Tulips!

And the winners are...

Here's the divine Miss H, flashing her red carpet look.  Eat your hearts out, Mo'Nique, Amanda Palmer, and Julia Roberts.

OK, before I announce the results from Harriet's Challenge, here's a pic with labels for everything I could identify in the early spring oak meadow in the jardin. Some of it was pretty tricky, since there was foliage but no bloom yet. As usual (although I've been having some trouble with the new blogger editor) you should be able to click on the photo to get a larger version.

There are two honourable mentions. First, littleorangeguy, for a very perceptive analysis of the scilla in the geek's photo from the last blog entry, even though that wasn't actually the official competition photo. Second, Cornelia, for coming over and reminding me that the shrub I'd labeled "glossy-evergreen-broadleaf-must-ask-mum" in the original key was actually a Mexican orange.

We have a tie for first place. Teya got 12 points for correct-or-close-enough answers. Jim got 7 points for same, but was awarded 5 bonus points for style and for making me laugh very hard on an otherwise blah kind of day.

Thanks to everyone for playing! Prizes will wend their way toward you soon, if I don't eat them first and then have to go out and buy more.

 

"What's all the fuss about?"

A hint

"You're not heading out there with that camera again, are you?"

No, actually, I am just going to show one of the geek's photos from yesterday.  I realized that it contains four of the plants featured in the "Harriet's Challenge" photo.

Can you see them? Can you see them? I've done a quick listing of my own, and have come up with 22 different plants, all-told, in the HC photo.

"So what? Big deal. Wake me up if you get any entries."

And just for good measure, and because they are so wonderful right now, here are some more apple blossoms (my photo!).

The apple blossom special

We have two apple trees, a big old one and a baby. Since we started pruning the big old one a few years ago, we've had some bumper harvests. It makes huge, tart apples; I think it may be a gravenstein.

The baby has had a rough time. First, it got planted amongst a bunch of other bushes and perennials: we didn't even know it was there until the first spring after we moved in, and when we discovered it (via its brave few blossoms) it was on its side under a crush of other foliage. Mum propped it up using a forked stick from some other pruning job, to encourage it to re-root properly, and we slowly began to edit out the surrounding bushes. Here's what it looked like this February - you can see the remains of last year's flox and artemisia all around it, one remaining other broadleaf evergreen bush just to its left, and the forked stick, still helping to keep it upright. (Further left and along the fence is the cotoneaster with its red berries.)

In March we decided the final bush-to-the-left (ha ha that's a political oxymoron, or some kind of moron) was ugly and messy and needed to go, so Mum dug it out, and we put in a couple of variegated iris instead.  They have a much cleaner look, and give the baby plenty of space. They also "talk" to the regular iris further over by the oak tree, and to the Dusty Miller (seen below in the foreground).

Now it is April, and check out the baby in all its glory: I think come fall we'll be eating a lot of the tasty little apples this sweetie produces!

The big old tree is also looking pretty splendid. I tried to get some closeup shots of the blossoms. The geek suggested I put my camera in macro mode, so I moved the little switch to the "M" setting, but was pretty frustrated with the results.

Further consultation with the geek uncovered the fact that the "M" stands for "manual focus", not "macro", so I went back to the "A=auto focus" setting with the little flower next to it (the flower indicates macro, I can't imagine why - doh!) and had much better luck.

Then, when we got home this evening, I asked the geek to go out with his camera and do some jardin-documentation. Whoohoo, now I have geek-photos to keep us going for a week or so! Here's his version of my macro shot, for starters.

And here's a geek portrait of Oz, who really felt that we ought to be indoors doing more important things, like doling out chow. 

 

"Flowers shmowers."

Wallflowers and daffodils

Wall, poor wallflower
Your careful heart is breaking!
Why does it pain you?
Crying your eyes out
What does it gain you?
Why don't you start out...
to find a little love?

Harriet's challenge

The cats really love it when Mum comes for spring training. Not only does it mean that someone is at home all day (providing food security), and that the heat is on and the comforter fluffy in the guest bedroom, but it also means that there is LOTS going on out in the jardin, all of which needs to be inspected. Yessiree, when Mum is ready for action, so are the deux chats!

Here is one of the jardin's "rooms", looking south toward Ted and Mary Anne's garden, behind the friendship gate. Ted and Mary Anne also really enjoy it when Mum is here working in the garden - someone to talk to! (As opposed to the geek and I, who simply wave once in a while, and keep lights on at all sorts of strange hours. Well, that's mostly the geek, not me. He can't help it - he's a geek!) Anyway, you can see from the tools and the clean lines that Mum's been hard at work. Yes, it's true, I don't do a very good job of deadheading the cornflowers each June (it's conference season), so they are everywhere, along with something else Susanne calls "bugleweed", although Mum says that's not the bugleweed SHE knows. And goutweed, and horsetail (a true thug), and buttercups and some little geranium-like thing.

Here's Miss H posing in front of another little garden room, over by the oak tree and cedar hedge between us and the hospital, to the east. It's easy to catch her over there in the evenings because it gets the final bit of sunshine. Also, a lot of wildlife passes through there, via the oak tree, so there's always plenty to sniff. I really love this little section in the springtime, it is so full of colours and textures.

Miss H has a challenge for you (can't you tell, from the look on her face?): in the next, final photo, how many different trees, plants, shrubs and flowers can you name? If you click on the photo, it should give you a larger version in a separate window. Send me your list in the comments section before April 15. I'll mail a box of Purdy's hedgehogs to the person who lists the most correct names.