flowers — Page 188

Miracles in the Garden

April 16, 2017 at 10:37 am by Claudia

Whatever you are celebrating today, I send you my best wishes for a happy and joyous day.

Here in my neck of the woods, the temperature is going to reach 81 degrees and then, as is the case in the Spring, it will drop back down to a more moderate temperature tomorrow.

My beautiful lilacs are coming along nicely. I took this a couple of days ago, so I’ll have to do an update later today.

This is the season of miracles. Plants that were thought lost are back again. Old reliable friends have spread their beauty into other parts of the garden. We’ve made it through a month in which there were balmy days and then suddenly, snow and frigid temperatures. Still they survive. And thrive. Amazing and truly wondrous.

Back after taking a year off:

These beauties. In a garden filled with green and brown, this splash of vivid purple makes me smile.

Yesterday I took a little ride and then came home and decided to mow the area of the lawn that is on the house side of the driveway. Since we’re on a slope, rain water flows down the slope and portions of the lawn grow very quickly and densely. In April and May, we usually have to stop the lawnmower and clear out clogged grass, then start it again and this can go on and on. Since I’m handling this on my own, I decided to mow early and often. As I opened the shed to get the lawn mower, I noticed the bins holding the air conditioners had fallen forward (they’re fine) onto the snowblower.

Crap. I knew I would have to move them, as I didn’t want any damage to occur to the snowblower. I moved the lawnmower out of the shed and lifted each bin off the pile and down to the floor of the shed. But that left no room for the lawnmower. Since I wasn’t sure how to reconfigure the shed contents on my own, I took two of the bins outside the shed. Then I wheeled the lawnmower down toward the lawn and mowed. That in itself was tiring. When I finished, I looked at those bins and figured I might as well drag them toward the house – which I did – and move them inside.

And then, despite what I knew Don would say, I proceeded to install the kitchen a/c unit. It’s the heaviest and most awkward of the units and it wasn’t easy. Lots of heavy lifting. At one point in the middle of the process, guess who called? Yep. I fessed up immediately, explaining that I had no idea where to put them after I’d had to haul them out of the shed. He wasn’t happy, but he understood.

Then I moved the bedroom unit up the stairs one at a time, by pushing it up onto each step. Once I got it upstairs, I could easily move it into the bedroom. This one is the scariest for me to do on my own because I’m so afraid that I’m going to drop it and it will crash to the ground. In the middle of the whole thing I almost gave up. But I somehow managed it and it’s a done deal.

There’s still the unit for the office to install but that can wait.

I was really, really exhausted at the end of the day. A nice hot bath helped.

So, I’m taking it easy today. Really, really easy.

Enjoy your day, friends.

Happy Sunday.

Garden, Bunnies and Birds

April 13, 2017 at 9:03 am by Claudia

As I was making dinner last night, the light was so lovely and the birdsong so beautiful that I grabbed my camera and went outside.

I forget how easily I get lost in taking pictures – when I went back in, I had overcooked my asparagus! Ah well. I enjoyed it anyway.

The grasses popped up over night. Amazing what happens this time of year.

Buds on the limelight hydrangea.

Boxwood.

Buds on the maple.

Hyacinths.

I was going to say this was a hawk, but I think it’s a turkey vulture.

This little bird, way off in the trees, was singing the most beautiful melodies!

Right outside the kitchen window this morning.

Happy Thursday.

Too Darn Hot, The Garden, Egg Cups & Nancy Drew

April 12, 2017 at 9:52 am by Claudia

When I came in the house yesterday after working outside because it was so darn hot, I checked the weather app on my phone.

86 degrees.

What the heck? It’s too darned early for that nonsense. Since the window air conditioners have yet to be installed, last night’s sleep was a wee bit erratic. It was so darned hot! Thankfully, today’s temperatures have dropped back to the norm for this time of year. It’s a little rainy this morning and the high will be 70.

That’s better.

The unseasonably warm temps moved some of the plants along. This is what I observed yesterday.

The forsythia is starting to bloom. I see yellow splashes of forsythia all over town, but ours blooms a bit later since it’s on a higher elevation in the woods.

Hello, lilac leaves! They opened overnight.

The hyacinths started to open. We are now in the early stages of spring in the garden.

I cleaned out the memorial garden bed, which was full of leaves, as is/was every bed on the property. Then I went around to the side of the house and raked out that bed. I found a tuberous root that had come out of the ground, most likely due to the ground seizing during the thaws and refreezes that happened in March. I think it might be a day lily. After googling for more info, I replanted it, but whether it takes or not is open to question.

I think I’m going to add some day lilies to the memorial garden. Yep. I going to do that very thing. Scout, in particular, joyously greeted each new day as if it was a miracle. A day lily seems appropriate.

Rounding up the remainder of the egg cups. Many of these are on shelves in the china cabinets or on the bookshelves. On the left, a gift from a reader. This one was hand painted. It is one of the largest egg cups I own. Next to that, an adorable egg cup from Linda. The tail is a salter. Next to that, a Delft egg cup from Holland. Then my newest egg cup, from France. The design includes two groundhogs! Then a blue transferware egg cup. An egg cup from Devon, England – a gift from Mary. An egg cup from France that I found in San Diego. And finally, a goose egg cup – also from France – that I found in an antique shop.

Ta da! We’re done. I seldom buy them nowadays because vintage figural egg cups are few and far between and the ones I really love, I already have. The Disney egg cups are still on my radar – my dream would be to own the entire set from 1937. But they are very, very pricey.

A big old welcome to this edition of Nancy Drew – Nancy’s Mysterious Letter. My favorite illustrations by Russell H. Tandy are the first eight or nine, which were done in the thirties. This is one of them – number 8 in the series. I want those shoes. But not the fur coat. One hopes that the Nancy of 2017 would eschew fur.

One more is on the way, and then seven to go and I will have all the Russell H. Tandy cover illustrations.

Someone asked what I would collect when I had accumulated all the Nancy Drews. I am an inveterate collector, as you know. Don’t forget I still collect McCoy Pottery, Roseville Pottery, vintage books, little sheep and lambs (figurines and otherwise,) egg cups, bakelite, Maxfield Parrish and Wallace Nutting prints. Oh, and wedding cake toppers.

See? There’s plenty to search for.

Yesterday’s email version of the blog post went out in the evening for some reason, rather than earlier in the day. Since I use Google Feedburner (which is free, thank goodness) I have no real control over it. Every once in while, Feedburner has a glitch or two. I’ll keep an eye on it. And I’ll say what I always say, just come to the blog directly. 99.9% of the time, I will have written a post for that day.

Okay. Time to get my butt in gear.

Happy Wednesday.

Miracles in the Garden

Garden, Bunnies and Birds

Too Darn Hot, The Garden, Egg Cups & Nancy Drew

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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