Daily Doodle # 29: Mixed Spring Bouquet

Spring bouquet

Echoing Green

Euphorbia

“Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises.”
— Pedro Calderon de la Barca

Foliage of bleeding heart

Queen Anne’s lace

 

Wordless Wednesdays: 12 Views of Pink Blooms and Blossoms

Okay, One Last Post as I Head Out the Door

Looking down the sidewalk in front of my house this morning

I carried my camera with me as I ran some last-minute errands this morning.  I wasn’t planning on doing another post today, but I want to show you what I am leaving behind for one month.  (Am I crazy for taking a vacation in April when it is so beautiful here??)  I’m consoling myself, knowing I can look back at this blog post from the road whenever I feel homesick.

 

Bleeding Heart

I’ve been watching the bleeding heart in my neighbor’s parking strip since March.  The fat, little hearts are now in bloom and sway like pink pantaloons on a slender clothesline.

Back in March the pink flowers were just starting to form.

March foliage, tiny flower buds

Fast-forward to mid-April. . . slender branch bowed with bleeding hearts

Graceful arch

Graduated sizes

Bleeding heart and the book, Bringing Nature Home

Stalk of bleeding heart with the book, Bringing Nature Home

Watercolor sketch of bleeding heart

Circle of bleeding hearts

Another view

Watercolor sketch of bleeding hearts

 

The World is Sobbing in Desperation

“. . . there is a deluge.  I’ve never seen such rain.  It is a revolt in the heavens, a mortal convulsion of the earth.  The world is sobbing in desperation, sobbing to death, knowing that it cannot die and that there will always be more tears to shed.”
— Simone de Beauvoir, writing about New Orleans in America Day by Day

Raindrops and new leaves

When will it stop raining?

When the forecast is for 100% chance of rain on your day off work, you sometimes just have to make the most of it and get outside with the camera anyway.  Here are a few shots from today’s walk in the rain.

Blossoms dripping with rain

Rain dotted foliage, diamonds on green

Raindrops on bleeding heart

Pretty in Pink

The world outside is in the pink!

Pink tulip on green grass

Detail, pink tulip

Pink rhododendron bud

Pink rhododendron

Pink blossoms

Pink bleeding heart

Bleeding heart

A profusion of pink blossoms

More pink blossoms

Exotic pink bloom, Volunteer Park Conservatory

Pink flower, Volunteer Park Conservatory

More pink -- Two-page spread in Bulb by Anna Pavord

White Flowers

White daffodil

White daffodil

White tulips

White bleeding heart

White bleeding heart

White lily, Volunteer Park Conservatory

Detail, white lily

White rhododendron with a touch of pink

Nature’s Valentines

Bleeding Hearts

“Love asks us to offer up our hearts for breaking.”
     —  Roger Housden, Ten Poems to Set You Free

The common names of so many plants are quite apt.  The bleeding heart is one such flower — it looks like a heart leaking a drop of blood.  I think of Roger Housden’s quote when I see it.

Heart-shaped Leaf

“A Perfect Heart”
by Ted Kooser

To make a perfect heart you take a sheet
of red construction paper of the type
that’s rough as a cat’s tongue, fold it once,
and crease it really hard, so it feels
as if your thumb might light up like a match,

then choose your scissors from the box.  I like
those safety scissors with the sticky blades
and the rubber grips that pinch a little skin
as you snip along.  They make you careful,
just as you should be, cutting out a heart

for someone you love.  Don’t worry that your curve
won’t make a valentine; it will.  Rely
on chewing on your lip and symmetry
to guide your hand along with special art.
And there it is at last: a heart, a heart!