Sierra Foothill Garden

I only set my cup down for a minute.

Seeing that the morning light was diffused, and remembering my ‘too contrasty’ photos of the miniature daffodils I took yesterday, I walked out into the day and set my steaming cup on the arm of the bench by the front door. Climbing the hill I was annoyed that the sun had again come from behind its cloud, but got into position to catch the tiny flowers when the time was right.

As I waited I reached over to nip off the seed heads on the foothill penstemon, already showing some reddish green new growth. Ooh, there is a new seedling nestled under the parent plant!  I’m so happy to see that, knowing that there will be more of the iridescent lavender-blue later this spring.

I nip off the penstemon twigs with their seed pods attached, moving from one plant to another of the three.

Oops!  The light is softening….over to the daffodils now; remember to put the camera on close-up, and there!  Got this group!  Now over to the other cluster, the really small ones just opening.  Drat!  Here comes the sun again.  Moving back to the penstemons, I sit down in the bright light and gently tear the patches of grass and weeds growing underneath each plant.  These wild penstemons have very brittle stems and it’s easy to knock a branch off the plant if you’re not careful.

Okay, sun’s behind the cloud again, I can get the last shot I wanted. Thinking “I hope I got a good focus on those daffodils…..”

Great!  I gather the seedy penstemon twigs to look over for seeds when I go in, and spot my coffee cup on the bench as I go by. “Ah, not too cold”, I think as I head in to the microwave.