dreaming@echonyc.com

this morning it stopped raining for about five minutes — just long enough for me to go out into the yard and take a few pictures of what's in bloom. (it is worth pointing out that it's rained maybe 11 days out of the last 15; we were lucky that sunday, the day we went on a picnic and ventured out to the nursery was not one of them. today, alas, is. as was yesterday. as will be tomorrow. as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, rain without end, amen. at least the slugs like it.)

• siberian irises in the front bed under the dining room window. i have a stand of them about three feet wide. they're sky blue and gorgeous.

• lupine, in that same bed, next to the wooden stepping slices. (you can also see the lupine in that picture, to the left, in its tiny embryonic form.)

• rhododendrons, in the no-man's land between the yard of neighbor greenjeans and ours. it's a heck of a place to put a bush, down in a mucky ravine, and yet the bush seems to like it just fine.

• now the good part: the backyard shade bed. after a weekend trip to little siberia with friends, i found myself with about a dozen new shade plants for the bed i'd mostly neglected since we moved here (save the haphazard planting of a bunch of hostas and some white bleeding hearts). here's another view. i concentrated on picking out plants with interesting foliage and contrasting colors of green. and then i weeded, thinned, and planted for days.

the garden overall won't hit its prime until late june/early july. for now i'm happy to see the few early bloomers* that dare to show their faces between rain showers. and zealously prosecuting every slug i see, to the fullest extent of the law.

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* "early bloomers, julie? it's june." i know. i have a calendar, but apparently no one told vermont it's supposed to be summer now.