Late Spring Photo Walk, May 28

Yesterday Lima was lucky to have missed the tornadoes that struck south of us. The grass around the frogs above show the toll the weather has taken this spring in this county. We’ve had too much rain, so much so that farm fields are full of puddles and last year’s harvest stubble.

This morning I dropped off my library books and walked through the Children’s Garden next door. This garden is a true treasure for all ages in this area. It’s staffed by master gardener and student volunteers. In all of my years visiting this place, I’ve yet to see a planting that isn’t pitch perfect, if I may stretch a term from music to landscaping.

I love to see the peonies in bloom here. This year I did not miss them. They remind me of the best part of a time long gone that I described in my post about houses with asphalt siding. During our five years in one of those crumbling, asphalt-sides houses, we enjoyed a massive classic lilac bush in the back yard, in whose wake a few peony bushes bloomed. The scent of those peonies was both light and dusky. We found newspapers from 1917-8 beneath the flooring in one of the rooms of that house. I imagined that the peonies had been planted by a woman with massive hair piled atop her head as was the fashion in those days. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if she smelled just like the peonies in bloom.

Spring Photo Walk, May 13

I couldn’t have designed better light for this morning’s photo walk. I again visited the Allen County Children’s Garden next to the Lima Public Library. I was early enough that I spotted a dozen or so profoundly eager library patrons who were waiting for the library doors to open on a Saturday morning. I don’t recall being so dedicated to the pursuit of any text that I’d have given up sleeping in on the weekend to get a book from the library. Perhaps that is my loss, or maybe it is a side-effect of having grown up in a home stuffed with its fair share of books. I still have more books than I can comfortably store.

Unlike the words on a printed book, the morning light would not be preserved without my intervention. I returned this weekend to check if the peonies had begun their bloom, but their buds are still growing heavy for their upcoming debut. Peonies must be more inflexible than lilacs in timing their show; lilacs began blooming three weeks early this year.

I did find that the irises are in bloom. What more could I expect today?

Columbine with bee

Dianthus

Bearded Iris

Hellebores

Bearded Iris

Hosta

Columbine, double flowering

Hellebores

Bearded Iris