Late for Mothers Day

 This is a late Mothers Day message for my late mom who loved violets and pansies, the latter being a domesticated violet. Where we grew up,in Massachusetts, all the violets were violet.  In California, most of them are yellow - which she would have found confusing.  The above photo is of the earliest of our several yellow species to bloom, Shelton's Violet, or Fan Violet, Viola sheltonii.

This second photo is of a violet I have not yet identified.  To botanist's who don't know this one (if there are any) it's Viola sp. If my mo is still looking over me from somewhere, she will be pleased to see in a few days my photos of the Western Dog Violet which I photographed last weekend.  It's the only local one that is actually violet.