Category Archives: Flowers

Coming up on three years next week that we’ve been renting this house and there are still surprises.

Around the corner of the front yard where I rarely go unless a circuit breaker has tripped or I’m putting up Christmas lights, I’ve found this huge patch of flowers.

I’ve never seen the flowers blooming like this, or even at all over in this somewhat hidden corner. There’s a  big patch of bare dirt over here, and I always thought this area was just some sort of ground cover.

I don’t know what sort of flowers these are, although I might guess that the white and yellow ones are some sort of daisy? I don’t know about the smaller reddish and yellow ones.

These are partially hidden from the sidewalk as well, especially for a short dude such as myself. The house and yard are up on an embankment from the sidewalk and I might or might not see them from the street. The flowers might be in bloom for a very short period. Or I might simply be going full Charlie Gordon in my old age.

But they were pretty this weekend!

The pink roses have joined the party.

I wish I could look at these in the infrared – aren’t there patterns or markings in the IR that bees see that we don’t?

The bees rule the front yard flowers. Nothing out here for the hummingbirds.

Lavender Trumpet Vine

These vines are climbing the support posts on the outside patio and it’s time for them to be blooming. At least some of them are.

A big section was torn down by the idiot squirrels  as they climbed the vines and support posts in quest of the bird feeders. The squirrels are NOT my friends.

The hummingbirds on the other hand love these. The feeder is right near them but sometimes gets defended by a particularly aggressive male, so these are excellent alternative feeding sites.

Normally we would all be sweating to get our tax returns (or extensions) filed in the US today – but hey, thanks to that little pandemic thing, we get another 32 days!

So instead, let’s look at what pops out of the ice plant growing along the chain link fence at the edge of our property.

Yes, they really, really are that bright!

They only bloom for a few days around this time of year.

The bees love them – surprisingly to me, the hummingbirds don’t seem to ever touch them.

I figured that before the invention of hummingbird feeders (and, you know, humans) the little buzzbombs would have feasted on something like this!

If so, then they’re doing it in an extremely stealthy fashion.

Where was I before I went off on a rant? Flowers or birds? Lizards?

Whatever.

Not from Texas. These are next to the driveway.

The first of the season to pop out – won’t be the last if this year is anything like last year.

No secrets of the universe here, nothing profound. Just a tiny bit of a reminder that beautiful things exist in the world and we need to pay attention to them every now and then, even if it’s just for a minute while spending the day battling the Forces of Evil.

Fight on!

Flowers and birds, all from our yard. It’s spring. Again. And we’re still spending 99.99% of our time in quarantine at home. Again. (The other 0.01% of the time is when I go out to get groceries or pick up the CAF mail at the hangar every other week.)

These are popping up next to the mailbox – some are heartier than others, fighting for space with some sort of decorative desert drought-resistant plant.

The bees seem to love them. I can see why.

“Purple leaf flowering plum” according to the wisdom of Google image search. These tiny little pink and purple flowers are starting to pop in the last couple of days.

I think we did this same Google search to ID this tree/bush last year. Or the year before. Or both.

Which makes me realize that we’re coming up on the end of our third year in this house?

REALLY??!!

It’s the oddest little obvious facts that jump up and bite your ass and make you wonder WTF is going on… As if “reality” isn’t slippery enough these days.

A week ago these were gorgeous, stunning. Now…

…it seems to me that they’re still stunningly gorgeous.

Beauty and worth are not binary, yes or no, on or off.

The colors might have faded, the blooms wilted… But think of the invisible judgement inherent in those words. “Faded.” “Wilted.”

They’re still colorful, elegantly textured, incredibly complex natural constructs.

They’re just in transit to a different phase of their existence. It might no longer pigeonhole conveniently into our arbitrary definition of beauty – but they are still beautiful.

How many other things in the world around us are in the same position?