A lovely cyclamen

We figured this would be one of the 1-month "florist" cyclamens - bought in full flower at the hardware store right around Valentine's Day.

Amazingly, it's flourished, and continues to produce new flowers and leaves, both reflecting the nice light in the kitchen, as well as careful care (my gardening companion loves houseplants).

Backlit this morning, the young leaves and flower buds were striking.

Posted with Blogsy

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An evening rainbow

Woody and I looped up through downtown this evening, and were treated at the beginning with a complete rainbow.  (The photo didn't capture the entire arc). 

rainbow towards the north sky

Magical.

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Vernonia and Tiger Swallowtail

I haven't seen too many butterflies yet this summer, aside from skippers and cabbage whites. 

Happily, we saw a newly emerged Monarch nectaring on a Cosmos in a pocket planting nearby yesterday.

This evening, there were two Tiger Swallowtails visiting the Vernonia looking robust, to the left of the Ozark witch hazel.

Tiger swallowtail on Vernonia

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Pocket meadow: pollinators welcome

The pocket meadow in front of the house continues to transform, but is especially lively now, as (normally) fall-flowering plants like Joe-Pye, Vernonia spp., and Solidago are in flower or starting to flower.

Pocket meadow - pollinator-friendly!

On the other side of the driveway, Salvia guaranitica continues to welcome hummingbirds and bees of all sorts, accompanied by a tall Rudbeckia triloba.

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Creating natural neighborhoods: bus stops

Thinking and musing about how to encourage folks to plant (and maintain) any semblance of nature in the city, I've been scouting around medians, bus stops, and neglected patches here and there, primarily to pitch to my garden club group as guerrilla "flash" gardening clean-ups.

They're everywhere in my small mountain city.

Thanks to inspired folks for decades, we HAVE lots of median plantings, city plantings, etc.  But there's not so much money or time for maintenance.

Bus stops seem to be a particular "no-person's land" -- the city delegates them to the bus folks, who definitely have a limited landscape maintenance staff and budget.

Clingman Avenue bus stop

This one, along a major route to the River Arts District, would be an easy guerrilla "clean up."

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Sunset views in the mountains

view towards the Blue Ridge Mountains

looking north

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Woody after a long walk

Woody isn't as helpful as his predecessors, Chessie and Mocha, in the garden, as he has an affinity for cat poop (unfortunately abundant in our urban neighborhood).

My gardening assistant

This is NOT a good thing, as he's prone to (expensive) digestive upsets, so he's now banished from wandering around not on a leash. (Even in our large yard in our former house in the Piedmont, he was not to be trusted...)

But, he's a wonderful fellow, and totally beautiful. 

His role in life is to make people happy when they look at him, we think. 

Here, he's welcoming folks to the Well-Bred Bakery, in Weaverville, NC, after a long walk with a good friend.

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