Just a happy day

My yellow iris budded a few days ago, and I've been keeping an eye on it. (The purple has been blooming for a week now, but the yellow is one of my favourite flowers in the garden.) This morning the first flower had opened! The cheery yellow colour is so soft, and I love the subtle white lines on the falls. It's a treasured sight each year when it blooms.

"After all," Anne had said to Marilla once, "I believe the nicest and sweetest days are not those on which anything very splendid or wonderful or exciting happens, but just those that bring simple little pleasures, following one another softly, like pearls slipping off a string."
- L.M. Montgomery, From Anne of Avonlea, Chapter XIX, Just a Happy Day

I can't stop (more of the Japanese Maples)

Had a busy weekend - family came to visit, and while they were here we wandered over to the Ornamental Gardens and had an unexpected treat: Friends of the Farm were giving guided lilac tours. It was great to learn more about the history of the lilacs and their care, and learning more about the volunteers who look after them. (Hope to get the photos from that excursion up this week.)



In between the heavier bouts of rain, I've been trying to get out in the garden. It's an odd, but annual occurrence: garden looks sad and bare at the beginning of spring, and then it seems like overnight **whoosh** all manner of green things are 2 feet tall and we're on the verge of rain forest status.



Despite the forecast the rain held off on Sunday, so after the guests left around noon, I set to work. And work, and work, and work. 'Til about 7pm. When I realized that I might have overdone it for the first session after a long winter of hibernating.



Sure enough, Monday morning I had to literally roll myself out of bed, and hobble around for about an hour or so before my joints and muscles loosened up.



And in between all of the above, I've taken a few dozen shots of the Japanese Maples. Shallow dof, wet leaves, dry leaves, with the 50mm lens and the 105mm lens, etc.

I'm pretty sure I'm over it now.

Well, almost pretty sure.

UPDATE - Thanks for the emails re comments not working. I haven't changed any settings, but it looks like other blogger users and commenters are experiencing the same problem when trying to leave comments. Hopefully it's a bug that will be fixed soon!

And ... the other Japanese maple in the rain

Rain bringing out the colour in both the leaves and the pot.

(I potted my Japanese maples so I can bring them in the garage to over-winter.)

Japanese maple in the rain

The world is blooming

If you’ve never been thrilled to the very edges of your soul by a flower in spring bloom, maybe your soul has never been in bloom.
- Terri Guillemets

I've been juggling photography trips to the ornamental gardens and trails (each visit reveals something new growing), with working in my own garden. There is just so much happening with the flora and fauna these days. Even though we've had a lot of rain and overcast days, I must admit I do not mind them at all. I love an overcast day for photographing (the light is so much softer), and light rain can be quite refreshing when working in the garden. And really, I can't complain about the weather here when so many are suffering from such devastating floods, wildfires and tornadoes in Canada and the US. The weather has certainly been rough for many this season.

Calibrachoa and the bees

The bees are definitely back!

The greens are soft this time of year

Delicate.

Randoms taken during the month of April

It was a wet month.