Miniature Spring Bouquet

Well, I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter weekend!
It was a mix of overcast skies and drizzle here
 but spring is most definitely bursting out everywhere you look.
~
I was out walking around the yard on Friday just to see what all was popping up.

Some of the new growth is quite obvious...other things, not so much.

The wisteria was just loaded with these little baby clusters...

...and on the ground below, my eyes rested on these little beauties.

don't ever remember seeing them growing there before in all 23 years we've been here.

Google tells me it is bugleweed.
 

Let's see...I've got some purple, some blue...

...a little pink is always a good thing...and yellow is a must.

There were plenty of these and I also found a few patches of wild strawberries.

And not to forget what is more obvious than anything else growing in the yard...
 

...one of my favorite things to welcome each spring, these tiny bluets.
They grow in patches all over the yard...so lovely and delicate.

I think that's quite a nice variety for my little bouquet.

  I had just the perfect vessel for them...

...if I could even get them in the house without them wilting in my hand.

 

So I plopped them down into this sweet little vase that my MIL gave me years ago.

I believe it's colored milk glass and I'm thinking it's pretty old.

 

I arranged and then tweaked a bit here and there...

...and was quite pleased with my cute little mini bouquet!

 

And here she sits on my kitchen window sill.

 

So a few days have passed and it no longer looks as perky as it did here.

But I am still enjoying my little touch of spring...

...every time I'm standing at the kitchen sink :)

~

What's blooming in your world? 

 

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Milk Thistles in June

 "Cut thistles in May, they'll grow in a day; cut them in June, that is too soon;
cut them in July, then they will die."

~Mother Goose rhyme

I love milk thistles....I just can't help myself.
I'm absolutely struck by the beautiful prickliness of them!
And it seems to be peak season for them here in my neck of the woods.
Is there something wrong with me...
...that something so...ordinary...so random would delight me so??

I do realize that everyone may not share my views.

I am not a farmer and I don't know if farmers like them much.
I understand there are many health benefits and many parts of them are edible,
although I also read that they can be somewhat toxic to cattle and sheep.

It's amazing what you learn about something that you basically knew nothing about...

...just because you think it's beautiful and do a little research.
I didn't realize that milk thistle is in the sunflower family either...interesting...



So here are basics....straight from Google:

Milk thistle, or Silybum marianum, is a member of the Asteraceae (Daisy Family),
(hmm...it seems the daisy and the sunflower must be related too!) and is also known by several other names, including Blessed Milk thistle,
Spotted thistle, St. Mary's thistle, Marian thistle, Holy thistle and Variegated thistle.
 It should not be confused with Blessed thistle, Cnicus benedictus.

And here is a link, in case you just have to know more about them...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silybum_marianum



"A PASTURE POEM"
~Richard Wilbur

This upstart thistle
Is young and touchy; it is
All barb and bristle,

Threatening to wield
Its green, jagged armament
Against the whole field.

Butterflies will dare
Nonetheless to lay their eggs
In that angle where

The leaf meets the stem,
So that ants or browsing cows
Cannot trouble them.

Summer will grow old
As will the thistle, letting
A clenched bloom unfold

To which the small hum
Of bee wings and the flash of
Goldfinch wings will come,

Till its purple crown
Blanches, and the breezes strew
The whole field with down.

"Do not blame the thistle that you see no beauty."

~ Jonathan Lockwood Huie

When I was little girl, I was taught to say a little tongue-twister,

right after I had lost that first tooth...

..."Sister Susie sat on a thistle" ...

...except it came out "Thister Thusie that on a thistle".

Remember that??!

Here's another cute tongue-twister I found...

A TONGUE TWISTER
~by Ken Nesbitt

My sister kisses thistles she's a thistle kissing sis, thus a thistle's itchy bristles never miss my sister's kiss. My sister wishes thistles weren't as itchy to the kiss, as the thistle's bristles itches make my prissy sister hiss. My sister's hisses whistle as she kisses with a swish, so my sister kisses thistles with a thistle whistle wish. And here's a few more shots before I go...

“He that has a good harvest must be content with a few thistles”
~Spanish Proverb
~
Hmmm...there's a lot of truth there, I'd say...
...sometimes I feel like I got more thistles than produce!
But...God is GOOD...ALL the time!

Enjoy your week :)


Sharing at:
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Pink Saturday

happenstance

noun hap·pen·stance \ˈha-pən-ˌstan(t)s,

: something that happens by chance 

 

******* 

Sometimes, just when I think I don't have much of a green thumb,
I still don't.
But even though I don't put much stock in luck, I do believe in happenstance.
~
Many times, we don't have to do anything to make things grow...they just do.
Take clover for instance.
But as annoying as it can certainly be, especially for those allergic,
you must admit that when you get up close and personal, it's kinda pretty.
Yep, I was down on  my belly snapping these.



