Sunday, 5th of February 2023 [43]
Today is the first day this year, that I’m starting sat on the steps of my front door. Dreaming of spring and summer colours I am.
This week and weekend has been tough. Not tough in a sense that some challenging affairs are presenting themselves in my life. It’s just me, feeling like all is doom and gloom.
The sun is out and although Im wrapped up in a scarf, I sit here absorbing some vitamin D, because I clearly need it.
The sky is blue, but not quite as blue as when I sit here in spring/summer.
Or maybe I cranked the colours up on this one above? I can’t remember, but I don’t think so.
Apart from vitamin D from the sun, I mainly miss colours! The brighter, the better! My front garden looks rather gloomy at this time of the year. Only orange cup and blue pot break the gloomy view.
I’m looking forward to warmer days, when I’ll have more energy to get up, swap those leaves that wind blew my way and plant some new flowers. Those here I don’t need to plant. They come back every year, no matter how harsh was the winter.
Others, like this cutie are probably gone forever. They’re annuals in our climate.
Mimulus! That’s what they’re called! I was smart enough to capture them with the label, or else I’d forget the name. It takes me a while to engrave new names in my brain these days.
They’re such cheerful and bright plants, that come in many colour variations. They love water more than anything! I nearly lost them many times, when the dry spells arrived last summer.
A part of me hopes they managed to self seed again. They like to do this sometimes. If not, I’ll probably buy some more this season.
Their bright colours really cheer my up.
Fresia is one flower I’ll never forget the name of. They’re my mum’s favourite flowers and the scent they release when happy really made them my favourite too.
It helps, that the English name for them is similar to Polish - Frezja. In Polish, the end ‘zja’ is long… extending just like their branch.
And then there are pansies. I remember when my friend, Nunzia fell in love with them for the first time. She just spread a few packets of them around her garden and of course many grew.
‘What’s not to love about them?’ - she exclaimed showing me her pansy garden. They’re so easy to grow, they come in many different colours and they also love to self-seed 🤩
Once you grew a pansy in your garden once, you never know where you will find them next.
Here, a picture of pansy growing in between the slabs would fit very well and I have many of those, but trying to find them in 1000’s of photos is rather tricky. So here is one of my attempts on using portrait feature in my phone.
Never really got a hang of using it properly for other objects, but it does a good job for self portraits 😉
Pansies though… I do love them. Probably one day I’ll organise my photo gallery and make a post just about them. Cause, like my friend said - what’s not to love about them?
Some of the first flowers I’ll see will most likely be crocuses and tulips. Even my frog looks mesmerised seeing some of the fancy types I planted the other year.
Even seeing them past their prime is better than seeing no colours at all.
Irises will come much later. I’m happy I planted quite a few of those in my garden last fall. My only worry is that maybe I planted them too late and some might not flower.
2 years ago I tried a few different annuals. I was nicely surprised when they came back the following year. Then again, our winter was very mind a year ago. This year we actually had some minus temperatures for a few weeks, so who know what survived?
And this purple flower, I actually don’t know what it is. Maybe one of the climbers that I planted in between my spring bulbs, to make my pots less unsightly during the winter months. It’s pretty, though. Hope it will be back!
Petunias with their many colours will come up much later in the year. They’re true summer loving flowers. They perish every autumn, but when they bloom, they do so in such abundance that I can’t help spending money on those annuals. I always make sure to pick the most striking ones from the nurseries.
Last, but not least - Sweet Williams family. These are not even the most impressive of those I grew, but right now, in this doom and gloom, I’d happily look at them too.
Just any colour will do. All that said... after 2h of sitting in the sunshine and watching those colourful pictures, I did feel much more energetic. I managed a few chores and even cooked dinner. Go me! Hopefully these captures will have the same effect on you. Or at least a little smile :)
This is my contribution to #SublimeSunday by @c0ff33a
Until next time 💙
| Camera: | iPhone11 |
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| Photographer: | @fantagira |