### Sorry, folks! I don’t know what’s wrong with these photos or why they all uploaded looking underexposed. The fix doesn’t appear to be easy — reuploading brightened pix doesn’t work — and I don’t have time to fool with it right now. Wrote this post over the weekend because I knew there wouldn’t be fiddling-around time this week…argh! Will try to come back to this later today, if the opportunity presents itself.
Spring has noticeably sproinged here. My gosh, it’s been gorgeous. And flowers are blooming all over the place. The air is saturated with the perfume of orange blossoms, has been for weeks. Check out what’s growing in the yard:
As usual, click on the image for a larger, higher-resolution view.
The iris have erupted in gay profusion this year, after several years of near dormancy. I forget what those red things are next to them — some other kind of bulb. But here’s some of each, close-up:
Long as we’re peering at things close-up, isn’t echeverria charming?
Here’s a blue hibiscus, a plant that’s never bloomed before. I’ve always assumed it wasn’t happy in a pot. But after I moved it under the shade of the olive tree, it perked right up.
In the blue and purple department, the mountain laurel’s in bloom again:
The lady banks rose is now big enough to hide the pool equipment. It’s only taken…what? three years?
The agave I planted when I moved in here — good lord! ten years ago! — has shot up an otherworldy bloom:
Strange, huh? Also in the xeric department, we have these things:
Cassia and bougainvillea. Neither requires (or gets) much water. Here’s a different rose, growing in a pot on the back patio:
And the salvia made it through the winter, amazingly enough. It really was a warm winter.
Not bad, considering we’re in the tenth or eleventh year of a dire drought.
Two years ago, our daffodils were up already. This year they’re still under at least six inches of snow. It’s been a slow, practically non-existent transition to spring this year.
Those COLORS! We didn’t hardly have a winter yet but for a few cold days, but we also aren’t rewarded with such gorgeous blooms. Thanks for sharing w/the rest of us 😉
Ah, but the fuschias! We have no fuschias here. And the roses that go on and on and don’t fry in the summer. And the iceplants at the beach. And oh, the grass at the Golden Gate Park that spreads out forever before you and never seems to die. How I miss San Francisco. {sob!}