Flowers in the Yard

We're back from our two week break, visiting our daughter, her husband and our grandchildren in British Columbia.  What a landscape, mountains in all directions, and more flowering trees and shrubs than we've ever seen!  I'll get to the 1500 pictures I took on our adventure soon.  But first, I need to bring you back to seasons here in the valley.  Spring has sprung in our absence and the first flowers are appearing in our garden.

The Coltsfoot is not in the garden, and though some consider it a 'weed', I think it's one of the most beautiful early flowers.

There's also a tiny patch of Hepatica on our property.  Usually the very first wildflower in the woods.

Across the front of our house we have quite a few bright blue Hyacinth, filling the air with their scent, and one patch of Daffodils (along with some shrubs that need pruning).

We only have one small patch of the typical yellow Daffodils, and these are the miniature version, only about 8" tall.

There's a bright blue patch of Anemones in the garden among all the brown stems of last year's flowers.

And a few smelly Fritillaria, almost ready to bloom.  I"ve seen these covered in snow in past years.

I've been mistakenly calling these Pasque Flowers, but they're actually Hellebores, similar shape but a different texture.

Our Forsythia are the best they've ever been, totally covered in brilliant yellow flowers, the brightest colour in the yard and probably the most common spring flowering shrub in Ontario.

I'm not even going to show you the rest of the garden.  April is clean-up month in the garden here, and we've missed 16 days of it, so I have a LOT of work to do!