Spring in the midwest can be beautiful, maddening and extremely temperamental.
For example: One one hand we have flowers coming up…
Daffodils beginning to show their greenery
Then on the other hand…we have ice.
The (dirty) bird bath is a block of ice
We got way less than expected snow fall this winter for our area but the polar air from Canada gave us TOO much cold for longer periods of time. Ready for April!!
Three buds showing
Four days until April…Come on flower time.
And remember, as flowers begin to show their beauty that make us smile, share your beauty in the form of kindness and help others smile.
What a crazy week we have had…50 degrees, no 60s, no 30s and now more snow. Welcome to the Midwest in March. I long for my sunflowers again this year, so I give you remembered photos and a poem of hope.
It’s Coming
Alas its coming, I can smell it on the air
The bursting of spring, a damsel so fair
I can feel the ground, it hasturn to mush
But we must wait, the new storm’s a rush
It will cover the ground in a layer of white
It doesn’t matter, our hopes are still bright
For spring is coming, the buds are showing
Flowers will be blooming, the sky glowing
For spring is coming
Come join in with Cee and her Flower of the Day. Flowers make us smile and we all need more of that. Even though we still may be masked, smiles of kindness can still come through your eyes. Smile and be kind often.
As I look out my window at the snow falling, it makes that much more ready for spring. Cee allows archive photos for her challenge, Flower of the Day, so I shall pass along some of those.
Please feel free to post every day or when you you feel like it. Don’t forget that my FOTD challenge accepts gardens, leaves and berries as well as flowers.
Flowering trees have always been a favorite. When they bloom, you know spring is truly here.
May your weekend be as beautiful as these memories and remember to always be kind.
So glad Cee allows archive pictures when there is several inches of snow on the ground. Snow can be so depressing for us who are not a big fan of it. But flowers always make is smile. So for my Flower of the Day, I jump back to 2019 when I had multiple colors of Vincas in my yard.
The feathering out of the white into the light purple color gave them a softness. I have not been able to find that color again but will look again in the spring. Come on spring. LOL.
We should embrace the beauty of each day and not wish the seasons to go too quickly. Each season has a beauty of its on, I am just not a big fan of cold and snow.
Come join in on the fun and share a flower with us.
And remember the beauty kindness and share that wherever you can.
I generally don’t have beautiful flower pictures this time of year, and these are in a vase, but they are filled with the color of fall and make my office look happy. Flowers make everything look better and happier.
I first thought the peach colored carnations clashed but the more I looked at them, they seemed to add a different look to the bouquet.
While the yellow mums up front are always a favorite, the multi-colored mums are bold and striking drawing you in to the full beauty of the mix.
The the golden Alyssum drooping from the sides ties them all together with fall colors of warmth and beauty.
Come join in with Cee’sFlower of the Day challenge and share the beauty you are seeing. Share the beauty of kindness where ever you go and its beauty will make you shine.
Its been a while since I posted on Cee’s Flower of the Day but this was by my door this morning, refusing to go to sleep for the winter, so I am posting it again. Cee’sFOTD is a great way for us to connect with each other showing the beauty around us, so join in and share your beauty.
This is my Calibrachoa, a tiny orange flower with large ruffled like leaves that look like nasturtiums. It sits in a pot along my walkway to the front door.
Besides Daisey’s nose, you can tell the edges of the leaves are trying to turn but the blooms are refusing to give in. Nights are now getting down to the mid thirties so they may not last much longer. But I wanted to honor them for their resilience. It’s a reminder to all of us that even though some days we may feel old, we can still shine our beauty, love and kindness to help someone else smile.
The full bloom is no larger than my thumbnail creating another point that size does not matter in the beauty of all things God created. So remember always that we are all part of God’s creation, created for a purpose, if nothing more than to be loved by Him. So look up, shine forth and always be kind.
I step out to the early autumn day to feel the light coolness still present from the night before. The summer has been hot and we are ready for it to move on. With camera in hand I head out to see the beauty of the day. The sun is awake but the trees are hiding its heat for we know summer is not ready to fully let go.
My gourds are still blooming but the vine has seen its better days. I find it interesting that the older sections of the vines are becoming dry and leafless while yet it determines to reach out with new life.
My neighbor still has cherry tomatoes robustly growing. They have grown over the fence daring anyone to stop their journey. The dew is quite heavy this morning beading up on the fuzzy leaves to drip further down the plant to nourish the lower limbs.
Further onward I see sweet peas displaying their rich dark red color including splashes of yellow. They too are covered in this morning’s heavy dew.
