eagerly awaiting irises

Bearded irises are one of my favorite things. Speculation over when a bearded iris would bloom is one of my earliest garden memories, when I was 5 or 6 watching my mother garden in upstate New York.
The irises are, of course, with everything else, 3 or 4 weeks late this year. And I have a bunch of new ones this year; friend Leslie gave me dozens, when she divided hers; & I got some at the quaint local flower show, as well as at the SRJC plant sales, so I can't wait to see 'em bloom!
With this hot weather, I expect a lot of progress in the next few days. Brace yourself.

(I think this one will be "Roman Song".)

while we were away...

We were away for a three day driving trip, down to San Luis Obispo by an inland route, overnight at Cayucous (a small beach town south of Cambria), adventuring our way up the coast with little hike stops & antique stores; overnight in Monterey, and meandering our way back up from there. Here are just a couple shots from along the way...

a spectacular example of the climbing rose "Fourth of July". I don't know if I'd ever seen this one in person. Pretty splashy.



This gate was just off Highway One near Big Sur, where we stopped to climb up to a waterfall.
These are in the funky little town of Moss Landing, also just off One, south of Santa Cruz.

a couple things

A bunch of these (south african bulb plants I know as harlequin flower) 'came with the house'. Every year they multiply, and this one has jumped over into the driveway.

nest & artichokes

Tony carefully extricated this from the bamboo... the birds seem to be done using it... it is a marvel of construction with successively finer materials. Someone's hair (mostly white) is in the innermost layer.

Food is growing! note presence of beneficial insect!

the first rose!

a glorious morning

just pictures

today in the garden...

sun!!

It was only a matter of time; welcome to my new place to put the garden pics so they don't clutter up the art site...

a leetle leetle fig leaf. There's also a teensy fig on this tree (not pictured).






This little pear tree did not blossom (or hence, bear fruit) last year. Looks like we might get luckier this year.






a moment.