365 pictures - Day 52

A coolish, wettish day to end May with. Our little hanging basket of tomatoes is enjoying the light rain. 

365 pictures - Day 51

Foxgloves are just magnificent! The kings of the wildflower world. 

365 pictures - Day 50

The alliums are in full flower now. There are more of them every year, and the seed heads are almost as pretty as the flowers. 

365 pictures - Day 49

A beautiful May day, with a light early summer haze. And so much green!

365 pictures - Day 48

We put in a little cotoneaster at the end of the garden in a really difficult little border. There's a line of conifers on the other side of the fence, and cotoneaster is pretty much the only thing that'll grow there. It was the last resort before we gave up, slabbed the whole border and stuck pots on it. Last resort or not, it's flowering! Looks like we hit on a winner. 

The pretty girl is Penny, deciding that she needs her moment of fame on the internet. 

365 pictures - Day 47

We put in an arch in the garden a few years ago as an extra feature, planted a clematis and a Boston Ivy against it. This spring, the ivy started sprouting, got frosted, sprouted again, got frosted. Finally, it's been able to get going, and it's got lots of lovely healthy leaves now. It'll look great all year. 

365 pictures - Day 46

An odd picture, I know, but the insides of these flowers are so pretty. It's a type of allium called Nectaroscordum. I love them because they're all pretty and droopy like this, then the flowers dry out and point upwards like mad little fairy castles. 

365 pictures - Day 45

Green trees, blue sky and fluffy clouds. Does it get any better? 

365 pictures - Day 44

Wildflowers are so underrated, in my opinion. A multitude of buttercups here, with all sorts of other goodies. Looks like a gorgeous meadow? It's a roadside. I whipped my camera out while my husband was waiting at traffic lights. 

365 pictures - Day 43

At the garden centre today, a Chusan Palm. Looking it up, I find that these are flowers, and male flowers because they're yellow. The female ones will be on a separate plant, and they'll be greenish. I've never really been into exotic type plants, but this is interesting. 

365 pictures - Day 42

It's overcast and windy today. The leaves on this tree are blowing around and showing the silver undersides. Not sure what it is. I'm tempted to say ash, but I could be completely wrong. Not basing the guess on anything at all. 

Edits: I was wrong. It's a poplar. Of course it's not an ash! 

365 pictures - Day 41

The alliums are coming out - rich magenta, against the sweet pink of the London Pride. 

365 pictures - Day 40

There are so many orchards in this area, and they're fabulous at this time of year. Some are much more farm-type orchards - regimented rows of little gnarled trees - but this one, next to the church in Chaddesley Corbett, is quite informal, like it belongs to the house. 

365 pictures - Day 39

More hawthorn! It's everywhere right now. This is a tree just round the corner from us. 

365 pictures - Day 38

Another picture of our pretty hawthorn tree. It's in full flower now, and it's got that lovely hawthorn smell. Rain in the next couple of days, so these petals may not be long for this world. 

365 pictures - Day 37

I think this is some sort of cherry tree. It's so pretty with all those dangly flowers. 

365 pictures - Day 36

Beautiful forget-me-nots. Clouds of them. Such a serene blue. 

365 pictures - Day 35

London Pride. When I was growing up, we had a house with a tiny front garden, absolutely filled with this. So pretty when it flowers, and nice and tidy the rest of the year. 

365 pictures - Day 34

We put a hawthorn in last year, because I just love them. This one's special - a red one  with single flowers. The variety is Crimson Cloud. 

365 pictures - Day 33

These camassias are marvellous. I put in a couple of bulbs about ten years ago, and they come up year after year, more and more of them. I have only two complaints about them - I could wish the flowers lasted longer, and it would be so pretty if they'd flower at the same time as the alliums behind them. Other than that, they're perfect. 

365 pictures - Day 32

We have a monster garrya in the garden, in a place that gets very little sun, especially in the winter. It loves it, and grows like a crazy thing! It's been covered in tassels all winter, and now it's full of silver green shoots. 

365 pictures - Day 31

A complete change in the weather today. It's been hot and sunny - today, much cooler and wetter. I have to admit, it's a bit of a relief. I'm not good at hot weather. 

However, standing at the back door is as close as I'm getting to the garden today. Lush green, and getting more so by the minute!

365 pictures - Day 30

Many trees are in full leaf now, and I found this lovely sycamore in a lush, green car park. Not only is it in leaf, but it has these dangly flowers. I don't really think of sycamores as having flowers, but they must because of the seeds - they have to come from somewhere. 

365 pictures - Day 29

Cow parsley. I love cow parsley. It's frothy and pretty and just everywhere. One of the best things about May, in my opinion. 

365 pictures - Day 28

The hedgerow flowers are coming out now. These are apparently Greater Stitchwort. I like their pure white petals in pairs against the green foliage. 

365 pictures - Day 27

We have four cherry trees, of varying sizes (one is no more than a little bush) and types, and they flower in succession. This is the fourth to come into flower, and it's beautiful. The variety is 'Chocolate Ice', because of the colour of the new leaves against the flowers. 

365 pictures - Day 26

There are so many big beautiful things happening right now, that it's easy to overlook the tiny things. There are plenty of them too. I think these are cuckoo flowers. They're sprouting in the lawn. 

365 pictures - Day 25

I got these little tulips in pots last year and had them flowering in the kitchen. You need a bit of colour in the dark months. When they were done, I put them in the garden and forgot about them. Hey presto, this year, up they come! Tulip Tarda is their name. 

365 pictures - Day 24

Some pure white apple blossom with some wine-red new leaves in the background. Found in the car park of one of my schools. 

365 pictures - Day 23

Gorgeously classy! I don't like tulips regardlessly - I'm fairly picky. These black (dark purple) ones against the old urn are my kind of thing. 

365 pictures - Day 22

I found this at our local garden centre today. It's an anemone, and they remind me of my grandma. She always had a set of plastic ones. Anemones of this kind do look rather plastic to me, and I'm not sure whether it's the memory of Big Grandma's plastic flowers, or whether they just look kind of plastic. 

Whatever - I like the spray-painted look of this one. I didn't buy it, but it drew my eye.