Two weeks ago only the daffodils braved the grey chill that clung all around. Trees barely seemed to be in bud and the occasional bulb peeked above the sodden ground, seeming to retreat as soon as they appeared.
What a difference a week makes with the welcome arrival of glorious Spring weather! As we basked under exceptional warm temperatures, the flowers in the garden woke with a blaze of colour. I cannot help but study them in awe and wonder, often whilst swinging on the wooden seat with hushed joy.
Some of you I know still have a little (or a lot) of the ‘white stuff’, some are in Autumn, so I want to share just a few photos of the Spring flowers in my garden. As it is National Poetry Month, I’ve included part of a Spring poem to accompany the images.
‘A sensitive plant in a garden grew,
And the young winds fed it with silver dew,
And it opened its fan-like leaves to the light,
And closed them beneath the kisses of night.
‘And the spring arose on the garden fair,
Like the spirit of love felt everywhere;
And each flower and herb on earth’s dark breast
Rose from the dreams of its wintry rest.
‘The snowdrop, and then the violet,
Arose from the ground with warm rain wet,
And their breath was mixed with fresh odor, sent
From the turf, like the voice and the instrument.’
The above are a few stanzas from Percy Bysshe Shelley’s poem entitled ‘The Sensitive Plant’ (published 1820).
Annika Perry 
I love the photos of the flowers, and the poem is very fitting. What a difference a week can make, indeed!
Thank you so much – it was a weekend of bliss and I’m so glad I took the chance to enjoy the flowers and share here … yep, a 20 degrees centigrade drop in temperatures and wintry cold rainy blustery today! Many thanks for your lovely comment! 😀😀
What a beautiful post to read as I embark on a new day. These photos are so vibrant, I can only imagine what it is like to see these flowers in person. I heard you are enjoying a very early summer in your part of the world, what a treat after a long and dreary winter. I hope you have a lovely and sunny weekend, Annika! xo
Tanya, thank you so much and a joy to share a slice of our summer and the flowers that celebrated the warmth! It was a gloriously warm and sunny weekend … alas since it has become so chilly again. Temperatures dropped 20 degrees centigrade and back to winter coats, and wintry blustery rain day to start the week. grr…luckily can work snug and cosy at my desk today!
The vibrant blooms announce the arrival of spring and your pictures have brought in that beauty to this part of the globe. It was live at first sight for me with the pure white ones 😍. Thanks Annika for sharing this one 👍
Radhika, the white cherry blossom is one of my favourites in the garden and I have a wooden bench just underneath these branches! The cherries later in the summer are delicious – and the birds think so too as we battle for them! 😀 It’s a joy to bring the awakening of Spring to your part of the world … I’d had a heavenly day in the garden and wanted to share it here. 🌻🌼🌸
Annika, you are blessed to enjoy nature in all it’s glory. Thanks again for sharing it . Have a great day ❤️
Oh, your garden is absolutely lovely, Annika, and I’m sorry to arrive late for Earth Day. Slow again in reading emails. I love all the colors, and ours are waking up, too – putting smiles on our faces and uplifting our spirits. Finally, Ms. Spring has arrived! It’s about time, right? 🙂 The verses are also beautiful and perfect to accompany your photos. Happy Spring, my friend! Hugs ❤🌼🌷
Lauren, there is never any late for my blog! 😀 As for Earth Day, I had no idea about it when I posted this – serendipity! It is truly wonderful to see and feel Spring. I adore the garden as the flowers bloom with their vibrant colours and the birds chirp happily – just wish they weren’t so jolly at five in the morning!😀 I am so glad you like the photos and poem and wish you a very happy Spring! hugs xx ❤️
Didn’t we have some glorious weather last week? Your flowers are so very pretty… and I am jealous of your swinging wooden seat!
Clare, the super hot weekend is like a distant memory now, I feel as the cool rainy grey weather has descended! My flurry of plants from the garden centre remain largely in their pots – ready to join the other flowers! Oh yes, my wooden swing seat is my favourite place in the garden, slightly high up on a decking area with a view of the whole garden – bliss!
