Rapturous Day in the Garden

Yesterday evening I was digging compost into my garden, turning the soil over and breaking up the clods. It was very quiet in the neighborhood, just birds chirping. The scent of the flowers from the lemon tree nearby were trailing through the air and the low sun was warm on my back. The baby corn seedlings were separated and waiting to be set into the rich soil of their new home. It occurred to me that I could very well have been transplanted to some kind of Heaven, this certainly must be what it would be like.

But this is my little garden, my own piece of Heaven that I get to enjoy everyday, no Rapture needed.

Mother's Day at the Filoli Estate

I got to spend a lovely Mother's Day at Filoli. For those of you who haven't had a chance to pop by, Filoli is a large mansion from the early 1900's with an equally amazing estate garden. And it a prime Mother's Day destination. After the crowds thinned out, I got a few shots of the house and garden.

There was a floral show happening the same weekend so we got to enjoy some amazing arrangements. Some of my favorite were the miniature ones - they must have been 2" tall max. And of course the house is breathtaking with beautiful details from the murals to the "rustic" wood floors.

It was a great family day for everyone!

The highlight for Parker must have been when the (baby?) gopher got up on the entry courtyard and couldn't get past the edging and back into the lawn. We first saw it when a woman screamed as the gopher ran between her legs. This quickly caught the attention of all the children in the vicinity, who chased the poor thing around for about 10 minutes.

Every now and then the gopher would turn around facing his young tormentors, stand on his hind legs and give his most vicious gopher snarl. Of course the kids loved that! Parker kept trying to feed him one of his crackers and getting his face inches away from him until I would pull him away. The poor thing finally found his way out of the courtyard into some shrubbery. Oh well, I don't feel too bad about all the chasing after all the gopher damage I've had to deal with at clients' gardens!

Garden Bloggers Bloom and Foliage Combo

I'm late for both the Garden Blogger's Bloom Day and Foliage Follow Up this month, but I took the time to take the photos so I'm posting them, darn it. I'm combining the posts together for efficiency, flowers and foliage are all mixed up - just like my garden!

This Aeonium undulatum bloom is taller than me. Plus, the bees love it!

Thank you to May Dreams for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day and Pam at Digging for hosting Foliage Follow-Up.