12MP digital camera with f/1.8 aperture. Front-facing camera 7MP with f/2.2 aperture.
Purchased in December 2018 as an upgrade from the iPhone 6. This was my main camera for three years, until I upgraded to an iPhone 8 for Christmas 2021.
My college roomie, Amy, sent me this classy terrarium from Gifted Glass Gardens for my birthday! It’s minimalist and exquisite at the same time, with black sand, preserved moss, Cholla wood, two air plants, a geode, and a chunk of pyrite.
Of course, all of the pieces came shipped in their own sealed bags or containers — thankfully, the terrarium came with assembly instructions and photos. It also came with care instructions for air plants, which I was also glad to see, as I didn’t realize air plants needed to be soaked in water weekly. That would explain why the one I had back in 2012 was so short-lived.
It’s kind of a running joke with a few of my coworkers that I reinvent myself every few years.
Mostly, they’re referring to my hair.
After growing it out for a few years, I decided it was time to change it up. No more ponytails and hair clips; all I need now is a spray bottle and my fingers (and maybe a comb, if I’m feeling fancy).
Since last month’s Bloom Day, the hyacinths have come and gone, and the earliest of the daffodils have started to fade — including the gorgeous Apricot Whirl variety I planted in the fall, and the striking bi-color daffodil that I finally remembered to move from its out-of-the-way spot in the peony border to a more prominent place along the front walk.
This was the year that I finally got out at the right time and moved my daffs “in the green.” Some folks claim that daffodils can be fussy when it comes to springtime transplanting, and others see their relocated narcissi bloom just fine later that same spring. Thankfully, my experience was more of the latter kind, so I’m well on my way to having my garden path lined with inviting spring blooms!
Not all of the daffodils got re-homed; some of them were already in a perfect massed spot close to the road, where all the passersby can enjoy them.
The west-facing flowerbed that’s visible from the kitchen window is the one I refer to as the Early Spring Border. The grape hyacinth (muscari) and brunnera are just two reasons why. Earlier, there were dwarf reticulated irises, fragrant hyacinths, and a few daffodils; later on, there will be alliums and peonies and camassia.
My neighbor gifted me a pot of columbines a few years ago, and I never got around to getting it in the ground. It finally bloomed in purple and yellow this year, despite my benign neglect… and the strawberry plants that seem to have hitched a ride in the same container have started to spill out and spread into the border. I don’t really mind.
Finally, since the dogwood in the front garden is on its last legs, I decided to spare this redbud sapling that sprung up here a couple years back. We’ll need another tree here eventually, anyway, and clearly this redbud likes this spot.
Thanks as always to Carol Michel for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day on the 15th of each month! As Elizabeth Lawrence said, “We can have flowers nearly every month of the year.”
These dwarf reticulated irises were an impulse buy from a big box store back in the fall of 2016, I believe. Ever since, they’ve been the first pop of color in the Early Spring Border in February or March.
Granted, they don’t deal as well with the March and April snows as their later-blooming neighbors — muscari, hyacinth, daffodils, brunnera — but I welcome their early flash of color every spring, even if it’s brief.
