Spring blooms already

It has been very mild here recently and spring blooms are appearing earlier than usual.

We set a record of sorts on the weekend when we cut our lawn for the first time (February!) this year; that seems to be about a month early.

Feast your eyes of these early cherry blossoms:

 

 

 

Not just a blossom here and there, but entire trees and rows of trees. 

 

 

 

 

Crocuses and Snow Drops are also blooming in abundance:

 

 

 

Forsythia is welcome for it's colour and fragrance.

 

 

 

 Hellebores in many colours: 

 

 

A few daffodils are blooming and still more are ready to burst into flower.

 

 

 

I love the "furry" buds of the magnolia:

 

 

One of my Camellia bushes is in bloom too.

 

 

 

Oregon Grape bushes are ready to bloom:

 

I can't remember what this one is called:

 

 

A robin taking advantage of early mild weather:

 

 

 Of course the weeds are growing well too!  There is a bee in the bottom left of the first picture.

 

 

 

I don't know the name of the plant above, I like it, but it is a pest when it gets in a lawn.

Below, well you know.

 

 

 

I hope Spring is here, can all these plants and the birds and bees be wrong?

I hope not, but I am not holding my breath.

 

The squirrel below had found a treat and settled safely behind some branches, not sure he realized I could see him quite well still.

 

This one was in the park; we are not happy with squirrels at our house since one or two of them chewed the lights off several strings of our Christmas lights! Seriously.

 

  

 

I have a couple of new paintings for you too.

I have been trying something new, painting watercolour on stretched paper and then varnishing it so that it does not need to be placed under glass.

 

The first is "White Hellebore":

 

 

 

The second "Early Clematis", below, is already in a frame:

 

 

 

Both paintings are watercolours, what do you think?

 

I also finished a painting of Gastown for the Vancouver section of my PS Whimsy website. It is ink and watercolour:

  

 

 Thanks for stopping by,

 

happy Whimsy Wednesday,

 

Until next week,

 

Gillian.

 

 

 

 

 



 

Mag-nificent

I have always assumed that this was a magnolia but I read somewhere that Magnolias are evergreens and these are definitely deciduous. I walked around my neighborhood recently and saw many different kinds, but most were deciduous, the few evergreen magnolias didn't show any sign of flowers.

I thought I should investigate a bit.

but first, we have had a lot of this recently,

and some wind, and even though there are still a lot of cherry blossoms on the trees, it has been snowing blossoms too.

This hedge has caught quite a few falling blossoms,

and many sidewalks and pathways are covered in a blanket of newly fallen blossoms. Ah, spring!

So to get back to Magnolias, according to the Royal Horticultural Society, there are both evergreen and deciduous varieties:

"Deciduous magnolias usually flower in spring before leaf emergence. Magnolia grandiflora (bull bay), the most commonly grown evergreen, flowers in flushes from summer until early autumn. In warm summers these can be followed by striking knobbly seedpods from which bright red seeds emerge in autumn."

Apparently the Magnolia is an ancient plant genus:

"Magnolia is an ancient genus. Appearing before bees did, the flowers evolved to encourage pollination by beetles. To avoid damage from pollinating beetles, the carpels of Magnolia flowers are extremely tough."

One or two of the flowers below has been damaged by the rain and wind, showing a cross section of the flower.

They get the name from French botanist Pierre Magnol.

In my stroll around the neighborhood I saw white ones, pink ones and purple ones. These beautiful white ones and delicate star-like ones are my favorite.

Here are white magnolias against a background of delicate pink cherry blossoms.

I encountered some evergreen magnolias too, but they were not showing any sign of flowering.

I saw a couple of shrubs with little yellow puffy flowers too, quite lovely but I don't know what they are.

I have been a bit under the weather this week, a little dose of food poisoning I think, but starting to feel better.

Here is a great video of an owl:

Here is a picture my pal Judy forwarded to me titled "owls in camouflage". I had to look quite closely, at first to see the owl.

I did get some painting done though. Perhaps because of the abundant blossoms outside, this week I felt like painting flowers. This watercolour is named "In the Pink", it's a hydrangea:

For more details follow this link: GillianOlsonArt.blogspot.ca

Thanks for stopping by, Happy Whimsy Wednesday, until next week .........