Wednesday, March 18, 2009

In Search of Color

After a series of gray days, yesterday morning I took my camera and went looking for color. Daffodils are beginning to open everywhere and the lovely coral branches of the Sango Kaku Japanese maple are a welcome sight -- the tree was hit by a freeze a few years ago and had to be severely pruned but it's coming back!

I want to paint the inside of my kitchen cabinets this delicious shade of red, just for the thrilling jolt of color I'd get whenever I opened a door to take down the jar of Herbes de Provence or to put away the dishes. I've been meaning to do this for ages -- maybe this will be the year.


Forsythia is at its peak -- such an obliging plant. This below is one I rooted from pruned branches a few years back. (Note to self -- root lots more! Spread forsythia up and down the mountain to brighten future Springs!)

As I was returning to the house to finish wrangling with our tax information, I saw that the lilac by the steps is covered with buds. I've had this shrub for years -- it was a gift from a friend's yard -- and it's always bloomed very sparingly. But now -- well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have a freeze or anything else to destroy what seems to be a very promising crop of lilac blooms.

I don't want to count my buds before they open . . . but can you imagine how good it would smell?

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5 comments:

Carol Murdock said...

It's looking like Spring at your farm Vicki! I love the blue bench with the yellow forsythia !

Unknown said...

Vicki - Your Spring photos lift me up. Thanks!

Kathryn Stripling Byer said...

Hi, our lilacs are budding out, too. I tried to make some photos but they didn't come out as well as yours. I found Red Russian Kale and Golden chard seed at City Lights today. Joyce had gotten a special order for folks to buy at the store, so I'll be planting these tomorrow.

Victoria said...

OH! That blue bench with the yellow forsythia in front of it...what a gorgeous photo! My Daffodils are finally beginning to poke their heads out of the ground, but they're not anywhere near to blooming yet. Our lilacs won't bloom until May.

Vicki Lane said...

My husband made the blue bench. And the blue -- which we like so much that it's on all our exterior doors, inside bookshelves and the dining room corner cupboard and the walls of my workroom, the mud room and one bathroom, is a shade called (go figure) Mountain Purple.

I adore it because it looks good with almost everything in nature. But yes, especially with forsythia and daffodils -- so Van Gogh.

Red Russian kale -- sounds great. What an obliging bookstore to order seeds for you!