flowers — Page 204

Memories and Missing

July 14, 2016 at 10:08 am by Claudia

This will be a quickly-put-together post, my friends. I had a somewhat sleepless and frustrating night, eventually nodding off sometime before dawn, so I didn’t get out of bed until 9 and I’m barely functioning as I wait for the coffee to kick in!

I just couldn’t turn my brain off; some worries floating around in there, but mostly snatches of songs from Anastasia playing over and over, along with memories of our dogs. I couldn’t stop thinking of Winston and Riley and Scout. I guess my mind didn’t want to let go of them. Then this morning, as I tried to go back to sleep once more, memories of living in Cambridge and teaching at Boston University.

A very strange night.

7-14 purpledaylilies

More of these gorgeous daylilies. There are two plants in the side garden bed. This one just started blooming yesterday.

7-14 milkweedbybigbed

This is the first time that milkweed has popped up in the front yard. This one is right by the stone edging of the big garden bed. Maybe, oh please, I’ll see a caterpillar?

7-14 sedumbugs

The spirea has finished blooming for the most part, but there are a few valiant blooms popping up her and there. The teeny tiny bugs seem to like this one.

I miss our dogs. And Scout has been on my mind daily, but especially during the past week. I can recreate the scent of her head when I would lean down to kiss her. I can feel the texture of her coat. I remember the quirky things she did. I really miss taking pictures of her. She was so much a part of this blog that I sometimes feel part of the life of the blog has died. And, of course, though Don and I get along famously and love being together, the cottage seems empty. Scoutie was the heart and soul of this place.

We are not ready to adopt another dog, so please don’t suggest it, my friends. We’ll know when it’s time. We want to travel a bit in the next year. We want to make sure we’re ready when it is time to adopt. And our hearts are still broken. It’s only been five months since she left us.

Damn. Life has been very hard for the past couple of years and the shadow of loss is there all the time. It just takes over every once and a while.

Happy Thursday.

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Morning, Flowers, Henry & Endeavor

July 13, 2016 at 9:32 am by Claudia

Morning at the cottage. The only ‘staging’ involved was pulling the pile of my husband’s clean underwear out of the shot.

I’m sure you appreciate that. And you’re welcome.

I have several succulents on the kitchen table. Succulents and I have to learn how to work together for the good of all. I think I overwatered one of mine – even though I was being pretty careful on that front – and it’s not doing well. The others are okay. Perhaps it’s time to buy a book about succulents and learn more about them?

7-13 orchiddaylily

These daylilies are growing in the garden bed on the far side of the cottage. They grow big and tall and have the most beautiful pink/lavender petals with a dash of bright yellow in the middle. I had to hold this flower to get the shot because, for some reason, the flowers are facing away from the sun. Go figure.

7-13 browneyedsusan

I love the way brown-eyed susans look before they bloom. The petals look as if they are covering up the center, almost as if they’re embarrassed to be seen. I have a lot of these now as they’ve self-seeded in another part of the big garden bed.

7-13 flowers in wire

I bought a bag of mulch yesterday and mulched the beds in the Memorial Garden. I watched the bunnies dine. I tried to determine if there are two Henrys…I think there are. A seemingly smaller Henry was dining right in front of our living room window the other day. And then I saw another Henry later in the day, dining near the shed. So I’m not sure if it’s the change in perspective that makes that Henry look bigger. Or if there are indeed two Henrys. Don isn’t sure, either. There were no babies this year as far as I can tell. We would have seen them scampering about near the shed.

My next door neighbor tells me she has groundhogs living under her shed, as well.

Then, late in the day, we sat on the porch and rocked on the glider.

Do any of you watch Endeavor on PBS? Each season has only four episodes and Sunday’s was a cliffhanger! Now we have to wait another year to see what happens. Don tells me they are currently filming the next and final season. And the final season of Inspector Lewis starts in a week or so.

Sob.

Happy Wednesday.

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Sadness, Lists, Flowers and Rain

July 9, 2016 at 9:54 am by Claudia

What a terrible week it has been. Last night, watching the news, I saw the photos of the policemen who were murdered in Dallas, each of them there to protect those who were peacefully protesting. And now they’re gone. I can’t wrap my mind around all of it. Innocent men all – and that includes the two men who were murdered by officers in Minnesota and Louisiana. All of it such a waste of life. I’m reading Ta-Nehisi Coates’s Between the World and Me. If you want to get a sense of what it’s like to grow up as a black male in our country, I’d urge you to read it. It’s beautifully and poetically written; it’s also raw and unsparing. The winner of The National Book Award, it is sometimes difficult and uncomfortable for me to read because that world is so different than the world I grew up in as a white girl living in suburbia. Oh, but let me tell you, that reaction tells me I need to read it.

There is much that needs to be done to bridge the divide.

7-9 anotherdaylily

It’s been so unbelievably humid here that it feels like walking around in a thick soup. And each day there are thunderstorms and torrential rains that smash down my hollyhocks and hydrangeas. More today and then, fingers crossed, we’ll get a break.

Don and I went out and tied up the hollyhocks for some support while we’re in the midst of these storms.

This daylily is in the flower bed that is right next to the porch.

7-9 beeincatmint

I remember that it was just a week or so ago when I was complaining about the lack of rain.

The joke’s on me!

7-9 beebalm

The night before last, All the President’s Men was on TCM. Don and I love that movie. In fact, it’s one of those movies that, should we happen upon it, everything else is immediately dropped. Whether it’s mid-story or almost over – no matter. We watch it.

There are others (this is my list):

Any Fred Astaire movie
Any Fred Astaire/Ginger Rogers Movie
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Big Country
The Music Man
On the Waterfront
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Hannah and Her Sisters
The Awful Truth
Dinner at Eight
Most any Screwball Comedy
Most any Frank Capra movie
Stagecoach
Red River
Alien and Aliens
Charade
You’ve Got Mail
Any Hitchcock movie

I’m sure there are more, but this list is what immediately comes to mind. (You know me, I’ll probably be editing and adding to it as the day goes on!)

Do you have a list like that? I bet you do.

7-9 eggcuproses2

I got so mad at those dreaded Japanese Beetles that I ran in the house, grabbed my clippers, and snipped off all the buds that that were in danger of being eaten. Take that, Japanese Beetles!

I suppose more reading is on the docket for today. I miss working in the garden and, gosh darn it, I’d love to mow the lawn.

I’ll stop complaining. Our rivers are getting higher and our well is getting fuller. All good.

Happy Saturday.

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Memories and Missing

Morning, Flowers, Henry & Endeavor

Sadness, Lists, Flowers and Rain

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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