May Showers...Flowers

You know that saying "April showers bring May flowers"? It is usually no truer than in the Pacific Northwest, except that this year it was reversed. High temps in the April (a whopping 76 deg F one weekend!) had many hopeful for May, but the showers came late this year so here we are in Corvallis, OR: wet, cold, and in May.

No complaints from me (I love the wet and the chilly) and the flowers came out anyway...as did the insects. :-) It made for some pretty pix, I thought I'd share a few...



I don't know what this purple flower is, and now that I'm in grad school I'll have to admit that hobbyist pursuits like gardening and knowing plant names isn't on the top five priority list. Still...they're so pretty they deserve to be captured here.

Downtown Corvallis has some of the prettiest landscaping.

I think this is a lilac. There was a downpour moments before I took this shot, and seconds after I snapped it...gotta love it.


Sitting in my car across the street, children began shouting "snow! snow!" and snow indeed it did...flower petals from this tree. A series of windgusts nearly robbed it bare, but not before I snapped this scene of a red "bug" and the ground covered in soft pink.


A dogwood tree in front of the veggy house. It now sports a locally-made hummingbird feeder for the migrating Rufus.


I'm never without my camera these days and it's a good thing. Insects are blossoming along with the flowers. Far left: a box elder bug. Immediate left: a stink bug (yes, they can really stink). Both are in the true bug order of insects, Hemiptera, and eat plant matter.