A Banner Year

It’s a banner year for daffodils. They are scattered all around our yard and have multiplied dramatically over the years. Never before have them bloomed in such profusion.

Here are some of the daffodils that Nancy and Carol planted around the memorial one year when Dennis and I were in Kentucky.

Here daffodils are with grape hyacinths in front of the house.

Here are more, with Annie, looking west.

Even the King Alfred daffodils, which haven’t bloomed for years, got into the act.

Daffodils also are blooming in great clumps to the east and on the slope behind the house. There’s no accounting for this profusion, nor for the fact that a hot wind hasn’t spoiled them so far. This is a gift to be relished for one may never see this exuberant display again.

To balance things out – life is a mixture of good and bad – it’s a banner year for elm seeds, too. Every elm in our yard and in the woods is loaded with huge seeds. What appears to be new leaves in the photo below is actually billions of seeds.

I took this photo while we sat on the patio late yesterday afternoon, admiring daffodils and marveling at the amount of work involved in uprooting elm seedlings from the flower beds next month. Then the moon came up and we went inside to have supper.

Copyright 2014 by Shirley Domer