Outside today...

I wandered around today before the wind started up, to see that many of my hellebores have started to get buds on them.  I have a whole bed of them right in front on the house, in a very shady area that gets little water.  I tried many different plants there when we first moved in but nothing really grew.  This area is right as you come to our front door, so I wanted something evergreen, but nothing big that would block our front window.  I first saw hellebores before I knew what they were, I just knew I loved how they looked.  About 6 years or so ago our pediatrician heard a heart murmur in our oldest daughter and referred us to a cardiologist at Children's Hospital.  They had many hellebores growing in a shady entryway, mixed with other shade loving perennials.  Thankfully, everything turned out fine with our daughter, and now every time I see these hellebores I think about how worried we were and how lucky we are that she is healthy.  It is another one of my memories in my garden.

The Corsican hellebore below was a seedling from one of my best garden friends.  She and I share a lot of plants with each other.  She gave me quite a few of these and they have all grown huge.  These ones seem to prefer more sun than the Lenten Rose type we have in our shady front yard.  

 One not so great observance I made outside today was a heron in our pond.  I've seen them fly over for years because we live near wetlands that they nest in.  I've always thought our pond was too small to attract them, but now I know it's not.  I couldn't believe how tall it was, at least 4 feet.  I tried to see if any fish were missing, but did see at least 2 swimming, one of which was a koi that's been there for one year.  It looks like I'll need to try some netting, maybe it'll deter the raccoons as well.