flowers — Page 116

Tulips & Lilacs

May 7, 2019 at 7:46 am by Claudia

Our lone tulip has opened. Such a pretty yellow!

Since it hasn’t bloomed in a couple of years, I was very happy indeed to see it yesterday morning. Some long-ago owner planted this. Perhaps the same owner who planted the peonies down near the road.

I worked my tush off yesterday, battling brambles, mulching garden beds, trimming rose bushes. I was tuckered out at the end of the day. Too bad I woke up at 4 am this morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, which is part of the reason I’m writing this so early. I want to get going outside before thunderstorms roll in during the afternoon and I collapse in my chair.

I’ve done a lot outside, but every time I stop and take a look around I am reminded of how much more there is to do.

As for the day yesterday, it was sunny before I went outside to work, turned cloudy as soon as I started gardening, and the sun did not return until I was done for the day. But whenever it emerged, I was so happy to see some sun! Today? Doubtful, as we have rain coming later in the day.

Almost all the lilac buds have opened. The small bush I bought several years ago has grown and both Don and I were impressed by its size yesterday. I’m so glad I planted it. A cottage in the country – climate permitting – should have a lilac bush. Our neighbors across the street inherited some huge lilac bushes, easily 12 feet tall. One white, one purple. I remember Laura coming over to greet us after we had just moved in. She was carrying lilacs and chocolate chip cookies. We felt then, as we do now, that we had been blessed with good neighbors.

Happy Tuesday.

Some Sun on a Monday

May 6, 2019 at 10:12 am by Claudia

We have a partly cloudy day today, but there have been some stretches of sunny. Hurrah! In fact, I’m going to post rather quickly so I can go outside and get some work done in the sunshine. As we have learned around here this particular spring, sunshine is fleeting. And true to that, tomorrow will bring thunderstorms. With sun such a rarity, I’m vowing to lap it up whenever I can. I’m also hoping there will be another dry day this week because we need to mow the back forty.

I took a quick picture of one of the vintage pots. I can’t get very close because the ground in the secret garden is so waterlogged that you can hardly walk back there. The secret garden is at the back of the house, at the foot of a hill. That makes it lush, but it also makes it very wet, especially this year.

Anyway, here is one of the pots:

Just the beginning. As you know from last year, the coleus and the vines will grow and grow. These vintage pots are made of cement and, let me tell you, hauling them back and forth to the porch is tiring. In better weather I would have done all of the potting back in the secret garden, but it was too wet back there.

Today, some weeding and mulching – hopefully, the last of it – and whatever else seems indicated. I’ll try to take some more pictures today.

We watched Ninotchka last night. Don had never seen it. The combination of Ernst Lubitsch (director of my beloved Shop Around the Corner ), Garbo, and Melvyn Douglas is perfect. Also, one of my favorite character actors, Felix Bressart, appears.

That’s all. Our days are low-key nowadays. With Darko leaving Hartford Stage in June, Anastasia closing, and of course, the closing of Margaritaville last year, work has been a rare commodity. We’d both like to be working; it keeps us sharp, is satisfying, and we need the money. But that’s the way it is right now. Hopefully, there’s something exciting on the horizon for both of us.

Happy Birthday to my dear brother David, who died in 1991. I miss him.

Happy Monday.

Potting

May 5, 2019 at 10:36 am by Claudia

It’s rainy today, but I find I’m not minding it at all. I’m sure this is because I got a lot done yesterday and the day before, and though there is more to do, I don’t feel so desperate for a rainless day.

It’s a gentle type of rain today; Don’s playing the guitar in the living room, we’ve had our second cup of coffee together on the sofa, I finished the Donna Leon this morning, and I meditated.

We watched Marty last night on TCM. Don hadn’t seen the movie version, just the live television version that aired in the early fifties with Rod Steiger. All I said to Don before the movie started – which I’ve seen – is that it will change the way in which you see Ernest Borgnine. If your experience of him is only that of McHale’s Navy, well then… But if you see his beautiful performance in Marty, well, that’s another story.

What a wonderful actor he was, pitch perfect in this role. And much better than Steiger, in my humble opinion. Steiger was a method actor and it sometimes showed in a bit or more than a bit of self-indulgence. Don’t get me wrong, Steiger was a fine actor. But I can tell the difference. Anyway, method acting is a topic for another day.

Betsy Blair, in the female lead, is also wonderful. It’s not an easy role to play; it requires no artifice, no excess. She is also pitch perfect.

It’s only about 90 minutes long and if you haven’t seen it, I hope you can someday.

I worked outside yesterday potting plants.

Eventually, the impatiens will fill out these pots and last until the first frost. I don’t have quite enough, so I’ll have to buy some more.

I also potted the coleus and vines in the antique pots I have out back in the Secret Garden, but it’s so wet back there with this rain we’ve been having, that I can’t get a good shot at the moment. Later this week, fingers crossed.

Nothing here yet; the plants I want for these pots aren’t yet in stock at the nursery.

There’s more weeding and mulching to be done, more pots to fill, more potting soil to purchase, as well as top soil. I will plant my seeds sometime this week. When all of that is done, I will sit on the glider and relax.

Happy Sunday.

Tulips & Lilacs

Some Sun on a Monday

Potting

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives