Poppy

Summer set lip to earth’s bosom bare,
And left the flushed print in a poppy there:
Like a yawn of fire from the grass it came,
And the fanning wind puffed it to flapping flame.

~ Francis Thompson

Horse Chestnut Blossoms

By no means do I consider these to be great photos
(I have found these flowers to be nearly impossible to photograph)
but at least they show the incredibly exotic beauty of the flowers
which appear each spring on this fairly common tree.

Sunday’s Stroll

This post is part of the Sunday Stroll Invitation Series

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Spend the afternoon. You can’t take it with you.
~ Annie Dillard

Very late yesterday afternoon I drove out to MSU and took a stroll. I saw some beautiful things, and I met some interesting people. My first conversation was with a retired Methodist minister. He turned out to be a very nice man, and I am privileged to have met him. After that, as I was taking photographs of some flowers, I met the nicest couple who were there doing the same thing as me. The lady asked me if I knew what a certain plant was, but I could not recall the name. She was guessing it was a species of Brunnera, and as a matter of fact, when I returned home I was able to verify that her guess was correct. Her husband, as it turns out, is an instructor of photography at a local college. How cool is that?! Perhaps I will enroll in his course come fall. We compared cameras
— his were far better than mine —

and then it was time for me to return home. It was a wonderful way to spend my late afternoon and early evening, but I was so tired out from my excursion
I did not manage to get this post put together until mid-afteroon today.
Here now is my photorecord of the time I spent
strolling around the campus of Michigan State University on Sunday.

These first three photos show Peltiphyllum peltatum:   Umbrella Plant

I don’t know what this next one is,
but I think it may be a form of False Indigo — or related to it.

These next four photographs also show a plant unknown to me.
Perhaps it is a double form of flowering quince (?)

Dicentra spectabilis:   Bleeding Heart

Glorious

Tulips

Not one of Flora’s brilliant race
A form more perfect can display;
Art could not feign more simple grace
Nor Nature take a line away.

~ James Montgomery

Friday Fanfare

I spent yet another morning in a clinic tending to my health,
but then I was free to play for the rest of the day.

I took a gazillion photos, but these are the ones I like best.
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Merrily, merrily shall I live now,
Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.

~ William Shakespeare

A Cold Day in April

Today was yet another cold, wet and miserably windy day as temperatures hovered in the low 40s F (5.5 – 6.5° C) and rain and sleet pelted down over the sodden earth. Prior commitments dragged me from the house in spite of the fact I had zero desire to be out and about in such weather. Once I was out there, I figured I might as well see what I could find with my camera. I saw a beautiful woodcock, but unfortunately the woodcock also saw me. I watched in dismay as it calmly walked under the weeping cedar tree and disappeared there before I could even get my camera ready to shoot. I spent 15 minutes stooped over, peering all around under the tree, but alas, my search turned up nothing.
I am absolutely certain that bird was sitting there only inches from me,
watching quietly as I got soaked to the bone trying to find it.
At least the flowers can’t run and hide.

A Sunday Scented with Hyacinths

This post is part of the Sunday Stroll Invitation Series

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If of thy mortal goods thou art bereft,
And from thy slender store two loaves alone to thee are left,
Sell one, and with the dole
Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.

~ Moslih Eddin Saadi
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A stray on the lawn

Softest Pink

A bee heads in…

…and banks right for landing

“Om nom nom nom”

~
The fragrance and the colors are mind-boggling!
~