Apr. 19: Color and cheer

I’m gonna brag a little bit about some of the stuff in my front yard because it’s so pretty and I can’t keep it to myself. Right now we have huge red tulips, smaller yellow ones, a few pink ones, and some late-blooming daffodils, and they’re all contributing to brightening our front yard with springy-ness. There are also multicolored pansies, lots of bright green new growth on evergreen plants, the periwinkle is… well, periwinkle, and the dogwood tree has finally shown itself in all its glory. The bubbler fountain is running most of the time now, and our front yard has become a very cheery and pleasant place to me.

We bought our dogwood tree last year just after it had bloomed, so we weren’t sure what to expect from it this spring. Would the flowers be white? Pink? We watched eagerly as the little buds transformed into blossoms, but it’s just been in the past couple days that they’ve really opened up. Here’s how it’s looking after a few days of sunshine:

And here’s a close-up of a pretty little bloom:

Here it is with our fountain in the foreground:

I just love this little tree. I’m so pleased with our very uneducated choice for that space.

Here’s the really fascinating plant in our front yard right now; it’s a Euphorbia Tiny Tim:

When you see this thing, it looks like tiny red flowers with tons of greenery, but close-up, the centers look like earwig heads. That would normally give me the willies, but I adore this goofy plant. It’s one of the oddest shrubs I’ve seen.

I am loving spring. LOVING IT.