the stone garden in july

another bevy of blossoms

There is a rather small orchard on the way to the kids' school that has been in bloom for the past several weeks. I see it in the morning as we drive past and I yearn to stop and wander a bit for some pictures. However, since our standard route leaving school is a different one and I am such a creature of habit, sadly I always miss getting out into the orchard to take some pictures. [I would never have time in the morning anyway, and I just can't take good pictures under pressure!]

Until yesterday, that is! I made a conscious effort to take the other way home so that we could pass by the orchard. It was perfect: the day was clear, balmy, and breezy and there was no pressure to leave before I felt like I wanted to. Even when the kids asked me if technically I was trespassing as we drove away. I gave a rather vague "no" in reply.

Not sure what kind of blooms these are, but even I can tell that they are different from the other pink blossoms I captured several weeks ago. A variety of stone fruit, I presume.

blossoms in the orchard

blossoms detail

busy bee

reflections

Yesterday I stopped at this orchard in bloom after taking the kids to school to get some fun pictures. And the orchard smelled so good! I'm not sure what kind of stone fruit these blossoms will become, but it smelled heavenly. It was buzzing with bees as well, as you can see from the second picture!

pretty blossoms

When I took Julia's glasses in to get fixed, I couldn't help but capture theses lovely blooms on camera. I've always had a fondness for tree blossoms, and the tall, graceful orange iceland poppies always stand out in a crowd. I am loving spring right now-I feel that if I don't take my camera with me everywhere that I might miss something great!

in the backyard

Some pictures I took on Saturday while goofing around with the camera in the backyard, in between rain showers.

first sign of spring

Yesterday afternoon I was gazing out one of the windows that look out onto our front yard, commiserating over how ugly and destitute our yard was looking. Except for removing the leaves during the fall [and winter-it's Cali, after all], we have basically deserted all forms of yardwork except for the occaisonal sweep of the concrete. As I stood silent watch over the barren landscape, I tried to motivate myself into spending this Saturday getting our yard back into shape.

Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed something. Something purple. Purple! All at once I remembered the crocus bulbs I had planted near the granite rocks about four years ago, which continue to take me by surprise when they actually bloom each spring. The crocus were finally up! Even better than a groundhog, here in mild-weathered California it means that spring is definitely here.

I dashed out the front door, camera in hand, to capture the evidence that our bleak winter is nearly at an end. Goodbye cold, bland, grey winter skies! Hello sunshine, flowers, and azure skies all around! Of course that also means an eventual return to another blistering valley summer, but I'm not even going to think about that for very long. Spring has come!

hopeful harvest

One of the many blossoms on our lemon tree right now. I'm hoping this year yields a better harvest than last year. Due to the intense freeze we suffered last winter, we hardly had any lemons to enjoy from our tree. I think we had one or two good ones from the whole batch. Since we have even more blossoms this year, I'm hoping this winter will be mild enough to harvest some lemons for my kitchen! I love to use them for everything: pasta, salmon, lemon bars [yum], lemonade, lemon poppyseed bread, and whatever else I can come up with.

On a totally random note, does anyone else get confused for the nanny/babysitter/older sibling whenever you're out with your kids? I can't believe that at age 35 it is still happening to me. This morning I took my prescription to the eye doctor's office to order some more contacts and the nurse asked me if I was listed as a child on Owen's vision insurance! Seriously! I can't even count how many times I've been asked if I'm the nanny or the babysitter. Even by solicitors that come to the door. And this one is even funnier, although it happened about ten years ago. I was waiting for Owen in his truck while we was getting a crew started on a construction project, and they all thought that I was his daughter. I guess it's a good thing, although I'm starting to wonder if some of these people need to get glasses themselves. I do own a mirror. And I don't think I look that young!

project

Collin and I went to Lowe's yesterday on a hunt. Our mission was to secure a variety of inexpensive seeds for Julia's science project [which is actually a seed collection]. On our way into the store, we went in through the garden area and I was immediately sidetracked by all the beautiful flowers. Camera in hand, we wandered down the outdoor aisles, looking for the most winning prospects to photograph. My favorite turned out to be this one. Aside from the delightful color and shape, I am really into those perfectly curled stamen! Nature creates the most awesome details.

We did actually get to the seeds, but not before Collin was sidetracked by the Christmas display set up inside. [I know. Christmas. In October. I just can't get into it.] Anyway, there was a train set up that was moving along a circular track through a tunnel in this Christmas mountain that Collin was just fascinated by. He adores trains. It's such a sweet little boy thing. So, we sat and watched the train go around and around for awhile before we selected our seeds and made for the checkout.

So now Julia and I have a science project to complete. All students at the kids' school do a science project [lucky me, we have three] but the kindergarten and first grades only have to submit a collection. Fortunately Julia's will be easy to complete. Between what I gathered around the house, those I received from my mom, and the ones from our foray into Lowe's, Julia has about 50 different seed specimens to display on her science board. I'm hoping to help Julia get hers done by Saturday night so that I can help Libby with hers next week. And then I get to make sure Bailey gets his done as well. Oh, the joy. How did my mother ever get through all this with five kids and still manage to hang on to her sanity?

tender herb

"My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass." Deuteronomy 32:2

Went outside this morning to see what I could see, and I immediately noticed all the amazing dew on the French lavender plant in the stone garden. I just love how the camera picked up all the individual beads of dew so clearly and how luminescent they look!

morning storm

[Nature, like man, sometimes weeps from gladness--Benjamin Disraeli]

Early this morning [around 3 or 4 am] we had a thunderstorm with a fair bit of rain. Although we awoke to clouds and grey skies, at around 8 am the clouds parted and this amazing golden sun broke through and warmed up the damp and dewy morning. I couldn't resist grabbing my camera and heading out the front door to capture some shots of the dahlias in the yard dripping with the autumn rain. [I posted my favorite one above.] We had another thunderstorm tonight just as we were getting the kids ready for bed. Even Collin was getting excited about all the thunder and lightning that was rumbling and flashing about. It must be in the genes, for I have loved thunderstorms ever since I was about 6 or 7 years old. I have vivid memories of watching the entire backyard light up, just as clear as day, during the many thunderstorms when we lived in Redding, CA. And I love how you can smell the rain, even before it falls. I even open some windows while it's raining so I can enjoy its soothing sounds. There's just something about rain and thunder and lightning that just makes me want to snuggle up with a blanket and get cozy with a book, or sit and watch the storm through the windows.