Today's and Weekend Flowers: May blooms

My red roses started blooming this week.

This variety of roses blooms early in the season but doesn't last very long into the summer most years.

My hydrangea bushes are beginning to form buds.

This variety of irises are always the first ones to bloom in my yard.

My camellias were drowned in recent pouring rain storms.

Most ended up on the ground.

A few are still hanging on.

I took the rest of the shots at work in the parking lot.

Flowers have a way of brightening up a city.

My mother loved yellow roses and they always make me think of her.

I used to have similar roses to both the yellow and pink ones but I lost mine a year or two ago. Besides the red ones which I posted I also have a peach variety that should bloom later in the season. Nice to see the yellow and pink ones at the office parking lot since I don't have them anymore.

For Today's Flowers click here and click here for Weekend Flowers.  

Photohunters: Lazy An Unusual Perspective

Feeling lazy I decided to combine the photohunters themes by trying to get an unusual perspective while kicking back on my deck swing.

I was looking through the pecan branches that shade my swing when I took the next lazy shot which may qualify as an unusual perspective.

I don't know how the red got in the shot above unless somehow my red roses were reflected by the sun. The roses were near the sun but across the yard from the pecan branches and deck where I was swinging.

The last shot is similar to last week's upside down ones. I was looking up at the pecan tree umbrella while being lazy and swinging. Click for the Lazy Photohunters and click here for the unusual perspective photohunters.

Nature Notes: Spring around my house

Spring this year has been pleasantly cool and mostly rainy.

All of my varieties of hostas seem happy in the wet environment.

 Honeysuckle is threatening to take over my back yard

The trees are all looking fresh and clean.

The cracks in my driveway are growing dandelions as well as other plants.

A morning dove was giving me a look that seemed to say go away.

The azaleas in my front yard dropped most of their flowers in the last hard rain.

The azalea wall that grows along the fence between my back yard and driveway still have a fair amount of flowers that have hung on.

The american robin was debating a bath.

The catbird didn't have to debate.

The dogwood blossoms make a pretty carpet.

The kolkwitzia obstructs a path in my back yard and blackberry vines trip me.

 

My pecan tree shades my deck swing.

A fairly common sky below these days.

I keep missing shots of birds on the head of St. Frances.

My red roses have started to bloom and I'm trying to remove the honeysuckle which threatens them.

Click for the home of nature notes.      

 

Today's Flowers and Weekend Flowers

I'm going to start with shots I took at the WRAL TV Azalea Garden.

The rhododendron above is almost identical to one I lost years ago during a drought.

The snowball bush (viburnum macrocephalum) blossoms look like hydrangea blooms.

The hellebores below are planted throughout the garden.

The peonies are still at the bud stage.

The garden has a lot of pansies.

The rest of the shots are ones I took this week at my house. Below is one of my pink azaleas after a hard rain.

Ironically I didn't include shots of azaleas at the azalea garden.

The reason for that is I have so many photographs of my azaleas. My white azalea above looks like it's propping up my ivy covered house.

Above is the first one of my evening primrose to bloom this year. Below is a shot of my kolkwitzia amabilis.

Click here for Today's Flowers and here for Weekend Flowers.    

Photohunters: Under something Upside Down

I almost had to do a back bend to combine the under and something upside down themes.

I also seriously annoyed a nesting bird when I got under the azalea above for the upside down shot.

When I got under the pecan tree above for an upside down shot a squirrel squeaked at me and a bee buzzed around me when I took the last shot of the kolkwitzia.

Click here for the under photohunt and here for the upside down photohunt.