Colour Me Green – The Hues in my Garden

Green – such a common colour in my part of the world right now. I am surrounded by it. Even if I didn’t have a Green Thumb, my yard would still be a poster child for the Green Movement. Some of my neighbours who are Greenhorns when it comes to gardening, are Green with Envy when they see my yard. They think I must have a lot of Greenbacks to be able to afford so many plants! But I just tell them that every time I move on to Greener Pastures, I take some old plants with me, and sometimes my friends Give me the Green Light to harvest plants from their gardens.

Totally unrelated, yesterday I wasn’t feeling very well.  I was a little Green Around the Gills.  I can see why Kermit the Frog says It’s not easy being green. I’m taking a break from flower pictures to take Green Pictures. I’ve added some Green quotes, which may or may not relate to the photos in all cases…

Don’t be envious if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence. It’s also harder to cut.
– Bits & Pieces, Feb 1994 –

At my age, I don’t even buy green bananas.
– George Burns –

Make thy ball lie in green pastures, not in still waters. Arnie-3: par 72
– Author Unknown –

If your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you ought to seriously re-examine your life.
– Bill Watterson –

Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon.
– Doug Larson –

A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm.
– Bill Vaughn –

This planet has — or rather had — a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because on the whole it wasn’t the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.
– Douglas Adams –

Leaf Me Alone, I’ll be Fine

Mornings are a nice time to wander through the woods. The play of light and shadow makes for interesting photos.

We have a lot of  Cotoneaster bushes in the woods and their fresh new leaves pick up the sunlight and make them shine. Cotoneaster. It is an interesting word. Pronounced Ko-tony-aster, it just seems like it should be  cotton easter.

Not long after the new green leaves unfold on the deciduous trees, a new crop of bugs emerge looking for breakfast. And lunch, dinner, bedtime snack and midnight munchies. Which brings me to my last photo:

The Aspen leaves – they are not very happy looking. A quick email to Hole’s Greenhouses and I had a diagnosis: “… these bumps (galls) are likely being formed by Eriophyes mites.”

Apparently  their microscopic size makes their identification difficult. Most eriophyid mites are not considered to be serious pests because the damage is generally only aesthetic and rarely kills the plant.

That’s good. I’m not about to start pouring insecticide on acres of trees. I’ll just ‘Leaf Them Alone.’

Mother Nature’s Bark Defies the Beauty Industry!

Can you imagine what the world would look like if Mother Nature listened to the human Beauty Industry?

This wonderful gnarled old willow would have had a facelift or two. The bark would have been plumped and smoothed by moisturizers and botox.

This plump old Aspen would have been on a diet for, well probably all of its adult life.

But Mother Nature is much wiser than any human. She knows that beauty is everywhere and it is ageless.

It makes me wish I was a tree. If I was, I’d be old enough to be the lumpy, bumpy, wrinkly, crinkly Queen of the Forest! And I would be tall, too… 

Fog In the Early Morning Light

Tree Bark – in Early Spring it is the Only Interesting Plant

It is April – a time when we have all had enough of Winter. I went outside to see if there were any signs of spring – Nothing… I’m ‘barking up the wrong tree’ I guess.

If you look closely at a tree you’ll notice it’s knots and dead branches, just like our bodies. What we learn is that beauty and imperfection go together wonderfully.
– Matthew Fox –

I like the me who talks to trees to let them know how well they are doing and how good they are looking. I like the me who wakes up in the morning feeling joyful that there is so much to do instead of burdened because there is so much to do.
– John Robert McFarland –

As the poet said, ‘Only God can make a tree’ — probably because it’s so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.
– Woody Allen –

If you plant a tree, don’t keep pulling it up by the roots to see how it’s growing.

Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
– Bill Vaughn –