The Pacific coast iris hybrids are blooming in the yard

Some of my favorite flowers are blooming here now.

The little wild white irises and yellow Calochortus down the hill along the trail, apple trees in the orchard, dogwoods all around town, and here in the yard, many colors of hybrids of the Pacific coast irises, along with hardy Geraniums and Veronica Waterperry.

The English bluebells (Scilla) are just finishing, the last of the flowering lawn bulbs, and the rest of the spring garden bulbs are done here.

This textured picture of an iris should make fun fabric, especially in a mirrored layout, where, when the grasses meet at the edges of the image they make interesting bug-like designs.

Wildflower season

Lupines at Bridgeport, on Buttermilk Bend trail. Only the second time this year I've been there, since I've been working most weekends. This picture was taken on April 18 2009. Taking pictures on the way out, and trying to walk more on the way back.

I was looking for a photo op to illustrate "Only good dogs get to go for a walk on Buttermilk Bend trail", but there weren't nearly as many dogs out for a walk as on Easter Sunday.

Larry & Tom at Bridgeport

My walking/photographing companions. As you can see, we do more picture-taking than walking.

Well, the wildflowers and scenery at Bridgeport California in the spring are worth a lot of attention.

These photos were taken on April 19th, 2008.

The lupines were beautiful

Yes we made it back to Brigeport in time to see the lupines in full bloom. They were beautiful.

(Well, I like blue better than orange, so I like them better than the poppies. When I first moved here, I used to fall asleep reading the Western Garden Book every night, and I memorized all the blue flowers. And I learned to store that book not in the bedroom with its light blue rug, so when I needed to look up how to plant something, and came tromping in with muddy boots, I wouldn't get red mud all over the rug.)

Unfortunately, by a stupid mistake trying to reset my camera, which had gotten changed to smaller sized images, I lost lots of the pictures i had taken. Don't count your photos...

Going for walks at Bridgeport 1

For the last month I have been going for walks on the wildflower trail at Bridgeport with friends. Well, 2 out of the four weeks - the others it has been raining. The wildflowers had started the first time, poppies and brodaieas. And the redbuds were in bloom. The second time, 2 weeks ago, the poppies were in full bloom, the lupines were just starting, and the shooting stars (Dodecathon) had their last few flowers. And I saw my first pipevine.

Two years ago, when I was there with a walking class, and taking more pictures than getting exercise, I got some good pictures of the Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies. I didn't know what they were - and when I tried looking in a butterfly key at the college, I thought I never would. Hundreds of butterflies looking all alike, and none like the ones I'd photographed.

We meet friendly people on the trail. Last time we saw a rattlesnake, moving rapidly up a steep slope, being guarded by a couple of walkers until it was out of harm's way.

This week the lupines should be in full bloom. And the river is always beautiful.

A Flowery Mead

The flowery mead(ow) was the medieval ideal for sitting out in the garden instead of grass. They made garden seats with flowering low herbs growing in them, like thyme. This picture, which you can tell was created in Photoshop, since it is symmetrical, also follows a medieval pattern design style which might have been used on an embroidered or woven tapestry. So it seems to me to be an illustration of an idealized flowery mead.

You can also see that it's what I used as the background for the assignment in the previous post. In fact, I had a lot of fun creating a symmetrical picture which I knew would be covered up. (Although I think it will make a fun journal cover picture, and it will probably appear as one soon in my Cafepress store.) These wildflowers were photographed in Bridgeport CA in spring 2006.

What brings this to mind is that with the cooling weather, suddenly I realized that it is bulb-planting season. And that reminds me of the most successful bit of gardening I ever did — a flowering lawn. My attempt to create the look of this picture. It has old-fashioned violets, which have a fragrance strong as wine in February — they can be smelled from the roof 3 stories up! And lots of little bulbs, which start blooming in mid-January and finish in late May.

Soon I'll post some pictures of the real flowering lawn, and list my favorite little bulbs. But for anyone who wants to do it now — choose small spring-flowering bulbs which can tolerate summer water and grow in your zone. Plant them in early fall, while it's still nice to sit out on the lawn, if possible. And as for distributing them in a natural-looking way, don't bother doing anything fancy, like throwing them. Just dig out a weed and stick in a bulb.

Those with perfect weed-free lawns need not apply. Well, they wouldn't want to — they'd be putting poisons on the lawn to kill the flowering invaders.

(If you can't see this picture, let me know — I used a PNG for this image. I'll post a link to a JPG.)