Our Little Bed of Tulips

Last autumn, hubby and I chanced upon a pack of assorted tulips on sale. We grabbed a pack and planted the bulbs in our small tilled plot for seasonal flowers, along with other spring and summer plants.

Finally in spring, the bulbs began to shoot out. Oh, how excited we were to watch each stage of their growth until they finally bloomed into different varieties and colors that were so vibrant! Every afternoon after work, as we sat down on our little porch to take a rest, we just looked at them and admired their beauty.

And, of course, each flower became an adorable object of my photographic passion! And I just clicked, and clicked and clicked until they withered away.

Now they are a history, the very first tulips that we have ever planted and truly owned. They're gone now, and yet, they still exist, fresh as ever, in my cyberhome.

Next year, in the spring, I'm going to meet them again.

Embracing Summer

Just a few days after I posted my recent spring update, the foliage suddenly thickened and matured as summer passed through the portal of time and seemed to overlap with spring.

Every botanical being rushed to come out and luxuriate in the radiance of the summer sun. While the spring flowers are still lingering, the summer flowers are blooming speedily in succession. (My summer flower shots will be featured in a future blog).

More images of spring that I captured can be viewed in Spring 2014 Preserved.

The apple trees are already packed with blossoms.

Even my well-loved lilacs are out!

People are out to savour the warmth of the sun and partake of the gifts of these two seasons.

And so are the other living creatures.

As I go out for a walk every night, the gleaming sun keeps me company, as it tarries much longer above the horizon.

I also have the habit of taking a glimpse of the western sky from our back porch to check the sunset on or before midnight, and the skies usually look like these (at around 10 pm):

I also spotted this rainbow right before midnight!

I feel the warmth of summer, smell its scent, drink in its air, and see its cheerful visage.

So to welcome summer, I'm stamping here my icons for this season:

Oh, what joys exist under the blue summer sky! Actually, not just for this season, not even for several years, but for all eternity.

This summer is just a little foretaste of the promised new world.

"But the meek will posses the earth,

And they will find exquisite delight 

in the abundance of peace.

The righteous will possess the earth

And they will live forever on it."

(Psalm 37:11,29)