Ah, crocuses!

This is the first year, that I have had crocuses in my rooftop garden. I find them to be a sweet looking flower and that their brilliant green foliage (which is enhanced with white "pin stripes") is also awesome.

A few of my crocuses can be seen in the images posted below, and these varieties were planted this past November within the large containers where my Actinida kolomikta and Actimida AKA Kiwi Vines as well as my Continus Coggygria AKA Smoke Bush live respectively. 

Some of my Crocuses Sharing Digs with my Actinida kolomikta and Actimida 

Going Solo (View of my Crocuses Sharing Digs my Continus Coggygria)

For me, the crocuses exude joy and their playful nature makes me wonder why I waited until this past November to include them in my garden. These little flowers with their pin striped foliage (although I've never heard anyone else refer to their leaves with this particular description), have caused folks from all walks of life to be inspired to include them in their prose.

"The winter that wasn't . . . " (at least in NYC)

One day the temperatures are in the mid-seventies, the next day they are only in the mid-forties; and it's only mid-March in New York City, where I live and have a terrace garden. From what I understand, these "mood swing" temperatures are occurring in many parts of the world.

No, I did not give up blogging for Lent . . . (and other TLLG Updates)

Because nineteen days (or two and a half weeks) have passed since February 21st 2012, which also happens to have been Shrove Tuesday (or the day before Ash Wednesday, a day that marks the beginning of Lent), and was the last time I posted here on TLLG, you, dear reader, might have presumed that I gave up blogging on TLLG for Lent.

"If it's Tuesday, it must be tumblr . . . " Week Twenty-One (And Happy Shrove Tuesday)

Ah, another Tuesday is upon us! And, if you follow this blog you know, if it's Tuesday, it must be tumblr, but today is not just any Tuesday: Today, February the Twenty-First of 2012, is Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Day, a day when folks participate in Pancake Races. (Hence, the photograph at the top of today's blog credited here.)

If you are interested in learning about the traditions of Shrove Tuesday (which is celebrated throughout the world), the link I have provided in the first paragraph of today's entry will take you to a source which has all the information you may ever care to know about this day.

My role here, today, on TLLG's blog, is just to introduce Shrove Tuesday and the practice of Pancake Races to you, and to let you know that if you do decide to participate in a Pancake Race, just remember, since this is Tuesday, it must be tumblr on TLLG; please click here for the link to take you there. (But please tread lightly if you are going there whilst making pancakes!)

And, may you have a great Shrove Tuesday (also known as Fat Tuesday, the culmination of Mardi Gras).

Remembering ETHEL MERMAN: January 16, 1908 --February 15, 1984

What follows (except for the picture of Ethel Merman at the top of today's blog entry from Wiki), is similar content to what I posted this afternoon on TLLG's Facebook page. I rarely duplicate content, but the roses, which I grow in my urban (NYC) terrace garden, insisted I post the same thing here on The Last Leaf Gardener blog for my followers who "don't do Facebook."

"If it's Tuesday, it must be tumblr . . . " Week Twenty (AND HAPPY VALENTINES DAY)

My spokes-plant (and collaborator), as you may recall from a previous entry here on TLLG, is one of my ornamental grasses known as Ophipogon planiscapus (Black Mondo Grass) triplets. 

The other day, as he and I were going through my Aperture Library, doing some early spring organizing of the photographs that I have there, we agreed that the image posted above, of one of my flowering Hens and Chicks, a succulent that grows in my urban (NYC) terrace garden (but who is sleeping now during our "so-called" winter), should "serve" as our valentine card to you, dear reader, as a small token of our appreciation for your support in following us here on TLLG.