Not more cherry blossoms

But beautiful flowers nevertheless.

On Tuesday I made a hurried trip to the Hillwood House Museum and Gardens. The weather was not very welcoming and we dodged raindrops as we made a hurried dash about the gardens trying to see the highlights.


The Japanese garden was very beautiful. Despite the lack of flowering plants there was an array of color in the foliage such that you did not realize that nothing was flowering. The air was full of the sound of the frogs in the ponds.


Although I know practically nothing about orchids the display of blooms in the hothouse was spectacular. Just look at that one with the lime green legs; that is just one bloom by the way.

The texture and shading here is just beautiful.


And here was a darker version.



Here again I was struck by the pattern on the petals but also, now I am looking at the photograph, see how the bright green of the fern sets off the color of the orchid blooms.


Do you wake up each morning and look out the window of your bedroom to a view like this? Again, note that there is nothing in bloom. I wonder if later on in the season there are flowering annuals in this garden.

Hopefully I will be able to visit this lovely estate another day.

A cherry blossom spring

Casey has been talking about going to see the cherry blossoms at the tidal basin for weeks. The weather has not been that co-operative but today, the very last day of the cherry blossom festival, at least had no rain in the forecast. I thought it was likely too late to see them this year and I was correct. Above you can see a view looking towards the Jefferson Memorial and below we were looking across the tidal basin towards the Washington Monument and the White House.
As you can see, the blossoms were definitely past their peak.

If you look really closely around the Washington Monument you may be able to see some of the many kites that were in the air as part of the Kite Festival today.

Now this shot (above) shows some lovely cherry trees at peak of bloom in my neighborhood. Ordinarily our trees peak at the same time as the ones at the tidal basin but we were several days (at least a week or more) behind this year.

It almost looks as though my garden has been dusted with confetti as the blossoms start to fall.

This poor pot of ivy is looking very bedraggled after the winter. I have cut it right back to encourage it to new growth and for added insurance I added this new piece of Haitian art I bought a few weeks ago.

My daffodils are very lovely this year.

And finally, this pot of pansies that has sat out all winter long by my front door are putting on a good show.

Tomorrow we are forecast to have an unusually hot day with temperatures in the high 80's so I'm thinking the dogwood trees will burst into bloom then. And I will be out with my camera to record them.