pink & perfume

My grand old hibiscus, enjoying the warm day out on the back deck.

It must be possible, because just from inhaling the air the garden, I am happily drunk. The air in the garden is heavy with the sweet perfumes of lily-of-the-valley, lilac and sweet violets. Forget the air quality warnings on the radio! The air here in my garden, with the soft breeze off the lake gently rustling the leaves of the trees, is just fine!

As I rearranged some of the plants in the beds, I uncovered an ants' nest under a old pottery shard and much alarmed moving of eggs resulted...The ants are yellow and exude a distinct lemony scent! Isn't that amazing?? Sorry, the photo is a little blurry but you can just make out the ants. I was so pleased by the scent that I replaced the pottery shard and hope the ants will continue to thrive and prosper! Seems to me one of my favorite bloggers has mentioned these ants, and had the proper name for them too....now who was it???

The yellow carpet of dandelions has turned into a low level cloud of white puffs.

The view out my kitchen or dining room windows is of the magenta of the crab apple trees (two, no, three kinds) that were here when I arrived, and beyond them the apple trees, a cloud of white in the orchard. There are also two apple trees in the back yard, just off the patio. I wish I knew the names of the all the varieties, as some of them are old varieties not available commercially anymore. Standing under the trees, the sound of bees among the flowers is a deafening drone!

When I step out the side door, the pink of the beauty bush is backed by the pink of the phlox and the purple of the lilac. A wild variety of columbine, Aquilegia canadensis, which offered last year, seeded itself generously behind the hosta and variegated grass. The magenta-pink phlox is great with the candytuft, but a variegated soapwort is reverting to the plain green leaves. I'm trying to encourage the creeping Gill-over-the-ground, Glechoma hederacea, among the stones by the drive. From the mint family, it is an introduced species with lovely aromatic leaves that stand up quite well to being mowed over and stepped on. Weeding out the plantain and dandelion from amongst the Gill-over-the-ground is proving to be... @&~*!#% !! , to say the least!

On the north (front) side of the house, I haven't done any weeding. Bergenia is blooming among volunteer violets -- and Herb Robert, Geranium Robertianum, and Virginia Waterleaf, Hydrophyllum virginianum. The maiden hair ferns survived and are unfolding their fronds to one side of the holly berry bushes. I'm thinking of moving the hostas forward to the edge of the bed. Maybe some shrubs in the back to give more height? This is still a work in progress. Humph!

Between the patio stones at the back of the house, sprinkled with a confetti of apple blossom petals, look at these sweet little violets!