The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon-forgotten charities of a kiss or smile, a kind look, a heart-felt compliment, and the countless infinitesimals of pleasurable and genial feeling ~ Samuel Taylor
Spring and especially spring in May is such wonderful time in my garden. Flowers begin to emerge more and more and fill in the beds. The vegetable garden is planted, and those earlier greens and peas are finally harvested. I find myself lost in the garden contemplating each new bloom for what seems like hours. And I love to wander checking out the way the plants look from all directions and in many different lights.
With the hectic pace of life and the seconds, minutes and hours that seem to rush by, I am trying to slow my life a bit and savor happy moments. And with impending retirement, I hope to find more of these moments. But for now I am going with those moments/events I know will bring me happiness immediately like taking a five minute stroll to the pond with a cup of tea (I am off coffee right now) or catching the sun’s rays lighting up the meadow. New and familiar smells waft on the breeze, and I catch bits of the scents. And the sounds of the wake up calls by both bird and frog slow my breathing.
Finding those five minutes may be difficult, but they are so important. Right now my life is made up of things to do; work, garden chores and writing. My free time seems to be dwindling so I am making time for happiness…..rediscovering what makes me indescribably happy and reconnecting with these experiences.
I am leaving the to-do lists behind and making sure I set time aside daily for just being happy. I still have some goals and ideas for things I want to do, and I will never stop my personal evolution and journey, but I no longer am seeking happiness…instead I am choosing to be happy by experiencing the things that bring me pleasure.
And what is bringing me happiness are the incredible blooms for Garden Bloggers’s Bloom Day (GBBD). I am linking in with Carol@May Dreams Gardens to show just a bit of what is blooming right now.
A-May-Zing Blooms Right Now In My Garden
Lots blooming in the native woodland patches (starting top left moving clockwise)….Virginia bluebells, twinleaf, Shooting Stars, many trilliums, and lots of violets especially lower left, ‘Freckles’. Mayapples, foam flower and jack-in-the-pulpit.
This is one of the epimediums blooming…last year they were frozen.
First dwarf bearded iris to bloom.
Lamium blooming profusely…this is the first time I have seen so many blooms.
One of the few tulips blooming. This tulip was lit up by the setting sun.
Bergenias looking good this year.
Brunnera grew quickly from nubs left after winter. I don’t know what I love more the foliage or the flowers.
The English primroses are putting on a spectacular show….amazing blooms.
Starflowers or Ipheion uniflorum are blooming their hearts out…last year there were few blooms with the freezes and drought.
I can’t get enough muscari. This is a later blooming very deep almost eggplant colored variety, Muscari paradoxum. I planted lots of these and they are fantastic.
Many lungwort lighting up the shady areas of the garden. Again I love the foliage as much as the flowers.
Phlox subulata or Moss Phlox (in many colors) are starting to break into flower.
Lilacs about to break into flower. I love these buds.
Flowers on my new Serviceberry.
I had to show you more Summer Snowflake or Leucojum aestivum. I adore this flower and added it all over the garden.
Foliage Showcase
I am showcasing some foliage as well, and linking in with Pam@Digging for her Foliage Follow Up on the 16th, and Christina@Creating my own garden of the Hesperides for her Garden Bloggers Foliage Day on the 22nd.
Eastern Prickly Pear cactus perking up after its winter slumber. Hard to imagine it started as one lowly pad. I hope to see flowers this year.
I love watching twinleaf or Jeffersonia bloom in my native garden. The leaves emerge and fill out more fully.
Oriental poppy foliage is showy and so easy to spot.
Variegated daylily, ‘Golden Zebra’ is just a wonderful plant because of its great foliage.
Maple leaves finally unfurling in the first rays of the day. Couldn’t forget the trees.
Hope your Bloom Day is wonderful!
And don’t forget that Seasonal celebrations meme is coming up June 1st. More details are found below. So get those post ideas ready for this next great season!
“Someone once asked me what I regarded as the three most important requirements for happiness. My answer was: “A feeling that you have been honest with yourself and those around you; a feeling that you have done the best you could both in your personal life and in your work; and the ability to love others.” ~Eleanor Roosevelt
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Come Join Us:
Seasonal Celebrations is a time for marking the change of seasons and what is happening in your part of the world during this time. I hope you will join in by creating a post telling us how you celebrate this time of year whether summer or winter or something else. Share your traditions, holidays, gardens and celebrations in pictures, poetry or words starting June 1st.
And it seems so appropriate to collaborate with Beth and her Lessons Learned meme. What lessons have you learned this past season of spring here in the North and fall in the South. Then tell us about your wishes, desires and dreams for this new season.The rules are simple. Just create a post that talks about lessons learned 
and/or seasonal celebrations. If you are joining in for both memes please leave a comment on both our blog posts. Or if you are choosing to join only one meme, leave a comment on that blog post. Make sure to include a link with your comment.
Beth and I will do a summary post of our respective memes on the equinox (the 20th of March). And we will keep those posts linked on a page on our blog. Your post should be linked in the weekend before the equinox to give us enough time to include your post in our summary. And if you link in a bit late, never fear we will include it on the special blog page (which I still have to create). The badges here can be used in your post. So won’t you join in the celebration!!
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Next up on the blog: Next Monday will be another Garden Book Review. I will also have a Wildflower Tale and another Simply The Best-Herbs post later in the month.
I am linking in with Michelle@Rambling Woods for her Nature Notes meme. It is a great way to see what is happening in nature around the world every Wednesday.
I hope you will join me for my posts once a month at Beautiful Wildlife Garden. See my most current post now. Next one is up on May 28th.
As always, I’ll be joining Tootsie Time’s Fertilizer Friday.
Please remember, to comment click on the title of the post and the page will reload with the comments section.
All original content is copyrighted and the sole property of Donna Donabella @ Gardens Eye View, 2010-2013. Any reprints or use of content or photos is by permission only.
I agree whole heartedly with your thoughts on happiness – you are so right that happiness is not to be yearned for but enjoyed in all the beauty around. I walk around my garden with a smile on my face and know that I am happy. Christina
I was smiling all weekend in my garden!
Your garden is beautiful Donna. The Brunnera is something I hope to add to mine.
Thanks so much…there are so many different brunnera and you will want them all.
Your May Zing is fabulous Donna, setting aside time for just being happy sounds just tickety boo. Retirement in bygone days seemed to be something to dread, I just love it and along with other old timers can be heard saying (I don’t know how I found the time to go out to work). Dont realise how good we have it.
Glad to hear retirement is great…I’ll have lots of time to be in the garden and smile!
Spring really woke up in your garden and the garden plants look great. Many of the same plants bloom in your garden as here, but the iris are only in tight bud. Lamium blooms have passed. I found your statement, “I find myself lost in the garden contemplating each new bloom for what seems like hours,” one I find almost impossible here. Besides the business of work, there is no time with our crazy weather. One day it is over 80° and another freezing or a hail storm. Flowers are almost momentary where an hour passes and the flower drops! Boy the weather needs to stabilize. Yesterday it hailed and today I will see if the tulips were knocked off. Oh well, WNY weather is always a surprise. Where you live it is pretty much a bolt from the blue too.
I think we are both struggling with crazy weather…too warm and plants grow that shouldn’t and then a freeze comes and wipes them out…one is coming tonight and I know I will lose lots again…my other iris are tight in the bud but the dwarf seem to jump out early…they will be frozen tonight too 🙁
Well I will put a lot of effort into weeding, edging, moving plants and my veg beds…every year it is a new challenge.
Hi Donna…I’m so glad you’re taking time to enjoy the happiness your garden brings you. I’ve said it over and over to my gardening friends…you work so hard in your garden, take the time to enjoy it! You have so many wonderful flowers and plants! I really love all the color in your garden! (Last night we had a frost advisory…I worried all night and woke to 36 degrees but thankfully, no frost!!!)
Thanks Christy and I agree wholeheartedly…thankfully we had no frost due to cloud cover but tonight the clouds are moving out and were are in for a freeze…it will kill so much and I am sad about that!
It always amazes me the sequence of blooms around the country. We have irises blooming here but the muscari gave up a long time ago. I always find it neat how the sequences change where you are located yet we have some of the same plants blooming. Off coffee? Tea is a good substitute I would think and probably better for you. One day I might switch. Enjoy May! it will be gone all too soon!
So many blooms still waiting but with the current heat way they will pop up quick. I love tea and have so many kinds so I am enjoying the switch.
May is absolutely a beautiful month in the garden…yours looks lovely. We are suppose to have frost tonight as well…nature is beautiful but also fleeting. We all have to take a few minutes in our day to enjoy it.
With the crazy weather I am sort of in between blooms as things are off schedule…but I am happy to see many buds that will be blooming soon.
Donna, so many beauties in this post, it would be hard to choose just one as a fav.
I have more then a few….gorgeous.
Glad to hear that you are taking those 5 minutes for yourself..what a treat for us.
Jen
So special when we share many beautiful blooms Jen!
The quotes are perfect especially the Samuel Taylor one – so beautiful and touching. I love May too and your beautiful photos has made me want to buy more plants. I have lots of green in the garden but there is a lull between the tulips fading and the summer perennials arriving.
I have lots of spring blooms but they seem delayed with our crazy weather. Glad you enjoyed the post!
Hi Donna
Your gardens are ahead of us and I just loved scrolling through the plants in your garden. I jotted down H. ‘Golden Zebra’ on my list for this year; amazing foliage.
The lilac bud photo is nice, I have two bushes that bloom below the kitchen window.
Judith
That purple lilac sis not bloom much again this year and may need to be moved…I think our gardens may have caught up…
Beautiful post. I loved the shots and narrative. You have a gorgeous garden.
Thanks so much Carver…glad you enjoyed it!
happy bloom day Donna. Wonderfully photographed, there is certainly a lot happening in your garden.
You are too kind Catmint…Hope your bloom day was wonderful!
I love the quotations about happiness at the very top. I agree with it so much, happiness is everywhere. I don’t understand why people say they are not happy. What do they want? What are they expecting?
Where do you buy most of these plants? Do you buy them all online or do you have a good store that you can suggest? Please let me know both.
What’s that bloom (or bud still) that you have in the collage? It’s third top after the small white flower. It looks like a white bud with green stripe. I see them in my garden, but don’t know what they are.
Do I need to say absolutely lovely, gorgeous, beautiful blooms and flower. But, how about the weather there now? It has suddenly become freezing here in NJ.
Well we have warmed up suddenly…I think the bud you are referring to is actually Shooting Stars before the bloom and drop down.
I buy most of my natives online as the nurseries are far away…I like Prairie Moon Nursery and Easy Wildflower as well as American Meadows and Amanda’s Garden.
Thanks for your wonderful comment.
Thanks for reminding me to slow down….love your flowers!
You are welcome Elaine….glad you enjoyed the post!
What a lovely garden you have! Forget-me-nots are one of my favourite flowers!
Thanks Karen…those pretty little blue flowers are just too cute…how could anyone not love them.
Donna, you have such a mass of beautiful stuff in your garden at the moment. Epimediums for me are the real heralds of Spring, so I’m glad yours are blooming this year.
And I love that idea of not seeking happiness but just being happy.
I was so happy to see my epimediums this year…I think this may have ben the best year so far for their delicate floating blooms.
Great shots, you really have a lot going on already in your garden. Great job 🙂
Thanks Derek…glad you enjoyed your visit.
you have a lot of blooms quickly Donna, each week seems different, it’s good to be happy and enjoy what we have, it’s nice that your plants have come back well after a bad year for some last year, some plants are amazingly strong, continue to enjoy, Frances
Thanks so much Frances…it is wonderful to have these lovely blooms this year…how could I not be happy!
Donna, your garden is lovely. All the different plants, flowers and colors are just stunning. Lovely photos! have a happy week!
Thank you so much Eileen.
This is such a wonderful time of year… We had to put out frost covers last night… Enjoy your walks… Michelle
Thanks Michelle….I didn’t put up covers and the garden seems OK.
What a beautiful display of spring! Your garden is full of so many surprises and so much beauty. This time of year seems to cater to us gardeners.
It sure does Michelle…Each day is another wonderful discovery.
Gorgeous, Donna! I especially enjoyed the woodland collage. A short jaunt with a cup of tea sounds delightful!
I love my woodland flowers the best as well Beth…maybe someday you will be able to visit and take a walk with me.
Your garden is just beautiful! So many happy blooms, and lovely foliage. I hope my lilacs start soon.
It is so interesting how some folks are behind or ahead….the weather and growing zones are so variable…
Such a wonderful selection of blooms. Not quite so many here in my garden.
Loving all the blooms that are showing up with your critters.
such a bounty of beauty!
Thanks Laura!
Beautiful Donna! I love, love your dark red trillium – is it a wake robin variety? My summer snowflake are also in bloom now and a favorite – in fact it was you who pointed out that they are not a snow drop as I had originally thought! I just scored an epidmedium at the Syracuse market over mother’s day! Finding time to plant and enjoy the garden is treasured time. My lamium seems to have suffered this winter and is just starting to come in and not blooming yet – I think I have the same variety as you, Orchid Frost? My serviceberry is done blooming now but gets better and better with each passing year. Just love the spring gardens!
I think that is my lamium variety and yes the red trillium is a wake-robin. How great to get an epimedium…they can b addictive. Min are loving the dry shade.
I love that you’re taking time for happiness. We should all do that! The world would be a better place, I bet, if everyone did. I love your blooms, but I am so intrigued by the Jeffersonia leaves. So interesting!
That plant is indeed a most unusual plant as it is all about the foliage..the flowers are minor. It catches water and acts like a lady’s mantle but I love it more.
Donna, Your garden looks wonderful. My lamium is not blooming as profusely as yours, it seems like last year was a better year for me. I also have a variegated brunnera and the contrast of the foliage and the flowers is breathtaking.
It seems all the snow made for profuse blooms with a lot of plants….I do adore the brunnera and all the different varieties with interesting foliage.
Spring has really sprung in your garden. It seems like only yesterday that you were talking about snow and cold. Running my nursery makes me happy so I guess I am very lucky.
Indeed you are lucky Carolyn…the blooms have slowed with the crazy cold weather and now it is hot but the cool will come back later this week….just a topsy turvy year.
You have my favourite lamium. I think yours might be a cultivated variety as it is loaded with blooms compared to mine.
The starflowers look magical too.
Oh I am sure my lamiun is cultivated….this is the first year it has flowered so much…
Donna – what a delight to see your a MAY zing garden!
You have so many pretty plants that are quite a bit ahead to ours here.
Can I ask – do you have the full name for your Brunnera – it’s a beauty!
Happy GBBD!
I believe it is Brunnera macrophylla ‘Hadspen Cream’. Glad you enjoyed the blooms.
You have quite the garden! I love those fuzzy lilac buds. Fantastic!
Thanks Gail!!
Gorgeous blooms…and you’re so right, we all need to slow down and actually enjoy life a little bit more…we do tend to rush through things, don’t we!
We sure do tend to rush Scott…so much better when we can slow and enjoy our surroundings.
Beautiful photos — but I truly love your sentiments about leaving to-do lists behind and finding five minutes of happiness. Words by which to live.
PS
The countdown clock to summer is a great idea!
Thanks Kevin. I use the clock to remind myself when the next season starts as it is time for Seasonal Celebrations…a fun little meme I started. Glad you enjoyed your visit.
Your spring blooms are lovely! I really like that dark purple muscari. I also agree that happiness is a choice. Those who find nothing joyful in the common moments of life are doomed to a lifetime of discontent!
So true Deborah. Hard to be unhappy with all these lovely blooms.
Beautiful images, especially that last of the sunlit Japanese maple leaves. Thanks for showing off your May foliage!
So glad you enjoyed the foliage Pam.
It all looks quite magical. I particularly like that Lamium – very pretty. And I’ve heard there are Brunnera with pale variegated leaves, but had never seen one before. Thanks for sharing!
You are too kind Cathy. I love Brunnera because there are so many different kinds of variegated leaves…