When you wake up at 5 am for the second morning in a row, edgy once again, the best cure is a walk outside with your camera. I took a lot of pictures this morning as the sun started to bathe the landscape with light. So beautiful. I really do see the world differently after seeing it through my camera lens.
The oriental poppy seed pod is a work of art. I look forward to the pods almost as much as the flowers.
There are at least ten tall milkweed plants that have self-seeded right in front of the porch. There are three over on the edge of the big garden bed. That doesn’t count the milkweed that springs up at the edge of the woods. Happily, the plants in front of the porch have obscured my rose bush, which is seeing its last summer, I believe. I had to cut it way back because there was a lot of dead wood. I do see some leaves, so I’m not giving up the ghost yet.
Anyway. Milkweed = monarch butterflies. Win-win.
Early morning clematis.
I’ll share more tomorrow.
I went to Milne Antiques and Design yesterday. My plan was to buy one chair for either the Secret Garden or the Back Forty – or B40, as Don abbreviates it in a text. I rather like B40. I may adopt it.
I arrived at 10 and Rebekah drove me over to their warehouse, where the chairs were being housed.
I came back with this:
You’re rubbing your eyes, saying “I see three pieces of furniture here, Claudia.”
Yes. You do.
I had planned on buying the one on the left. But Rebekah pulled out another chair that I hadn’t seen when she sent me some pictures the day before. And then she remembered the table. This is not a set. They’re similar, of course, but they’re not match-matchy. Cause you know I don’t like match-matchy.
Since Don and I had had a conversation earlier in the day in which he said “We each get one more extravagance” or maybe he said indulgence – before we are back to our usual budget – I went for all three. Note: For us, an extravagance is still a very, very modest amount of money. We define it as something that doesn’t cost much, will make us happy, but isn’t absolutely essential. Don bought tennis shoes. Very, very nice tennis shoes. I told him that everyday shoes were a necessity, not an extravagance. The chairs and table, however, were only a necessity if you consider my current frame of mind and the need I have for visual beauty in the midst of stress. I can see them right outside the kitchen window. I can walk back there and be tucked away from the rest of the world. No one driving by can see me. I can read there. I can just be. They complete the little Secret Garden.
Here they are this morning, as the sun rises over the tops of the trees:
I tried all possible configurations because, though the ground looks flat, it isn’t. In fact, the only flat piece of ground on our property that I can think of is a little section of the B40. Everything else is slanted to some degree.
Vintage. Lovely. There were some green metal chairs at the warehouse that were very similar, but that would have been too much green. The garden needed a pop of white.
Now, we have three different seating areas; the porch, the funky patio, and the secret garden. Next year, I’ll add something to the B40, as well. We used to put the chairs that are now on the funky patio up on the B40.
It’s a gorgeous day out there. Monday, the day I travel to the city for two days, will have a high of 98 degrees. No, that is not a typo. 98 frigging degrees. I’m already thinking I should bring my porch plants inside before I leave. Not much I can do about the newer plants in the garden except water them heavily that morning. Yikes.
Happy Saturday.
What a wonderful secret garden setting! Sitting there, relaxing with a book, listening to the birds, so very peaceful.
Those poppy pictures are gorgeous! Looks like something from a botanical book! Are the poppies soft, as they look it to me, or are they a bit spikey?
Don’s tennis shoes are very nice! How are tennis shoes an extravagance?
We have warnings here through Monday, as the heat index will be over 100! In Indiana! I expected that daily in Texas and Arizona, but we had no humidity, so it was different. Here it takes your breath away!
Have fun in the city!
Hugs to you both!
They’re soft, Debbie.
It’s crazy hot here, too!
I just love your Secret Garden and all of its acoutrements. Great warehouse finds and beautiful poppy shots!
Thank you, Shanna!
How beautiful Claudia! Your plants in your English pots are doing so well too. All in all a very special place for sure.
Thank you, Janet!
I was so charmed by seeing those chair and the table on IG yesterday. Just perfect for the Secret Garden. Lovely place to let yourself relax in the horrible stressful times we are living in. Beautiful photos Claudia. Keep doing what you have to for mental health. Enjoy your visit to the city but oh those temps won’t help. Hugs!
It’s way too hot, Linda! The plants are not liking it.
I do believe you have found the imperfectly perfect set for the B40! And it all fits so well with those pots….you designed it well, my friend.
It is going to be unbearably hot and humid for me, for the next 3 days…90’s with heat indexes about 100 or above. So I will be enjoying my gardens from the coolness of our home. Only going out to water, or feed birds. Enjoy your ‘cool spot’! ;)
I hate this weather. Same here. Going out to water this morning and later in the day, as well.
This literally took my breath away. So calming! I can certainly picture myself sitting in one of those chairs. Congratulations on your purchase, good eye.
Thank you, Marlene!
Your chairs and table are beautiful. You create magic with everything you buy.
Thank you, Brenda!
