I have seen something brand new this week, can you guess what? Hot pink lupines!  I have not been everywhere, nor have I seen everything, but I have been all over northern Ontario, and I have seen all kinds of lupines, but never before have I seen a hot pink variety. I am very excited about this! I wonder, will there ever be a vibrant yellow lupine? Until now my favorite colour of lupine has been the deep purple. What is your favorite?

From what I can tell, honey bees like lupines, and that’s good, because I like honey! And the colours! They are really very pretty. What I find most remarkable about these ‘weeds’ is that their foliage is even nice to look at. They don’t look so great when they are spent, but I think if you had some Hostas and / or Peonies nearby the magnificent foliage from those plants would hide the spent flowers from the lupines. But don’t condemn the expired lupines with their strange papery seed pods…lupines reseed very very easily, and if left to their own devices, you will have them for years to come.  If you look at the picture above, with the chairs and the treeline behind, you will see the yard is lined with lupines. Has anybody tried the experiment where you dye daisies by feeding them food colouring? I want to try that when the daisies start to bloom, and I am curious, would the same experiment work with lupines? We will have to try that also. They make lovely bouquets already, but seeing that hot pink one has me longing to see a lemon yellow one! Another low maintenance lovely to look at bloomer that is attracting all the butterflies is the lilac. The smell, the colour, the very sight of a lilac shrub is calming, and inspiring. This is another place I would just love to sit and get lost in a book. I picture one day reading Anne of Green Gables by the cherry tree, and oh, maybe, let’s see… Wuthering Heights under the lilac tree? For now we’ll read Ramona the Pest, Johnny Tractor and his Pals, and My Friend Rabbit every chance we get, over and over again.  Lilacs are hardy also, and easy to grow.  How do bees feel about lilacs? I wonder, if we all grew lilac shrubs, would that be enough to save the bees?  My daughter and her junior kindergarten class have been learning about how to make the world a more beautiful place.  The lessons my daughter has found important enough to bring back to me are not littering, and picking up litter, and planting flowers.   All of which are pretty easy to manage. Seed bombs will be the thing to try this year…

Stop and smell the lilacs, and enjoy everything as it is right now.  Tell me, what book would you read under the lilac tree?