Iris Blooming

 It's Iris blooming time in our mountains of Southwest Virginia.  Most of the iris were given to me by a friend. I started an iris bed and then I simply put them in various places throughout the gardens.

     Most of the iris are bearded iris which are very tall and have many gorgeous blooms.

 This is a patch of smaller iris, I think Siberian iris, which I transplanted many years ago. These have really spread in this location. Surprisingly, deer and other critters do not like iris!

There were a few more : a very pale violet and a solid white. There were also early purple bearded iris which have already bloomed. The rain added quite a bit of joy to the iris.

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Hummingbirds Return

 The hummingbirds were sited earlier in the month, but not here in our mountain home. On Sunday afternoon assured that there would not be another frost, I moved the houseplants outside. Some of the plants are the size of a tree. The deciding factor for moving the plants was the iris. The deep purple iris came from the Farmer's Market. The others came from a friend. They are one and two years old.

 While watering the blueberry bushes this morning, can you see the berries on the plant? With the hose going, I heard a familiar sound. It was a male ruby throated hummingbird flying among the blueberry bushes.
Waiting for me to leave, so he could come to the hummingbird feeder.
I cleaned all three out on Sunday and made a batch of sugar water.
Easy to make: one cup sugar to four cups water. Bring everything to a rolling boil. Turn off heat. Let cool.
Pour into the feeders. If you make a large batch, just put into the refrigerator. Keeps for awhile.

When we lived in the Episcopal Rectory in Big Stone Gap, there were all these sweet little red poppies growing. This is the first one I have seen here. Must have been waiting for May Day to bloom.