The Garden - Peonies and Lilacs

Most of my pictures are of nature or the landscape, but in fact nowhere is the passing of the seasons more obvious than in the garden, and it's right under my nose every day.  Flowers come and go at astonishing speed, blooming and fading over just a few days.  You can mark the seasons by many of the flowers in the garden - and the past few weeks have been peonies and lilacs.

I think this is the best picture I've shot of the peonies this year, early in the morning in the sun with the dew still on the petals;  I found it hard to get any picture that would capture the richness of the huge flowers, but I think this comes close. 

The white peonies actually bloomed first, moving from the large swollen buds, here covered in raindrops, through lavish large flowers, until the started falling over and dropping petals.  They are just about over now. 

For all their rich blossoms, I wish the peonies had a stronger fragrance, and weren't so sloppy as they finished blooming.  They just look so bedraggled eventually.  But they certainly dominate the garden when they're in bloom.  The pink ones are still with us - looking bright and beautifuland adding a huge splash of colour to the garden.

Largely at the same time our group of lilacs blossomed - finally.  They spent their first winter, a decade ago, in a plastic bag in the basement.  For the next several years they competed with long grass, while we ignored them.  But 4 years ago I started mowing around them, and then mulched them heavily with leaves in the fall.  Presto, without the competition they have exploded.  This year they have grown a foot or two, and were covered in blooms.

And their favourite visitor is the swallowtail butterfly
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Linda, at the 'Crafty Gardener' has added me to her 'Can'eh'dian Blog Hop', a great list of Canadian blogs, and a good site to visit:  www.craftygardener.ca/canada-blog-hop/.  This post on the garden and a couple more will pay homage to her useful list.  Sorry, but I still have to learn to post links so they work; in the meantime, google it!