RIP JOE JOE

my beautiful love, joe joe, passed today.  

born september 7, 1999

FAST-FOWARD SPRING

unusual warmth has fast-forwarded spring from its typically languorous, slow-reveal.

i planted orange, white and orange and purple pansies last week...

i also started winter lettuces... you can see the peach and apricot trees blooming.

dwarf peach tree branch...

camellia 'april dawn' is in the lower left of the potager...

april dawn in the vase hubs gave me last christmas...

april dawn in afternoon light...

last week's rainbow chard crop from the potager before i pulled the plants. even the rosemary overwintered this year!

peach blossom...

after suffering storm damage last october, magnolia ruby has the most spectacular blossoms ever...

the mild winter left buds unscorched and perfect...

though the tree is lop-sided...

wow!

i cut back magnolia leonard messel's top last year, and it was more floriferous. i'll prune it more this year...

enjoy spring flowers while they last - not long this year! epimediums have just started blooming!

MARCH INTO SPRING

68 degrees on this unseasonably warm march afternoon!

joe joe lounges in the sun, tail wagging...

a "serious" portrait...

luna looking like an abstract painting...

outside, things are blooming 2 weeks early... 

bee shadow on camellia...

tiny early daffs...

hellebores have been blooming for a while...

few crocus have survived the deer this year...

some have been munched in this group...

volunteer itty bitty scilla...

FOGGY MARCH MORNING

where did winter go?  was it ever here?

witch hazel 'diane' has been blooming for a month...

tomato seedlings are enjoying their warming mat.  (same varieties as last year, brandywine, mortgage lifter, black krim, purple cherokee and dr. wyche's yellow)

i don't often shoot the potager from this side, but it patiently awaits planting in the morning fog...

this viburnum is in full bloom... can't remember the name of it...

daffodils are this high...

here's that viburnum flower... it is practically scentless...

spring is coming!