Windywillow
"The wonder is that we can see these trees, and not wonder more."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
"When one tugs at a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world."
--John Muir
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
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*
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
