Here's something to smile about

I'm a little late with today's post. I had a migraine last night that could only be described as vicious, so I went to bed early. Hopefully these images will make up for my tardiness! More pictures of flowers, you say? Oh but these aren't just any flowers! Let me explain: my photography studio is located in the Old North End, which is made up mostly of historic Victorian and Crafstman homes. There is, however, a strip of mid-century commercial buildings on North Weber Street, and I'm located in one of those. Directly across the street from my building is an empty lot that's been for sale for a long time. It gets almost no maintenance, and in the summer it becomes congested with milkweed. It's downright depressing. A few months ago I decided to throw some wildflower seeds down in the empty lot and see if I could improve its looks and give the bees and butterflies something to eat. So, one rainy April night, Pat and I donned ninja black clothes and surreptitiously walked around in the dark, strewing fistfuls of wildflower seeds in our path. It was quite funny, actually. Talk about guerrilla gardening! Alas, even though we had the wettest May in decades, as spring and summer progressed it seemed like nothing grew except the milkweed, which went waist high thanks to all the rain we've been getting. A few weeks ago, a crew came and mowed down the milkweed. It was so dense, it took them two days to do the job. I thought, "Well, even if our wildflowers were growing, they're dead now, thanks to these guys." Then yesterday Pat noticed some bright colors across the street from my studio. We rushed over to see if if was our handiwork, and YES! It was our little wildflowers! They're growing and thriving! I even saw a bee! It's a small start, but over the next couple of years I expect that the flowers will continue to propagate, and with some luck we'll have a much nicer view across the street.

African daisies... and wait, is that a bee I see? Pollinate, little bee! Pollinate!

I don't know what the little white flowers are, but they sure are pretty.

The soil, once a parking lot, is mostly sand and gravel. Only the hardiest of plants will grow in it.

Poppy on the left, bachelors button on the right. I love it! Keep on growing, little plants!