Mellow Yellow Monday

I visited Santa Barbara, California this summer to spend time with my daughter and daughter-in-law. There is an annual Summer Solstice Parade there; one of the biggest in the country. It was such a blast!  Here we have a Mellow Yellow Bird Lady atop a float with The Chesire Cat. Could that mean that she is "sitting in the catbird seat" ?  What do you think?

 

Mellow Yellow Monday

Mellow Yellow Monday

The Charles MacDonald Concrete Museum

Centreville, Kings County

Nova Scotia

 

 

 

Mellow Yellow Monday
Photo submissions featuring the color yellow

Today's Flowers and Mellow Yellow Monday

 

The Sunflower

In our western Massachusetts U.S.A. garden, we were delighted by a healthy crop of sunflowers in one of our beds in the back garden.  We did not have much luck with these yellow beauties in the past. Perhaps it was something to do with the seeds?  One thing I find peculiar is that almost all of the sunflowers bend their faces to the north. Whatever their personal preferences, I am partial to the sunflower and I'm thrilled they are liking their home in my garden. Next year, I want more of them! 

Ah Sunflower

 

Ah Sunflower, weary of time,
Who countest the steps of the sun;
Seeking after that sweet golden clime
Where the traveller's journey is done;

Where the Youth pined away with desire,
And the pale virgin shrouded in snow,
Arise from their graves, and aspire
Where my Sunflower wishes to go!

William Blake

Today's Flowers

 

Mellow Yellow Monday

Today's Flowers, Mellow Yellow Monday and Watery Wednesday

Wild Iris along the Connecticut River

Gill, Massachusetts

Today's Flowers

Mellow Yellow Monday

Watery Wednesday

Scenic Sunday and Mellow Yellow Monday

A Tour of historic Amherst, Massachusetts

I'm linking to Brenda's Mellow Yellow Monday meme and linking my first entry to Aisha's Scenic Sunday meme, as well. Look for more information on these photo memes at the end of the post.

Downtown Amherst is a quintessential American college town. With one private college, Amherst College and a large state university, UMass Amherst, the downtown is bustling with students, professors, young families, artists and musicians. The atmosphere is busy but really friendly and peaceful. On this day, all types of people of all racial, religious and ethnic stripe, were going about their day. Some where relaxing and catching sun on the expansive town common, others sitting on the park benches that line North Pleasant Street.

Outside the center, lies the giant metropolis that is UMass, which is surrounded by rolling hills, farmland and woods. As I turned the corner from North Pleasant Street to Main, I stopped (finally) to take this photograph.

"First rate men and women will not and cannot work under conditions fixed by those who are afraid of ideas."

~American historian Henry Steele Commanger and life-long town resident of Amherst,
Massachusetts.

This ceramic plaque hands on the brick facade of a building at the top of Main Street, in Amherst. Would like to take a walk down Main Street with me on a sunny, spring day?

After the Chinese Restaurant, there is a little square with a fountain and stone benches. Adjacent to it is a small park with benches and space for residents to sit on the lawn and read or sunbathe and for children to run.

click on all photos to enlarge

Toward upper Main Street, another park: a sort of tribute to the American poets Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. Here the poets sit among flowering trees and daffodil beds.
Just a little way down, there is the Emily Dickinson Homestead and Museum and The Evergreens, Emily's brother Austin's home. It looked like the photo above just last week when I visited but on this day...

the area was sectioned off with construction fencing and the front lawn was being dug up. I notice last week that many of the stately trees in front had been cut down. I'm not sure what's going on.

Here is the backyard of the Dickinson house, including a corner of the garden...

with these fantastically red tulips,
these beauties - are they a variety of tulip?

and of course Emily's garden would not be complete without a bumble bee or two.
click to enlarge