Thursday, June 11, 2009

The Poppies Have Finally Arrived

Look at these beauties, bursting into life.
The petals are like crepe paper crushed in a handbag.The rain left its mark, and the petals fold inward, protecting their hearts.

And there are other flowers in the garden, if you can look past the blinding beauty of the poppies.
These peach coloured iris made me swoon.



Oh, look. Here's the one who does the actual work along with her mistress and commander, Kathy. I say commander, but in truth, The Boss makes homemade muffins, hard-boiled eggs and coffee for her garden minion before sending her out to tiptoe through the tulips. Sweet.
Saying hi, from the mosquito infested garden down the street.

(I thought I'd try a black background for a change. Thoughts?)

17 comments:

yutha said...

I like the black background - the pictures look amazing against it.

kc dyer said...

Love the black, but sorry to say on the reader, we still get a white background. The flowers (and the gardener!) are gorgeous either way.

~kc

Julie K said...

Love the background - it works great! Nicely done, darling!

A Novel Woman said...

Thank you! I think I might leave it up for a bit. I like the drama, dahlings.

Kathy said...

I get the white background on my reader. I love the drama of the black, but must admit I find it tiring to read white on black. But no worries, because I get black on white unless I come to comment. :)

The gardener sure looks a lot like her mama in that picture!

nightsmusic said...

Lucky you! My poppies are almost spent as are most of my irises. :( And with the rain we had today, they've all been beaten to the ground.

*sigh*

Love the black background but I too can't read it for too long. Which is a bummer because I wanted to use a black background and it didn't work for me.

The pictures are fantastic against it though.

Word verify: frounds

Why can't blogger spell? Fronds! Not frounds!

A Novel Woman said...

Well that is the dilemma - photos look good on black and text looks better on white.

Hmmm.

And I won't tell the gardener she looks like her mother. No young woman wants to hear that.(g)

Anne S. said...

Maybe you could do a wide black border around the photos, but leave the text black on white? (No idea if that is even possible!)

BB said...

You already know my thoughts on black backgrounds... heh! Love 'em. Try a more off-white text, it's easier to read (off to check mine actually).

Great pics... your poppies are out, our frosts have arrived!!
:-0
BB

Brenda said...

Oh, thank goodness! I thought you were NEVER going to get yourself into Kathy's garden and take photos. I love, love, LOVE your garden shots! The flowers are so beautiful but you find a whole different angle to capture each one of them and the colours are so vivid! So nice, thank you for sharing. Nice crisp focus and REALLY nice bokeh. And you know we heart bokeh.

A Novel Woman said...

I DO heart the bokeh!

Back to white background.

Debby said...

I planted poppies. Nothing this year. Maybe next. I don't have peach colored iris. Turns slightly green with jealousy.

A Novel Woman said...

Debby, if it makes you feel any better, I don't either. This is my friend's garden. I can't seem to grow poppies. Or at least, I'll grow them once and never see them again. Burns my behind when I read "oh, they just self-seed all OVER the place" in gardening mags.

I do know Kathy (and my daughter) put down a lot of manure, compost, peat, etc. so they have very good soil. I have dirt. The weeds seem to like it.

nightsmusic said...

Mine do self-seed all over the place. *angelicsmile* And they come back every year. Mine are planted in sand though, so I don't know if the soil has all that much to do with them.

I know...shut up ;-)

A Novel Woman said...

Lalalalala (fingers in ears) can't hear you lalalalala.

nightsmusic said...

I am a firm believer in leaving them alone. I think if you pamper them, they don't do well. I water mine. And deadhead them. That's it :-)

I can send you some. Maybe. If customs allows it.

A Novel Woman said...

Ah, thanks, but it's not allowed, methinks.

And believe me, I don't pamper my plants and the poppies still won't grow.