Skywatch Friday: Double Crescent

Two crescents, originally uploaded by cosmosgarden.

Ok, so this is clearly an amateur mistake, but the shadow moon came through on all the photos I took just before dawn this morning. I don't know what caused it, but I decided the effect is kind of cool. Any advice, though, photography gurus?

It was 21 degrees when I took this photo, but the sun has brought the temp up to a balmy 35. C'mon, spring!

Signs of Life: Belated Bloom Day 2/16/2009

Oh, I've been gone way too long! After our long holiday in Arizona, Salix and I returned to one of the most, umm, eventful Januaries we've had in years. Mostly good events--or events with good outcomes--and then a lot of work. But I set February Bloom Day as my return to blogging date, and I almost made it. Hope a Presidents' Bloom Day post is acceptable!

Still, when I set my February date, I imagined pictures of emerging crocus and camellia and narcissus and hellebores. But like many of you, we've endured a colder winter than normal, and most of the early spring plants in my garden are still in bud.

This was the first little bloom I found, where I planted a new germander last fall. I think this might be the germander--it's semi-evergreen and the leaf looks right. But then germander normally doesn't bloom until August--so I may be delighting in a weed--I mean, wildflower.


A few pansies survived the great deer onslaught of 2008:


And the narcissus are starting in the sunnier spots:


I did expect my hellebores to be in full bloom right now, but I guess the cold winter delayed them a bit. The Helleborus foetidus is farthest along. By the way, mine don't stink--except maybe to deer (yay!)--so I'm not sure where the name comes from.




I think Lenten Rose--Helleborus orientalis--is pretty all year long, and the buds are a gorgeous shades of mauve and pale green.


They look kind of like the plant in Little Shop of Horrors right now, don't they?


So anyway, we're waking up slowly to the gardening season--this picture of Ranunculus and his teddy bear coming out of hibernation pretty much captures the mood at our little house in the woods:


And like my Euphorbia lomi, I have my nose pressed up against the window, waiting for it to be warm enough to go outside.


Happy Belated Bloom Day--thanks, Carol, for the inspiration.

I'll be visiting your blogs again soon. I don't know that I'll get back to posting as frequently as I did last summer before, well, this summer--but I look forward to reading about everyone's return to the garden.