Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Napping Tulips and Shooting Stars

The tulips look so cute together (below). And my shooting stars are finally growing up; last year I was freaked out when they went dormant, thinking they had died. Why is it that when I go dormant, people think I've died? Maybe I should go dormant more often? How do you go dormant? Why does "dormant" sound a lot like "door mat?"

Last weekend the wife and I hit Spring Affair, an annual local 45,000 plant sale. And then a week later went to the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum sale. Spring has been good (though too warm and windy to have kept the flowering trees looking good for more than 2 days).


















Ah, young love.


















Rain-stained tulips (which are a good week early this year)













Shooting star of some kind--the species?


















Shooting star, I forget the cultivar


















Cornus 'Arctic Fire' still has red stems as it flowers--white berries soon to come (and then the birds get them within 5 seconds).

Well, here's to summer then, and hopefully rewriting 70 or so pages of my garden memoir, and getting it right this time, because a ton of literary agents got hooked but none bit (and perhaps for good reason). No idea where the energy will come from, or how I can possibly get into writing mode again, but it's a lot like working out--including the sweating, the grunting, the smells, and the bouncy / jiggly bits (maybe not so much for men, but stuff still gets in the way).

9 comments:

Unknown said...

I definitely think people need to go dormant sometimes. Don't answer your cell, and don't talk to anyone other than your dog. I maybe disappear into the studio to paint, maybe clean the attic in a fit of energy... depends on the mood I'm in. :)

Suzanne said...

I go dormant. More often than I would like!

Jean Campbell said...

Thanks for coming out of dormancy in time to share those wonderful tulips.

Kateri said...

Oh, I love the first photo of the black and white tulips snuggling.

Adrian Ayres Fisher said...

Are those Queen of the Night tulips? Love the contrast with white. And I long for some shooting stars for my own garden.

Good luck with your writing. Is your teaching semester over? If not, perhaps the energy will come when students and their essays recede? I've found it so.

Benjamin Vogt said...

Kim--I need to clean my office so I can write. That's two fits of energy I need. Argh.
Suzanne--Wake up!
Nell Jean--The tulip[s are already falling to pieces in the high winds we've been having.
Kateri--They broke up already. fickle love.
Adrian--Yup, quen of night. And trumpeter I think. Grading is done, the lingering stench of the semester is still hanging tough. Stench not from my lovely students, but from getting up at 6am (which always made me sick).

debsgarden said...

Good luck with re-writing that garden memoir! I've been re-writing the same book for over a year and still don't have it right, though I am ever hopeful!

The tulip photos are beautiful! I wish our spring lasted longer. Hot and humid today, summer is here!

Steve said...

Love the purple shooting stars. They grow wild along the Rogue River in Oregon.

irrigation systems said...

Love those tulips the colors are gorgeous!