Very lovely flowers, Annika! Thanks for sharing them with us! 😊
The garden is a riot of colours and a joy to see … alas with the cooler days not a lot of chance to sit out again! I’m so happy to share them here. 🌻
I was enjoying your poem and about to tell you what a talented poet you are, when you “confessed” that the poet was by Shelley. Please tell me that the beautiful photos are really yours, and not published in a spectacular garden magazine!
Well, Ronnie…the photos are … all mine!! 😀😀 I love the idea that they could come from a glossy gardening magazine (I have loads of these!). Your lovely comment has me chuckling this morning – oh how I wish I could write poetry even close this! Wishing you a wonderful day! 🌺🌻
What freshness there is in your Garden of Spring!
I waited to comment as I knew I’d be asking you to participate in the 3day quote challenge on my own day 3. All info is in today’s post on my website. Please consider doing this – I know you have plenty of quotes to share!
peace
Especially fresh this morning with a cool brisk breeze – still lovely!
Many thanks for the nomination and I’ve answered on your post – you’re right – I have lots of quotes I’d like to share and look forward to taking part.
Yippee, can’t wait to read your offerings!
Such beautiful flowers, every one of them lovely (and well photographed). Every year spring surprises me with its speed. For a while, it seems that it will never come. Then in a great rush, the leaves and flowers pop out, new ones every day.
Nickki, that’s just how I feel! One minute snow and minus temperatures, next a riot of colours! Lovely to know there are months of this to enjoy. I’m so glad you liked the flowers and the photographs – it’s a treat to take the time to photograph! Happy Spring! 😀
You made my day by showing these beautiful flowers. Spring just came here, which means we have to wait flowers. Thank You showing these beauties.
Thank you so much, Sartenada! 😀 The flowers and garden had given me so much joy the day before I wanted to share them with everyone here, especially since I knew so many had a late Spring. I hope your flowers all bloom soon … and maybe you can share on your blog.
Beautiful flowers, Annika! I’m jealous–one week ago we had 12 inches of snow from one of the worst April blizzards on record, and now you have such lovely, colorful blooms! I can’t wait until spring finally sticks around here–I’m waiting impatiently for the lilacs to bloom!
Julie, Winter seems to hold a firm grasp over you and the blizzard must have come as a shock! Oh, I adore lilacs but it’s a rather sore subject at the moment! 😀 Last autumn my husband pruned our beautiful lilac tree…the one outside the kitchen window and which gives me so much pleasure all year round. After his ‘attack’ just bare branches remained and nothing so far! I asked Paul on Sally’s blog about it and he said it can take three years to recover if at all! Enjoy your lilacs and feel free to post some photos … I’d love to see them! Happy Writing, editing, running, reading, gardening …week! 😀🌻
Ah Annika, what a glorious infusion of light and beauty. 🌺🌼🌷💐
Thank you for sharing the sweet scent of nature, my lovely friend ❤️
Tina, my pleasure! 😀 I’d already spent the day out in the garden and I loved walking around, taking photos, absorbing the beauty into my being! The spirit lightened with the sight of the flowers, the warm of the sun … feeling alive is a wondrous emotion! 🌺
Absolutely beautiful, Annika! Thanks so much for sharing. 🙂
Thank you so much, Natalie! ❤️ After a whole day out in the garden, soaking up the beauty of the flowers, I wanted to share some here!
oh my. Shelley is the perfect pairing with these gorgeous flower shots. Thank you for sharing!!
I’m so glad you think so, Dorothea! 😀 I took ages finding a harmonious poem to pair with the images and was so happy to come across this one from Shelley. Have you read it before? I would love to learn more about it.
I only know about Shelley. I hadn’t read this poem before… but it does seem to be the normal tribute to the awe of nature 🙂
So gorgeous! Thanks for sharing these photos!
Thank you, Lynn! 😀 I joy to share … Spring feels especially precious this year! 🌻🌸
xoxo
Are these all in your garden? Oh my how gorgeous. I get bougainvillea and that’s about it. Maybe if I paid more attention
I adore bougainvillea but alas it’s too cold in England for them … you’re so lucky! Yes, these are just some of the flowers and bushes in my garden and it soothing to see so much colour and life again after the long period of grey! Now, you must let me know if you find other flowers in your garden! 😀
Thank you, Annika, for sharing your beautiful garden and poems! I can’t wait for our weather to get warm enough for the flowers to bloom! Sigh! Today is a little chilly – 30 degrees F but is supposed to warm up to 60’s! Ahh! Happy spring! Hugs 😘
Brr…that is cold!! I’m just managing to stop myself complaining that I’ve been too warm some nights! It sounds like Spring is soon fully with you. Enjoy! I had heard about the long wintry weather in some parts of the States and really wanted to share a bit of the healing Spring flowers here.
