play day

My husband, Steve, is a tax preparer. So April 15 is a big day for us. Since he often is working right up until midnight on the 15th, we typically take April 16 as an official Play Day. This year, however, I got a raging tooth ache on April 14, and needed an emergency root canal on April 16. I am finally feeling better, so today was our postponed Play Day. You know you’re getting old when what you do on the day you play hookey from your life is visit four different garden centers. I have a feeling many of you will understand.

peace lily flower

P.S. Happy Earth Day Everyone!

one day in April

There was a local television crew at my house today filming me do my foraging and arranging thing. Its alway a little awkward because I usually forage in the morning,
and arrange in the afternoon, and those several hours in-between is when I (subconsciously?) simmer on possible compositions. Anyway, this is what I gathered on my 15 minute stroll in my backyard while the camera followed me. This is April 20th in Shoreview, Minnesota in the year 2026.

bits ands pieces of an early spring day in Minnesota

PS Can you name the line up?

squiggle art

when the kids were little, we used to do what we called “squiggle art.” I would take a thick black sharpie and draw random squiggles on paper–any paper–and then we’d color in the shapes made by the squiggles. Sometimes we colored with solid colors, but more often we filled the various shapes with patterns and details. I adored doing squiggle art with the kids. We did it so often that they still talk about it today.

weeping willow branches in spring with catkins

ikebana

I have started to make simple ikebana composition with my STILL scraps.

6 winter stems, and one dried spring branch

L to R: giant hyssop, ostrich fern, milkweed, willow with gall, cattail, goldenrod with gall, maple branch with dried blossoms

first and fleeting

Bloodroot is among the first spring ephemerals to bloom here in the North. Spring ephemerals are the native (often tiny) woodland flowers that bloom early in spring taking advantage of the sunshine hitting the forest floor before bud burst and leaf out. These woodland flowers often go through most of their lifecycle in a matter of weeks. This is the fourth bloodroot bloom in my yard this spring–the first blooms lasting only 2 days. It gives meaning to the word impermanence.

From wiki: The flowers bloom from March to May depending on the region and climate.They have 8–12 delicate white petals, many yellow stamens, and two sepals below the petals, which fall off after the flowers open. Each flower stem is clasped by a single large basal leaf as it emerges from the ground. The flowers open when they are in sunlight and close at night. The basal leaf opens following blooming. In bloodroot, the sap is red and poisonous.The color of the sap is the reason for the genus name Sanguinaria, from Latin sanguinarius “bloody”.

bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)