Spring again

We've had a string of rainy, gloomy days, but let's forget all that -- today was beautiful! We celebrated by going to the Garden.

Rick had an illuminating conversation with a gardener about pruning.

There are still a few cherry trees blooming.

A few tree peonies have just started blooming and some of the regular peonies have big fat buds ready for May.

More photos on my flickr page.

Azaleas any day now

Planting seeds

We planted annual flowers in this bed two summers ago and vegetables last summer. I don't have a full plan for it this summer, but I planted seeds for salad and cooking greens in the back half today.

I have never successfully planted seeds directly in the garden. My failure began at the tender age of 7 when I helped a neighbor girl plant Bachelor's Buttons. I still don't know what Bachelor's Buttons look like because they never sprouted. The soil of this bed and my gardening skills are both only slightly improved over the conditions when I was 7, but I'm hopeful for some better results.

Rick laughed at my ruler, but, really, it was the only gardening tool I used with some sense of confidence today!

Hard freeze

My blueberry plants are blooming! I brought them indoors this afternoon because we're expecting a hard freeze tonight -- and maybe two more nights after that. Sending warm thoughts to all of my farmer friends!

Sunday Transcendentalist Quote

From "The Transcendentalist" by Ralph Waldo Emerson as printed in American Transcendentalism by Philip F. Gura.

Amidst the downward tendency and proneness of things, when every voice is raised for a new road or another statue, or a subscription of stock, for an improvement in dress, or in dentistry, for a new house or a larger business, for a political party, or the division of an estate -- will you not tolerate one or two solitary voices in the land, speaking for thoughts and principles not marketable and perishable?

Field trip

For our second field trip, my photography class went to the Missouri Botanical Garden. In spite of the fact that I've been there several times recently, including earlier this week, it was useful to go there for no other reason except to take photographs. In three hours, I took 561 pictures! A lot of those were experiments, though. In some cases, I took four or more photos of one composition just to see what different apertures did.

Here, one of my classmates demonstrates how people look when they get serious about photography. I get into equally strange positions -- but she looks more graceful doing it! I've decided that yoga is vital to my long-term success in photography.

The tulips are blooming!

And so are the apple trees.

Many more photos on my flickr page.

Rick's birthday

We went to the Missouri Botanical Garden yesterday in celebration of Rick's birthday. Yeah, I know, we go there a lot -- but he really wanted that to be his birthday event and the birthday boy gets to choose!

The cherries are blooming.

The peonies are emerging.

Many more photos on my flickr page.