Flower Friday : : Bearded Iris

Just when I was  thinking  it would be quick and easy to nip into the garden, pick some flowers for a very informal wine and cheese gathering this evening, take their picture once they were arranged in a vase and voilà...today's blip.

Not so fast there, though....the flowers that caught my eye were the dark purple bearded iris which revealed themselves at the bottom of the gully after the tree trimmers were finished. Climbing down there is no easy feat. under any conditions. Climbing down there in flip flops is downright stupid, and finding out once I got down there that the clippers I brought with me are the ones only OilMan can open. was almost the final straw. I  managed to hack down the ones seen here with a shovel I found leaning against the fence., but it is definitely not the recommended approach for cutting flowers.

Because my purple Iris were looking rather limp and bruised, I did what I should have done in the first place, which was to check the stand of iris we rescued when we moved here and discover that they too have begun to bloom next to the back fence. I raided OilMan's shed and found some proper clippers. Those are the pale purple blooms. There are several other colors getting ready to burst forth any day. I'm sure they will turn up here.

The torrential rains finally turned to a more gentle springlike rain on Monday, and by yesterday had blown over, leaving us with gorgeous weather and a jungle of overgrown shrubs and trees, bursting rose bushes, massive stands of iris and poppies, and a healthy carpet of weeds alive with bugs. We're hoping the bugs eat each other leaving us time to pull the weeds and plant our tomatoes, squash, beans and peppers in the raised beds.. We are already harvesting fava beans, lemons and oranges.

The wine and cheese is for the neighbors who put up with the noise and trucks of the tree people on our tiny street. We thought they'd like to see our recovered view.