Buttercups Blooming

Buttercups are everywhere this year. There are mounds of them across the pond...

and under the trees

surrounding the edges

and even in the grass...
which is why we hate to mow right now. It is so inviting.  I am hoping the winds are scattering the seeds and we will have double this amount next Spring. 

The tulips are at their end, with the last five brave heads standing up. 

My garden plot is weeded and ready for plants. The roses have been pruned and are just waiting for heat and sun. Behind the garden, the firepit encircles an enormous teepee-shaped bonfire, just waiting for the right moment to be lit. 

My green house is flourishing, with large cabbages and broccoli, 

and last year's lavender is re-blooming under the lettuce.  

The 12 white azaleas I planted last year have bloomed--well just 8 of them actually--and they look so pretty under the trees. I planted them in a row in this area of the woods that I call "The Chapel of the Pines". Perhaps a bride will walk down this path someday when they are all abloom. 

Azaleas grow up to five feet tall, so I can imagine how pretty they will be in a few years. 

The buttercups appear in large drifts and are knee-high in places. I don't remember seeing  this last year, so it's very exciting to see all these wildflowers make their home here.

I love Mother Nature's artistry as layers of plants stack back into the woods...first the buttercups, then the long grasses, then the wax myrtles, then the thick forest. 

Apparently not everybody loves buttercups. They appear on the noxious weed list in several states, and listed as "a weed of concern" in others. But if you aren't growing crops or raising cattle, if you don't have a manicured lawn, if you don't care if they take over (like me), then you can be friends. 

Outside of my cultivated vegetable and flower gardens, I am pretty content to just let nature do her thing. So without any effort of my own, I get this lovely view. 

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Oh, and isn't this one of the greatest sights in Spring...leaves coming out of the trunks of trees... not even waiting for a branch to grow first. Life bursts forth!