hello helleborus

Maybe it is all this rain. This year not only have I managed to get sweet peas to flower but my helleborus flowered. It has been three years - three years of me waiting, feeding, watering, waiting some more for just a hint of a flower and nothing until this year - ta-da! Perhaps I should have left them in the garden but I couldn't resist cutting them and having them inside. Plus, I have had this fabulous vase sitting empty for far too long, they look fabulous together-non?

Yesterday it rained like crazy - thunder, lightening, more thunder and then more lightening. When it was all I went out side and discovered that one of my hydrangea bushes was pretty much flattened from the weight of the rain water. I almost cried but then I realized only a few branches were actually broken the rest just needed a gentle shaking off. So, the injured were brought inside to the dining room table next to my glorious air-fern. Then, this morning I went out on my back deck and there was this little sweet-pea. I've never been able to get sweet-peas to flower before. Sadly, the stem was broken - I'm guessing rain or raccoon - so, in the house it came.

todays favs.

Here are just a few things that I am adoring today. First, stunning photos of spring blooms in thimbles from my friend - photographer Joanne Tsakos new blog - I did it my way. Balcony containers that almost make me wish I was back in an apartment. And, vintage silverware garden markers from Etsy site, monkeysalwayslook.

Looky what I found in my garden this morning, my first ripe strawberry. Sadly, there was a casualty, one smaller strawberry on a broken branch but it will ripen in the house - fingers crossed.

iris delight

Up until this year my iris bulbs struggled to produce perhaps 4 stalks and then it would rain and those stalks would collapse into the mud. This year however they exploded. I now have dozens of big, beautiful irises and I can't stop looking at them. I have staked them, gently watered them, and was caught by the garbageman as I ran outside in my nightgown to chase squirrels away from them. I don't care, they make me smile.

garden love

I really do love my garden. Not just the flowers – each one carefully selected and nurtured by me – but the creatures that live there (with the exception of raccoons).