flowers — Page 54

A Driveway Bouquet

August 16, 2021 at 9:13 am by Claudia

We mowed the front lawn yesterday and I weed whacked, as well. With so much way-too-hot and humid weather in the past 10 days, we were behind. We’re still behind; the corral and back forty have to be mowed, as well, but at least the front of the house is looking neater.

In the middle of our driveway was this little bouquet which sprung up from the gravel:

It’s in the middle, so we don’t drive over it. Almost as if it knew the perfect place to be.

So, we’re tired today. Don is running some errands. I’m blogging. And then we’re going to take it easy as we’re driving to Pennsylvania tomorrow; actually, a town right outside Philadelphia, my old stomping grounds. The dollhouse seller and I have communicated and have come up with a plan to do this exchange safely. And the dollhouse will be on the porch, so we won’t have to go inside.

Yikes. A big old dollhouse is coming to the studio! I’ve already cleared a space on the work table. Dove Cottage has been moved to the sewing table where it used to be before Don gave me the worktable as a birthday present. Eventually, I’ll have to figure out where Dove Cottage will live, but we’re not quite there yet.

I’ll share pics of the Beacon Hill with you. It’s painted a rather bright yellow, the porch seems to be on crookedly, so that will have to be fixed, the shutters need to be repositioned, and the rooms are all painted dark colors and not very well painted, at that. I think I’m going to have to do what I did with Hummingbird Cottage – paint it all white, inside and out. That will be a base coat and then I’ll go from there, choosing wallpaper and a color for the outside. We won’t get back until late in the day, but hopefully, I can get some pictures as the sun floods that room in the afternoon.

Anyway…an adventure tomorrow. Bless my husband for being willing to do this. We have to use the Pilot, which I’ve never driven, and I wouldn’t want to do this alone. So my big, tall, strong husband will be at my side and we’ll take lots of quilts to cushion the dollhouse for its journey to our little cottage.

Am I crazy? Yes. But then, you knew that.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

Morning Glories and A Dollhouse Question

August 8, 2021 at 9:50 am by Claudia

I don’t remember choosing purple morning glory seeds, but here we are! I’ve only had a few blooms so far. I love morning glories, no matter what color, so welcome! It’s been very hard to train them to grow on the fence this year. For some reason, the seeds I carefully planted in a furrow right next to the fence have emerged further away from the fence and they’re curling around everything but the chicken wire. Also, in one section of the chicken wire fence garden, nothing came up – no zinnias, no morning glories – which leads me to believe that the birds got all the seeds. Ah well. It’s always a bit of a crap shoot, isn’t it?

I cleaned like a madwoman yesterday, yet another spurt where I ended up doing too much. But the dreaded bathrooms are sparkly clean, the house has been vacuumed, the towels have been washed, and the houseplants have been watered. This morning I will water all the porch plants and some of the garden, as it’s been hot and humid here lately.

I wrote a post on Instagram yesterday about the Beacon Hill dollhouse. You might remember that I bought the kit last December. Needless to say, I haven’t started it yet, partly because I want to finish Dove Cottage before I take on something new, but also because of real qualms about having enough space in which to build it. It’s huge. It has a lot of parts. It needs sanding. And the only space I have is our shared office/studio that not only has my things, but also has all of Don’s guitars and other musical instruments. The more I think about it, the more I realize that it’s just not practical for me to attempt to build it in this small cottage. Also: no habitable basement, no attic, no garage.

So, I’ve been thinking about trying to find one already built that I could rehab. You know I love doing that sort of thing to a dollhouse. In fact, except for Don’s mini studio, which I built, every house has been a rehab. I’ve been checking Facebook Marketplace and Craig’s List in my general area, but the only one that came up was one that a guy was asking $1200 for! My IG post asked everyone to keep an eye out for a finished Beacon Hill within sane driving distance from the Hudson Valley. If you could do that, too, I’d so appreciate it. One reader shared a listing from West Chester, PA and the house looks pretty good. West Chester is near Philadelphia, my old stomping grounds, but it’s about a 3 hour drive from here, which begs the question: do I want to drive that far and/or can I talk Don into driving that far? Because we’d need his car. I’ve had no experience with FB Marketplace. Have any of you? What are your thoughts? I’m itching for a new project as I’m about to wind down work on Dove Cottage. I’d then sell my kit at a discount.

After a year’s drought of any bunnies, we’ve seen this one twice lately:

It’s blurry because he was taking off, but hurrah! We’ve really missed bunnies around here. Don hasn’t done any heavy duty work on the trails this year, so maybe they feel safer here now. Last year, he was constantly up in the woods, hoeing, shoveling, carving out spaces, and probably scaring bunnies off.

Okay.

Happy Sunday.

Stay safe.

Cottage Garden Gratitude

August 7, 2021 at 9:45 am by Claudia

I’ve never seen the gardens, especially the big garden bed, so full and lush as they are this year. I was just outside walking around, snapping pictures, and I’m amazed by them. We’ve had an awful lot of rain this year and though I have complained about it, the result is more blooms than ever.

I admire manicured, neat gardens. I admire gardens, period! But I’ve come to learn that manicured is not for me. Lush and overflowing cottage gardens are my thing. I’m going to sound like a broken record, but self-seeding perennials have made this garden what it is. I’ve never had so much phlox as I do this year. It spread everywhere. I first planted it about 14 or 15 years ago and some years, it’s been lean to the point of my wondering whether it’s all died out. But wowie! This year the David phlox, which is quite tall, is making a huge statement.

As are the coneflowers.

And the brown-eyed Susans (rudbeckia.)

I reminded myself to drink it all in, every day, because summertime is fleeting and we’re now in August. The butterflies and bees and hummingbird moths are taking advantage of all of this abundance and that makes me very happy.

At the end of this month, we will celebrate 16 years of living on this property, in this house. Except for the boxwoods, which we planted that fall, nothing was done to the gardens until the following spring, so that makes 15 years of gardening here. Gardening on a tight budget which only allowed the addition of two or three new plants a year. We have huge hydrangeas, roses, catmint everywhere, day lilies, sedum, salvia, milkweed, ferns, clematis, rose of sharon, balloon flowers, hostas, yarrow, Solomon’s seal, butterfly bush, a lilac bush, boxwoods, and all of the annuals I plant every year, including morning glories, zinnias, and moonflowers. Then there’s all the pots that are full of annuals; in the secret garden, on the funky patio, and on the porch.

This is what I dreamt of for YEARS. All those years when I lived in apartments, or with roommates, or in in rental homes (where, by the way, I planted small gardens with the landlord’s permission) – all those years, I cut out and saved photos of charming little houses in the country with big cottage gardens. I began to think it would never happen. And, given the fact that we freelance, it’s a miracle we did.

Very grateful for flowers and gardens and beauty today. And every day.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

A Driveway Bouquet

Morning Glories and A Dollhouse Question

Cottage Garden Gratitude

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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