While April has made its exit from the garden stage, the month of May is once again gracing us with its presence and promise of what lies ahead. The iris will soon be a memory and the sweet william will hopefully have a better year in 2022. (Did I tell you I bought more seeds?)

This one iris was a complete surprise. It’s hard to get an accurate picture with a cell phone. I miss my old 35mm…but I digress. This iris is sort of a peachy-pink on top and the lower petals have a hint of blue. My mom always said one similar to this bloomed the year I got married – 1979 – and it never bloomed again. Everyone who saw it wanted it. The one in the picture came up in the daffodil “patch” and I don’t remember where it came from. It did NOT come from my mom’s yard; I promise.

The large poplar tree has bloomed. (I need to figure out where to drop the photo.) It always seems strange to me that such a large tree would have flowers. Each flower does resemble a tulip, hence the name, “Tulip Poplar”. The photo, wherever it landed, shows a single leaf and a single flower. I can only see the flowers when they fall. This one poplar is VERY tall and its approaching the end of its life-cycle. It has stood here for well over thirty years and is riddled with the evidence of many woodpecker families. The many holes look like a bird condominium.

The picture at the top of the blog was one I couldn’t resist; just some old floor towels. There’s something satisfying about drying laundry with only solar power. It was our ONLY option growing up in the country in the 1960’s and 70’s. There was a time when I hung all the laundry on the clothes line. I discovered, to my dismay, that wasps enjoy hiding INSIDE the pants leg of Mr. K’s jeans. It was much easier, and safer, to frisk the jeans while they hung on the line. If the pants vibrated or buzzed, yours truly had room to … uh…maneuver.

I love how there are pink flowers and white ones on the same stem.The trumpet-shaped blossoms remind me of honeysuckle.

The baby Eastern Bluebirds have hatched. These little ones are less than a week old. It always amazes me how quickly they hatch and fledge out. They come out of the shell with downy “feathers” and grow almost faster than kudzu in the Summer sun. A breeding pair of Bluebirds will sometimes nest again and the young ones will help feed the brood that comes after them.