ellarien: photo of purple crocus flower (spring2)
IMG_1058


It's been a long time coming, but today is actually something like a spring day, although it's rather late in the year for the crocuses to be in their full glory!
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
IMG_0428

Seriously, the rose was only about two inches across!

Lily pond

Jul. 1st, 2011 08:22 pm
ellarien: red waterlily (waterlily)
P1050252

I spent the week in Surrey, which was interesting -- very rural in a densely-populated way, with big old houses and narrow, twisty roads through the woods. The big old house where I was foregathering with other scientists had a little lily pond on the terrace, haunted by enormous dragonflies. It also had a couple of used twenty-foot rockets in the oak-panelled staircase, but I didn't get a really good shot of that.

And now I'm back home, tired, and planning to take next week off.

Bluebells!

Apr. 22nd, 2011 07:56 pm
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
We went for a walk in the woods today. In places there were so many bluebells that their scent perfumes the air, and the green of the leaves was sharp-sweet in the sunlight.

IMG_0706
ellarien: photo of purple crocus flower (crocus)
P1040976

The last couple of days have been warm and sunny, and all the daffodils seem to have opened at once. I was out and about yesterday, and in between errands I spent an hour in the Botanical Gardens, where there were daffodils of all shapes and sizes, including some in situations where I didn't need to kneel on the dirt to get to their level.
ellarien: photo of purple crocus flower (crocus)
IMG_0264

We went back to Whirlow this afternoon. The daffodils are still not really out, except for a few here and there, but some of the rhododendrons are starting to flower. (In other news, daffodils are not the easiest flowers to photograph, what with their habit of looking down and their penchant for shady corners!)

If they can keep up the weeding on the rock garden, which has been quite extensively cleared and replanted, and maybe get rid of the dead maple by the pond, it should be quite pretty there in the summer. The pond badly needs dredging, though.
ellarien: photo of purple crocus flower (crocus)
It was foggy and drizzly and dismal again today, and I didn't bother taking the real camera into town. But the trees in the Peace Garden -- something of the apple persuasion, I suspect -- were covered in blossom, so I did what I could with the phone. I'm coming to the conclusion that the phone camera may actually be optimized for moderate close-ups in good light. The light was not great today, but this didn't come out too badly, I think.


Photo-0104
ellarien: photo of purple crocus flower (spring2)
IMG_0185

These flowers on bare twigs (willow?) are tiny, but exquisite. There was some kind of small brown bird -- not a sparrow -- hopping around in the branches, too.

They're working on the long-neglected rock garden at Whirlow Brook Park; the rockery has been cleaned out and planted with new shrubs. It's not very attractive at the moment, but it should be an improvement once it settles in. On the other hand, the lovely red maple by the (badly silted-up) lily pond looks awfully dead. The Mexican skunk cabbage is just starting to sprout, making splashes of yellow-green as bright and unnatural-looking as neon plastic.
ellarien: claret cup cactus flower (spring)
The mobile camera is a bit hit-or-miss, but I'm pleased with this one, snapped on my way to the shop this lunchtime.

Photo-0094
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
... and the crocuses opened up.

IMG_0131

I don't know what the other visitors to the gardens thought of the strange woman frantically photographing crocuses as if she'd never seen one before, but I love them, and I haven't seen them properly since 1997. (Or maybe 1996 -- inner London isn't the best place for them, and I don't think I went to Kew in '97.)
ellarien: Blue/purple pansy (Default)
Witch Hazel (we think.)Viburnum

IMG_0079

I took the big camera for a walk this afternoon. It's been colder and colder lately, and today it never got above freezing, but the sun was bright. This shrub has been flowering on bare branches all winter; it was there in October, and it's still going.
ellarien: Red barrel cactus flower (scarlet)
P1030465

Most of the campus barrel cacti don't really start flowering until July or August, but there's this little one around the back of Heritage Hill that seems to put out a flower or two rather earlier.

Unexpected

Apr. 22nd, 2010 09:49 pm
ellarien: Night-flowering cactus bloom (white)
I really wasn't expecting to see this when I popped out for coffee and a bowl of chili at lunchtime. These usually bloom at night, and wither within a couple of hours of sunrise, but today was so cool and cloudy that this one bloom -- out of half a dozen or so on the large plant -- was still in good shape.

P1030429

Mission Statement

Reading, writing, plant photography, and the small details of my life, with digressions into science and computing.

Profile

Ellarien

Most Popular Tags

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

Expand All Cut TagsCollapse All Cut Tags