flowers — Page 152

Pots and the Porch

May 19, 2018 at 10:17 am by Claudia

Getting a bit of a late start on this post as I just finished watching the Royal Wedding. I cried, of course. It was simply lovely and the perfect way to start a rainy Saturday. (I used to sing at weddings when I was a young thing and I always cried. Didn’t have to know the bride or the groom. Nope. I cried anyway.)

I had an idea for the vintage English pots I purchased the other day. Since I’ve given up on doing anything, for the time being, with the bed I wanted to create in the area behind the kitchen, my thoughts turned to the pots as a way to add some prettiness. So I trotted off to our local nursery and, after much deliberation, chose some pretty plants.

I filled them with coleus, lobularia, and silver leaf licorice plant. All three will trail and look even better with time, though I think they’re looking pretty good now. I love the deep red of the coleus.

Another shot:

They sit on cinder blocks that I found on the property long ago and lugged, one-by-one, to this area last summer. (Don lectured me afterwards about my back. But he was in California, so what was I going to do?)

Not the best time of day to take this picture, but you get the idea. It’s a sort of secret area behind the kitchen. I added those stepping stones to the left a few years back. They lead up to the back forty. Honestly, I’m thinking of getting two more pots. So there would be one further down toward the stepping stones and one more to the right.

I’m happy to say that I finished most everything yesterday, so except for ongoing weeding and maintenance (plus occasional additions because I want to fill my garden beds) I’m done with all the big spring cleanup.

Here are some pictures of the porch, taken yesterday.

The dove is here for the moment. I like to look at her/him when I’m sitting on the glider.

Rick came over for a while yesterday to talk about the garden and get ideas for their place. (I highly recommended purple coneflowers.) Anyway, we had a lovely chat, while sitting on the glider. It was a beautiful, sunny day.

Today is rainy. But that’s okay as I have to clean my neglected house. And I have no food, so there’s that.

By the way, some changes are happening on blogs and websites because of a new European Union policy on privacy and data collection, the GDPR. If a site is read by anyone in the European Union, a privacy statement about cookies and the way data is collected has to be written. Frankly, it’s daunting. I have no idea what to write or what I should write. But I’m researching it. The first thing you may notice in this newest version of WordPress is in the comment section. Those of you who comment frequently are used to your name and email address being ‘remembered’ after leaving your first comment. Today, if you want to be remembered instead of filling in the required info each and every time you comment, you have to check a box at the bottom of the form. Then it should be taken care of for the future. If you don’t want that, then don’t check the box.

Happy Saturday.

Grateful

May 15, 2018 at 9:18 am by Claudia

I’m sitting on the glider, having a cup of coffee. As I finished FaceTiming with Don, I thought, “Why go inside? Bring the laptop outside!” And so I did. I’m writing to you from my comfy seat on the glider.

It was very foggy this morning and now the sun is making itself known, though it’s in and out. We’re due for big thunderstorms today, perhaps serious storms. That makes me nervous, of course. I want the lilacs to hang in there until Don gets home this Sunday. I stood by the lilac bush this morning and just inhaled the scent. Oh heavens, there’s nothing like it.

I gave up trying to do something with the bed behind the kitchen. When I worked on it on Sunday, I found poison ivy everywhere and it’s a far bigger job than I had imagined it would be. Maybe we’ll hire a crew to clear it out next year. I would like to change it, to have control over the bed and not have it control us, but it will have to wait.

Consequently, I had to find places in the other garden beds for the plants I purchased for that area. Thankfully, there weren’t a lot of them. I spent the morning digging holes and plopping plants in the gardens. I’m not sure about the new hosta. It may be getting too much sun where it is – if so, I’ll have to move it. The jury is still out.

Then I mowed the corral and the back forty. And then I was exhausted, so I went inside, took a shower and took it easy for the rest of the day.

The lavender that I planted in this pot is really taking off.

And the catalpa is finally showing new growth. These leaves will eventually big huge and heart-shaped. Mother Nature is extraordinary.

While chatting with Don this morning, I started crying as I spoke about this house and this garden. I have to remind myself occasionally that having a cottage in the (sort-of) country was a dream of mine that I didn’t think would ever come to fruition. But it did. And then, when I look around at the porch and the garden beds, I am humbled by what we (but mostly me) have managed to create in the past twelve years. The only bed that was already in existence was the big garden bed and it had two plants in it. Oh, and there was the big hosta in the bed beside the porch entrance. That’s about it. A few hostas, some sedum Autumn Joy, the peonies down by the road and the daffodils, spread here and there on the property. Everything else came in the last 12 – almost 13 – years.

The gardens aren’t manicured. They’re sort of wild and very cottage-like. They suit the cottage and the uneven, hilly property on which we live. I’m so grateful for all of it; the cottage, the porch that is the porch of my dreams, the gardens, the critters and birds who live here. It’s a lot of work, and this year I really feel it, but it’s so, so worth it.

Happy Tuesday.

On Friday

May 11, 2018 at 8:56 am by Claudia

Yours truly is tuckered out. But more rain is due this weekend and stuff has to be done around here. There is a deadline of sorts, so on I go!

A beautiful day yesterday until the afternoon when sprinkles came and went while I was trying to finish mowing the front lawn before the deluge. (I did.) But that thunderstorm, when it came, was huge; thunder, lightning, epic rain going every which way, slamming against the windows, flooding the gutters. And afterward, the most spectacular sunset! It was a wowzer of a couple of hours.

Today: more mulching. Planting impatiens. Starting to clear the bed behind the kitchen which is usually weed-filled. No mowing, the ground is too wet.

More narcissus, this time in the big garden bed and another batch in the woods. They were here when we moved in, thanks to a previous owner. So beautiful.

Last night in Margaritaville, Alison, the female lead, was feeling under the weather. So her understudy got to go on for the first time. Her understudy, Keely, who is part of the ensemble happens to be married in real life to Paul, the male lead. So, she got to play opposite her husband and ‘marry’ him at the end of the show. Isn’t that wonderful? Smile worthy.

I ordered Monty Don’s latest book through Book Depository and it arrived earlier this week. I haven’t had time to start it yet, but this rainy weekend looks to be a good time. I love this guy.

I’m off to make my second cup of coffee.

Happy Friday.

Pots and the Porch

Grateful

On Friday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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