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Tag Archives: flower

Spring Flowers After the Storm

01 Tuesday May 2012

Posted by Claire Eddins in Flora and Fauna, Flowers, Home and Garden, iPhoneography, Nature, Spring

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clemaits photo, Clematis, Clematis Henrii, coral rose, flower, flower closeup, flower photography, flowers in rain, garden, garden photography, iPhone Photography, Knock Out rose, mini rose, purple clematis, Rose, rose photo, spring flowers, Sunny Knock Out rose, Virginia garden, wet flowers, white clematis, yellow rose

Sunny Knock Out® after the morning rain. © 2012 EddinsImages

This morning began with a thunderstorm. Afterwards, I took my trusty iPhone out to the garden to snap some photos of raindrop-laden blooms.

Then, I crunched the front-end of my truck on my way to the office.

*sigh*

Purple clematis, real close! © 2012 EddinsImages

Since I’ve not been able to get any real work done today, I decided to post a few of this morning’s flower pics…

So far, they’ve been the best part of my day.

Clematis Henrii after the showers. © 2012 EddinsImages

And they make me smile.

Mini rose after the rain. © 2012 EddinsImages

Hopefully, I’ll have a better day tomorrow.

Purple clematis close-up. © 2012 EddinsImages

I won’t wreck the truck (been there, done that).

Clematis Henrii Bud.© 2012 EddinsImages

And tomorrow, I’ll get some real work done!

Wet purple clematis leaf. © 2012 EddinsImages

All photos taken with an iPhone 4. © 2012 EddinsImages

Spring’s Wonder

22 Thursday Mar 2012

Posted by Claire Eddins in Flora and Fauna, Frogs and Toads, Home and Garden, iPhoneography, Lifestyle, Nature, Spring

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flower, fresh start, frog statuary, garden, life experience, lifestyle, memories, new beginning, pansy, spring

“Every spring is the only spring – perpetual astonishment.” – Ellis Peters. © 2012 EddinsImages

Remember when you were very young… how the simplest little thing could be an object of absolute joy and wonderment?

Like flowers in an early spring garden.  Or, a favorite object.

Springtime at my Grandparent’s house in New Jersey: after long, grey, northern winters, any bits of color – crimson buds against cerulean skies, green leaves reaching up to unfurl from hardened earth, screaming yellow flowers with neon noses held atop emerald stems – were welcome celebrations of the earth’s rebirth. When I was very little, it was bliss to be outside without a cumbersome snowsuit, feel the warm sun on my skin, smell early-blooming narcissus in the garden, and feel the rich, cool dirt in my hands, on my knees and under my nails.

Each spring I scrunched under the shrubs in the backyard to discover my favorite lion-faced pansies bobbing atop rich, freshly turned soil. Carefully, I’d lift-up the delicate pansy heads to examine their charming purple and white faces. My very own little lions. I’d spend forever, studying and comparing one flower to another, choosing my very favorite. And, each day on my visit to Grandma’s and Grandpa’s, I’d run outside early in the morning to be sure my very favorite lion-face was still safe and blooming.

Best of all, nestled amongst the lion-faced pansies, were two cast-iron frogs, one painted light green and the other dark green with a white belly. In my shaded pansy paradise, I petted and played with the frogs, adoring them as if they were living creatures, hour after hour.

It was all so simple and wondrous. Each spring, each day…

Today, half a century later, my darling grandparents are long gone. Their home is gone. And, their marvelous garden with each spring’s promise, is gone. However, my beloved cast-iron frogs have found their forever home with me. Their paint has all but worn away, and each little frog has patinated so that the pair shows a near-identical, rusty-bronze color. To anyone seeing them for the first time, they are hardly the cheerful Spring Princes of my childhood days.

However, I remember.

To me, the frogs are every bit as wondrous as they were fifty years ago. They remind me of spring in New Jersey. Of lion-faced pansies. Of Grandma and Grandpa. And, they remind me of the joy and excitement I felt when experiencing the simplest things. By contrast, today, often bogged-down in the day-to-day mechanics of adulthood… raising a child, being a wife, caring for pets, making a living, managing a home, shopping and child shuttling from one activity to another… I feel overwhelmed. Some days, all I can do is get through the nuts and bolts of living. No time for whimsy.

Then comes spring. Everything is anew. Each day is fresh. A redo from the day before. And all the days before that. I can forget my troubles. Move forward from my mistakes. And I see that what made me happy fifty years ago still makes me happy today. I just need to remember. I just need to make time to enjoy life, experience the wonder, as I expected to when I was still a child.

Spring reminds me to be the me I expected to be.

I’m off to find some pansies for my frogs…

Photo taken with an iPhone 4. © 2012 EddinsImages

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