It’s been a long month this week. Lots of stuff going on-I was thinking that not all of it is good, but who am I to say what’s good or not? Only time and perspective can make sense of some things. Maybe. In the meantime, all you can do is tend your own garden. And if you are lucky like me, you live next door to someone like my neighbor Bob who tends a lovely garden and shares it with the neighborhood. Here are some pictures.
One of the best ways to see Philadelphia is to walk it. Here are some pictures I took on a stroll to Northern Liberties from my own neighborhood in South Philadelphia.
The crocuses are peeping up in Bob’s garden. What more proof could we need?
It happened while I was at Clayathon. Dark chilly days and then POW! I was sneezing and blowing my nose. The allergy fairy took hold of me and fairly rattled my teeth, even though I usually don’t suffer from Hay Fever, the pollen levels were off the charts!
Spring has come to Philadelphia and to my neighbor Bob’s sidewalk garden
Flowers are popping out all over my part of Philadelphia. The tree blossoms are only blooming for a few days before they fall from the tree limbs and collect on the sidewalk. until then, every walk is glorious Spring.
The bigs news is that Bob built a new Koi pond this year. The other big news is that Turtle has a brand new perch and a big pot of water hyacinth to munch on. He seems happy and does not appear to be eating the new guppies that Bob has added to the pond.
Bob has added new plants, but think he is still deciding on the final design of the garden. He also has a little collection of plants that people are free to take if they want. While I’m sure Boris would like a plant to chew on, I think I will pass on the offer.
Here are some pictures.
Enjoy the Koi pond!
Things are quieting down in Bob’s garden about now and the last of the summer flowers are starting to fade. The cacti are getting themselves ready for the winter and the turtles have gone to the bottom of the koi pond to wait out the cold weather. The banana tree didn’t throw off any fruit this summer but its long, broad leaves still made me feel like I was in the tropics. Here are some pictures of Bob’s garden in the fall.
For more pictures of Bob’s garden over the years, press here.
 One of the things I love most about Philadelphia is the unexpected little streets and alley ways that stretch from Queen Village to Point Breeze and all the neighborhoods in between.  Here are some flower pictures I took on some walks around the city.
They say that everybody  always complains about the weather but nobody ever does anything about it.   If you are at all into gardening, this Spring’s crazy weather has made things a challenge: Flowers opening early and freezing; buds opening up icing over and and falling off; rain and chilly weather that has made May seem more like  Fall than Spring. Â
So Bob has faced challenges in the garden this spring and it’s not as full and lush as it usually is at this time of year.  Even so, there are four turtles in the Koi pond and sometimes they sit in the sun stacked up on one another.  Turtles really do that.  I don’t have any pictures because they are camera shy, but you can see many examples here. And the turtles come out on the so far rare sunny days to bask in the sun and enjoy the flowers.
I live in South Philadelphia where there’s not much greenery. But I’m lucky because my neighbor Bob turns the hot and gritty summer landscape into an urban oasis every year. Here are some pictures from this years’ garden.
The Hawthorn tree
The Koi pond
Street view
Banana tree
 Flowers bloom, die and
New flowers come up to take their place
Lotus
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The Banana tree and koi pond
Bob’s BFF Barbra keeps watch over everything. Sqwalk!
If you want to see posts about of Bob’s garden from summers past, click on the links below. Not all of the slide show links work on the older posts but they will give you an idea of how the garden has changed over the years.Â
2007Â
I love to walk around my neighborhood with my camera and I spent some time this weekend taking pictures. Flowers were blooming in beds, patches, window boxes and containers. The tulips were dying off and the irises were coming out. As I happily snapped my way around my bit of South Philadelphia, I started concentrating on flowers that were still in the bud stage, those emerging from the bud stage, the insides of flowers in bloom and the ones that were on the decline. It felt a little like I was peeking into their undies or seeing them without their makeup or their hair combed. I felt a bit like an intruder. Here are some pictures you will never see in the National Enquirer.
Ornamento 