Hello Darkness my old friend

This dramatic bearded iris is called Hello Darkness. Not everyone likes black flowers, but they can make an interesting contrast. John took these pictures on an overcast day, but in bright sun it has a glowing purple tinge. I like the way the iris breeders give their plants fanciful names. There are other black iris varieties called Ghost Train and Midnight Oil, but I think Hello Darkness might be the blackest of the black. We have a multi-colored iris called Stitch Witchery, and it looks like it has a purple blanket stitch around the white edges. They are all gaudy and beautiful.

About 10 years ago, we went on a serious binge at a dangerous place called the Walsterway Iris Farm. At the peak of bloom in June, you walk through their fields with an order sheet in your hand making check-marks next to what you like (la-de-da.) In the fall, they send you the rhizomes you ordered, and you have to figure out where on earth to plant them in your crowded beds. The down side to growing iris is they take up lots of space, and are fairly ugly 50 weeks of the year.

As years went by, I got annoyed and dug some out. Being fickle, now I like them again. I'm glad Hello Darkness survived the purge because I see on the Internet it's a hard variety to find, not to mention expensive. In 1999, it won the Van Dyke's Medal, which is apparently the highest award for an iris.

Garden Sanctuary

This intense looking woman is the Victorian artist Marie Spartali Stillman. She was a British painter of Greek descent, and probably the greatest female artist of the Pre-Raphelite period. She produced hundreds of works during her sixty-year career.

Her painting below is called The Enchanted Garden of Messer Ansaldo. The story behind the painting (from The Decameron) tells about a lady who asks Messer Ansaldo for a garden that is as beautiful in January as May. To get the garden, he pledges himself to a wizard and then gives it to her. I like the way you can see a snowy winter scene outside the gate. It's a sanctuary, as all gardens should be.

Garden Sanctuary
You who walk,
Maybe with troubled thoughts,
Come, enter here and rest;
And may the sweet serenity of growing things
And the heavenly peace
Be mirrored in thy soul.
-Doxis M. Palmer

Methow Valley Moms

Amanda, Nova and Friends
Photo by Michael and Gina Humling

For those of you who can't get enough pictures of Amanda and Tom's lifestyle, the link below has many more. They were taken by their friends Michael and Gina. Their baby girl Adelina was born last August, so she and Nova are the same age.

Click on the Barker Canyon Banks Lake set for photos of the families on a first camping trip with the babies:

http://jackchinook.smugmug.com/Methow-Moms

A rainy Sunday afternoon

We woke up to rain again yesterday. After lazing around the house all morning (it's amazing how much time you can waste with a computer) we decided to take a museum hop on Capitol Hill. We went to the Frye Art Museum first, although their website didn't mention that most of the galleries were under renovation this month. The Frye is a rarity in Seattle-- a free museum with free parking. So nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Our next stop was the steamy and tropical Volunteer Park Conservatory, a favorite place to go in bad weather. It's magical on a snowy winter day.
The light makes it a photographer's paradise. It's hard to snap a bad one, even with a pocket digital.
There are many oddities like this "R-Rated" looking carnivorous Pitcher Plant. Some species are so large they can actually digest a trapped rat ( very slowly.)
The fuchsias were much prettier. The older I get the more I like fuchsias.
Many beautiful textures and leaf patterns to photograph...
And the cactus room is a bright, dry sanctuary on a rainy day.
Our last stop was the Asian Art Museum, where they had a exhibit of Japanese woodblock prints.
They were interesting, but I always spend a few minutes looking at the Buddhas. They rotate in and out of storage, so you never know if your favorite will be on display.
So, we salvaged a rainy day and had a nice afternoon. More of the same today-- the weather report says we can look forward to a sunny day next Saturday.

But to put it all in perspective, last June 19th I wrote on the blog we had a record 29 day drought. At least it's green, green, green.

The clouds parted...

And there was light upon the land. Or something like that. The sun was blazing over Seattle for a few hours yesterday afternoon, so I took a stroll around the garden to check out my backlog of work. After a few days away, it was like coming back to a new garden. Lots of new plants. Mostly weeds. On the bright side, I've never seen the roses and lilies so tall and just covered with buds. The bees were swarming on the alliums in the sunshine, a sight we look forward to every year. The poor things were probably starving from the wet, cold weather.

The wet peonies fell over in pink cascade-- no amount of staking will hold up those heavy heads. The bloom season short but glorious.
We're sticking close to home this weekend to try and get the upper hand on the vegetation.

Fun with grandma and grandpa

What's the use of a little granddaughter, if you can't spoil her? :-) John found this kiddie rocker at the Ace Hardware Store in Winthrop. For hanging out on the front porch...
And grandma brought along a (noisy!) play table she found at a yard sale in Seattle...a big hit.
And a slightly used BIKE. Here's Nova, Born to be Wild!