predicting weather in Ireland

Looking at the weather forecast for today, I was expecting a bright, warm, and sunshiney day. But the sky is overcast, and it's quite chilly. The symbol on my Google page didn't correspond to the actual weather.
Yesterday, the symbol was a cloud with rain. But it was a lovely sunny day all day!
So I decided to put my own Irish weather reports to the Google symbols, I think it comes pretty close to the truth. ;-)

a gloriously sunny morning

Not a cloud in the sky, and the flowers are positively glowing this morning.
William Morris rose with his nodding head.

Back-lit columbine

Tree lupin

Forget-me-nots

Poppy-rupifragum

Columbine against a glorious blue sky

strawberry farm

While visiting my Mom in Holland last month, her neighbors and ourselves went to visit a strawberry farm. The greenhouse was humongous!

Rows and rows of strawberries in all stages of ripeness hang lusciously.

There were boxes of bees every few rows, to help pollination.

Delicious. Unfortunately we were told not to eat any. Did that stop my Mom and me sneaking a few? *grin*

Life is like a rainbow

"Life is like a rainbow. You need both the sun and the rain to make its colors appear."

White columbine with pink blush

White flowers with purple freckles

red tulip with white fringe

orange poppy rupifragum waking up

yellow tree lupin

yellow welsh poppy

green tellima with white lashes

blue columbine with white lashes

purple oxalis with darker stripes

beautiful mauve flowered tree

What is this tree? Does anyone know?
*edit* I've got an ID from LionRedwood at the BBC Gardening Message Board. It's a Royal Empress tree, paulownia. Thanks Lion!
Reading the description, I think it would be too large and fast growing for my garden, unfortunately. Sure is a beauty though.


I saw this tree in the Netherlands, in someone's garden. I've noticed it for a few years off the freeway, and finally went looking for it. I thought it was a large lilac, but had never seen one so big. But a closer look showed me bell shaped flowers in a pale shade of purple-pink. And clusters of brown seed pods. This photo was taken in early May, so it's a late spring bloomer.
Unfortunately, the full shot of the tree is blurry, but hopefully someone can ID it for me from the closer shots.

pastels, brights and whites

It's Garden Bloggers Bloomday in May. In my garden are an assortment of colors:
Pastels:

The three amigos.

The very first rose bud in my garden is on my Celestial.

Chives
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Then there are the brights:
Poppies, oriental and welsh

Calendula

A tulip my husband calls "threadbare".

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Whites:

flowers on the rowan tree

Strawberries

Woodruff

There are more flowers in bloom, but didn't get to taking thier photos today, but I'll post more later. Visit Carol's blog for more links to flowers blooming in May all over the world.