🌺💐🌷🌹💕
It’s such a joyful experience to sit in a garden in Springtime, isn’t it, Annika? I must’ve been smirking like the Cheshire Cat this weekend. 🙂 🙂
Jo, it was an amazing weekend!! 😀 A time to smile! I spent the days either luxuriating with a drink or meal outside or skipping around the garden doing little jobs. And of course, the obligatory visit to the garden centre yesterday – which had been cleared out of some plants. Still bought a hydrangea and honeysuckle! 😃
Got to do it! We were giving cuttings away today but I still look wistfully at new plants, even though we’re moving. 🙂 🙂
Good Morning Annika. Your blossom photos are wonderful. As I read down the poem I was thinking ‘Annika is quite the classical poet’ and then I saw it was written by Shelley…which made more sense as a style of his time 😉 It was a perfect selection … showing the timelessness of our awe in response to spring.
Janice, your lovely comment has me giggling!! 😀 Oh, I wish I could write poetry like that – I think my future would be made!! 😀 I’m so glad you liked my choice to accompany the pictures and surprisingly it proved tricky to find the perfect poem as so many spring poems ultimately talked about death! I feel humans have always been closely connected to nature, in awe of the seasons, wildlife, flowers etc … and hopefully, we will always continue to celebrate them.🌸🌻🌼
Yes I join you in that hope for many more beautiful springs on earth. I’m happy I gave you a giggle :))
These are amazing, your camera loves you! 🌷
Thank you so much! 😀I do enjoy taking photos – these are with my iPhone which always works well outside.
What a wealth of colour your garden is at the moment Annika, and yes you are right, the blooms have benefited from those few days of hot sun. Last week we had only three tight buds of our magnolia tree out, As I look today it is awash with colour.
Loved your blooms, and your poem..
Spring is a wonderful time..
This morning while getting my net curtains spring clean, I was watching how many birds we have nesting in our garden.. We have two pairs of blackbirds one still busy building her nest and I saw two pairs of sparrows collecting grass and nipping off small fresh leaves from my forget-me-nots to take into the bushes to build too..
I just hope Mrs Sparrow Hawk keeps away, as they are that busy none seem to be on alert mode.
Have a wonderful day, The sun is behind the clouds today and its markedly colder.. But at least its fine..
Take care.. ❤ 💙🌷💐 Sue x
Sue, thank you so much for your wonderful comment and I feel as if I’ve visited your blessed garden! Wow! You have a magnolia tree – I adore these and they have the most amazing flowers. I enjoy going for walks past houses with these trees so I can pause and admire them! Ahh…you sound so sweet with your birds…busily preparing a home for themselves. Maybe you’ll have to take up full-time guard-duty if they are so preoccupied! Oh, I know, it’s got so much colder and I feel I’m to blame – I put my winter coat away in the loft and that’s jinxed the weather!!😀 Sue, thank you for painting such a vivid image of your garden life and bringing us into it. Take care, too … your last post has stayed with and your comments too. Annika xxx ❤️
You are most welcome.. And today the weather has spoiled itself.. Happy you enjoyed my friend.. Take care.. ❤
The garden looks so amazing and full of happiness 😊
I am glad the weather is getting better, here too. It was a long winter!
Ahh…thank you so much! 😀 I love your comment about the garden being full of happiness; I’d like to think it is! We have many good times there – often involving food! Yeah…happy Spring is arriving for you too! Enjoy.
Such lovely photos of your flowers waking up in your garden. They sure look full of colour and so alive 🙂 Very apt poem too. I really liked this line, ‘And each flower and herb on earth’s dark breast’ It sounds like the flowers are very determined to shoot up from the earth and bring all the colour and life within them out in this world, sharing that all round. Happy Spring and hopefully more warm weather for you. It is Autumn here in Australia, and it looks like where I am here we might have had the last warmest day for a while now.
