Garden Blues

Baptisia australis

There are so many blues (and pinks, but that's for another day) blooming in my garden right now~the baptisia is spectacular and I have been taking so many pictures! This is definitely one of my favorite and most reliable perennials. I have had it for many, many years and it blooms beautifully every year. It's big--4 feet--and takes up a fair amount of space in my garden, but I like its nice sweet pea-like, blue-green foliage that looks good even after it finishes blooming. I usually cut mine back by about a third after it blooms, to control the size. It's blooming right now with the herbaceous peonies and they are a beautiful combination.

I have been reading a great book about photography, Understanding Exposure, and I have been forcing myself to use my camera in manual mode only.  I find for every 20 or so pictures I take I get a great one.  It's fun playing around with different apertures and shutter speeds and adjusting white balance, but it takes a lot of time for me and it doesn't come easy. So on this rainy and not very nice weekend I took some time and took tons of pictures and did several of the exercises recommended in the book,  and I am slowly beginning to understand exposure a little better.  It's supposed to get up to 90 degrees this week, so looks like our nice cool spring may be over. This has been such a great spring for the garden, everything blooming a little later,  and a little longer.

Thalictrum (Meadow Rue)

Iris pallida 

Mahonia bealei