Mockingbird Hill Cottage
One of my favorites – the tiger lily – is everywhere in our neck of the woods. I love this group that blooms every year on the front edge of our lawn. As I drive around my neighborhood I see bunches of these beauties everywhere. Mockingbird Hill Cottage came with its very own magical tiger lily patch. Weren’t we lucky?
My latest update on the porch at Mockingbird Hill Cottage: my husband went to my favorite nursery last week and, using his camera phone, took photos of the hanging plants. My directive had been vague ~ ” I always have purple hanging plants, please look for them.” He did, and found these ~ phlox ~ which is exactly what I meant. Excellent job, dear husband!
Yesterday morning, as I was slowly waking up, drinking my coffee and reading blogs, the phone rang. It was my husband requesting my presence on Skype. I dutifully signed on and found the dogs wishing me a Happy Mother’s Day. Scout had on a Red Sox t-shirt and Riley had on a bowtie (apparently he objected to a t-shirt, but consented to wear the tie). I was treated to a close-up camera visit with my sweet dogs and lots of howling and barking. (One of the things we do with the dogs is to make a howling/baying noise and watch as they both stop whatever they are doing and sing along with us. Scout is queen of the wolf-like howl.) I must say I got a little teary – the good kind – at the sight of my babies. It was a great Moms day present from my family.
Speaking of my dear husband – he will be winging his way to San Diego this Thursday! While I am much busier this time around, we will make the most of our time together.
I’ve been mulching, mulching and mulching some more. I’m doing a lot of things in the garden that I would normally do a few weeks from now. Since I’m leaving for San Diego on Wednesday, I don’t have that luxury. The beds have been cleaned out, the mulch is spread, the plants are emerging, the hose has been hooked up, the glider has pillows ~ tomorrow I will buy some hanging plants and plant some pots for the porch. I’m holding off until then because we have another cold night tonight. After that, the rest of the week looks warmer. Oh, I will miss working in my garden this spring. This is my favorite time of year, and I love nothing more than walking through the garden checking on my plants, watering, weeding ~ everything. I’m embarrassed to say it, but I get teary at the thought of being away from all this.
Thought I’d share something we did to make the porch safer for the dogs. The open arch leading onto the porch is lovely, but we knew it needed a gate or some way to close it off so that the dogs could spend time on the porch. Neither of us was up to building a gate or even knew how to. We bought a small section of picket fence from Lowe’s that was in the clearance section.
We tried propping it against the posts, but then I bought these and attached them to the posts.
Now we just slip the “gate” right into these and all is secure. Plus, the picket fence suits the look of our porch, don’t you think?
More later.
