Over the weekend, I brought this Dutch Hyacinth home from the flower concession in the supermarket. These come and go rather quickly, but they are so beautiful and fragrant when they bloom.

Today, you can not walk into the kitchen, where these are in bloom, without noticing the beautiful fragrance, let alone the pretty pink blossoms.

Click on the image to enlarge.

WikiPedia has this to say about the Dutch Hyacinth:

The Dutch, or Common Hyacinth of house and garden culture (H. orientalis, native to southwest Asia) was so popular in the 18th century that over 2,000 cultivars were cultivated in the Netherlands, its chief commercial producer. This hyacinth has a single dense spike of fragrant flowers in shades of red, blue, white, orange, pink, violet, or yellow. A form of the common hyacinth is the less hardy and smaller blue- or white-petalled Roman hyacinth of florists. These flowers should have indirect sunlight and are to be moderately watered.

We saw a commercial promoting tourism in Utah on the TV this evening. Of course, that induced a serious case of wanderlust in both of us. I dug out this photo of an arch in southern Utah near Moab. We can’t wait to get back to this ‘red dirt’ part of the world. Click image to enlarge.

These colorful iris are store-bought - we got several stems Friday at the flower concession in the supermarket. Soon, though, our patio will be host to some very beautiful bearded iris and who knows what else. Stay tuned.

Click the image to enlarge.

On our visit to Mom and Dad’s today, I went into the back yard as usual. While there I took this picture of one of Mom’s tiny yellow roses.

Click image to enlarge.

This is the little orchid that we got at the garden hothouse a few weeks ago.

Click image to enlarge.

The colors in this rose vary from pastel yellow to pastel pink. This is in Mom’s garden. I took this photo today while on my regular visit. Click image to enlarge.

It has been over sixty years since Verna’s Dad served in the U.S. Navy. He was stationed at Gibraltar in 1948 where Navy Patrol Squadron 26 had a detachment at the time.

The Cold War was fully in progress, and Dad’s Squadron was right in the thick of it all. He was a flight crew member and flew missions on the Navy version of the old B24 - the PB4Y-2 ‘Privateer.’ He flew missions all over the Mediterranean, Europe, the North Atlantic Ocean and back to the US for logistics and repairs.

Image: PB4Y-2 similar to ones in Dad’s squadron.

I did the research on his old squadron and brought him a package of information and history about VP-26, complete with pictures and the squadron patch seen above. That triggered a lot of old memories and discussions with Bill about his adventures in VP-26.

This mission statement is taken from the VP-26 Website:

Patrol Squadron VP-26, a member of Patrol Wing FIVE, is a Maritime Patrol Squadron with a worldwide theater of operations. Mission areas include: Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW), Anti-Surface Warfare (ASU), Command and Control Warfare (C2W), Command, Control, and Communications (CCC), Intelligence (INT), Mine Warfare (MIW), and Mobility (MOB). Although the “TRIDENTS” are homeported at U.S. (Naval Air Station) NAS Brunswick, Maine, their reputation is known throughout the world. The Tridents have demonstrated success in all of these tasks and in all the services performed, one thing remains constant: Team Trident is at the ready, supporting the mission… Anytime… Anywhere!

I downloaded the history file that I found on the VP-26 website and have made it available here in case you want to read about Dad’s old squadron. Click here for the Complete VP-26 History (PDF).