Wednesday, April 2, 2014

We Have Sprung!

Wow! Today is 77º. I'm wearing sandals, cotton capris, a short-sleeved shirt ... and I'm too warm! The sky is clear and blue, and air is calm and warm. Ahhhhh ~~ summer!! Oops, I mean spring!!
A spring post wouldn't be complete without some blooming things, so here you go:
I don't know what those white ones are, but the ones below you recognize as hyacinths, of course.
As the weather warms here in the South, we Southerners will again slow down to the pace we normally live in:
And for those who think our lives here in Oriental are the stuff of myth and legend ...
I've spotted several short trees with these blooms:
So pretty, bright white against the sky, and waxy and limp.
It has a very short growth structure. Anybody know it's name?

Many gardeners are trimming back their big grasses, but this family burned theirs. So shocking, so ugly, rather disturbing.
Yet already you see new green shoots overtaking the burnt, dead stumps.
Again, God gives us an object lesson in nature -- from the burnt, ugly parts of our lives, new growth and beauty can come. The burnt stuff becomes the rich soil from which we extract the strength and wisdom -- the nourishment -- to keep going. It takes time.
Julia's growing too. I'm glad she's not so big she can't still enjoy a good tree-climb!
I'm thinking small and manageable, regarding my "gardening" this summer. I'm a pathetic gardener, especially in Southern heat and Southern clay. I bought one patio tomato plant. Did I mention it already? Here it is in its big pot.
I was excited about its tough reputation for longevity and production, so I bought three more. Must find pots for them now.
And then I did something very silly. I had a whole packet -- a whole packet! -- of pea seeds from two years ago. They were hanging around mindlessly in the left-over bread bowl in the kitchen. Miraculous, I think, that they hadn't been thrown out already. So I put them all in a gallon ziplock baggy with a wet paper towel, and placed it in the sun to see if they would germinate.
And they did. All 42 of them. Well, I don't know exactly how many, but I feel like I have 42 vulnerable little babies, all wiggling and alive and requiring me to tend to them. I put a handful into this little pot (above), and you see how two of them are up already, heads into the sun.
I just put another 15 or so into another larger pot. Eek! What have I done? I'm gonna be overrun with peas! I should put them in the ground next to the house, in the broad sunshine, and see how they do. Things are growing here!
Happy spring! If it hasn't arrived at your home yet, I hope it does soon.
Update:
Dasha, I've added another photo of that first white flower, so you can see its growth habit. It's not a shrub, so I don't think it's a forsythia, although you're right that the blooms are similar. Here's a photo:
It grows low to the ground, like daffodils. Pretty!

9 comments:

Pom Pom said...

It's still a bit chilly and windy here, but I love your sunshine!
We'll get there, after it snows again tomorrow! Ha!

Dasha said...

The top white flower is a Forsythia, but you will have to find someone else to identify the flowering shrub. I don't recognise that.
In Australia, fire is actually required to germinate a number of varieties of plant - Banksias are one type of plant that comes to mind. Pre white man, the indigenous Aborigines used fire to clear land and control the undergrowth centuries ago. It is amazing how quickly after a bush fire devastates an area, the green shoots come through, and within a year or two the only reminders are the charred stumps of trees poking out of the lush undergrowth.

M.K. said...

Hi, Dasha -- I added a photo above of that first one. Our forsythia don't grow like that -- do you have a plant there in Australia called forsythia that grows that low?

Kezzie said...

Why hello ray of Sunshine!!! Your posts always make me happy!!! WHat beauty you share- thank you for that! I always think sharing of beauty is such a lovely thing to do for others!x

GretchenJoanna said...

Congratulations on the peas :-) I hope they give you a crop before the heat turns you into a bad gardener again!

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Hurray for you, spring has sprung!

The blooms you shared are wonderful and your little tomato plants and pea seedlings won't stay little for long.

Happy Spring ~ FlowerLady

Lisa Richards said...

I'm a bad gardener, too, but I've started some tomatoes from seed in peat pots along with some acorn and hubbard squash. We can't plant outside until May 15 or so, so I'm hoping my seedlings are ready by then. I'm going to keep it small because I know my limitations! :) Good luck with those little baby plants! (No idea about the identification of the flowers. Paperwhites?)

Leslie said...

Lovely! It was so humid here today it was just awful. I forget about that when it is all winter and cold. Blah.

Ida said...

So happy your spring has sprung with such beauty. I like those little star like flowers with the hint of purple on them.