Cliff wonders why I spend so much time outside in the morning

I love to watch the sun as it starts to shed light on my home.  

The cottonwood tree in the pasture is so pretty at dawn.  

There's always some new flower blooming.  

The garden holds surprises for me every day.  My mother told me that when she was a little girl, she always hoped a few strawberries would be ripe in time for her birthday, May 21.  Mine are a month earlier than that, this year.  Of course, I'm 100 miles south of my mother's childhood home.  

The tomato plant I put out ridiculously early, about three weeks ago, is blooming.  I may have to cover it Sunday night; we'll see.  

The cages are in place around my main crop of Celebrity tomatoes... eight plants.  Down at the end in the row on the right is a single caged plant I bought Monday, a very special plant.  

It's a Rutgers, which is considered an heirloom variety.  It was developed in the 1930's.  This was my mainstay tomato for canning and table use until blight became an every-year problem and I had to switch to newer kinds, like Celebrity.  They are nice tomatoes, but not nearly as tasty as the Rutgers.  I would be deliriously happy if this single plant would somehow beat the blight and give us some decent-tasting tomatoes.  

Everybody knows what the Mayapple, or Mayflower, plant looks like, but have you ever seen an actual flower on the plant?  Or the apple?  Here it is!  I noticed it blooming the other day, and watched for the Mayapple fruit to appear.  I don't know that it's edible, and since it's only about 1/2 inch through, it wouldn't make much of a meal anyhow.  This is one of the mayflower plants I brought up out of the woods to see if it was possible to transplant them.  They are thriving so well that I will probably eliminate some of the plants before long.  It's the same with the wild violets, which would love to take over my flowerbed.  

Red is such a pretty color, especially on things that come from my garden.