Friday

Last night I dead-headed many of the early bulbs, primarily daffodils and hyacinths... even the grape hyacinths' moment in the sun is drawing to a close. But there's so much more to anticipate.

In fact, this time of year, there seems to be something new in bloom every day...like these white blossoms that suddenly appeared on a few trees in the woods yesterday.

And as you can see, the vinca's been putting on a show for a while now, in assorted locations around the property. This is just the first time I've managed to capture a good picture of it.


In the back garden, my little golden allyssum plant from the Farmer's Market is coming into bloom, too.

So there's no reason to be sad, since the show's just getting started...and there'll be so much to see this year.

I've been meaning to stop into the doctor's office in Orleans shown here for a years now, with a mind toward inquiring as to the identity of this red-blooming upright shrubs. They are quite handsome, but a complete mystery to this gardener.

Meanwhile, in one of our shady beds along the kitchen walkway, violets previously transplanted have filled in the border blooms quite nicely.

Following an afternoon drink, these red primroses are downright sexy in the late day sun.

And another different species of miniature daffodil has surprised me with its blossoms. I love the way they hang off the stems like little ballerinas. If they bloomed just a little later (and it won't be long, actually), they'd be a perfect partner with our columbines.


Here's another of this gardener's favorite things about the coming season!!

Full Flower Moon

Once again, we began our day with a nice heavy rain shower. It didn't last long, but gave everything a nice soaking. But it turns out that everyone, including this ostrich fern, thinks a drink is a good way to start the day.

Bloody mary, anyone?


Opting instead for coffee, I enjoyed my usual prowl, enjoying the latest featured players, like this pretty pink primrose.

And I made some mental notes about some of the things I wish to accomplish with the upcoming day off. There's plenty of raking to do, but the gardens out back are also begging for a little more attention, to clear away some of the old growth from last year's end-of-season wildness.

I did also get some of those foxglove seedlings transplanted this morning!



Hey, the comments and mail I've received about last week's Hunt the Peeper game has been so astounding(not), that I thought I'd revisit the notion again today, in a new game I like to call Can You Find The Chickadee?

There was plenty of activity from these little birds this morning. The woods around the back gardens were echoing with their two-note love calls. It seemed like just about everyone was paired off, as is often the case this time of year...except this little one, who chose instead to perch in the pine bough and keep an eye on me.



However, the sun was behind him, so a better shot was unlikely and anyway, I had eyes mostly for the latest blooms... and parti cularly, my favorites, the grape hyacinths.





This shy daffodil is also joining the rest of the gang out there. I look forward to a better look at it tomorrow, when hopefully it will turn its face toward the sun (and my camera). Meanwhile, after the morning's rain, the hyacinths were scenting the air quite nicely.



It's hard to believe another year's sped by (especially considering how long some of those winter days and nights seemed to be), but here we are, back at the Full Flower Moon again.

I snapped this shot as I dashed to the car after work this evening, eager to capture the seeming giantness of the moonrise this evening(in "person", it appeared to be about two to three times the size of the streetlamps)...but also eager to get myself home in time to watch LOST.



And a most interesting episode it was this evening, too. About time.

When it was through, I was drawn back to the moon (also known this month as the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon) and I snapped this shot, as the Phoebe's Orb attempted to get into the house through our back window.

Two Years Later

It's sort of a big occasion around here at the Midnight Garden, as we celebrate my second "blog-o-versary". I'm opting away from environment unfriendly balloons and streamers, though, and just going on giving you plenty of the latest bloomers!

Two years of blog postings, two years of living in this particular place...two years of gardening and watching and exploring. Long enough to have gotten to know these gardens, their rhythms and attractions, and long enough to have done something to encourage them.

Of course, these yellow primroses need no encouragement, coming on with their show whether I pay attention or not...and to be honest, I'd almost forgotten to look for them, tucked against the foundation of the house. Glad I did though.

Tonight I spied about a dozen new columbine plants in various gardens, the result of my spreading around the seed of a few large and floriferous plants in the back garden.

In a vaguely related note, I've come up with a plan to bring a bunch of the foxglove (it's legion out back...) up to the side yard, along the driveway, along with a bunch of the violet from the back house garden, and then later I'll scatter some columbine seeds in that part of the yard. I have a feeling they'll all take nicely there.

With another variety having joined the club, here's a class photo of some of the daffodils in the garden under the bedroom.

Not far from the daffodils are a few Money Plants (lunarius biennus) just coming into bloom. I had been mistaking them for dames rocket, until I compared foliage in some online photos. Dames rocket (hesperis matronalis) has a narrower leaf.

This is the stuff that makes the big round flat white seed pods later in the season, thus also earning it the names Silver Dollar, Bolbonac, Moonwort, and... interestingly enough... Honesty. There's some more in the front driveway garden, as well.

Near the daffs and honesty, there's a small stand of red and white Trillium, also known as Wakerobin one of my favorite springtime plants. I hope to carefully transplant this to a part of the garden which will showcase it a little better. At the moment, its humble nodding heads are almost lost behind the others. As it is, this photo was taken with the camera sitting on the stone path beside it.

Here's the view of our meadow, recently mowed for the season's start. If the last two years are any indication (not to mention the current level of the pond) this area should be flooding in soon. I look forward to that, since it might mean the return of the green herons I spied out there our first year in residence.

