfulness came up at the same time! What memories have you planted in your garden?

A Fully Seasoned Day

Today was one of those bizarre weather days in Virginia. It started out 70 and gorgeous with a slight breeze and the smell of spring on the air. I thought it'd be a great day to snap some photos of the tulips coming up under the maple tree. They look like little red stars amidst the slowly greening vinca. We had the windows open, the heat off, just plain enjoying the day when suddenly the temperature dropped, black clouds were in the sky, and it started to rain. So we rushed around closing windows. Then it was about 45 and started to hail. No kidding, hail. Then suddenly cold sunlight and blue sky, so I snapped some more pictures of the tulips (which apparently had the good sense to close back up in the now cold weather, like little tubes of lipstick). Then more rain. Then more sun. Rain. Sun. More hail. Sun. It's like the entire season of spring has played itself out in one day. Just this moment, the sun is shining in the front yard and its raining in the back yard. All day, I've been watching, fascinated at the instantaneous changes in the weather. On days like these, I understand why we call Nature a woman, as if she just can't make up her mind about what she wants to wear.

Dwarf Irises

Do you see them? Peeping out of the cold ground are the first blooms in my garden.


I saw them early last week and wondered what little blue piece of trash had landed under my tree (sometimes I forget where I put things in the garden... yet another reason to keep a garden journal). Walking out to angrily snatch up the offending trash, I caught my breath and giggled with excitement.

They were short and lovely, opening their happy faces to the cold late winter sunshine, laughing that they are not afraid of a March snow.

Their yellow tongues sticking out at me, daring me to lie on my belly on the chilly damp grass to try to get a photo, pointing out to me once I was there that the daffodils and tulips are also starting to show their heads.

I always feel that irises are laughing, joyful little flowers. With so many small petals to catch the sun and toss it around, they play with the light and quiver as if giggling in the wind. These (according to my scrawling notes last fall) are iris christata, the first blooms in my garden.