Late bloomer

June 14, 2021 / Tracy Abell / 8 Comments

I recently bemoaned the lack of blooming iris in my gardens, wondering how others in the neighborhood managed their bumper crops of iris. I then realized I wasn’t alone. Yes, there were a couple gardens absolutely filled with iris, but the majority of us had clumps of iris in which only one or two stalks had buds/blooms. Then I remembered our early freeze last fall and the unusual amounts of moisture this spring. Maybe it wasn’t negligent gardening practices that led to my dearth of iris blooms? Whatever the reason, I’m grateful for this flower.

June 10, 2021

Solidarity with late bloomers, yo!

Garden variety envy

May 24, 2021 / Tracy Abell / 15 Comments

May 24, 2021

I’m starting to see iris in full bloom around the neighborhood. One home has two banks of deep purple irises which are absolutely stunning and another front yard is filled with white iris blooming.

My garden? A grand total of four potential iris blooms in the front and back gardens. What the hell? (I’m so grumpy I’m not even going to attempt taking another photo that at least pretends to be in focus).

And the indignities don’t end with the iris. I passed a yard today that was ablaze with blooming allium. I just checked on my plants and this is what’s happening here:

One puny, non-spherical bloom. Not only that, it’s really short. Again, what the hell?

Today’s offering

January 7, 2021 / Tracy Abell / 1 Comment

May 29, 2019

This iris bloomed in my garden not quite two years ago, beautiful despite being battered by the elements.

Iris are hardy flowers and I look forward to seeing this one bloom again this coming spring.

Twofer Tuesday: Hell yeah edition

May 19, 2020 / Tracy Abell / 10 Comments

ONE: I was worried I wouldn’t have iris blooms this year, but here’s the first to flower. The dependable purple comes through yet again!

Iris bloom on May 13, 2020.

TWO: Yesterday’s writing session was angsty and difficult as I flailed about, trying to find my way through the revision. I brainstormed last night before going to sleep and then instructed my brain to help me find the best path forward. I woke this morning with the answer (which wasn’t even on the list). Today, working on my book was a joy.

Hell, yeah!

Not yet, but soon

May 5, 2020 / Tracy Abell / 6 Comments

April 25, 2016.

I’m really, really hoping my iris bloom this year despite the various snowstorms and freezes. I really, really need the boost. Until then, I will bask in the glory of these beauties from nearly four years ago.

Come on iris, please do your thing!

Wordless Wednesday

July 3, 2019July 3, 2019 / Tracy Abell

The specificity of an iris bloom

June 6, 2019 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

The more specific we are, the more universal something can become.
Life is in the details. If you generalize, it doesn’t resonate.
The specificity of it is what resonates.
~ Jacqueline Woodson

As I revise a young adult novel written years ago, I’m adding specific details in hopes of creating a resonance. May my story bloom as specifically and beautifully as this iris from my garden!

For Judi

January 4, 2019 / Tracy Abell / 4 Comments

You gave me flowers
teased and loved me, laughed with joy
my heart is shattered

Thankful Thursday

December 20, 2018December 20, 2018 / Tracy Abell

Today I’m grateful it’s the second shortest day of the year and that soon we’ll be gaining daylight. I’m also grateful for this photographic reminder that although the landscape is currently dry-and-drab as far as the eye can see, brown doesn’t always mean dead. And ugly. And depressing.

Brown can also bring joy. Today I post this intricately beautiful brown iris as a reminder that blooms of many colors are in my not-so-distant future.

Iris bloom as work of art

May 17, 2018 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Art is all in the details.
~ Christian Marclay

Welcome, beauty

April 3, 2018 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Beauty is everywhere a welcome guest.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My iris haven’t begun blooming yet, so I’m posting this photo from last April in anticipation of the splendor that’s in store for us.

I’m forever grateful to my former neighbor, Tina, for sharing her iris-love with me. She had many different iris in her vast gardens and when I first began digging in the soil, creating my own little patch of beauty, she’d toss iris tubers over the fence. I’m pretty sure this photographed iris is one of those long-ago gifts.

Friday Haiku

February 16, 2018 / Tracy Abell

Bouquet from the spouse
They’re beautiful, says Tracy
Cat food, says Loki

All flowers keep the light

May 31, 2017 / Tracy Abell

Deep in their roots, all flowers keep the light.
~ Theodore Roethke

Thankful Thursday: the Fighting Iris edition

May 25, 2017 / Tracy Abell

This beauty is blooming in my front yard, despite the 12+ inches of wet, heavy snow that fell on the bud a week ago.
Just goes to show, you can’t keep a good flower down.

Friday Haiku

May 19, 2017 / Tracy Abell

They unfurled their blooms
then snow fell like wet cement.
The iris prevailed.

Springtime in the Rocky Mountain foothills

May 18, 2017 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Yesterday, the forecast said it would start snowing this evening. Instead, I woke to smothered flowers and shrubs in my front and back yards. I spent more than an hour outside with a broom, clearing snow from collapsed lilac bushes and apache plume shrubs. I’m probably going to lose my iris display this year. Again. And forget about the poppies.

Sigh.

The finches are handling it pretty well. We’d already called it a season and brought in the long extension cord that heats the bird bath, so that’s a bummer. I filled the dish with hot water this morning and the water has already turned slushy.

The snow’s supposed to continue through Friday and then on Saturday? This:

Happiness shared is the flower

April 20, 2017 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Happiness held is the seed;
happiness shared is the flower.
~ John Harrigan

I just photographed this iris, the first to bloom in any of my gardens this year. This was also the first iris to bloom last year. I’m very happy to witness its delicate beauty again. And I’m also happy to share it here.

Friday Five: The Iris Edition

May 27, 2016May 27, 2016 / Tracy Abell / 2 Comments

Just took a little tour of my front and back gardens. Last year I lost almost all iris blooms to a snowstorm so am thrilled at this year’s turnout. There are several stands of iris not yet in bloom, but these beauties are currently going all out: