Getting By

We are now on the downside of Covid. Head congestion lingers, and some coughing, but it never involved the chest or lungs. That's why you get vaccinated and boosted. 

Tom seemed to have been hit harder than I was. At least he was coughing more and doing less. He said he had a bad head cold. Now he is recovering faster. I have lingering sinus headaches and I tire easily. Getting around was hard to begin with so that is only worse now when my sinus headache makes my balance worse.  We are getting by.

This morning I thought I'd go out to get a couple of photos to decorate my blog post, whatever it might be. My kitchen table bouquet needed to be replaced and I have not been to the store to get new flowers, so I wondered what I could come up with in the garden.

Most of the tulips are still quite beautiful outside but I'm not picking them now because they would go over immediately inside. It has still been in the 40's and 50's here. I discovered lots of other things are beginning to bloom now, but are not necessarily great for bouquets. 

The Columbine are now coming into bloom.

I can see this view well from my kitchen table and my work station at the sink, and I have been loving all of the colors, from the shrubs and other plants as well as the tulips. 

On Wednesday, a dry day, I did a bit of puttering in the yard and got out more yard art.

The first perennial bachelor buttons, Mountain Bluets or Centaurea Montana, are opening. 

The purple Heuchera add a lot to the color scheme. 

The bed in the lower yard is beginning to explode with growth and color. The first Welsh poppies are blooming. 

The new growth on the Lady's Mantle is now hairy enough to collect rain jewels. 

The maples have leafed out. 

This old purple rhodie, one of the few that survived the pestilence of many years ago, is getting ready to put on its show.

Inside-out flower, Vancouveria hexandra, is sending up its slender stalks of little white flowers. It is a native that habitats dry wooded areas and reminds me of my childhood home in Oregon. 

When I bent down, carefully, to photograph the inside-out flower I noticed the beautiful bark of the Stewartia tree. 

Lily-of-the-valley coming into bloom.

May apples still showing color, and the one below, Spotty-Dotty, just "ripening". 

I found our one big bloom on our tree peony flat on the ground the other day so I got it tied up.

More yard art in place. 

When I was visiting Laurie and we were delivering plants for her garden club sale I bought a few more succulents with this in mind. Last year I bought this Cougar Gold cheese can full of tiny succulents at her plant sale. This year I raided those for other pots and refreshed it. Her plant sale begins this weekend. I hope it is going well. 

New growth under the bonsai bench

I wandered to the front yard and found the yellow trillium!

My kitchen bouquet is much smaller now. I settled on Lily-of-the-valley. The little bells are so pretty. Unfortunately I can't smell them. I have the perfect little crystal vase for them, but it is in the corner cupboard in the dining room, where I can't get to it now behind the boxes and drawers and stuff. This one is too deep, but I just stuffed some plastic wrap in it so the flowers wouldn't sink out of sight. 

We get by.