Took this picture after I got home this evening. Darn batteries had died in the camera, and the nearest AC outlet was too far away from the driveway to use the adapter for it. Fortunately I had a bunch of AAs around. That camera really eats batteries, so I try to use the AC adapter whenever possible. I'd been waiting for the azaleas to pop open, and they finally have. You can click on the picture to enlarge it. Funny I never noticed the car driving by on River Rd. up the hill when I snapped the picture.

The tiny red azalea had been around by the front door when I bought the place over 12 years ago. It didn't get any sun there, so I moved it around the side about 10 years ago, and it's made a comeback. It nearly died twice over a couple of harsher winters, and the deer seem to make mincemeat of the azaleas every few years or so, but it's a real trouper.

This year they came through with flying colors. The white one's spectacular under moonlight after it gets dark it almost glows. I put the bleeding heart in by the corner of the garage a number of years ago. It took a few years to really get established, and indeed now gets to be about twice the size you see here, practically taking over the front walk. It's really just get started. It's sort of hiding a bunch of mayapples back in there with it, but by the time the bleeding heart melts away in July the mayapples are visible and fill in the spot. They're blooming right now, but I really have to shove the bleeding heart out of the way to see them.

My next door neighbor liked my bleeding heart so much that she put one in her own little front garden. It's still tiny compared to mine, but it hasn't been there nearly as long, either. They don't really like sun, but they only get a few hours of it in the morning, which they can handle.

Not sure what work crew this was because they didn't look like our regular landscapers, and weren't in one of regular Fullerton trucks, but they were running around playing with the sprinkler system with shovels and other gardening related stuff. I wonder if they're the ones who uprighted my miniature weeping pussy willow that had fallen over last month. It was still over on its side over the weekend. Somebody propped it back up, and it happened today. It's really not a one-person job because it's at its mature height of 8' by now, and fully leafed-out.

I'll have to keep an eye on the landscapers a little later in the season after the columbines have gone to seed. They have a nasty habit of ripping out the seedlings in my garden, thinking they're clover or something. I guess there aren't any columbines in Central or South America, although I don't see why they wouldn't grow in some of the higher elevations of the Andes.