Best of Rest at Brookside

I’ve already done 3 blog posts this week about my walk around Brookside Gardens (ginkgo buds, tulips, and landscapes). This time of year the gardens are very different every time I go. This post is the last one for the April walk around the gardens – and the best of the rest of my pictures: unfurling leaves,

A globe of small flowers catching the sun,

The last wave of narcissus blooms,

A mourning dove giving me a wary look from high above my head (the zoom works well for pictures like this),

Deciduous magnolia blossoms – damaged by the frost but not enough to be destroyed completely,

And fiddleheads. I didn’t see these at first because they still looked mostly brown and the old fronds from last fall were all around them. Soon they uncurl and make the space under the trees lush with greenery.

Brookside Gardens in March – Part II

When I went to check the skunk cabbage last week at Brookside Gardens, a disgruntled titmouse gave me the eye. That was the only bird I managed to photograph as I walked around the gardens.

The growth that I had noticed between two rocks by the stream last month is now blooming – narcissus.

There were also small flags

And crocus in bloom.

March had been off to a warm start but we had some cold days just before I went to Brookside so I was pleased to find some trees that looked undamaged by the cold.

The camellia was a pleasant surprise…and fortified me for what came next.

A magnolia was evidently in full bloom when the weather turned cold. Now all flowers are brown. There could be a few buds that may still open. I’ll check next time I go. It's a very large tree that usually is full of large pick flowers....maybe not this year.

It was warm enough that there were a few insects out and about. Do you see the insect in this picture? (Hint: a little left and down from center.)