A Sunny Day

Sunshine and no rain on Saturday meant a-must-to-do chore - to start the spring cleaning of the backyard. Starting with the hydrangeas which I had someone prune down a third. At closer inspection, I say they did a terrible job last fall. I pruned out dead wood and tidied them up a little. Sorry to say, I fear not many mopheads this summer. Crawling around on my stomach under the hydrangeas, through decaying leaves searching for the source of those nasty morning glories that took over the grapes and hydrangeas last year. I scratched my nose with a very muddy finger and thought, there is nothing more wonderful than the smell of wet dirt. I found this seed pod from the tree covered in spores and tried to capture it for the 30 Day Macro Challenge the idea of the very visually entertaining Orange Flower.



A larger view.

I found long forgotten primroses hidden under the leaves, half eaten by slugs. They have been out there for many years. Originally they were double but looks like they are reverting back to a single variety. Surprised to see them at all.



Found one small hydrangea petal skeleton. How do they survive unharmed among all of those leaves! Will offer this up as my 4/12 macro shot.



A little ball of fern.



And with all that crawling and cutting and looking at spores, my allergies are going crazy.

Last night we were invited to a cookout across the street. On the grill - Halibut marinated in Tequila, white wine and cilantro, BBQ chicken, roast carrots, lots of wine, good friends, laughter. The smell of many mowed yards on this day lingered in the air. A wonderful ending to the perfect sunny day.