A Silverbell (branch), lots of leaves, and it's been a year...

I've posted alot of images this week of the two-winged Silverbell tree that is in full bloom right now - but I'm not sure that any of the previous images really show how each branch is literally just covered in these gorgeous four-petalled blossoms.  I can't imagine what this tree will be like in the spring when it's established and is larger!

I realized this morning that I've been posting in this space for a year now.  I'm now sure if I've held to what my original intentions were - but I'm also not sure that it matters.  Life happens along the way anyway, and that would naturally change what I need to express here.  I'm sure that the months or year or if we're lucky and the stars and planets are all in alignment, years, to come will be overshadowed by my mother's lung cancer diagnosis.  I'm guessing that to get through this, my garden will become filled up, since my usual approach to handling stress is to plant something.  Yes, the garden will definitely benefit.  Oh, and there's this whole living in the Airstream while I build a house 'thing'.  I hope to write more about science - and over the past few weeks the laboratory has really come together, in a way that it hasn't been in a few years.  It feels good, more than good - it feels vibrant and exciting and as a group I sense that we'll be moving forward in interesting directions.  Two members of the lab leave for Puerto Rico tomorrow for a coral sampling trip - while I drive up to Virginia, to see how my mom is doing after her first chemotherapy session.  I'm taking with me tomatoes for my Dad (although he can't get them into the ground yet) - Sungolds and Big Mamas and Better Boys and Matt's Wild Cherry - and some violets that I need to pot up today, for my mom.  My Dad has gotten a large pile of mulch delivered, and my goal for the several days that I am there is to spread it around mom's perennial beds and wherever else she wants it.  One day at a time.  As for yesterday, I was relieved to hear that 11 yr-old (Dog)Wood's gall bladder and liver are cancer-free, and that it seems that her problems are stemming from a pesky bacterial infection.  Those bacteria - they just sneak up on you. 

But for today, I'll be spending time in my garden - it's a warm sunny lowcountry day, with a breeze blowing and live oak leaves falling.  Yes, as you can tell, there have been alot of live oak leaves falling.  You can guess what I'll be doing...

   

Comments

[Carol]

I've definitely got to find a silverbell that will grow in my zone 5 garden!

[Pat]

Wow, that is awesome! I think it was a Carolina Silverbell that was just shown this morning on Victory Garden - in a garden in Dover, Massachusetts, no less.

Is it fragrant?

[Pam]

Carol: You most certainly do. It's my favorite tree right now (of course, that changes every other week).

Pat: How fun! I think the Carolina Silverbell is what Carol (the commentor above) can grow in her zone 5 garden. Mine doesn't seem to be fragrant.