And just like that, summer is here. Today the temp is going to reach 89° and the next two or three days will reach 90°. Plus, we’re headed into about a week or so of rain and thunderstorms, starting on Friday.
Not quite ready for summer.
We went to our local nursery yesterday to buy our hanging plants for the porch. I also bought some geraniums for the whiskey barrels and the lantanas, sweet potato vine, and dracaena for the galvanized tub that sits on the Funky Patio.
Having gardened here since 2005, the perennial gardens are now well established and I don’t have to spend money adding plants every year (this is why I love perennial gardening.) The modest amount of money I spend is on a couple flats of impatiens for the pots (that I recycle every year) on the porch, some plants for the galvanized tub and the whiskey barrels, and a couple of hanging plants (scaevola) for the porch. I overwintered the hanging geranium from last summer, so I saved money there. I don’t change out my hanging pots during the summer – I buy plants that I know will last through the season. The scaevola is gorgeous and it lasts until the first frost, as do the impatiens, which I often overwinter.
Getting the scaevolas from the nursery always seems to mark the beginning of porch sitting for me. They look so beautiful hanging on the porch.
Don: Stop Here.
In TSP news, a guitar that I ordered arrived in the mailbox yesterday.
It’s the one on the right. The guitar on the left was given to me by Barbara. I liked it so much that I was determined to order another version by the same Etsy seller, LA LittleArtist, who lives in The Netherlands.
They are beautifully made.
These look so much more realistic than any I’ve seen available commercially. And if I’m shooting for realism in the TSP, then there must be at least 3 guitars hanging around. After all, Don has about 4 or 5 of them upstairs in our office.
We just moved this chair up to the office. We had to do some chair maneuvering when we bought the vintage chair on Sunday. At some point, we’d like an easy chair in this space, but for now, this will do. It’s actually remarkably comfortable. (The painting is an oil done by my father.)
Happy Wednesday.
glad you enjoy gardening. the results are beautiful and what i’d enjoy most (am not a gardener).
the tsp is looking so good, too. almost done?
love the chair swap. windsors are a favorite, plus the table with your father’s painting … perfect!
kathy in iowa
It is almost done. Just a few tweaks and it will be ready and waiting for Don’s birthday in June.
Happy Wednesday to you dear friend!! Don’s gift is just superb! So realistic. Love the painting your dad did. What a treasure to have.
Judy
It’s one of my favorite paintings, Judy. xo
The detail on the guitars is amazing. I know Don is going to love it all. Your flowers are looking great. I’ve had no time to add some to my yard but hopefully next week. Still moving Mom but it’s almost all here and then the unpacking begins.
hugs,
Linda
Soon, your mom’s stuff will be in one place and unpacked, Linda. Hang in there!
I am not ready for the hot weather! I love your Dad’s painting , he was very talented.
Thanks, Doris. He was.
I was just out weeding and it got so hot, so fast. I’m back inside with the A/C on.
Yuk I know summer, the idea of summer is great! But in actuality is his humid and unbearable. 20 years ago I did perennials, so like you it it now just a few annuals for kitchen window box and a plant to hang on garage and something for old chair on front steps. I am really finding it too hard to bend down and dig holes. Except yesterday we put in a 5′ tall weeping cherry to block ( almost) the view of neighbor’s yard. They for some unknown reason cut down a lovely forsythia that blocked my few of their rather untidy back yard! Claudia, sometimes when I quickly look at the photos on your blog I think Don’s room is full size, you have done a wonderful job.
Good idea to buy the weeping cherry, Mary.
Thanks for your kind words.
I agree with Mary – your pictures of the TSP make it look like real life size…not miniature. Very cool. Love the painting your Father did — very restful to me.
Thank you, Vera. I love it when a reader gets ‘confused’ as to whether I’m posting a picture of my real house or a dollhouse! It’s fun.
Thanks for the kind words about Dad’s painting. He was very talented and this is one he did especially for Don and me. We love it.
