A Lake County Point Of View

Taking on the back

OUTSIDE: The back courtyard.  A mess.  (Photo is from the home inspection and does not accurately depict the real mess which the back has become.)

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The foul weather has broken.  It is time to get to work.  Over at Recreational Renovations (my blog about fixing up my little cottage) I've posted a thing about what I want to do with my back yard.  I never know where to post such things.  It is, ostensibly, about gardens (so it seems germane here) but is really a construction story (and so, there).  Anyway, if you care, take a look:  Two Simultaneous Projects: Inside & Outside.   Just sortof covering the bases.

A Funny Thing Happened At The Office - Muscari

Muscari armeniacum 'Blue Pearl' - Grape Hyacinth
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by The County Clerk.
Armenian muscari

Muscari armeniacum 'Blue Pearl' - Grape Hyacinth - About to burst open.


"All close they met again, before the dusk
Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,
All close they met, all eves, before the dusk
Had taken from the stars its pleasant veil,
Close in a bower of hyacinth and musk,
Unknown of any, free from whispering tale.
Ah! better had it been for ever so,
Than idle ears should pleasure in their woe. -
Isabella; or The Pot of Basil - Stanza XI
John Keats or John-Keats.com,
1795-1821

Now... "Muscari" comes from the Greek word for musk (some species are particularly "aromatic").  And these are called Grape Hyacinths.  Hmmmnn.  Could these be the flower of Keat's bower?

I think so.   Maybe!

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Run For The Roses

first juleps of the season
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by abchao.

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Tomorrow is the SPIRITUAL beginning of summer... it is the day the three-years-olds Run for the Roses in Louisville. Praise be! Winter is OVER. It is Derby Time!

The Kentucky Derby

Colonel John and Big Brown (unbeaten) look good, but I must say that I'd like to see Eight Belles have her day... yeah... there is a lady running with the boys this year.

Garden Shoe Review

The Stable
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by The County Clerk.

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About a year ago, Craig over at Ellis Hollow put up what may be the greatest blog post ever posted anywhere.  It is certainly the greatest thing I have ever seen.  With all the talk about blogging these days, Craig's post is the perfect expression of the blog genre, in my opinion.  It is Perfection.  Unimprovable.  I refer to his brief but powerfully important Garden Shoe Review.  Bravo Craig!

I've thought about it a good bit over the last year, especially as I labored over 60 page researched essays about civilization and the garden around us (the world).  I know as I type that I will never achieve what Craig had achieved, but I labor on anyway.  Such is life.

Tonight, almost EXACTLY one year later, I feel inspired to put up my own Garden Shoe Review.  It will not be as good as Craig's, but perhaps it will suffice.

Cloud Visitors

recollection: winter light
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by Belltown.
looking SW - this bad boy blew off to the east side without much of a fuss

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This is not my image.  It is not even my world.  This is a Pacific Northwest cloud, an image taken by my friend - one of the few souls, amongst the billions, whose existence makes my life a better journey.  

It was, apparently, an isolated cloud during a Seattle blue sky day (they have so many, though they seem to get no credit for them).

Isolated as it was, the ancient Greeks would have applied mythology to something like this.  This would have been Hera or Athena or Zeus stopping by.  Temples would have been busy that day.  The priests would have done well, though it would have been a bad day for livestock.  And who knows what meaning would have been found: Seattle might be off on the march today against Tacoma.

Quite a cloud.  My kind of cloud.

The kind of cloud that gets me thinking about things.

I thought I'd share it with you all, maybe it is your kind of cloud too?

It is snowing

But it is warm snow.

I wonder if I'll ever perspire again?

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I have officially had enough of this.

(This is just a note to myself so that come October when the snow season begins again, I'll remember EXACTLY what I am up against.)

Adventures and Hallucinations at the Midwest Daffodil Show

Daffodils Everywhere
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by The County Clerk.
Don't ask me what they all are.  Holy cow... my mind was blown the moment I walked in.  Daffodils everywhere!

Every kind.  Every shape, size and color.  An amazing spectacle to behold. 

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The Midwest Daffodil Society annual show.   

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So... I went to (and participated in) my first "Daffodil Show" yesterday.  A mind-boggling day well beyond my life experience to date.  But alas, one's world view is a product of one's experience, no?   I have to keep expanding the old noodle.  I try.  But this particular adventure was a foray well beyond my ken.  I thought I'd share some of it with you all. 

Dawin Hybrid Tulips - Pink Impressions

Dawin Hybrid Tulips - Pink Impressions
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by The County Clerk.
Darwin Impressions are (SUPPOSED TO BE) the largest, tallestest, straightest, boldest announcements of Spring possible of all the tulipa choices I know of.  Here they are.  Early.  Not everything I've expected but lovely nonetheless.

These are (THEORETICALLY ANYWAY) Darwin "Impressions".  Pink.  A woman who had spent time in Seattle told me once:  "Tulips - Two Words: Pink Impressions"

I do what I am told... though I try not to.

There are 15 divisions of Tulips.  The Darwin Hybrids are "Division 4" Tulips. 

They were introduced by D. W. Lefeber in 1943.  They are the "children" of  crossed Darwin tulips and the Species Fosteriana tulips (good naturalizers) .

Darwin "Pink Impressions"

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Look at THIS.  Winter seems to be over!

Game On, Let the Show Begin!

Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra Maxima'
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by The County Clerk.
This represents my first hands-on experience with any of the pungent beauties ( Fritillary) and I jumped in big.

This is:  Fritillaria imperialis - The "Crown Imperial" Frits:

Fritillaria imperialis 'Rubra Maxima'

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An Unknown Bush

An Unknown Bush
Flickr Photo originally uploaded by The County Clerk.
Whenever I pass this bush or small tree (which is several times every day) I always stop and wonder what its name is.  And then, invariably, I think of an essay I once read ("On not knowing the names of trees") over at Raminagrobis... and THAT takes me to Christopher Morley's wonderful poem:

Tit for Tat

I often pass a gracious tree
Whose name I can't identify,
But still I bow, in courtesy
It waves a bough, in kind reply.

I do not know your name, O tree
(Are you a hemlock or a pine?)
But why should that embarrass me?
Quite probably you don't know mine.

--Christopher Morley

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I'd like to introduce myself.