secret garden — Page 4

The Dude and a Special Painting

June 6, 2021 at 9:23 am by Claudia

I was shooting the wild roses that frame the entrance to one of the paths and this happened.

Magic.

We had our second cup of coffee out in the Secret Garden. With all of the wild roses and wild phlox blooming, the birds singing, and the relative quiet on a Sunday morning, we felt very blessed indeed.

Oh, and The Dude:

He hangs out at the end of this little group of stepping stones, directly under the crabapple.

An homage to The Big Lebowski, a movie that Don loves. I love this little guy (he’s very heavy!) and he is the perfect addition to this little area of the Secret Garden. Don found him at our neighbor’s yard sale, which he only happened upon because he was coming back from a morning walk. Fate. And only ten bucks.

I like the idea that he used to live just a few doors down.

Okay. This next painting has stunned me. I can’t believe I painted this, that I got it right. I had an idea to paint one of my Roseville vases. I painted the background a few days ago and let it dry. Then I decided to jump in yesterday and see if I came up with anything remotely like the actual vase. It took a couple of hours, but here it is:

I can’t believe I did it!

I was very relaxed, in a kind of zone, if you will, and this was the end result. I sat with it for a while and then I called upstairs to Don and asked him if he could come downstairs and look at something.

He was stunned. He kept saying “How did you do that? How did you DO that?”

The answer: “I don’t know.”

I am so proud of this. I mean, I’ve only been dabbing in this for a few weeks and I don’t paint every day. Painting an actual object seemed quite daunting, something I did not have in my skill set. I sketched the flowers on a piece of paper a few days ago, but the actual painting was done freehand, without any guiding lines.

This vase is in the Magnolia pattern, and it’s one of the first vases I purchased. It’s always been a favorite of mine. Now I’m thinking, maybe a series of Roseville paintings?

My friends: I never thought I could draw a straight line, let alone paint something. I knew I was blessed with other talents, but not this kind of thing – not at all. Nevertheless, I kept having this thought about painting over the past two years. An urging. I noted it, but moved on. One day I stopped and considered this strange idea. I believe that kind of consistent urge is guidance from a Higher Power. It just took me a while to acknowledge it, then confide it to Don, and you, and finally, to take action.

I’m not saying I’m the next big artist. Far from it. But, my goodness, I never thought I could paint a vase that actually looked like a vase, one with flowers and texture. Not possible.

I was on a high the rest of the day yesterday and it continues today. I’m so grateful for the prompting that led me to embark on a new adventure.

Is it okay to say “I’m proud of me?”

Because I am.

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

The Secret Garden

May 26, 2021 at 9:47 am by Claudia

We had our morning coffee in the Secret Garden. It may be the loveliest time of the year in this space. Although, when the wild roses bloom, I may take that back.

We can take credit for some things: adding the cinder block edging, clearing out the little area that leads to the crabapple tree, adding stepping stones there and at the entrance to the garden, as well as up the little hill to the back forty, adding the chairs and table, adding vintage pots filled with plants, and, last year, lugging rocks to form a rock garden.

But the wild phlox, the wild mint, the wild roses and mustard, the tiny little flowers called fleabane, all of which fill in the spaces, spring out of gravel and grow between the rocks – they make the space magical.

It’s very natural back there, not at all manicured or precise. I love it so much.

For a long time – many years – after we moved here, the area in back of the kitchen was just a wet space at the bottom of a hill. We ignored it. The change began when I added steps up the little hill and then, one day when Don was away, lugged many heavy old cinder blocks from the woods to this space and created a dividing line between the wild growth and the grass. Suddenly, it was becoming a purposeful space. And then the rest followed. Don put in all the stepping stones. He cleared out some of the undergrowth. He was a bit overzealous and suddenly we had a lot of bare dirt, which made me unhappy. Hence, his atonement; his idea for a rock garden, which ended up being the perfect solution.

I’m having a grateful day. Grateful for this little bit of property that is somewhat wild, for our woods, and our huge expanse of lawn, for our gardens and our flower-filled porch, for our trees, for the wild turkey that walked by the front porch this morning, for the wee groundhog who dined on our grass yesterday, for the birds and the baby birds.

We created much of this on a tiny budget, often for no cost at all, using materials we found on the property.

This place has become my dream-of-decades come true.

I never will take it for granted.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Day Ninety-Eight

June 19, 2020 at 9:47 am by Claudia

Rocks, rocks, and more rocks.

You’re familiar with the little path in the Secret Garden – the one with stepping stones and bark that leads to a crabapple tree. I started that path several years ago when I discovered that there was a tree in bloom that I hadn’t noticed before. Don, in his ongoing work outside clearing paths, etc., cut back a lot of brambles and expanded that path this summer.

He has been doing incredible work up in the woods, hoeing all the weeds, widening paths, making new ones – it’s really quite magical up there. In his eagerness to clear things he went a bit over the top earlier in the week. He cleared out a section that borders on the path in the Secret Garden. I was working inside and had no idea what he was doing and then, when I went outside, I couldn’t hide my disappointment. Suddenly, the right side of the path was more exposed and all the little areas where wildflowers (and weeds) grew were gone. He did a good job of clearing, mind you, but when we talked about it afterward, he realized he’d gone a bit too far.

Then he came up with the idea of rocks. We live in a very rocky area and there are lots of big rocks up in the woods. He wondered if adding large rocks to that space would change it for the better. I thought it was a good idea. So he started digging out rocks. The first few he brought down on his own, but I soon joined him because they are HEAVY and I didn’t want him doing it all by himself.

Here, you can see the area we’re talking about. The path is to the left. The area that Don cleared is to the right.

We’re gradually adding ‘filler’ rocks to the big ones, but most of these are quite big, quite heavy, and might I say, gorgeous. We dig them out of the ground and transport them down the Secret Garden via wheelbarrow and, in two cases where the rocks were really big, via a dolly. We’ve done all of this in the past 5 days or so, taking breaks (like today) when we need to rest our muscles. Previously, Don would dig out a big rock and carry it to the wheelbarrow. He quickly realized that was hurting his back, so we either lift the rock together, or roll the rock toward the wheelbarrow. Much better. There are rocks up there that are HUGE and way too big to move – and we wouldn’t anyway because they are a part of the landscape.

Then we decide where to place them. They’re truly beautiful, each of them unique.

This photo was taken from outside the garden. The area to the right of the rocks in the background is a series of stepping stones that I added several years ago and they take us up to the back forty.

Our largest piece.

We’re going to add a bit more, especially smaller rocks to fill in those spaces. We find them everywhere on the property. I’ve been taking a lot of them to make a larger border on the garden bed in front of the porch. I already added larger border rocks to the big garden bed, which were found by Don when he was clearing the paths. I really like the larger stones in those borders as they give the beds more definition.

We worked for four hours yesterday and it was hot and humid, so yours truly was exhausted.

In anticipation of your questions, no, we don’t know if we’ll plant anything between the rocks or just let the area evolve. We get wildflowers that pop up in this area, so we’ll see. The whole idea is to keep it natural. The Secret Garden is surrounded by the house and trees, so the play of light and shadow on the rocks is ever-changing.

It’s a big project and so far, it’s costing us nothing but sweat and time.

There you have it.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

The Dude and a Special Painting

The Secret Garden

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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