Why be Normal?

It’s summer in Northampton, Massachusetts and although it has been a rainy summer, the gardens at the Northampton Community Gardens couldn’t be more beautiful this year.

The community gardens in Northampton are a series of plots that locals rent from the Northampton Recreation Department for a nominal fee and tend throughout the summer.  You never know what you are going to find planted here in these gardens, but most take a huge amount of pride in their plot, planting harvestable vegetables and beautiful flowers.

I took this picture on a walk a few days ago,  when the weather was one of the top five days of the year with 75 degrees and a light breeze.  The sunflowers and black eyed susans are in full bloom and can be seen in almost every plot at the Northampton Community Gardens.

I visit often the gardens often and I love to see how they change throughout the growing season.

I followed this monarch butterfly as it flitted around the gardens looking for the right place to find some nectar.  Finally the monarch butterfly settled on this flower and I was able to catch a picture of it.  Summer in Northampton, I love it here.

I don’t know what kind of tree this is, but thanks to my crappy little camera phone I was able to take a picture of it.  I love walking around the neighborhood taking pictures and spring is one of my favorite times of the year.

I think this is some sort of flowering cherry tree.  I have a similar tree in my front yard but the flowers are more pink than the purplish pink of this tree.  The tree in front of my house is also much smaller than this one. 

Regardless, spring is a great time of year to watch nature come to life, especially in New England where everything is covered with snow throughout the winter.  Spring makes winter more bearable, at least to me.

When you see the flowers all blooming and the trees full of leaves it is almost possible to forget the long winter nights, the snowblowing and all the shoveling.  Almost.

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I was out for a walk today, enjoying the nice spring weather with my daughter.  We walked around the neighborhood, looking at all of the gardens beginning to bloom.   I have a number of flower beds, and I am looking forward to playing in the gardens all summer with a baby on my chest.

I always take my phone with me when I go for a walk, and I captured this picture of my neighbor’s garden decoration with my crappy cell phone.  No, the vivid colors are not because the phone is so bad, in fact this garden decoration is more vibrant than my cell phone was able to capture.

Yes, we bought the house with this giant garden atrocity already in place.  Even though it is about a foot on our property, when we bought our house there were so many deal breakers that this giant garden decoration seemed incosequential at the time.

Now, as I look out at my pretty gardens from the deck, this ugly, brightly colored garden “who knows what it is” decoration stares me in the face.  Where are all of the vandals when you need them?

I am all for eclectic and odd garden decorations, but do you really have to creep over into your neighbor’s yard to put up such a vibrant, loud “wind screen”? 

This summer I hope to have my yard properly surveyed, just so we know where our property line is (yes, I know this was part of our purchase as well, but it wasn’t mapped out for us…we ‘think’ this thing is on your property, but we’re not sure) and maybe, just maybe we’ll invest in a fence so that are yard will be more protected from bears, deer and ugly garden decorations.

A field of sunflowers, early fall 2008.

Driving through the Berkshires of Massachusetts, I often take backroads as I travel in Western Massachusetts with my digital camera ready.

I love the Berkshires because of the variety of the landscape.  You can find lakes, mountains and fields of flowers.  Some of my better barn and cow pictures have come from the farms in the Berkshires as well.

This field of sunflowers was on a very rural road, that changed from gravel to dirt and back to a gravel road again.  I jumped out of my car amidst the crickets and bees to take a few shots of this beautiful field of sunflowers.

As I’ve said, this site is eclectic - you might laugh, think, or run screaming the other way.  I apologize if you’ve bookmarked me for a laugh of the day, but I promise that those too are coming.  I’m feeling pensive, in love with my new daughter, and the fields of flowers reflect my mood.

One of my favorite perennial plants is the Columbine. 

The columbine perennial plant comes in a number of colors, but the purple and white combination is one of the most popular.

I’ve planted columbine in every garden I have had in the last ten years, and I am looking forward to seeing the columbine come up once again in a few short months.

Perennial plants are great because you plant them once and hopefully they continue to come up year after year without any further assistance from you.

Columbine grows about 18 inches tall and if you dead head the plants (remove dead buds once they have bloomed) the columbine will rebud, sometimes two or three times and this will extend the color life of your garden.

Columbine perennials grow well in many types of soil and do not require full sun.  Basically, you can neglect your columbine and it will continue to give you pretty, dainty little flowers for a month or more.

I love the red and yellow columbine the most.  I’ve been told that it is a native plant to New England, but I’m not 100 percent sure if this is true or not. 

Regardless, columbine grows very well in my garden and gives me plenty of subject matter for taking pictures.

A pink bleeding heart plant from my garden, early summer 2008.

A white bleeding heart plant from my garden, early summer 2008.

Bleeding hearts are a great addition to any perennial garden.  Easy to grow and one of the first plants to bloom in the growing season, bleeding heart plants are perennials that will keep coming back year after year.

My experience with bleeding heart plants has been a positive one.  You can plant them, forget about them, and they get bigger and stronger every growing season.

Dainty pink or white flowers come out in the shape of hearts that appear to be “bleeding” and hang down from a branch, giving the hearts a dangling, gentle look.

Bleeding heart plants can get quite large, despite the fact that they die down every season.  One week you will see a few short sprouts and then very quickly you will have a significant bleeding heart plant for your enjoyment.

For me, bleeding heart plants have been very tolerant of both full sun and full shade and a combination of both.

Getting the perfect picture of a butterfly is almost impossible.  Last summer, I sat in my front yard trying to capture some of the monarch butterflies that kept visiting the butterfly bushes that I planted all along my front walkway.

 After many monarch butterfly visitors, I was able to capture several on camera.  What I learned is that butterflies do not sit still, almost never, and these two pictures were the product of my vigilance.

I had my zoom lens fully extended in order to stand further back.  That seemed to keep the monarch butterflies from flitting away too quickly.  I’m sure my neighbors thought I was a bit odd, squatting in the yard with my camera.  I think it was worth it.  Although these are the first two butterfly pictures (and only two) in my collection, it’s a start.

 Just to prove that I do have a softer side, I’m writing a post about one of my favorite flowers, the lilac.

I’d rather write more about gardening, but that just doesn’t translate into blog traffic. 

I’m making my blog a little prettier to prove that no, I’m not a man, even if my humor is quite masculine.

Just the smell of lilacs remind me of my grandmother, who used to take me over to her mother’s house to pick a whole bunch every spring.  I’ve planted them in my yard so that I can be reminded of her every spring.

Unfortunately, blogs about flowers and grandmothers who have passed away aren’t very exciting, funny, or even that interesting.  I’d rather tell you all about her, but I’d also like you to keep coming back to visit.

I’m sure you’re also not interested in the fact that I tried french toast flavored coffee today from Bruegger’s Bagel Bakery here in town for the first time.  It tastes exactly how it sounds and it wasn’t good.  I thought it was funny so I ordered one.  You only live once, right?

So, this blog isn’t full of lilacs and grandmothers and cute pictures of my cats, but I do try to amuse you as best as I can. 

 This is another one of my favorite pictures, taken in a public park.  To me, I see a rock shaped like a heart, while others think I’m completely nuts. 

Either way, this is a picture I enjoy and have framed in my office.