Thank you so much, Mabel! 😀 It is very much an awakening, and it feels a sudden one! You’re right in saying the poem is very apt and not long ago the ground was dark and barren, this riot of colour is wonderfully vibrant and life-affirming. I spent the whole of Saturday in the garden, enjoying the weather, flowers, gardening, plus meals outside – heavenly! I hope you had a great warm weekend! Alas, it’s a lot cooler again and I nearly regret putting my winter coat away! xx
The riot of colour…the perfect phrase to describe a colourful scene 😀 It’s getting cooler here in Australia but still a promising few warm days to come 🙂
Beautiful photographs and poetry Annika. Spring has truly sprung in all her glory. It sure gladdens my heart. ( Left a comment yesterday but it appears to have evaporated!)
Thank you so much, Brigid – for both comments!! 😃I found the other one in spam – the gremlins of WP at work again! The past few days were surreal in the explosion of beauty all around and suddenly everything felt ‘right’! Hope you’ve had the wonderful weather as well. Wishing you a sunny Monday. hugs xxx🌸
That explains it! Spamalot!
The flower images and poetry, equally beautiful Annika. And I think we are once again having same weather. What a difference a week has made indeed. Still no flowers here, but shedding the winter coat and having to squint from the sun is a welcome start. 🙂 x
Debby, it’s funny how our weather systems seem to be in sync! 😀 I packed my winter coat away into the loft at the weekend – and of course it got cooler since! The flowers will comes soon for you and seeing them lifts the spirits and everyone seems to cheer up!
Aside, it must be a sad and dark day for you all in Canada today. hugs xx
Thank you Annika. My heart is certainly heavy. I also happen to live a mere 3 minute drive from where it happened. So close to home in so many ways. Nobody seems to be immune from the evils around the world.
On a brighter note, putting your coat away is like when many people wash their cars on a sunny day and then it rains, lol. We gotta laugh. ❤ xo
OMG, Debby…you must be in a terrible shock. Yes, close to home in many ways.
haha…yep, I’m the one who jinxed the weather!! Maybe I should bring the coat down again? hugs xx
Thank you my friend. ❤ Now get that coat back out! LOLLLLLL 🙂 xx
Annika, would a beautiful post. I loved this poetic line so much:
I cannot help but study them in awe and wonder, often whilst swinging on the wooden seat with hushed joy.
Carol, we find ourselves sitting in silence on the swing seat, or whispering … not wanting to disturb nature around us, the birds on the feeder, listening to the bees intent on eating the wood of the seat! So glad you liked the post! 😀🌸
WOW! Luscious flowers! ♥
I think so too, Billy!! 😀 So beautiful!
The photos are stunning! And I love the poem. It flows perfectly with the pictures.
Jan, thank you so much and I’m happy you feel the poem flows perfectly with the pictures – I had trouble finding one that I felt fitted until I came across Shelley’s. I love taking photos, so much the better if of flowers and nature! 😀 Wishing you warm Spring days! ❤️
Glorious photos! We are not quite there yet, but there are hints that blooms and flowers are not that far away. It was a long winter and it has chosen to linger longer than usual. Hopefully spring will soon settle in to stay.
Happy spring! Happy flower weather! The poem was as beautiful as the photos 🙂
Thank you so much, Mae! 😀 I was so happy to find this poem to accompany the photos. A hint of Spring is good, you can enjoy that anticipation of warmer, longer days ahead. Without you noticing one day all the flowers will suddenly be in bloom – that it what I felt! Wishing you the beauty of blossoms and flowers soon! ❤️
Yes how suddenly autumn has progressed here too. The lovely photos of flowers a reminder that spring will rise from it’s wintery rest – again.
I’m always aastonished by the sudden turn of the seasons – the Spring weather came so quickly, the flowers seeming to appear out of nowhere, it was a little of a shock, albeit a precious one! Enjoy you Autumn! 😀
And we little more than 2 weeks away – now the glory vine is quite red!
This is the perfect post to read on Earth Day, Annika! ❤ I'm so happy that spring is here – and can't wait for summer 🙂
Funnily enough, Christy, I didn’t even know it was Earth Day when I wrote and posted it. 😀Luckily very fitting. I’m relishing Spring so far, the long evenings, sunlight and warmth ..even if the temperatures have dipped today! Wishing you lovely Spring days. Hugs xx❤️
Beautiful flowers, Annika. Your garden is weeks ahead of mine, but spring is coming along, finally. Shelley’s poem was the perfect choice to celebrate your garden. Happy Earth Weekend. Have a wonderful week!