I am always fascinated with droplets of dew or water drops that cling to leaves and flowers after a shower; God’s attempt to refresh the earth.
As the sun reaches higher into the sky, the clouds begin to make their way further on in their destination wherever that may be.
The beauty of nature shows us the beauty of God as he left us these sights for us to enjoy his creation. He created all of it for Himself to enjoy but then gave it as a gift to us so we could enjoy it together with Him.
As you enjoy the beauty of this earth, remember the beauty of you, as you are part of His creation as well. We are all beautifully and wonderfully made.
As you remember the beauty of everything around you, remember the beauty of kindness and share it as much as you can.
Cee always challenges us to share with Flower of the Day, using most anything that grows…so today we have…”The Penthouse”.
“The Penthouse” will probably come crashing down before it finishes growing as these things are heavy. But the vine was determined to grow ‘hog wild’ to the top of my sunflower plant and now I have a gourd growing 13 feet in the air around the dead sunflower. The sunflower itself is a good 10″ across and the birds are just now starting to peck at the seeds. So hopefully the movement of the birds and wind won’t knock it down too soon.
If they all dry properly without rotting, I will have about 30 gourds for the kids at church to have fun with in painting and making birdhouses. That was the purpose and fun for the project. I will post pictures of dried and painted gourds in the spring.
Remember as you go about your day, try to be kind. Kindness should be smooth and creamy like butter. Spread it everywhere and often.
Cee Flower of the Day challenge to day looked to be a macro so I thought I would share some of mine from today’s play in the front yard. September is marching on by and this beauty we now have won’t be around much longer.
First off we have the FOTD star of the day, my last giant sunflower with the rich blue fall sky behind it. And of course the gourd trying to make sure he is in the picture as well.
Lemon Yellow 1en footer
The birds due to their messy eating habits planted 5 sunflowers this year but only two are currently blooming. These are smaller guys at 3-4 feet high.
I have enjoyed watching the different phases of growth on the sun flowers. Due to their size, you can get a good look at each stage of development. The bees are really enjoying these as well so I played a bit with my macro lens. You can see the hair on the bees legs as he gather the pollen to feed his crew.
The breeze was playing havoc in me not getting a good clear shot but his legs are amazing as he walks on top of stamens
The beauty of macro is that you see things you just don’t see with the regular lens.
Check out the stripe of sunlight as it slipped between the petals, the curl of the pollen covered “thingys” and then the star topped “thingys” toward the center of the flower. Can you tell I know very little about flower definition. I know stamens but not which which is which. Regardless, nature is amazingly beautiful.
I am also showing other flowers currently blooming. My baby mums are lovely. And my double dianthus is trying to sneak out from under the gourd plant that has taken over the yard,
Both blooms are small, about 2 inches across but they shine with all their worth. The “bug guy” as we call him jokingly, came by the church today to do the monthly spray for insects and check for mice. He did not have good news for us about the coming season. He was telling us that the wasps, insects and mice are not behaving normal per this time of year. They are all ahead of schedule for their seasonal behaviors. He told us that last time he saw this behavior was the year we here in Iowa had the polar vortex. UGH!!. Even farmers Almanac is prediction a colder that average and longer than average winter. This was a really hot summer this year so it may be followed with a really cold winter. So enjoy the beauty of fall while we can and remember to always be kind.
Cee’s FOTD shows us again the beauty of gardens even as fall approaches with her post for Flower of the Day. I am adding more photos of my accidental growing hobby, a plant that I did not realize would give Kudzu a run for its money, Birdnest gourds. I trimmed them back some yesterday to cull the attempt for full takeover of the yard, 2 garbage bags worth of cutback. I will not plant them again here out front but in reality I have enjoyed watching them grow. They bloom twice a day. One bloom in early morning and one in early evening, so that has been interesting. Each bloom does not create a gourd.
Here we have the baby gourd
And here is how we look today, the one on the far right.
These average 8-10 inches in diameter but when you take in at the circumference, they are huge, 27-29 inches…and they are still growing. You don’t pick them until their stems dry out on the vine, then you store them in cool, dry and dark place until fully dry and hard. I will be curious to see how much they shrink when they dry.
Three more gourds, We currently have 15
But we do have 1 ten foot tall sunflower still growing, not counting the 3 four foot ones the birds planted by the feeder this year that should bloom in the next week.
Sunflower refusing to be over taken by the gourd.
So I give you fruit and flowers for today’s FOTD. Enjoy them and have a great weekend. And as always, remember to be kind.
For the Love of 