Tinkerbelle's Tree

June's Festival of the Trees is being hosted by Jade of Arboreality. Jade has suggested for this month: "Find a tree that’s a part of your day to day, and tell us about it in whatever way feels best!"

This is the beech tree that grows over the wall behind my house. It's the biggest tree around here. I love to look up into its branches.

It casts shade into our garden in mid afternoon, perfect time for shade if it's been a hot day.

Here it is in it's full glory.

Looking at the trunk over the wall.

Here's why we call it Tinkerbelle's Tree. The little cat from down the street loves to climb it. She seems to be the only cat around who likes to sit in this tree. Being small, she can perch on the smallest branches for a good look around.

One day we woke up to find a swaying piece of plastic caught in its branches, it looked very ghostly moving in the shadows of the tree.

The setting sun lights up the leaves from below.

Tinkerbelle sits in her tree one night, eyes glowing.

The moon caught in its branches.
Sometimes I see the entire tree as a giant tree-person, staring forlornly into the west. Gives me the shivers, there could very well be a presence there, very old. I am in awe of it at these times.

Join in the Festival of the Trees every month!

Red!

Red ... the color of passion. These oriental poppies come up every May and shout out of the garden like no other plant. They simmer and glow in the sun, and sizzle even during cloudy weather.

Here's the group of them in my front garden.

Other red plants are swiss chard.. yummy! Brightens up any vegetable dish.

Glowing impatiens..

A poppy getting ready to explode out of its bud!

Poppies behind the geraniums

Fuchsia buds hanging daintily from red stems.

New growth on my "Mirthful" Rose

A last red bloom on the walflowers

And one last look at the poppy again, with a dusting of black "soot" on its fiery petals.

My poor new willow is struggling

I'm a little worried about my new willow tree. I'm hoping for some advice.
If you remember, I was given the tree, practically torn out of the ground, as you can see in the pic. I planted it immediately, and watered it thourough.
Now, there are some very tiny leaves growing low on the branches, all the tops of the branches are bare. I don't know whether to leave it as is, or prune the tops of the branches away.

The tree looks poorly at the moment, and I'd like to do as much as I can to help it along. I visit it and talk to it every day, sometimes several times a day, and give it some encouragement. But apart from being social with it, I'm wondering should I be doing anything else? It gets plenty of rain, I put compost under it, .. my other trees around it are doing fantastically. I have a feeling it's due to the poor roots, needing to get a foothold into the ground.
If anyone has any suggestions, they are more than welcome!

Cerinthe

Cerinthe has decided to grow in my vegetable garden, next to my thyme. I don't know why I didn't pull it out when it was a wee baby plant, I knew it was a cerinthe, and not a vegetable. But I tend to leave some plants where they decide to grow. I love the color combination of the two together. And this cerinthe is looking very spectacular, so I'm happy I let it be.

Bee visits with Columbine

The second picture has a big bumblebee visiting my columbines.

allium christophii ??? NOT!

Two of my three allium christophii bulbs are blooming amongst my mystery frilly bells. The severe winds we always get have caused them to lean sideways, nestling them in the bed of frilly bells. I really must think twice about getting tall stemed plants here, as they are always growing sideways. But they sure are beautiful.

*edit* Carol from Boxwood Cottage has corrected me. This is not Allium Christofii. It seems to be Purple Sensation.
Carol, thanks for setting me right. It was mislabeled! It was sold as Christophii! I have always wanted allium Christophii, because I have a son named Christopher.
I had a funny feeling when it bloomed that it didn't quite look right. What a dissapointment. Well, there's always next year, and besides, it's pretty anyway!

Mystery frilly bells

Here is one of my frilly bell flower plants, seen next to my drawing of it made a couple days back.

Some have said this is heuchera. I don't think it is, as heuchera has a different flowering stem structure. I really must try to find out what this is, I shall be googling a lot later.


*edit*
I think I found the name. It might be Tellima grandiflora. Found it right away on a plant identfier site: MountainNature.com

a "horicultural event"

Got my camera back! Just in time to take a photo of what my husband called a "horicultural event". I have this cactus tucked away in an almost unused bathroom, which houses the cat litter. I didn't even notice this flower forming yesterday, when I went in to clean. He saw it this morning, and even though he was late for work, rushed up to get me to go have a look.
What a beauty of a flower, and such a powerful scent! The flower is bigger than the actual cactus! Well, it immediately went to my kitchen windowsil, where I can admire it properly!

I never would have imagined such a flower growing from this plant. My neighbor gave it to me, saying she really didn't like cactuses. And you know me, I take all plants in.
See how small the bottom half is, that's before it knew me. The big roundy top part grew after we met. I'm so happy it grew a beautiful flower just for me!
*hugs cactus*
ouch!

(More pics of my garden to come later today, or early tommorro.)

little frilly bells

This is one of my unidentified plants, there's a lot of them scattered about. I think it may have come from a wildflower mix, but not really sure. I think they are sweet little flowers, very subdued and tiny. They don't scream "here I am, look at me!" at all, which is what I love about these little pretties.

Columbine

There are several columbines scattered around, self-sown here and there. Such delicate and airy flowers. While drawing it, I discovered just how many petals the bloom has! Funny, things like that go almost un-noticed while using a camera. It's interesting how much more I see doing a sketch.. the tiny yellow pollen heads, each on thier own little stem.. or the curl of the five outside petals.

White de Meaux rosebuds

My rose, White de Meaux, has the most pretty little buds. They look to be decorated with tiny leafy frills. This rose is 2 years old this year, and didn't flower last year. So I'm excited to finally see what its flowers will look like.

Garden Bloggers Bloomday - May

I made a list of flowers in bloom today, and drew little pictures of the three I didn't know the name of. I still don't have my camera, hopefully one of my kids will bring it home over the weeked. Meanwhile, I might just go out tommorro and do a few more sketches, the ones here I did real quick, they deserve a bit more attention!
And pictures will come eventually!

"Plants cry their gratitude for the sun in green joy." ~Astrid Alauda

Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for posts and links to May flowers around the world.

Poppies

This is a pic from last year around mid May. I've been home a few days now, and my camera had gone missing. I finally found out my son took it down to his flat in Dublin, and didn't bother to tell me. *grumbles* I am hoping to get it back soon, or I will be late posting my May flowers for Garden Bloggers Bloomday.
There are some poppies starting to bloom, my veggie garden is way overgrown, and everything looks very lush and green. And best of all, my hawthorn and rowan are both blooming for the first time in thier lives, and I really want to take a pic!