FIBERGUY

She’s been teasing us for days, threatening to open but not doing so. This morning when I walked into the kitchen to get my coffee I glanced out the window and this is what I saw. A lovely way to start a Saturday morning – iris “Beverly Sills.”

My best friend, Nancy, who lives in Washington now sent me these pictures last night of the tulip festival held in the Skagit Valley every year. I’ve been lucky enough to see the festival in person once, but these pictures do a pretty good job at relaying the magnificent beauty of the gardens that the tulips growers maintain and show off during the festival.

Once again, we headed to Lutsen over the Labor Day weekend. This is our designated annual jelly-making weekend and it was a good one. We found some really good fruit and this batch is, perhaps, the best batch of crabapple jelly we’ve ever made. We made two kinds. The first couple of batches we “plain” crabapple jelly made from a variety of apples. The second added hot peppers to the jelly. The first batch we made we used just the fiery hot cayenne peppers that Karin grew this year, but when the batch was done, we decided it was a little tame, even to the Scandinavian palate, and so in the next two batches we added some serrano chiles that Helen had brought up. They are a real favorite of mine and I love their flavor. They were a welcome addition to the jelly. So without further ado …

The first is of Iris “Beverly Sills” planted from a friend last year and look at how spectacular it is already!

The second is of a fantastic white columbine that blooms white on one stalk amidst an otherwise purple bush. Very strange, but very beautiful.

The last is of the poppies beginning to bloom in my neighbor’s yard. They make me so happy to behold.

Morning Glories in Phyllis's yard

These simple, common white morning glories arrested my attention this morning.  They are the very essence of beauty, are they not?

How can you not love this elegant beauty? It’s from a small bit of peony taken from the Hall family homestead up in Lutsen. It’s really taken off in our yard and this year is full of blooms. We don’t know exactly what type it is, but then again we haven’t done a whole lot of research to try and find out. Harald’s mom says it’s probably at least 50-60 years old. And best of all? It’s a fragrant variety with a sweet, old-fashioned rose scent. Heavenly!

Update: After checking out several peony farm web sites, this peony looks amazingly like one known as “Gay Paree.”  How apropos.

As Harald so rightfully challenged me last night, it’s time to get some pictures after promising two weeks ago to do so. Even though I’ve been gathering pictures for several weeks, I am going to start with a picture taken just this morning. Sorry it isn’t clearer, but these are among H’s most precious additions to the garden and they are blooming particularly beautifully this year. They are Martagon lilies, a very old type of lily. Now, if you aren’t familiar with them, you wouldn’t know that the blooms are impossibly small – probably no more than a couple of inches across. Click here to read a good primer on Martagons.

I was smitted with these pinwheel phlox blooms the moment I laid eyes on them.  This is their second year and they are doing very, very well.  They strike me as a very sweet and old-fashioned looking plant.

Gorgeous red lily, ain’t it?

This is close relative to the hollyhock, a French mallow.  Actually, we planted this plant the first spring we were in our house.  It bloomed profusely and then went to seed.  We thought nothing of it until the next year when mallow plants were absolutely everywhere!  We’ve been trying to get rid of them ever since.  But this hardy plant came from a seed two years old and we decided to let it grow.  Probably a mistake, but for now you must admit it’s lovely.