Thursday, April 22, 2010

Are We There Yet?

Like a small child I keep asking, Are We There Yet???  Just when I think Spring has sprung the cold weather sets in again.  And so it was last evening.  The sun had shone all day, and when I toured through the yard I found all sorts of wonderful green things poking their heads through the dirt, and I thought - could this be it?  But this morning brought with it cold and frost.  Yes frost, that was me scraping my truck off at 7:30 this morning.  So I must be patient.  In the meantime how about we play a little game of I guess, you guess.  

This plant has sprung up in the narrow shaded bed that surrounds our front porch.  When it first appeared a week or so ago the leaf shape and texture made me think it might be tulips.  It has grown quite a bit since then and now I'm not so sure.  Tulips don't clump like this.  A hosta maybe?  nah, I'm pretty sure it's just a clump of tulips.

Not far away in the same shady bed circling the perimeter of the house I found at least a dozen shoots like this popping up.  Your guess?  I'm pretty sure they are bleeding hearts.


More bleeding heart shoots are coming up against the wall in this shot but there are other leaves mixed in there as well. Could be a weed but the leaves remind me of strawberries. Any thoughts?


Next to the bleeding hearts these shoots have appeared.  There aren't many plants that have a leaf like this one so I'm fairly certain I know who they are.


Lupins
  
I crossed the yard at that point and wandered over to a stand of trees next to the road.  These fluffy little guys jumped out at me right away.  The funny thing is the tree is quite dead except for this one large branch who refuses to give up.  Although I thought I knew what this tree was none of the other similar trees have catkins yet.  I've done some checking and I'm pretty sure this is an aspen as I suspected.  Perhaps the dead trunk has caused this branch to act differently than it's neighbours.  What do you think?


That stand of trees had another surprise in store for me.  This shrub stands about 4 feet tall and 2 - 3 feet wide. And opening up all along its branches were these leaves and buds.


Hydrangea?

In the middle of our yard sits an old tractor tire.  While I'm not partial to the tire it sure does make a nice raised bed for dainty spreading flowers such as these.  I have no idea what they are but I suspect they are a type of sedum.









That wasn't the only dainty flower I found.  Although this particular flower is quite white in the photo it is quite pink in reality.  It's a spreading plant forming a low mat over the ground.  Pulmonaria?








Last but not least I think I can clearly identify this one.  This is a feline DSH (Domestic Short Hair Cat for those of us in the know!) which haunts my front porch.  Priscilla came with the house as well when we bought it and has proven to be a great sidekick in and about the yard.





2 comments:

Christine B. said...

Wow, your tulip leaves are very robust looking. Mine are still a tiny reddish color and look a little hungry. We don't have any shrubs leafing out (or flowering) quite yet, other than pussy willows. Wow, cat came with the house?

Christine in Alaska

Marguerite said...

Hi Christine! It's been an incredibly early spring this year, normally I'm told we would still have snow. We're all a little surprised at how far along the plants are. It's a good thing I like cats as the house purchase came with 3 ferals who live in our garage! Marguerite