garden — Page 110

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.

Antiques and Gardening

May 18, 2018 at 9:15 am by Claudia

Today promises to be dry – more rain tomorrow and Sunday – so I’ll be working in the gardens. I have a few more plants to pot for the porch and a bit more mulching to do and then I’m pretty much done with all the garden cleanup. It will be time to move into maintenance, i.e., mowing and weeding and adding plants here and there.

I mowed yesterday but there was a section of the front lawn that was so wet that I was making tire and foot tracks, so I stopped. I’ll finish it later in the day today.

The lilacs took a pummeling in the big storm earlier this week, so they’re not looking as perky, but they should be fine for Don’s visit on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Yes, he’s got an extra day off this week because of some event. What a treat it will be to have him home for two and half days!

Here are some photos of the shop I visited this week; Milne Antiques and Design. The next time I go, I’ll have even more. I was quite caught up in making my choices and making sure the parking meter didn’t run out of time.

I just saw a feature which highlighted a greenhouse that someone made out of windows. Now I’ve got my eye on these. I really, really want a greenhouse. It’s good to have dreams.

This mantel was huge. And gorgeous.

This area is on the shore of the Rondout Creek and the Hudson River. Lots of marinas and boat builders and those interesting beams reflect the building’s boat industry past.

She has a lot of great vintage signage. I kept thinking how great this would look over the arch in our kitchen.

My favorite sign is the one below:

“Milk and newspapers in office” is much more practical than you think. When the newspapers have all been purchased and there are none left, you flip the sign to read:

Isn’t that amazing? I love the graphics.

To the left, you can see the pots and planters that the owner has had shipped in from England. They’re gorgeous. If I was independently wealthy I’d be buying a whole lot more of them.

Happy Friday.

A New Shop and Some Finds

May 17, 2018 at 10:00 am by Claudia

I did the mundane yesterday – recycled.

And then I treated myself to a visit to a an antique shop I’d had on my radar for a while. It’s in a neighboring town, not far at all. I think I thought it was more of a hike than it was. It’s absolutely beautiful; Milne Antiques and Design. At the risk of using an overused word, it’s beautifully curated.

I’ll share some pictures of the shop tomorrow, but today I’m going to share my finds. I follow them on Instagram so I knew they carried antique and vintage English pots and I had a hankering for some.

This pair of pots is lovely, quite large, and from the 1940s. Patina like this has to be earned over time. I really love them.

And then I saw several antique garden ornaments, also from England. My eyes fastened on one which I initially thought was a duck (don’t ask me why, now it seems absurd) until the owner told me it was a dove.

A dove. Hello. I had to buy it.

I’m in love.

Then, my unexpected splurge. I saw this, fell in love with it, had no idea where I’d put it, but I couldn’t leave it there in the shop. It’s a one-of-a-kind bookshelf. Really, it’s a piece of folk art.

Ignore the plant and the pieces below the shelf, the bottom needs a bit of support, but I’m going to find something better eventually. It was clearly made for a girl. Let me show you the details.

It has the original paint and the beautiful wood shelves. And the sides have this handpainted girl in a navy nurse’s uniform, reading a book. British navy? American Navy? I’ll have to research.

Clearly, the recipient was named Martha Jane. It’s painted on the cover of the book on all four sides.

How could I pass this up? I just felt in my gut that if I didn’t buy it, I would regret it. Originally, I thought it could go behind the sofa in place of the green shelves. But when I got it home, I realized it was too tall and didn’t look right. Since space is at a premium here, I put it upstairs on the landing. I have to style it yet. I thought about putting my Nancy Drews here along with the Hardy Boys. What do you think?

It was a fun, if a wee bit costly, day.

Happy Thursday.

Pots and the Porch

Antiques and Gardening

A New Shop and Some Finds

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

Archives