Lilacs and Roses Lavender Pink and Mauve Tones

My Birches and native Black Cherry provide this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail's caterpillars food to morph and chew. Ash, Willow and Tulip Trees work too. The first instar (caterpillar) look a bit like bird droppings . . . what a clever disguise.

Dwarf Korean Lilac 'Fairytale' shown above and here . . . is fading fast, as the peonies are swelling.

Miss Canada (late blooming) Lilac delights many visitors.

Looking over towards another late blooming Lilac and Beauty Bush. Here 'Miss Canada' looks like cotton candy.

Simply delicious to Tiger Swallowtail . . . minus part of it's tail!! Those Catbirds!!

Hummingbird Hawk-moth enjoys the nectar too. . . what a lovely little creature. If you want them . . . let some Galium or (Ladies' straw) grow in your garden, for it is the caterpillar's host plant.

Yummy says the Ruby-throated Hummingbird!

Oh Joy!

Rosa Rugosa

This shrub's rosehips will later feed the Cardinals. For now it's luscious fragrance fills the garden air and feeds my soul.

Another Rosa Rugosa stands just around the corner from the first one shown above. What a lovely place to Bee. What a fabulous time of year to be right here! Such magic and beauty cannot exist in war torn lands. I grieve for so many lost, while in the prime of their lives, men and women and young children blown to bits or who have lost limbs or hope to relics of war. To lives of soldiers and civilians torn apart, whose minds and hearts are aching, I so wish they had never been taken from their families. I so long for an evolution of mind and heart in our world and do truly believe that war is not the only way . . . in many cases not the right way . . .  to make our world safer. Not to be naive or to think it would always work . . . I support  Greg Mortensons's 'Three Cups of Tea' approach. In memory and honor of all victims of war, I stand with those who wish to stop senseless wars. I wish for honesty and integrity in our leaders the world over. I wish for Peace and Beauty for all. 

SKYWATCH FRIDAY FULL MOON BRIGHT LIGHT

Sunset into the darkness thunderheads threw out a light show of wonder!

Wednesday night the moon was bright at sunset and the night garden was pure magic!

Thursday brought the full rose moon rising above the Mount Holyoke Range. I am joining Skywatch Friday today . . . to celebrate the sky and it's glorious compositions. Moonlight paints a magical light over the garden all night. This full moon was all the more so with all the thunder storms off at a distance creating amazing light shows. Even the fireflies are beginning to dazzle their flickering night lights. 

Wordless Wednesday Wonder Tree Peony Buds to Luscious Pillows

I am silent today but to read a wonderful post on Tree Peonies please visit a wonderful blog The Intercontinental Gardener. You will be glad you did!

Mysterious Misty May Monday Walkabout

Mist makes my world dreamy . . . walking around the north field looking up towards the middle gardens and house . . . everything is cloaked in a cool veil. The White and Gray Birch mirror the white of the old farmhouse and fading Viburnums.

The curtain of mist softens everything in the landscape so that the bodies of Black Cherry and White Birch appear in dialogue. I know this is a stretch but these are my fantasy white and black stallions. I should love to have horses.

Oak between White Birch calling out to one another.

Ghostly White Birch between Oak and Black Cherry . . . all stately stand. Beneath the earth their tentacles of roots connect and communicate. Above their limbs and branches sway, breathe and exhale. Their trunks or bodies are like other worldly beings. 

My Metasequoia (Dawn Redwood) and Apple trees spread their delicious deciduous canopies within the thick air. Dark trunks are like lines of charcoal chalk drawings in the landscape, while the spectral farmhouse sits in the distance longingly looking out beyond.

Metasequoia reaching out towards Black Cherry.

A surprise . . . within the mist and the Metasequoia . . .  I eye a beautiful Rose-breasted Grosbeak perched near the top. The leaves cut through the light with their unique form. 

Beads of mist clinging to the newly fanned out leaves. The Dawn Redwood is also known as  'water fir'.

The tiny fingered opposite leaves seem magical, when they reappear each year.

Moving up into the middle garden looking back through my funky English Hawthorn and Japanese Maple framing yet another shapely view of our native Black Cherry. 

Peonies dwarfed before Giant Rock Maples.

Shrubberies and Shagbark Hickory wearing Climbing Hydrangea all enjoying the moist canopy of air.

Gray Birch, Shrubberies and Rock Maples . . . now we are on the south side of the house.

Apples and Gray Birches beckon as we go down towards the Blueberry field. Iris and Daylilies stretch and soon will show their blooms.

Gray Birches and Tree Swallows. It must be refreshing to fly through the droplet filled air.

Apples as seen from the south field. Wildflowers are bathed in the moisture.

Later up in the front garden delicate forget-me-nots wearing water spheres. 

Pink Lily-of-the-Valley coated in misty dew.

Unfurling Hostas

Lupine leaves wear the jewel-like drops very well. There is a lovely sense of mystery walking about the gardens in this misty shroud. I love how the feeling is so altered from a bright sunny day. The trees all seem to be engaged in dialogue and stand out more sculpture like in the landscape. The coolness feels good on  my skin and must be delightful to trunks, limbs and leaves. Later the sun breaks through and all is clear and dry again. I am thankful for this brief dewy interlude.