Spring 2013 Here!

Pansies on the porch!

Hostas shooting up all over.  They will need another dose of liquid fence and a general clean up of last year's dead leaves.

First spring for the Japanese maple.  It came through the winter fine.

You know its spring when the bleeding heart blooms.  I have three and some tiny volunteers.

New green iris shoots around the pond and cattail spears in the pond.  Won't be long before the tadpoles appear.  Goldfish young ones are there.

The mulch delivered on Thursday.  Gardening work has been on hold for the last week as I have helped my Mom in the hospital.  She's out now but in new digs - assisted living.  Her cottage will have to be emptied over the next month, so this pile may not diminish very fast.

Dan at work in 40º+ weather on his landscape painting homework.

Inside all the seeds I planted have germinated surprisingly considering how old some of the tomato seeds are.  Those empty pots are for transplants.  I had to figure how many would fit under my lights.  It's a long time between this and planting in the garden especially since we are having such a late spring.

Sunday Walk in the Woods

It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon and daughter, Sarah proposed a walk in the woods.  It was sweatshirt temperature out there so we donned them and our hats and set off.  Here are some of the spring colors we spied.

Blooming violets first caught our eyes.

Then these beauties.

Then there were these random clumps of daffodils in the pipeline easement.   Where did they escape from?

The skunk cabbage is such a green green.

This skunk cabbage got stuck trying to unfurl its leaves.

Fiddleheads starting to unroll.

Later at supper time I glanced up and out the window and saw this staring back at me.

It was early for this owl to be out and about.  Isn't it lovely though?

Sedona

Just returned from a week in Arizona which included a trip to Sedona.  Here are some of the lovely sights there.

Westminster Burying Ground

I recently read about this cemetery in Wicked Baltimore - Charm City Sin & Scandal by Lauren Silberman and was fascinated by its description as the burying spot for Edgar Allan Poe and other famous Maryland notables.  It was also a source of cadavers stolen in the dark of night for the medical students at the University of Maryland Medical School that was next door.

Dan and I took a Sunday afternoon to go exploring to find the cemetery at the corner of Fayette and Green Streets in downtown Baltimore.  The church is no longer an active congregation, but the buildings are used for various purposes including a lunch time film series.  It's an interesting spot and worth the visit.

 

 The original entrance.

The church was built up over graves to create a catacombs of sorts.

Among the headstones you can read of the old ones, there is such tragedy of young lives lost.

A wide assortment of graves, crypts and vaults.

Edgar Allan Poe was originally buried next to his grandfather (upper right) but then moved to another spot in the cemetery with a much larger marker.

Take a quiet walk through these last photos in honor of those buried there.