The delicate blooms of the peony

Tags

peonies, postaday2016

It’s been chilly this past week in Blandford, I’ve been keeping my cardigan close by, my plants haven’t complained, the dogs aren’t put out either. What I like about having cool temperatures is the prolonged shelf life of whatever bloom is happening at the time, tulips last longer, so do daffodils and as you can see by the picture, peonies do as well.
Every year, I go back and forth on the question “do I harvest my peonies for bouquets or do I leave them be to decorate the outside” last year I did both, I harvested just enough to give me a pretty bouquet for the house, while leaving quite a bit to beautify both the front and back gardens, it was the best of both worlds. I’ll do the same this year, my peony patches seem to get bigger each year so I have more to play with, hooray for me.

The last of my peonies

Tags

peonies, postaday2015, water

    

Sadly I have to bid farewell to my blooming peonies, these are the last of them in the pitcher up above, all of the rest have faded to rest and store up their nutrients for next year’s blooms. I can’t complain, I have three gorgeous sets of peonies, each a bit different from the other and they get bigger and fuller each year.

Today is a beautiful, breezy day in Blandford, hot but pleasant due to our strong mountain breeze. I think that the rest of the week will be a wet one for the Northeast, we’ll be in New York for most of it. When I was young, I remember being none too happy whenever it rained, but as I have gotten older and became impassioned with gardening, rain has become my friend. I also don’t have to reel out the two water hoses, drag them back and forth and then have to reel them back in, not a question of it being too hard, more a question of feeling a little bit lazy. 

Water has always been a precious resource, but we have been treating it as a commodity and I think that has been a big mistake for us as a society. I am so grateful to live in an area that rarely gets to be in a drought situation and similarly rarely gets flooded. I know how lucky we are in the Northeast, despite having lived through  several devastating hurricanes and ice storms, on average we do much better than millions of others throughout the world on an annual basis.

Compassion, gratitude, humility and optimism are characteristics that I actively try to nurture in myself every day, I think that it helps with life in general being aware of these traits and trying to apply them to your own experiences. I think that it puts a lot of things in a more manageable perspective.

Brand new blooms

Tags

blooms, peonies, postaday2015, roses

      

Today is another beautiful day in the neighborhood. I was speaking with Alice our Blandford Post Master and we both agreed that the best thing about living in Blandford is the continuous summer breeze that we are blessed with everyday. I don’t remember the proper name of these peonies, but I love their intricate inner structure, the bees love them, I bet the butterflies do as well.

   
     

The salvia has come into bloom and my dark pink roses have just come back, the bush was much larger last year, this winter took them down all the way to the base; actually all of my smaller roses had to be trimmed all the way to the base. Despite losing all of their height, their leaves are all very healthy which is nice to see, I have yet to see any destructive insect activity, but we are still early in the growing season.

A gardener’s job is never done.