Things of Beauty

Yesterday I thought I would do a pretty simple post, just some nice flower pictures, not a lot of commentary, shouldn't take long to do.....

Well after quite a few frustrating attempts to upload the photos, I was finally successful this morning.   I got the process underway, and then went outside to pick flowers, and this time, finally the darn things had uploaded.

These were taken yesterday evening when I was supposed to be out there picking things for today's market.  The light wasn't great.

It doesn't take much to make me happy, and these gladiolas (yeah I know it is supposed to be gladioli in the plural, but that just seems weird since I never use that word)  make me happy:)

Last year I bought quite a few bags in late spring when places like the grocery store and Walmart were clearing them out for as little as a dollar a bag.  They came up, and then when they started to flower, they were diseased looking, so I couldn't use any of them.  I would have put it down to the fact that they were late being planted, or weren't good quality, except for the fact that the glads that had been in the ground for years also came up and looked as bad. 

When I googled gladiola diseases, well I didn't even want to try figure out what they had, some virus or other it seemed.  With me, they don't get any doctoring, either you buck up and survive and look nice, or you will be turfed.

So when they came up this year and looked like this, I was verrrry happy:)

And love the intensity of this one

Phlox

Globe Thistle

Teasel

Echinacea

Some out of focus quaking oat grass,  with snapdragons and larkspur in the background

And the same things from another angle, with the basil in the foreground, which is going crazy with this warm weather

The larkspur kindly reseeded itself for me, so I just transplanted them all into one spot, and really have too much.

Shasta daisies, glads, phlox, babies breath, etc...

The original arugula patch has gone wild.  I think I'm just going to leave it, and see if I can save the seeds for next year.

And last but not least, the bee balm or monarda.  There were a couple of hummingbirds dashing around last night, well I could hear them, but mostly they seemed to be perched in the pine tree.  I stared up into it to see if I could see them, since they would be still, maybe I could get a photo.  Then I decided that I didn't really want the rare 'honour' of being pooped on by a hummingbird, so gave up.