At the top of our garden we have a lovely old wild plum tree that Steven pruned and tidied up a couple of years ago. The other day I was wandering around with my camera and saw that this tree was full of blossoms. The branches are dark and covered with lichen which makes the blossoms stand out beautifully against them. We do get plums from the wild trees around us, so with the heavy blossoms this year I really hope we have a good crop. They’re so delicious, though small, as they are lovely, warm and sharp sweet when you pick them with the sun on them. We had a fairly hard frost a couple of days ago, after I took this, but I hope it didn’t suffer too much. Time will tell. At least we have had a good amount of bees around to pollinate them. Is there any season more rich with promise than a Canadian – Nova Scotian – Spring? You can practically stand and watch things growing in front of you. Enjoy your day, friends. I send you all a bear hug! A flower a Day #248

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This delicate little flower was half hidden not too far from the flamboyant trillium and would easily have been missed had I not decided to wander about the tiny garden a bit before continuing on my walk. Although not originally from North America, I hope that perhaps the hummingbirds who are beginning to appear now might benefit from any early nectar this produces so early in the Spring. It is a perfect shaped flower for it, if only the bees haven’t stolen it by biting a hole in the base! This plant, also known as Fumewart, is related to the poppy family and also is a distant relative to the bleeding heart plant which it reminded me of when I saw it. Its root has been used in treatments for fibromyalgia. (Do not try this at home, remember this is not a medical blog.) Have a lovely Monday all! A flower a Day #247 

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Now if we are talking about plants that invade the garden, this one must be one of the top contenders for first place. I was lying on my stomach photographing (and admiring) a patch of these beautiful little flowers, wondering why I hadn’t noticed them before. I got the photograph and carried on taking other ones and gardening (preparing the wild flower areas as the raccoons have stopped assisting me) and then I began to look around me. They are everywhere! My entire lawn and the field adjoining are covered in them. Whether they are invasive or not, they have gorgeous tiny flowers each cupped within their lovely coloured leaf. I’m sure they might totally destroy the grass, but then I hope that they might provide something useful for pollinators. That would redeem them for me, doing far more good than a boring green lawn. If anyone local wants any of these to start off their own invasion, contact me and we can arrange an exchange somehow. (I’m just kidding, I’m sure they are already in your lawns.) These are well worth a closeup view in the gallery if you have a minute to check it out. A flower a Day #246 

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Today’s treat is not a single flower but a whole profusion of these wonderful golden willow catkins. The evening sun was shining through them and they were lit so beautifully from behind that I couldn’t resist photographing all of them. The lens I use (my little vintage Russian Helios 44-2) created a wonderful bokeh in this scene, too, which was an added bonus. In what can be quite dark days for many of us, I hope this light might help to lift the darkness a little bit. I send a warm hug to all my friends at the start of their weekend. A flower a Day #245 

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I was waiting to get a call from my chief scout to tell me – as she had promised that she would – that her trillium was flowering. I knew where to find it if I had to go there alone, as she had taken me there when I photographed the tiny May flowers. On one of our walks around the village the other day, we stopped to chat to a friend who sits on his porch in the evenings and while he and Steven exchanged news (not much, in lockdown) I wandered around his little lawn looking for potential Flower a Day subjects. I was photographing something else that you will see soon when Steven called me over and pointed out a deep maroon bloom hiding almost under his porch. And here it is! He had a trillium that he didn’t even know existed. I knew nothing about this flower but a little research tells me that in ideal conditions (partly shaded deciduous woodland habitat, well watered) it can take a trillium plant up to 7 years to flower. The conditions this was growing in, under the porch next to the house were far from ideal which, I am told, means that it can take 10 years or more to flower! I feel very privileged to have been able to photograph this so close to home. Enjoy this rich purple beauty, my friends and have a lovely Friday all! A flower a Day #244 

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The white petals on this lovely narcissus are almost transparent, so delicate, truly diaphanous. These are also in our garden, although beginning to finish now, making way for the tulips (watch this space). As we make our way through the Spring flowers, each colourful carpeting or simple single flower brings delight in its own way. This sunny beauty is sent to warm and bring happiness to my friends who are perhaps under a rain cloud – physical or otherwise. Hugs to all. A flower a Day #243

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I am so grateful for my flower scouts who contact me to tell me about special flowers I might have missed. This pretty bunch of wild cherry blossoms on a tiny sapling is on a walk not too far from me, but I hadn’t seen it yet. A good friend mentioned it in a zoom meeting and suggested I keep an eye out for it. And here it is, for all of you to enjoy it too. It was terribly windy the day I found it and I was amazed that the photograph came out as well as it did. I didn’t dare wait as I knew it might well have been finished a day or two later. There were few left on the tree as it was! For those of us who are getting just a little tired of seeing friends on zoom and wish we could see more of them in real life, this is proof positive that we can make the best of a situation and come out of it smiling from our efforts. So smile with me friends and have a lovely day, zooming or not! A flower a Day #242

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The colour of blue grape hyacinths always surprises me, as it is so concentrated. Somehow I think that I expect these to open and then become paler as the petals spread. But it doesn’t happen and they stay hanging like bunches of elongated grapes, intense and eventually even darker blue! I don’t think I had ever noticed the little tiny white frill at the bottom of each one until now. I must have seen these flowers every year for I can’t imagine how long and never noticed. It just shows how much I must have missed in my life when I actually thought I was noticing such things. The variety of colour in the flowers around me has really come as a surprise, too. When choosing the order for sharing my flowers, I try to vary the colours so that there are not similar ones next to each other and generally it hasn’t been hard to space them far enough apart that the 4 gallery thumbnails below in my post have a good variety. I don’t want you to get bored with my daily offerings. If you are still following along, I am so glad, as you have wonderful stamina! We are now on… A flower a Day #240! Enjoy your day, my faithful friends.

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