My Yellow Peony

April 30, 2021, we ventured out shopping for shrubs and flowers. I saw this yellow peony, I thought it was the one of the prettiest peonies that I’d ever seen. I’d wanted a yellow peony for at least 4 decades. I’ve spoke of it to my husband oodles of times over the years. Unfortunately, it was more expensive than I’m comfortable paying for a flower and it saddened me. I turned to walk away.
My husband watched me admiring the peony and said with a huge smile, “Happy Early Mother’s Day!”
I was over-the-moon with joy.
It’s been a beautiful addition to my small flowerbed ever since.

Bartzella Itoh Peony
It’s a hybrid herbaceous and tree peony cross.
It has a wonderful fragrance.
The blooms are about 8 inches across
It’s deer and rabbit resistant.
It doesn’t need ants, insects or bugs, to feed on it, to bloom.

Wishing you all a beautiful rest of the week!

Cameo Spider

For me, one of the enjoyments of peonies is taking photos of the bugs, insects, ants, bees or arachnids feeding on their bloom-buds. I will refer to them as ‘feeders’ for the purpose of this post.
So, as I was taking photos of the ‘feeders’ I noticed a white spider. I took some photos of it and moved on. I didn’t think anything about it.
I loaded the photos on the computer, I view the photos large size so I can see the feeders in detail. I got a chuckle when I saw a slightly unsettling surprise on the spiders back; a sort of cameo face.
Then I noticed that sadly the poor little thing seems to have only 4 legs.

I was hesitant to share it here on my blog. I realize it could be a trigger for folks that have arachnophobia. I apologize in advance. I mean no harm. I’ve tried to make links instead of posting the photos in full view.  (Hopefully, I did the links right.  )

If you click on the link or the photo and don’t see the face on the spider’s back in the photos, it’s okay. Not everyone enjoys pareidolia as much as I do. 🙂

If you would like to see a large photo crop to see the face better, click here

Below is the peony photo. You can click on it to view a larger size.

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend!

*By-the-way, I don’t care what the experts say about not needing feeders on peonies for them to bloom. In my experience, peony bloom buds without feeders shrivel and die.
One more thought: I do have one variety of yellow peony that never has feeders on it’s buds, and it blooms beautifully.