The Lily of the Valley

We sing a hymn in church called "Lily of the Valley."  It is such an upbeat and happy song, fast-paced and joyful.  It's not singing about flowers, but of one of the names of Jesus.  The Lily of the Valley is mentioned in Song of Solomon 2:1.  Here are the words to the first verse of the hymn.  Perhaps you sing it, too?

I have found a friend in Jesus-

He's ev'rything to me,

He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul;

The Lily of the Valley- in Him alone I see

All I need to cleanse and make me fully whole.

In sorrow He's my comfort, in trouble He's my stay,

He tells me ev'ry care on Him to roll;

He's the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,

He's the greatest of ten thousand to my soul.

We have many flowers blooming in the yard right now.  I'll show you a few.  First, we have the amaryllis.  It is a beautiful flower that almost looks like it is not real:

Next, we have red lilies.  We've moved these around from place to place.  They are hardy and bloom every year in clusters:

Next, we have the show-stopper.  Louisiana Iris.  These things are stunning:

We have given some to our son and he's planted them at his home.  We've also moved some to a bed under the drip line by our back patio.  It all started here, though:

Approximately twenty-one years ago, I pulled my truck to the side of a gravel road by the "big well."  We have an irrigation well that pumps cool, fresh water from over a hundred feet beneath the surface to flood rice fields.  There is a ditch that always had water in it regardless how hot and dry the summer was.  This ditch was the perfect locale for Louisiana Iris to flourish.  They grew there wild.  I took out my shovel from the bed of my truck and dug a small shovelful of iris roots.  I took it home and planted it in a low place in the yard around an oak tree (above).  The iris is happy there and has multiplied.  Each year we enjoy walking by the blooming flowers and admire its beauty.

We're not the only ones who like the flowers.  Check out the dragonfly in the greenery of the iris!

And there is one other critter that likes the iris!  Tricia noticed that a Rhode Island Red hen was outside the fence the other day, scratching around the blueberry bushes and generally being a nuisance in the yard.  She chased the hen into the Louisiana Iris and discovered the hen's nest amongst the flowers.

He's the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star,
He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.

 

A Springtime Stroll

This post will be short on commentary.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves for the most part.  Spring is very, very short in South Louisiana.  It changes from cold (cold for us, anyway), too cool (for a brief time), to hitting 80 degrees by 8 a.m. in just a few weeks.  We enjoy it while we can.  The April showers do indeed, bring May flowers.

Here you can see a bloom that is about to unfurl...

Here is that flower in all it's glory - the Louisiana Iris.  I love the colors!

They bloom like crazy for a while, but the greenery remains.  About 19 years ago, I spotted a clump of these growing in a ditch at the farm across from the big irrigation well.  I got my shovel and dug a sampling of the irises and planted them in a low spot in our yard where the rainwater generally keeps the soil moist.  The Louisiana Iris has thrived in this spot and has multiplied.

This amaryllis is happy and sports four large, red flowers.  We have these planted in some beds around the house, but this one always looks so nice in the terra cotta pot.

A close-up:

This bright pink azalea is one that came from my grandmother's house in Kinder, where Tricia and I lived.  We have it planted up by the road in front.  It is so happy in this location.  It blooms and blooms and blooms.  We've taken many pictures in front of it over the years and it reminds me of my grandmother.

A close-up:

Pretty in Pink

As I always say, flowers are nice to look at, but I like growing things to eat, so I'll leave you with this.  I mentioned to Tricia that I was concerned that our sweet potato harvest was too thorough this year.  I was worried we weren't going to have any sweet potatoes this year.

You see, many years ago, we composted a sweet potato in the garden after a meal, and a sweet potato vine grew and produced.  The same thing the next year.  And the next.  We have never planted any sweet potatoes in the garden since that initial, accidental planting, and each each we harvest a bunch of nice sweet potatoes.  I'm not exaggerating when I say that over the past ten years, we've probably harvested almost 1,000 pounds of sweet potatoes.

The original variety was the Beauregard, but since then, we've added some experimental varieties being grown by LSU as well as an Heirloom variety from Tennessee called the "Golden Wonder."  The harvest of sweet potatoes the following year is contingent upon not harvesting them all.  If you leave a piece of a sweet potato root in the ground, it will inevitably grow the next spring.  Well, I've not seen any sweet potato vines growing.  Until the other day!  Here is a healthy "slip" right here:

Since I saw this one, at least 7 others have popped up.  By mid summer, a quarter of the garden will be covered in these vines.  We will once again have a nice sweet potato harvest this fall if the Good Lord's willing.