Actual, recent pointless photos of the day:

It's pointless photo day here on the blog.

Yes, I know that there are pointless photos almost every day on the blog, but today they're pretty much the entire post.

And no, that doesn't make them pointed photos. If they had a point, the blog would turn into a pumpkin. That's the rules.

Anyway. Today we're looking at the state of green things in my father's garden. As of Friday, I'd finally seen my first outdoor flower of the season. They're Early Blue Violets (Viola adunca), a local wildflower, and they grow (appropriately) wild all over the yard. And yes, I know that they're purple rather than blue. I can't help it if botanists have a weird sense of colour when they're handing out names.

I noticed my first non-wild flower on Saturday. Just barely noticed it. I think this is about the tiniest crocus I've ever seen in the yard. It was using a tulip leaf as a shield.

Not effectively, apparently. I still managed to find it.

My mother liked bulb flowers. She had bulbs planted all over the yard. Expensive bulbs, too. Tulips, crocuses, grape hyacinths... all kinds of things worth all kinds of money. Planted carefully according to the instructions.

They rarely came up more than one year in a row. This yard doesn't seem to like bulbs.

A few years ago my father picked up some cheap, end-of-season-discount bulbs from Wally World. He took advantage of a late start to winter to plunk them into the ground wherever the soil was still unfrozen.

They come up every year.

Not sure how my mother would feel about that.

Speaking of bulbs... remember this? Bed springs for tulips to deter the deer? Well, as you can see if you look to the left, deer laugh in the face of the bed spring dilemma.

I kind of assumed that it would happen.

They were kind enough to leave some of the plant behind and hopefully it'll come up again next year, but unfortunately this means yet another year without the nice pink double flowers.

Yep, they got this particular plant last year as well.

This plant's now wearing a grate to protect the remaining leaves and give them a chance to grow.

Grate, you say, Dee?

Yes, grate. Old barbecue grates, amongst other things. The yard's fairly littered with them at the moment.

It does tend to work as deer-proofing, but it also makes it look like the tulips are being punished for something.

Tulips behind bars.

I wonder who gets to sleep on the top bunk?

Anyway, that's it for now. Soon enough the pointless photography will become entirely flower-oriented, as it always does this time of year, so I hope my two fans are into that sort of thing.

Flowers.

I like flowers.

I like spiders too, you know.

And yes, consider that fair warning so far as the picture thing goes.