Thank you, Diana and I’m glad you liked the poem extract! It took ages for me to find something I liked and that fitted with the garden scene but it was fun reading and researching lots of poems! So many were about Spring but then turned to death! Not ideal for my needs! 😀 wishing you a very special week and may your garden soon be blossoming! 🌺🌻
Ha ha ha. No, a poem about spring turning into death would have ruined the mood of the post. The one you picked was perfect. 🙂
These words and pictures really gladden the heart Annika 🌼
Ahh…there you were in spam! Lovely to have two comments from you, Brigid! 😀 The garden has lifted my spirits and I feel literally lighter …so happy they gladden the heart! ❤️
Beautiful blooms and verse… HAPPY SPRING! 🙂 xo
A perfect combination I thought! 😀 Wishing you a very Happy Spring too! xx❤️
Thank you so much for these lovely garden images. After a dismal few weeks in Boston, we finally have sunshine and 60 degrees. This morning I noticed tulips shoots in the yard. I loved the accompanying poem, as well.
Evelyn, how lovely that signs of Spring are in evidence, it always lifts the spirits to see the awakening of Spring! I bet before you even notice those tulips will be in full bloom! That’s what it seemed like here in England. Enjoy the season and the beauty to come! 😀🌺💐
A nice tribute to Mother Earth! What a riot of colors in your garden Annika and glad to know that spring has finally edged away winter. This year the blossoming trees lost their flowers within few days due to excessive rain and fierce winds but the air is now full of fragrance and the sun is spreading his kindness all around.
Thank you for sharing those beautiful pictures and Shelley’s lyrics…in perfect harmony with the weather. Happy Earth Day!
Ahhh…Balroop, I’m smiling at your lovely poetic comment, feeling the kindness of the sun, imagining the fragrant air! A pity about the winds taking the bountiful blossoms from the trees but some years seem to be like that. Often here we have storms just as soon as the daffodils have flowered and they are floored with the gusts -not this year!
I had spent the whole of Saturday in the garden, admiring the flowers whilst working away (and enjoying relaxing meals out!) and I wanted to share the beauty all around me … it was harder to find a harmonious poem since so many move onto death whilst talking of Spring! Hopping you and Earth had a Happy Earth Day! 😀🌺🌻
Spring in the sun – something that we seem to have waited for a long time this year. Your photographs and words capture the feeling precisely, and the poem exert was an added bonus. Thanks for sharing your morning.
Mike
It does seem like we’ve had to wait a long time for Spring this year … and it seemed to have arrived overnight! It’s been a joy to share my photos here and after some research found just the perfect poem. So glad you enjoyed this post, Mike and many thanks for your comment.😀🌼
How magical! Didn’t you, not-so-long-ago, post a photo of snow? Wow. What a change! I wish I could say the same about here. Everything is still dead. Just this weekend we finally got some spring weather, as it was still snowing on this past Monday. We went for a walk yesterday and noticed just a few tiny buds of purple coming up from the soil. We have a ways to go to get what you have there.
Thank you for sharing such vivid spring colors. I can live through your photos until we get some here.
Lori, you’ve got a good memory! 😀 The snow post you refer to was from 1st March and called Chaos and Shimmering Beauty. The difference is tremendous and I wanted to share the joy of the Spring blooms and, as you say, their vivid colours. I’d heard about the long cold wintry weather across the Atlantic and thought to spread some sunshine … and now you have some of your own. It’s funny you should mention the purple of the buds, I noticed this in the birch trees in Sweden, a haze of purple high up. May it warm up soon for you and wishing you a lovely week ahead! ❤️🌻😀
How best to rival a gorgeous lyric poem by Shelley? Visit Annika’s garden and listen to her describe it. No wonder you’re sitting outside and enjoying what gifts spring has brought you.
Bless you, Shari for your lovely comment! 😀 I’m sure I’d never come close to Shelley’s wondrous poem but my passion for the garden and its gifts knows no bounds! I’ll be out there on all opportunities, soaking in the beauty. Hope you’re doing okay. hugs xxx
Your garden looks beautiful Annika. 🙂 I’m sure a lot of bees would be partying there.
