The garden of life

The weather has been fantastic today and we spent a great deal of it outside pottering around in the garden.Yep, now I potter. There wasn't much heavy lifting to do, so I grabbed the camera and tried to capture what is left of the blooming spring - as it seems to have crept up and then yelled, "surprise!"

These photos have been cropped and had a filter to life the shadows a bit, but other than that, they are as shot. I have enjoyed the lifted shadow look lately, but I would like to know how to do it better myself, without having to rely on a Lightroom filter - mobile at that.

I have no idea what this flower is, but it is quite delicate and pretty, and very low to the ground, so I had to scrape my face on the ground to get the lens under it. I used a 60 mm macro for all of these shots btw.

These are forget-me-nots - don't forget it.

And the last of the Scilla are drying up.

We have quite a lot of spiky plants, with a couple of strains of roses growing, as well as some berry bushes that have a thorn or two you wouldn't want to meet in the dark.

And these are Peonies, we think. There seems to be two type of them though and we are unsure what is what, but we transplanted them into a flower bed we created to see what happens come summer. Hopefully, they are pretty, otherwise they are going to be ripped out again in the Autumn. We have about 10 to 15 bushes sprouting around the place, and if they are peonies, they should be quite lovely.

And then a little bit of cuteness caught...

I don't know what all the flowers are yet, but I think that in a few weeks and with the continued warm weather, the garden should look quite good, especially once the apple, pear and cherry trees bloom. I am not sure how my allergies are going to hold up, but I guess looks are more important than health.

My wife sitting on the old bench that she sanded and painted a couple weekends ago. It is sitting in the front yard under the apple and pear trees, so might be a nice place to take a morning coffee or tea. Weirdly, there is only one outside door on this house though, so it is a bit of a walk to here. Eventually, we will add another and build a terrace, however that isn't likely to be any time soon, as it is quite an expensive undertaking.

And, my berries are growing - I would tell you what they are, but I don't know myself - but they are meant to be edible. We also have a large amount rhubarb doing well, the strawberries are alive and a heap of raspberries should arrive in the summer. I am looking forward to eating stuff straight from our garden, if the local animals don't get to them first -like the dear got to the tulips.

Motorbike interlude - we were chatting to the neighbor about painting the house, and he wanted to give me a tour of his garage, where he has a fantastic collection of old bikes that he has restored himself. One of them, he and his wife toured around with 60 years ago, before our house was built - Yeah, they are a very old couple, but, they still ride.

And finally, our daughter picking dandelions. It looks quite pretty, but she is in the ditch by the side of the road - not that she cares. She has really loved being in this house so far and when we are outside, it really shows how comfortable she is here. Even while we are working, she spends her time looking for things to cut, weeds to pull or something to water - she is quickly making this her home.

I should probably spend some time taking more pictures of the entire yard as well as inside also, as we want to be able to have some evidence of the transformation of what has been somewhat neglected by the previous owners. I hope that once we are "finished" (it will never be ready completely), it will show how much work we have put in and that it is much more than a facelift to cover the age.

I lived my childhood in a beautiful house that was in need of a lot of care that it didn't get and I am hoping that when the time comes to pass this one on to our daughter, it will be a place she will be glad to maintain and then update to make it hers. Hopefully, some of the photos I take now will appear on her walls in 40 years time, when the house is a century old. Even if I myself am not around to see that outcome, I am preparing for it to happen.

Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]