You can see another fantastic forsythia on the far side of the pond, glowing bright in the gathering gloom. The showers forecast for today never materialized. But it was sort of an overcast day here anyway.

Here's some more of my favorites, the grape hyacinths. These are coming up at the feet of some curly ornamental grass in the back garden, which I've not yet cut down from last year.

For a grand finale this evening, I present to you an interior view of one of my early species tulips. Quite something, hmmm?

Thanks to all those who've been visiting the blog these past two years(even if you don't always leave a note to say you've done so)--It's a pleasure to share the garden with you!!

The Daffodil Parade

But first, I'm checking in with what's going on in our gardens today...and giving some love to the hyacinths, which are coming into bloom in waves at our place. Holla, Hyacinths!

These in the front of the house were an Easter pot from 2006 which I divided and planted out after the holiday, as I hope to do with this year's, tomorrow.

And in the back garden, I seem to have planted even more of them than I remembered...but it has been two autumns here now.

I loved looking at this picture and realizing I could see so many other things I'd also introduced to this place blooming in the background.



Here's a closer look at one of those great species tulips.

It's great to share these pictures with all of you who enjoy them. Ah, but there are things I don't, or can't, capture on film to share with you.

There's the wonderful cardinal song that goes on throughout the day (even if it sounds like a car alarm the first time you hear it around 4:20 a.m.). Or the bluejays I spy out the back window, picking through the winter's fallen pine needles for the right ones to line their nests.

And there are squirrels, usually running in pairs this time of year, chasing one another through the more distant woods, when they're not hanging off of some bird feeder or other. It's quite a show, no matter where you look.


Yes, the forsythia bushes are bursting out everywhere on the Cape, including our little bush by the pond, which is sporting something like twenty-three little blossoms along its mid-branches.

Under the bedroom window, an oranged-cupped daffodil stepped up to the mike, crooning over the do-wop of his yellow cousins.

In another part of the garden, Primrose and Pansy meet for some fresh gossip. Of course they are all smiles to the hapless passerby.




A singular pale daffodil nods along the path to the kitchen door, not far away from this spectacular little primrose, of the candelabra variety, which just opened its first buds this morning.


* * *

And now, yesterday I promised some daffodils.

They really are the dominant bloomer here this time of year and this is as good a time as any to remind you that the annual Brewster in Bloom festivities will be going on this weekend, if you are in the area.

Pretty often, you can find any variety of daffodils in these big, show-stopping chorus line numbers...and today, I found plenty of that abundance around Eastham's Town Center, starting with Windmill Green itself.

This was another day in the sixties for us...great days, indeed.

The actual sun was a little sporadic, slipping in and out of assorted clouds that passed over us here and there throughout the day, but that didn't make it any less idyllic.


Here's a real springtime paradise just a few steps north of the Green. This is a pleasant surprise for the passing motorist, as there's no long vista of this great display of daffs woven in long lines around the bases of assorted evergreens.

I've always dreamed of planting long ribbons of daffodils like this (though I've also always imagined I'd be partial to planting rivers of grape hyacinths...). Part of the joy of being a gardener is making these pretty pictures, hopefully long-lasting ones, that will bring a smile to the beholder(s) for years to come.


I'm a fan of the Eastham PD's plantings of rich dark purple hyacinths and bright daffodils.

I also enjoy this great wild hedge of forsythia that blooms in Orleans.

You see so many which have been unfortunately already pruned for the season (maybe in the fall), their blooms down low to the ground, like a damp firecracker...so I like seeing this one's unfettered display.

Enter Daffodil

The best day yet! Which is funny, because I just looked back and our high temperature today was only 57 (I think it was warmer Sunday)...
but damn, it felt so much warmer(which might be a byproduct of it having been a workday). I guess the sun's just moving through all the right parts of the sky lately. I do love this spring thing.

Here's another one of those tiny daffodils, joining in the song started by this blue primrose waaaaaay back in January.

And the old daffodils under the bedroom window are now enjoying their days in the sun, as are hundreds of others around these parts. It's quite something to see. I'll try to have some pics from further afield tomorrow.

Icy Sunshine

Another cold morning for us today, though we were happy to wake up and see no snow out the windows. The sun made a rather tepid appearance this morning--you can kind of see its influence on these golden crocuses, who still knew better than to open themselves.

I'm sure the birds weren't expecting to need a zamboni for the birdbath on this morning the day before Easter.

Here's that silly blue primrose which tried to bloom in January and has come into its own and already gone past a little during our chilly first week of April.

I am happy to see, though, that it has begun to spread itself out a little bit...despite its experiences with unpleasant weather and bad timing.

After the morning, this was the most sun we saw. But again, we're grateful that the predicted snow showers have continued not to materialize over the course of the day. We'll see tomorrow morning if Mother Nature has given the Easter Bunny any assistance in hiding the Eggs.

I've got a few more Easter-themed links to share with you today. Rather silly, things, at that, but fun just the same. The first is more on the theme of Hanging With Your Peeps, courtesy of Lili. And then, for a change of pace, we thank Jenn once more and offer her the Midnight Garden Pullet Surprise for passing along the link to this Chicken Chapel.


Despite the lack of sun, there was a still a little something in the way of a sunset on the way home from a long day at work, as you can see from this shot looking out on Cape Cod Bay from First Encounter Beach.

Evening primrose.