More Flower Abstracts (Macros)

These are more abstracts of flowers obtained by working at very close distances and thereby cropping away most of the more familiar aspects of common spring garden flowers. In all cases the are show is about 2 cm wide (3/4 inch for our American friends). All were taken using a special closeup lense - Raynox DCR250 (for those with a technical interest) in front of the camera lense.

The first is a closeup of what my mother called a "paper white", a type of narcissus.

The second is part of the crown of an unopened yellow-red bicolour tulip.

The third is a daffodil.

The fourth is a grape hyacinth.

Yellow Cars (and Logos)

Weather seems to be getting better but still not really spring. So today we have yellow cars.

Spring Has Finally Arrived - Sort Of!- Eranthis In Bloom

Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, the first sign of spring made its appearance in our garden. The first flower to pop out of the ground is Eranthis, sometimes called Winter Aconite (although it is not related to aconites and is not poisonous). This is actually a late arrival this year. Most winters we have a week-long thaw in the third week of February and it is then the Eranthis appears. This year the heavy, unbroken snowfall and cold weather has delayed the usual early blooming of these flowers.

The bright, buttercup yellow flowers are about 2 cm (3/4 inch for our American friends) across and will force themselves out through frozen soil and light snow (yes that is snow in the images) in sheltered areas. That is the case with the ones shown here. They are growing in a well sheltered southern exposure and are located in the first place they appear in the garden. Over the next two weeks the entire area will bloom and we will have a carpet of yellow in patches over the entire yard.

Eranthis are the first to bloom and also the first to disappear. By mid to late May there will be no sign of them as they will have gone to seed, dried up and disappeared again, until next year.

Our Eranthis were started from clumps in my parents yard in Niagara-on-the Lake. I remember these flowers well from my childhood there as they appeared in many of the older, established gardens there.