I enjoyed the poem along with the lovely collection of photos. 🙂
The bees are just starting to arrive but give us no problem. They busily move from flower to flower and are a delight to watch. Now wasps in summer time are quite another matter! So happy you enjoyed the poem and photos, Norma! 😀
Bees and wasps. I’ll chose bees. 🙂
Gorgeous photos to go with an outstanding poem, Annika. And coincidental for me that it’s by Shelley! I’m reading his wife’s book right now. 🙂
Jennifer, is that Frankenstein? Which is the only books by her I know. How do you like it? This poem was supposedly written after the death of their child and Mary’s despondency and the whole poem is over 300 lines longs in three parts.
Yes it is Frankenstein. My husband recently read it and recommended it. Nothing like the movies made about it. I’m not far into it yet but I’m enjoying it.
They ( the Shelley’s) had such a short time together, and Mary had a tragic early life.
That is one long poem!
Now I have to read more about her tragic early life. What I’ve read it seems Shelley’s first wife committed suicide after Mary came in-between them.
Oh I didn’t know about the suicide! Mary’s mother died in childbirth and her stepmother hated her. Then she lost three of her children early and her husband died at 30.
Did you read the book?
I think I have – a long time ago but think I was surprised to find I liked it.
Paul said much the same thing. 😊
Beautiful!! I hope you had a lovely holiday too x
Thank you, Charley! 😀 Yes, I had a wonderful holiday; sunshine the whole time apart from one day – temperatures ranging from snow and minus 15 the first week, to plus fifteen and lunches outside thereafter. Bliss! Hope you had a relaxing break before the hectic exam term. xx
That sounds like heaven! I’m so pleased you had a fabulous time. Well deserved. Xxx
Your garden is looking wonderful, Annika. I love the poem too. A great choice.
Thank you so much, Robbie! 😀 The garden is flourishing and seems to be celebrating in the warmth of the sun! Glad you like the poem too – it’s over 300 lines in its entirety!
The poem is the perfect choice to accompany your wonderful photos. Perfect post.
Thank you so much, Bernadette! 😀 To my surprise, I struggled to find a poem at first that I thought fitted with pictures. Got there in the end! hugs xx
Absolutely beautiful, Annika. Such splendour… glorious Spring you’ve shared with us, Happy Earth Day! 😃 ❤
Iris, thank you so much! 😀 I spent most of yesterday in the garden and the beauty touched my soul and I just wanted to share it here. Funnily enough, I had no idea of the special day today until my post – wishing you and the planet a Happy Earth Day! 😀
Beautiful photos, Annika! I’m trying to decide which is my favorite, but they’re all so stunning, it’s impossible. Thanks for brightening my morning! ❤
Awww….thank you, Jill! ❤️ I must admit I tried to choose my favourite as well whilst going through them but failed! After a heavenly day surrounded by the flowers yesterday I felt compelled to share the beauty! Wishing you wonderful and bright Sunday! xx🌼
And you, too!❤️
Happy Earth Day!
I had no idea it was Earth Day until your comment – thank you for letting me know and luckily an apt post!
Annika, what can I say. Not only do you write with beauty and colours but with these photos I feel you prove yourself an excellent photographer.
The flowers are shining, their beauty shown from within and out. Just glowing and singing the praise of life.
Then to add the wonderful poem by Shelley. What a way nderful treat this sunny morning.
Thank you. ❤️🦋
Thank you so much for your lovely comment and compliments, Miriam! Not so much writing from me this time (was that a sigh of relief from everyone?!😀) I’ve always loved taking photos since my first camera – these here were with my iPhone which works very well in certain situations, nature being one!
Ahh… I like the idea of the flowers ‘singing the praise of life’ and your poetic self reveals itself with phrases like these! Beautiful!
I’m so glad you enjoyed the Shelley poem and that my post was a treat for your sunny Sunday morning. Hope the warm sun remains for the day and you have a very special day. xxx ❤️😀
😊💕
simply beautiful colors and flowers….
Absolutely, Mihran … it’s beautiful with all the variety in the garden and always something new comes to my attention!😀