Lilacs

In bloom right now!

All sorts of flowers

Spring is turning to summer. Apple trees were at their best last week and now have dropped their petals. Lilies of the valley have filled the forest behind our house. Lilacs are in full bloom. Daisies are already in second generation, first one having sent it's seeds flying. Nature is at its best.

Still just about to bloom, a week ago

Friends' crab apple tree, still looking good

Primroses

Last year there was one primrose plant right next to our fence. This spring I noticed several more in the flowerbed at the edge of our backyard. Maybe they were there already last year too, covered by all them tall weeds, and I just didn't notice them. Now I pulled out the weeds around them, and the roses I planted last summer, to give them a chance to grow and prosper (and be seen).

Of course, the apple trees also are looking more and more brilliant as more flowers open their petals. Yesterday evening they were already looking so nice, especially as the evening sun rays hit them diagonally.

From blossoms to blooming

Apple trees, naturally, I still don't have that cherry tree I've been dreaming of since I was 12 and visited Japan. Apple trees in our yard are the next best thing, though. Extremely pretty when blooming. Those little pink blossoms have not all opened yet, but they're getting there. 

Wilds strawberries are im flower too. And butterflies and bees are buzzing around in the dandelions and other flowers.

Apple blossoms

I was away on a business trip for a few days and when I came back home, our apple trees were full of green little leaves and pink little blossoms. The red currant and ghostberry bushes have leaves and little flowers too. This morning I saw a lonely bumblebee doing his job pollinating the red currant.

Tulips and leaf buds

Spring has advances in leaps and bounds now that the temperature went from a couple degrees to 20C in one night or so. Tulips in our yard are happily blooming, birches have a faint green about them, apple trees have buds and cherry trees in the neighboring yards are blooming. Our bushes have little leaves and the butterbur a few flowers. Rhubarb is growing nicely. Wood anemonies are at their best.

Dandelions

Often times dandelions are already everywhere by mid-May. Often times lilacs are in full bloom by the end of May when schools end. Often times apple trees are blooming all May long. Despite our "heatwave" in March, spring is actually quite late this year, due to the weeks of cold and rainy weather after that first warm spell. Occasional warm days have been quite, well, occasional. Thus, dandelions are taking over our yard only now. Apple trees are only starting to bloom. Lilacs only have small flower buds. Still, summer's knocking on the door.

Apple blossoms and other flowers

I was away for a couple days and when I returned this evening, the apple trees had finally started to bloom, a little bit anyway. The other one is on a sabbatical this year, so there's only a few flowers here and there, but the other one will bear a whole lot of apples!

The lilacs between our and the neighbor's yards have buds, as do some of the lilies of the valley in the forest behind our yard. Next to them grow stellaria holosteas (great stitchworts) with their delicate little flowers.

The last of our tulips are growing in the forest, a group of three and one stray one. They are tall! At least 50cm tall beautiful ones.

Bushes in our garden

We've got a couple of quite big currently blooming berry bushes in our yard. The other one I have identified as red currant, the other one is gooseberry. I am thrilled :) Both make excellent jelly, red currant makes real good whipped cream of wheat, and gooseberries I have loved since I was a kid. I love our yard!

We also have a small patch of rhubarb growing in our yard. Last week I cut some and made some real good rhubarb pie to take to my grandmother for her birthday.

Flower in the neighborhood

Hackberry is nicely blooming, it's sweet scent floating in the air. Forget-me-nots are growing along the edge of the sidewalk. Primroses have popped up in our backyard flowerbed.