Sunday, February 28, 2010

week 14- February 28, 2010- Picture contest- the first week of the finals

Spring is coming. You can feel it in the air. While the temperature was just 33 degrees, yesterday afternoon the children in the neighborhood were out playing in the sunshine. The modest snowmelt was slowly revealing the ground, particularly on the south facing areas. On one of our garden shelves, facing west, the snow has receded maybe a foot, revealing some green from one of last fall's pansies.

And along comes another earthquake just as the Haiti earthquake was receding from the news coverage. What is a person to do?
First of all you must look at it. Then you should work for that balance that allows you to help as you can, both in Chile and Haiti and the next place. Part of that balance is tending to the little seedlings in the basement that will go outside in a month. And then there are pictures. There is the contest and the fundraiser. Mears Garden Fundraiser


Enjoy the coming springtime. Find the balance. Consider the fundraiser.
On to the contest.

In last week’s voting you selected the first entry into the final finals in 3 weeks.
The winner was the Pink Poppy. Shirley the tulip came in a strong second. All of the pictures at this level are wonderful. I still think the bloodroot is just such a joyful flower, often exploding into bloom where you had least expected. It reminds me of the joy of walking in the woods and seeing all the wildflowers. In Iowa City if you do not know Ryerson Woods, find it and go there in April. It is just south of the Fairgrounds and there are flowers all over the place.

The complete voting was as follows:
Pink Poppy 30
Shirley the tulip 21
Fritillaria 11
Bloodroot 6


In this weeks contest, just like last week, there will be pictures you recognize. In some respects this part of the contest is not as interesting as the original 12 weeks. You have seen these pictures before. But hopefully, as a group of pictures, they are better pictures. Hopefully you will enjoy seeing them again. Maybe you will get caught up in which one will advance to the next and final round. Maybe you will like the picture enough to consider acquiring it for the fundraiser. I will now be quiet and just show the pictures.

First up is the snowdrop from February 14, 2009. There are no similar pictures from this year yet. I will start looking next week.

Then there is this picture of the dance between the bluebells and epimedium rubrum Sweetheart. Thinking about this combination is enough to get through another day with snow on the ground. Epimedium is one family of plants that is really expanding in my garden. They are tiny but put on a show. They should only continue to get better.

This next flower is another Iceland poppy. After the contest is over I will put up a special post that is just the Iceland poppies. There are two others of course that appear in the fundraiser group of pictures. (This one also is in that group.) I would like to figure out if someone could do a print that would be 4 pictures in one big print. That doesn’t seem so hard. Certainly Iceland poppies could put together a team for such an appearance.

Finally here is the daffodil. While I haven’t heard this yet, I assume that there are daffodils coming up south of here. My mother lives in southern Missouri. It is to be in the upper 40’s today. There are 50’s in the 10-day forecast there. Early spring is coming. I expect it is in Arkansas right now.
On the other hand in Iowa you can never count winter over until after the girl’s state basketball tournament. That is not over until March 13. Maybe that is not so far away.

So vote away

Katie update- Katie flew back to the States yesterday. She is supposed to be away from work in New Orleans for a few days.

Enjoy the warmer weather.
Philip

No comments: