Last Day of April and of Poetry Month

It's the last day of April, the last time to share some poetry for poetry month and the last chance to post photos of the plants in flower around the house. Beginning with the one I just took this morning with the sun shining on the flowering crab apple tree and the birch catkins blowing in a very chilly wind.

Nothing is so beautiful as Spring --

When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;

Thrush's eggs look little low heavens, and thrush

Through the echoing timber does so rinse and wring

The ear, it strikes the lightnings to hear him sing;

The glassy peartree leaves and blooms, they brush

The descending blue, that blue is all in a rush

With richness; the racing lambs too have fair their fling.

What is all this juice and joy? 

A strain of earth's sweet being in the beginning. 

(First lines from Gerald Manley Hopkins' poem, Spring.

After my walk Friday I came home and took pictures of some of my flowers. I didn't think the little Grape Hyacinths were going to make it this year. But then they perked up and blossomed so brightly.

                                              The neighbor's tulips were beautiful.

The purple Phlox by the mailbox don't last long, but they make a nice showing. And look at all the shoots of Lily of the Valley coming up! 

I still don't know what this plant is that I got a start of from my niece year's ago. It spreads readily and I have to pull some of it out, but I love its cheerful yellow flowers.

The bluebells I also got from my niece, Kristi,  have me perplexed. They have gradually whitened over the years. I can find no reason like soil PH or too much sun or??? An online search tells me only that one in 10,000 bluebells will be white. 

But I am sure they started just as blue as this plant is which is several feet west of those white ones and more in the shade.

These Mertensia, or Virginia Bluebells, always remind me of my Grandmother Delphia and the ones Mom had on the north side of the house - starts which she got from her mom. 

I like saying mertensia - mer-tench-ee-uh - and I almost always call them that.  Virginia cowslip is another name they are known by.

April is going out like the proverbial lion March is noted for - very windy and chilly. But tomorrow - May Day!!