Celebrate – #rethinkchurch

(Once again I’m following ReThinkChurch’s prompts for a photo-a-day during Lent.)

 

 The rhododendrons are opening to celebrate spring.

Rhododendrons

I’ve never been familiar with rhododendrons – never seen them up close and personal. I’m entranced with the way they flower.

First you get tiny buds that look like they are just trying to be new leaves.

Then, the buds swell and start to turn slightly pink or red (or whatever the flower is going to be).

Then they swell some more and you can see that each bloom is a whole bunch of flowerets.

Then one or more of the flowerets begin to open.

Then several of them open, but some stay closed for a while.

Finally, they all are open. Those blooms all came out of the same bud. And they’re BIG – probably each floweret is 2-4 inches in diameter, and the whole blossom is 8-10 inches.

They range in color from palest pink that almost looks white from a distance, to dark red (not on the same bush). I’m just fascinated with them.

She’s Baaaa-aaaack

I know it’s been a while, and I hope to be better now. I’ve been playing with the genealogy and putting most of my writing there.

That, and IT’S SPRING in the Northwest and it’s lasted over a month, with new trees blooming and things in my yard sprouting and me planting stuff. After spending so long where Spring lasts about a week and goes straight from frost to 90 deg. I’m avoiding spending any more time indoors than I have to.

I got the rocking chair that I got for Christmas put together, and I love to sit on the back porch (they call it a deck) and rock and listen to the birds and read a book or just vegetate.

There are these wonderful puff-balls of red all over, lining the roads on campus.

The rhododendrons are starting to bloom.

The bed just outside my front door is covered with blooming violets.

And we’ve planted pots with primroses, variegated ivy and hellebore (three things the deer won’t eat down to the ground).