More tulips and bloomin' things

A few posts back I started the Tulip Library, photos of some of the different kinds of tulips that flower here at Mucky Boots from April to June. The sheer variety continues to bemuse me: how can such different shapes and colours, from simple red and yellow to the tropical-looking peach confection shown here all come from such inauspicious brown bulbs planted deep in the dirt?

However it happens, it's wonderful.

This one is as soft and pink as a baby's bum - I know, because I kissed it. How could I not, when it looks like this?

These ones make me think of a whipped lemon custard with raspberry sauce...

...and maybe I have desserts on my mind, but can you look at this one and not think of raspberry ripple ice cream?

And even a simple, Plain Jane red tulip can be gorgeous.

What's missing are what I called the Peppermint Patty tulips. Here's the photo from last year. No sign of them this year - maybe a hungry squirrel got the bulbs?

Tulips aren't the only thing flowering right now. The wisteria is just coming into full bloom...

... and the first oriental poppy has blossomed.

A whole row of allium is flowering by the house...

...columbines are busting out all over...

...and the first of about a million perennial cornflowers are blooming.

I'm grateful to have so much beauty to drink in, because Kim and I have been hard at work at the front of the house turning the wasteland into perennial beds and man, is it hard work. I hope to be able to show you the fruits of our labour soon, but right now we're still sweating with shovels and pick-axes.