HAPPY SUMMER SOLSTICE HAPPY WEDDING!!

A very happy occasion is about to happen!! I must break from blogging to give fully and celebrate!! My son is marrying a lovely young woman, and there is much to do to help make their day magical. Happy Solstice to all of you and to Sean and Tricia  . . .  a Happy almost Wedding Day!!

Skywatch Friday Drama of Clouds and Light

I live under a huge ocean of sky and truly watch in amazement at it's changing moods during the hours of day and night. The times my part of the earth turns and tilts away and towards the sun, bring out the most drama, if one is lucky to be able to observe it. Here these images relate the time just before and during sunset several days ago. Accumulating cumulus clouds . . .  promising rain . . .  but no lightning are my favorites.

Full Blown Pergola Update!!! Wordless Wednesday

The flowers are making so much noise! Shhh! To learn more about this luscious pergola just scroll down to my June 12th post.

June Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

Mysterious morning mist moves in to envelop the gardens.

Misty Mountain Laurel

Thalictrum aquilegifolium calls out through the mist to serpentine Black Cherry.

Here an earlier portrait not so disheveled with Beauty bush in the background.

Rosa Rugosa dripping wet . . .  still blooming before soggy Peonies and Thalictrum.

Peonies earlier on . . .

now shamelessly blown full open!

Lupines looking over toward Foxgloves.

A new addition to the garden Weigela Ghost.

Peonies in lower garden.

Oriental Poppy petals playing angel with a beard.

A Ruby-throated Hummingbird is enjoying Salvias that are waiting to be planted in their containers!

A Red-spotted Purple Butterfly on Garden Heliotrope with Lupines nearby.

Fading Beauty Bush leads into Japanese Tree Lilac

Tiger Swallowtail swimming in Japanese Tree Lilac's fluffy blossoms.

Mock Orange sweetens the air.

A simple single Peony unfolds revealing it's golden center.

It is nearly Midsummer and it seems as in a mist . . .  a fog of mind and time . . .  days have just fallen by. . . petals unfurl and fade in heat waves or watery showers . . . fledglings fly while one dreams of changing skies . . . the peelings of moments and hours combine . . .  to entwine a life with that of a garden. 

For now . . .  it is Bloom Day and here is my offering a day early. Visit our hostess Carol's May Dreams Gardens  to see more blooms from near and far.  

Smith College Capen Garden Seasonal Sharing With Eva and Blogging Friends

Smith College's Capen Garden is a garden of rooms to discover.

In the winter all is cold and quiet.

The Laurel and evergreen mystery hedge with a pruned archway become enlivened in spring.

I love the mysteriousness created by the hedges and lattice archway within the gazebo. Visitors are lured from room to room through these living walls.

Hundreds of Tulips are planted by Smith College botanical students in a formal way around the gazebo honoring Jill Ker Conway . . . the first woman president of the college (1975-1985.) It only took a hundred years for an all woman's college to finally have a woman president.

The old rustic pergola is lovely all through the seasons. It is hard to imagine what will come from these naked thorny stems.

When the roses begin to exhale in the spring . . . 

it is truly phenomenal!

A lovely garden to show visiting blogger friends Liisa of Green Mountain Gardener and Jean of Jean's Garden.

We could not find the names of the various varieties, but I do know who to call and ask, when I get my pergola in place at Flower Hill Farm. One must have dreams and work towards them.

We rested for awhile on these tree stools and admired the gardens. When suddenly a new visitor arrived.

The garden kitty took a liking to Liisa.

The lovely beds along the base of the pergola begin with spring bulbs and continue on till frost with perennials. There are also learning beds to the right with iris of many varieties all labeled with rather large markers. I was surprised to see the Iris and many Peonies had gone by, when we visited.

Another step back in time to see the astounding difference of the seasons.

I am enchanted with this rustic pergola and its exuberant display of climbing roses. It was so delightful sharing it with you Liisa and Jean! 

A Clematis looks gorgeous with a climbing rose in the background. Next posts will be about our visit to more gardens at Smith and Emily Dickinson's Homestead.