Foggy Garden

We've had some foggy spring mornings lately, and today it was foggy all day and a bit chilly.  The irony that this occurs on the weekend after several weekdays of gorgeous warm sun could be a bit depressing.  But as the perennially cheerful Faramir says to comfort Eowyn at the end of the Lord of the Rings, "it's just the damp of the first spring rain."  There will be more spring to come.  More growth, more flowers.  Meanwhile, the misty, damp atmosphere is good for a few photos.

The Leucojum aestivum "Gravetye Giant" is still blooming.  This is only the second year I have had these in my garden and I am very impressed.  Individual blooms are small (which is probably why I was not eager to buy them at first) but a reasonably large clump of them produces an appealing show of blooms for several weeks.  This year's first bloom debuted in time for February's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (2/15).  The photo gives a hint how this is possible.  It appears that each stem puts out several blooms at staggered times.  (This photo is also my Macro Monday contribution.  Check out Lisa's Chaos for more Macro Monday posts.)

My yard abuts a tidal marsh.  The untamed wildness of this spot always impresses me.  I enjoy walking out here and seeing how the look of the marsh changes under different conditions.  My husband is starting a new blog project to feature photos of the marsh on The Heron Files.

The Hyacinthoides hispanica or Spanish bluebells are blooming.  As is "normal" for this year, this is at least two weeks early.  Most of mine are planted close to a wisteria that blooms at a similar time, and close to the house where I can enjoy them from the windows.  However, I put a small clump in the "way back," the part of our backyard far from the house that gets very little maintenance.  During one of our more-and-more frequent floods, a piece of log floated to this spot right behind it to highlight it nicely.

After being out in the damp of the first spring rain for a while, I'm a bit chilled.  I think I will leave the foggy garden for a bit and go inside and have a Foggy Garden.  Every weekend morning, my husband makes delectable espresso drinks.  Sometimes they're a little too high-octane for me so he makes me a tea latte instead.  My usual is a "London Fog" made with Earl Gray tea, a shot of vanilla flavored coffee syrup and a generous topping of foam.  When he found some Violet flavored coffee syrup once, the gardener in me just had to try it.  The "Foggy Garden" was born.  Mmmm.

One last flower photo.  This is the Common Blue Violet.  I think it is pretty definitely violet and not blue.  I enjoy the flowers and especially the frittillary butterflies it feeds.  Even though some consider this a weed I consider it a fairly benign one and leave clumps of it at the edges of my beds and under the picket fence where its short stature makes it a huge improvement over the other weeds it crowds out.  


I hope you enjoyed a tour of the foggy garden.  Hopefully there will be sun again soon here and wherever you are (maybe even on a weekend).