LOL, Claudia, I thought the last photo was a surprise miniature until I read the caption! Goofy weather out there… My daughter lets her annuals go to seed and she replant a them as appropriate. She hates spending extra money.
I was thinking that I should start hashtaging photos with #reallife and #miniaturelife so that there won’t be any confusion!
Your new chair is just my style! I’ve always liked that “Windsory” type of chair and surprisingly had a lot of trouble trying to find a dining room set that included them when shopping in the 80s. Ended up buying “a la carte” from a wonderful Amish cabinetmaker not far from here. A round table [because in my teacher training, we learned that people are more sociable at round tables – who knew?], a sideboard/hutch and chairs like yours here. Superb craftmanship and much less expensive than a “regular store” would have been. Since then, I’ve bought all my furniture from the same place. Saved a major bundle doing it and bonus, it felt good to help support a real American family business. Good deal all around. PS – those little yellow flowers and the greenery in your first photo today are the essence of Cheery against the dark soil. Just shouts Spring! ?
I think this particular chair was in a restaurant or bar because it has metal rods to brace it. It’s really lovely.
Since the porch has so many pastel flowers, I like a good shot of strong color on the Funky Patio, hence the yellow!
TSP is so beautiful – I think Don is going to be over the moon when he sees it. I’m going to be planting some flowers this weekend. I may try the scaevolas – I like that they will stand the summer weather. My birthday is in June too and I bought myself a present today – tickets to see Anastasia on June 4th at Hartford Stage!
Yay! You’ll love it, Karen. We’re going to Opening Night this Friday. I can’t wait for Don to see it.
Scaevolas hold up nicely, just make sure to water them or they’ll wilt. Probably more so if in a hanging pot, like mine are. I keep an eye on them and water them every few days. If I forget, they’ll tell me so, as I can see them wilting.
Hi Claudia! I love the guitars and I suppose that this means that you will be including a tray full of tiny guitar picks inside the studio too? :))
Oh, tiny picks! Good idea, Elizabeth! Hmmmm…
Summer arrived here early too…and I’m not prepared for it at all! Looks like we are in for heat and storms all through next week. That guitar is a wonder…so detailed. I, too, thought that last pic was a miniature at first. Thought my eyesight was going at first. Hashtags might be in order! ;)
Same weather here, Donnamae. Not real happy that we had very little Spring!
Add me to the many who thought the last shot was another mini project. You’re getting really good and seem to have inherited your father’s artistic genes.
Thanks, Margaret. I’m going to have to properly identify these photos!
I am so happy to hear that I am not the only one who questions if the pictures (sometimes) are of “real” furniture or of the mini-variety!! It is really so amazing.
Have done a lot of planting since the weekend. Tomorrow Home Depot has their hanging baskets on sale 2 for $10, so will be heading that way!! Once I get those, I think I will be done. I am also a big fan of Perennials!! I have planted a few in large pots/ galv tubs, and they work that way, too!!
Hot and muggy here. But after the cold that wouldn’t stop, we will just turn on the AC and be happy. ?
Good sale at Home Depot, Chris! I told Don on Monday what the weather forecast was and we decided to put in the a/c units then. Thank goodness! I’m sitting in a nicely cooled cottage at the moment.
Your Dad’s painting is beautiful Claudia!
Thank you, Nancy. I really love it.
Same weather here – hot (high 80’s) and muggy these past couple of days. Thunderstorms have now moved in. We have mostly perennial beds too, but I still buy some annuals to add color here and there, especially in pots on the patio and porch.
It amazes me how realistic the miniatures are!
Your dad’s painting is gorgeous. He was obviously very talented.
He was. He liked to paint and was painting into his eighties.
Your TSP is so realistic that I actually, for a brief moment, didn’t know if the chair you moved upstairs was from IT, or your human house! It’s so much of what you’re able to capture with your eye; great photos of the miniatures to where I think I’m in a life-sized house; entirely real and believable!
Can you do a lot of porch sitting throughout the summer…or are you eventually driven inside by mosquitoes?
We don’t sit on the porch at night – that would be asking for mosquito bites. But I sit there during the day, especially in the morning.