I’m in my last week of teaching — is that even possible? — and won’t have a lot of time to blog this week, so I’m sharing a series of photos of orchids that I took at the nursery. Enjoy!
I loved the look of these against the blue background. I have no idea what the name of this orchid is; I forgot to write it down, I was so overwhelmed by its beauty.
Today’s task: give my last final exam and enter the grades in the online grade book. Woot!
Peonies are synonymous with Dad in my family. My dad became enamored with peonies and soon we had every variety he could find. We visited peony farms and he got them through mail order. You can imagine my happiness when our new house had mature peonies already planted — and we also brought some from our old house that have traveled from Dad’s garden through several houses with me in the Chicagoland area.
What’s not to like about peonies? They are dependable and gorgeous — the perfect companion to May’s beautiful days. We always used to expect our peonies to open just before Memorial Day, and took armloads of them to decorate the family graves at the cemeteries. This crazy early spring, while welcome, is wreaking havoc on the normal plant cycles in our area.
Remembering that I just got a new camera and have mostly used the automatic settings, I tried to take a photo of the peony in my cobalt blue vase against the outside door. This one’s not bad, but there were lots of others that were. 🙂 I’m loving the challenge of creating a new artistic expression in my life.
I’m also loving that my husband came home from the store with a bouquet of white roses and alstroemeria, our wedding flower. Insert double smiley face here. 🙂 🙂
The genus name for columbine (Aquilegia) is derived from the Latin word aquila, because of the columbine flower’s resemblance to an eagle’s claw. The common name, columbine, comes from the flower’s resemblance to a cluster of five doves; columba means dove in Latin. It is a woodland plant that prefers moist roots and some shade, but is hardy even in poor soil and sun. The columbine thrives in northern climates in the United States.
I don’t see either a dove or an eagle’s claw, but I love to see the columbine in the spring. This photo was taken at a local nursery and enhanced with the Lomo-ish effect on Picasa.
