In Search of Color

After a series of gray days, yesterday morning I took my camera and went looking for color. Daffodils are beginning to open everywhere and the lovely coral branches of the Sango Kaku Japanese maple are a welcome sight -- the tree was hit by a freeze a few years ago and had to be severely pruned but it's coming back!

I want to paint the inside of my kitchen cabinets this delicious shade of red, just for the thrilling jolt of color I'd get whenever I opened a door to take down the jar of Herbes de Provence or to put away the dishes. I've been meaning to do this for ages -- maybe this will be the year.

Forsythia is at its peak -- such an obliging plant. This below is one I rooted from pruned branches a few years back. (Note to self -- root lots more! Spread forsythia up and down the mountain to brighten future Springs!)

As I was returning to the house to finish wrangling with our tax information, I saw that the lilac by the steps is covered with buds. I've had this shrub for years -- it was a gift from a friend's yard -- and it's always bloomed very sparingly. But now -- well, I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we don't have a freeze or anything else to destroy what seems to be a very promising crop of lilac blooms.

I don't want to count my buds before they open . . . but can you imagine how good it would smell?