Reports of Our Demise Have Been Grossly Exaggerated ...

Despite all my recent predictions of the imminent departure of this year's Crocus, we were surprised to see these cheery ones springing up over the weekend. We don't recall planting these where they came up, but over the past few years (since we've been constantly working on the boulder bed out front) a lot of things have gotten displaced and are now resurfacing (much to our delight in this instance) in different spots in the garden. We definitely like this sort of surprise ....

There are a few other places out front where similar things have happened ... before we built the boulder bed, we used to have a variety of bulbs along both sides of the steps leading up to the house, (mostly tulips, daffodils, squill and crocus), but when we built up the bed along the steps, a lot just got buried under rocks and the soil we used to fill the bed. We lost most of what we didn't manage to dig up in the process, but a few things have managed to return ... there are a few Squill that peek out at the base of the rocks and there's one particular Grape Hyacinth (Muscari) that even pokes through a gap in the rocks and blooms every year. (I'll make sure to get a shot of it when it appears.) So that's testimony to the tenacity of the smaller bulbs ... they may get jostled around or moved inadvertently, but they still find some way to accomplish their purpose every spring and bloom no matter what ... that's floral dedication, I'd say!

Photos taken by Fernymoss using the S700 on 21 April, 2008. In the first shot you'll notice an ant exploring the flower (bug sightings are always welcome in our pictures, just wait until the next post to see a really great one!). The second shot, taken moments later (and essentially the same shot), s/he's gone! I had to post both just for fun ... besides we had a hard time deciding which shot to post, so I decided on both.