Sometimes we get a little help with our spring planting...

...from our furry and fine feathered friends.
Sunflowers started growing in my flower boxes.
The squirrels must have been hiding them there for safe keeping.
And the seeds that I actually planted on purpose, those little buggers dug up!
Every. Last. One.



So, I transplanted these into pots because the sunniest place is here on my deck...
...I don't think there is enough sun anywhere in my yard for them to grow that well.
I read on google that you could grow them in pots.
To this I say, convince me, Google!
~
And look! I have baby tomatoes!
I actually have been known to grow them successfully at times.
I am waiting with bated breath for a few green ones to get big enough to fry!
Do you like fried green tomatoes?



Saturday, some friends and I went to a wonderful farmer's market.
Among all of the lovely produce, they also had so many gorgeous flowers...
...too many to take photos of all...but I did snap a couple.
Of course these have nothing to do with my greenish thumb or the lack thereof...
...just thought I'd throw them in :)



The lovely orangey lantana took my eye right away but I had never seen this purple one before.
Look... it's got little white flowers within the flowers!
Isn't it pretty?

~

Now I had nothing to do with growing this fuchsia either...

...but...once you spend the money, it's kinda nice if it lives.

And speaking of spending money,

the day after I paid $13.99 for it at Lowe's, they went on sale for $9.99.

 

 

Oh, but I do love these stunning blooms!

They look like little ballerinas in tutus dancing around.

 

And I have decided that this cactus just cannot make up it's mind what kind of cactus it truly is.
In previous years it bloomed around Halloween or Thanksgiving...
...and then it started getting buds on it back around Easter that never opened up.
So, this year, I am calling it my Memorial Day Cactus...
...and it's blooming right on time!

This cactus and the African violet below are plants in my work office.
I inherited them when a lady who used to work here moved.
I basically ignore them and water them only when I remember to...
...which isn't very often.

 

It's probably been about five years since these plants have been in my custody.

The violet goes through it's cycle of blooming pretty regularly.

Not with any help from me, that's for sure!

~

And lastly, this is one of those tiny little dwarf rose bushes from the grocery store.

Jim had given it me for Valentine's Day and it was so pretty.

 

 

Well, after all of the blooms died off, the whole plant started looking really bad...

...I never have had any luck getting one of these to bloom again.

So thinking I would probably be throwing it out, I just sat it out on the deck this spring.

And look what happened.

Now, that's what I call happenstance!
~
What kind of happenstance do you experience in your life??

I'm sharing at:
Mosaic Monday
Roses of Inspiration

Some Random Springy Stuff

Every April, God rewrites the Book of Genesis.
 ~Author Unknown
~
It's just popping up everywhere and I can't seem to get enough of it...
but today I'm sharing some of mine with you...
...my spring, that is!
~
This is what the Saturday morning sun looked like, poking it's face through the woods.

It was just glorious.

There are no days in the whole round year more delicious

than those which often come to us in the latter half of April....

The sun trembles in his own soft rays....

...The grass in the meadow seems all to have grown green since yesterday....

though there is warmth enough for a sense of luxury, there is coolness enough for exertion.

~Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "April Days," 1861


 
During a little impromptu hike in the woods I found these lovelies unfurling.



I also found this little thing-a-ma-bob which had landed on this maple tree.
It looks as though it belongs there but I'm pretty sure it doesn't :)

 Isn't it cute?
~
The dandelions are in full swing too...



...as well as the ants.

...you know how much I love my weeds.

And speaking of weeds...

Do you have Purple Dead Nettle where you live?
It seems that some folks eat this stuff, although I haven't :)

~

Ah, how wonderful is the advent of the Spring!—the great annual miracle.... 

which no force can stay, no violence restrain, like love, that wins its way 

and cannot be withstood by any human power, because itself is divine power. 

If Spring came but once in a century, instead of once a year, 

or burst forth with the sound of an earthquake, and not in silence, 

what wonder and expectation would there be in all hearts 

to behold the miraculous change!... 

We are like children who are astonished and delighted 

only by the second-hand of the clock, not by the hour-hand. 

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Kavanagh, 1849 

And I believe these tiny beauties are called Wall Speedwell...

...not to be confused with these adorable bluets that literally grow all over my yard.

~

~But days even earlier than these in April have a charm, 

— even days that seem raw and rainy.... 
There is a fascination in walking through these bare early woods, 
there is such a pause of preparation, winter's work is so cleanly and thoroughly done. 
Everything is taken down and put away.... 
All else is bare, but prophetic: buds everywhere, 
the whole splendor of the coming summer concentrated 
 in those hard little knobs on every bough... 

~Thomas Wentworth Higginson, "April Days," 1861
~
Well, I hope you have enjoyed this little taste of spring...
...from my yard to yours :)


Sharing at:
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Macro Monday 2
Roses of Inspiration