spring green

I'll be honest with you, spring is not my favorite season.  I enjoy it because it takes us out of the bitter cold of winter, but in New York, it is all too often a very damp and chilly season in itself.  Right now, it is particularly rainy...those April showers just keep on giving and giving.  Late this afternoon there was a break in the showers and I took a nice walk around my yard.  I do love seeing all the new growth that is popping up and discovering all the flowers I forgot were even there.  I had my i-phone in my pocket so I took some shots with the app I am most recently obsessed with, Hipstamatic.  You can see some photos from my trip to DC that I took with the app last month by checking out the post spring sculpture series.  The walk really made me appreciate all the rain...without it the flowers would not have had a chance to poke up out of the ground, the trees wouldn't be blooming and everything around me would not be that lush, spring green.  I couldn't help but smile as I took these photos, so I decided to share them with you so you could hopefully have a smile too :)

looking up at the lilac tree...the smell is incredible

bleeding hearts

dogwood bloom...the tree is near the end of blooming but is still one of my favorites

our fern garden

peonies...look close and you can see the ants helping the blossom open

lilly of the valley...smell is just so sweet

my husband's bamboo...started with one clump, now has spread along the wall

stairs to a cottage covered with moss and grasses

Seeing these stairs reminded me of a book I had just read to classes when I was substitute teaching in the library.  The Curious Garden, by Peter Brown, is about how flowers and a garden can survive in an old, rundown city.  The author was inspired by the High Line, which is an abandoned, above ground railway in NYC that has since been turned into a public garden and park.  The children loved hearing the book and we had a great discussion after about how nature can grow and take over abandoned buildings, sidewalks, stonewalls, etc.  The students even have a community garden at their school that used to be an old tennis court...how appropriate!  Oh, and if you ever get a chance to visit NYC... put the High Line on your list of places to visit, it is a must see for sure!

What do you have growing and blooming in your yard?