"The Irises...they are a-bloomin'..."

Yes, the irises that I have in my front flower bed which only bloom every three or four years have decided that 2010 is the year of the giant bloom! This year I thought I would try to document the various stages of the metamorphisis. So...:

Stage One:

Here we see the stalk being produced. If Jack were around he'd say, "Hey, that's not a beanstalk...that's more of an iris stalk."

Stage Two:

Now we see the iris about to bloom. It doesn't look very big, but beneath the surface...

Stage Three:


Man is this thing huge! A good 4-6 inches in diameter and a very nice shade of lavender. I had to actually hold the thing open in the second picture.

It's always nice to see something happen that doesn't happen all the time. Just like the cicadas. Only every 17 years do they show up, fly around for a few days to reproduce, then *poof*, gone again. Planet Earth had some great footage of just how many of them show up. All the bigger animals eat them non-stop until they're about to burst. But there are still millions of them left. Humans are the only species to mourn someone's death and celebrate someone's birth. To nurture our young for years instead of days or even hours. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be an animal for a week. What about a cat...maybe a bird. Just to see what they see. To feel what they feel. Once again, one of the many questions I will file under "What To Ask When You Get To Heaven".