Monday, April 20, 2009

Spring is in Full Swing!!!

It was so beautiful out today!!! We could walk around with a fleece rather than our cumbersome winter coats! We still have the wind coming off the 4 degree Celsius ocean to contend with at this time of year, so no matter how warm the land gets the breeze is always much cooler. Everyone was out and about....Diego and I even took an hour walk around the city this afternoon to get away from our computer and get some much needed rays on our pale faces!

I also, got to visit some of my fav. flower spots along the way. The daffodils are on the verge of opening and being ripe for picking (they are on public property...an adult school to be exact and I only take 4 or 5...). The pussy willows are out full force! I picked these up at the market on the weekend. Halifax has an amazing farmers market year round!!There is also a HUGE magnolia tree close to my place and you can see where the buds are cracking open to reveal the delicious smelling white flowers within. I give it another 1.5 - 2 weeks before it is in full visual and olfactory glory! Every year I encounter the owner of said tree and she is happy to have someone enjoy it so much! I try to walk by there every day when it is in bloom! Yes, I am a self admitted flower stalker...

Speaking of flowers...more of my orchids have opened up!
This one opened its first flower 1.5 weeks ago. I love how you can see the spots that the flower will have on its petals on the surface of the buds! These flowers are quite small, the size of a twoonie (our 2 dollar coin for those non Canadians).
This one opened up about a week ago. It has large flowers, about the size of my palm and has these delicate tails that you can see in profile on the side view flower. I have two more orchids left to produce flower shoots, I am not sure if they will bloom this year...but if they do you will be sure to know!!! Another great thing about spring are the orchid shows!!! I love orchids, they are so varied and produce gorgeous and very long lasting flowers! Remember this one well it still has one flower left and it has been 2.5 months since it started blooming!!

We also went to Pete's Frootique to pick up the few things we couldn't get at the market on the weekend. For those of you who aren't familiar with this store...Pete's is a locally owned store that specializes in exotic fruits and veggies but also carries a lot of locally made beauty products and other fare...way better than the HUGE corporate grocery stores and has most everything you would ever need and it pretty competitive with prices (except for the cheeses...)...but I digress... It was here that Diego surprised me with...you guessed it...Flowers!
Irises to be exact. We passed a garden a few days before and I got all excited that it had a local variety of iris that was blooming!! So when he saw these beauties he knew I would squeal with delight! Although, they are not the local variety they are beautiful!!! He is such a sweety!

That's all for now...back to the grindstone!

Don't forget to enjoy spring wherever you are!
Happy Spring to all! :)

4 comments:

  1. I LOVE "snake" flowers.. or those purple Irises. They are my favourite flowers EVER. :) Lucky you!

    I was thinking of having them as my "flower" at our wedding... but they won't be blooming in October. :( Oh well.

    Yay Spring!

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  2. I picked a huge bunch of pussy willows in the woods next to where I work. My daughter needs them for decorations at her wedding at the end of August. We are suppose to get much warmer temperatures over the weekend, yippy!

    Happy Earth Day ! (I celebrate the earth every day)

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  3. Alli, I love your orchids. My father-in-law would go gaga over these. He loves orchids and has quite a few himself.

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  4. We went to buy some seedlings at a local greenhouse yesterday. They have one of the greenhouses devoted to tropical plants, and when I saw all their gorgeous orchids, I thought of you! :)

    Toonies...LOL! I was explaining that to some friends (here in Indiana) the other day, and they thought it was a pretty funny concept.

    I looove pussy willows. We planted some one year, but they've not done terribly well and I keep losing sight of them among the other plants on our hillside.

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