Yard Flowers

I love this time of year!  The colors are so vivid after living in the greys and browns of winter.  This first picture was from five days ago, when the green leaves were just starting to peek out.  The second picture, from today, shows such a drastic change.  I think that if I sat under one tree and watched one bud, I might actually be able to see it grow!

I planted an ornamental cherry tree at the corner of our yard a few years ago.  Last year it was loaded with blooms.  This year, there are very few.  They're so pretty.

My poor husband.  He has worked so hard on our lawn over the years we've lived here, but the weeds are entirely persistent at overtaking the grass.  We now have a beautiful lawn of weed flowers, and hubby has given up trying to heed their progress.  So now we have a lawn of green, interspersed with pops of purple and yellow.  It's not all bad.

Growing up in the woods is an azalea bush.  I can't imagine that it was planted there.  Today my boy brought me a bouquet of flowers from this bush.

 My boy spent some time collecting a bucket full of dandelion seeds today.  The pollen count is very high, which isn't necessary to know the numbers of, because you can see a definite yellow layer covering every surface outside.  It is no wonder that my son is being violently affected by allergies!

 Didn't I tell you our yard is colorful?  I love these confederate violets.

The snowball bush's heads are small, but lovely.  Soon they'll fill out and turn white.

Spring Wildflowers of The Great Smoky Mountains

We just spent two glorious days in the Great Smoky Mountains taking an outdoor education class.  We took a short walk in the woods, trying to identify all the spring flowers.  While spring was truly late this year, the forest floor was still graced with such variety of wildflowers!  I am not all that good at identifying them yet, although I do recognize some of them, but my husband got in on the identification quite avidly.  As I madly sketched away, he would move ahead a few more yards, identify another one for me, and move on to the next.  Always a new flower behind, it was nearly a race to keep up with this fun challenge.  There were more; I couldn't get all of them.  But this is a sampling of what we found.  A few I forgot to write the name in immediately, so I'm not sure now what they are.  But I'll get another chance in a short time, as I'll be going back again.  Can't wait!!!