Love the new furniture. Very mid-century. Probably much better-made than the new stuff we see these days too. Oh, and I know I say it all the time, but you should do a book of your nature photographs. They’re just incredible. I have over 150 folders in the “Pictures” section of my Mac – and the one labelled CLAUDIA has 85 of your pix in it at present. And I’m adding 2 more today. Tis a gift you have, my friend. Enjoy today in the garden. The next 2 days are going to be too hot to do anything but complain about the heat – hahaha! Peace.
#Resist
#ProtectMueller
You are too kind, Janet! Thank you.
The additions to your Secret Gardens are beautiful! How blessed you are to have an area where neighbors cannot see you. I predict many happy hours spent there, listening to the birds and enjoying the wildlife.
I’m so looking forward to it, Dottie!
Hi,Claudia! Love your secret garden! Your post reminded me of times that I have passed up something for the house or garden thatI thought I just couldn’t afford. We need to gift ourselves now and then!Awhile back you wrote about Cinema Paradiso and I,too, believe it is my absolute favorite.As for the insanity coming out of the WH I find I need to find refuge in lovely writing.Last evening I began re-reading the Essays of E.B.White . Just what I needed to calm me down. Enjoy your time in the city xo
I’m glad I bought them because I’ve done the same thing, Annette – passed up something I should have bought.
E. B. White sounds perfect. Thanks for mentioning him!
Claudia, you always post such pretty photos. These are just so calming and beautiful.
Hey, I love your seating and where you have placed it!
Getting ready for the east coast heat wave here too.
Summers are getting so very hot.
Thank you for posting the beauty of nature. We need it more than ever…right Now.
love, Katheryn
We absolutely do. Thanks, Katheryn.
Your secret garden seems like a calming retreat space.The white is great and i am loving the pots too! Thanks for sharing your nature space with us. I just love seeing your extended family,groundhogs,rabbits,doves,flowers,trees…whoever they may be as well. May you be well and find the way to deep and restorative dreamy sleep Claudia!
Thank you, Grace!
Wow Claudia…….this takes my breath away. The poppies are magnificent. We tried growing milkweed here in CO and it was devoured by yellow aphids . I’m very excited to see yours. Deep breaths, nature and beauty……you gave me some much needed awe today. Thank you.
So far so good. I’ve never seen the milkweed hit by aphids, it seems to do well here. Thank you, Verna!
Your secret garden is serene and peaceful, a visual piece of calm. Thank you for
sharing all your beautiful photography.
You are welcome, Lea.
Gorgeous pics of the poppies!! The 3 pieces are just lovely together. Mis-matched can end up being the best matched! We have so many mosquitoes and gnats, sitting outside just isn’t a reality.
So very hot outside. Heat indexes up to 105* through Monday. Brutal.
I hope you find some peace today. It is so hard to do anymore. Instead of getting better, it seems each day gets more and more ridiculous. Living in constant chaos doesn’t set well with me, and I feel exhausted 24×7. I don’t know how I will do years more of this nonsense. I just don’t understand much anymore, I guess. Life with a dictator, it turns out, is just what I had envisioned!!
It gets worse by the minute. I knew it would be bad, but I never knew it would be this bad.
Thanks, Chris.
That table and chairs are gorgeous. I can see you sitting there with a good book and a cool drink. Just think you can relax and have Don join you there when he comes home. This is what I call away from the maddening crowd.
Marilyn
Thank you, Marilyn!
welcome to my climate darling bean. hot and humid. like a rain forest only it doesn’t rain. the heat indexes (what it truly FEELS like!) are three digit.
I just thank the powers that be for A/C and stay inside as much as possible!
which is why I rely on blogs like yours. SO beautiful! the thought of you being able to read there in the mornings is wonderful! I LOVE that little spot!
AND the perfect table and chairs! xoxo
Thank you so much, Tammy!
Well, at least you had today and will have tomorrow to thoroughly water before you leave. I bring in certain potted plants every day to keep them out of too much sun/heat; a hassle, but…I also do it a couple of times a day with the outdoor feeding dishes for the feral cats so that their food doesn’t go rancid in the sun (dry food, but the oils can go bad in the heat, so I watch for the movement of the sun and seek the shade for them).
Your little backyard/front yard ‘rooms’ are wonderful. I don’t have anything like that. I’m trying to engage my husband in pouring a small slab of concrete or bricking in a place where I can have some of our outdoor furniture. I have a patio umbrella now sans table because hellacious wind knocked it over and broke the glass top.
I love the white bistro set you’ve put together as a ‘set’ – – I’m lucky to have something very similar from my auntie; from the 1930s; she called it an ‘ice cream’ set and always had it in her tiny nook just off the kitchen; before that, she had it on a balcony in L.A. It’s been painted a hundred times. In storage. Sigh. I miss it. Was my kitchen table when I was single, living in apartments. Still don’t know where I’m gonna put it once I get it out again. I need a bigger house! (NOT gonna happen.) For us, if I put them right there in the grass, once we sit in them (chairs), their spoke-y legs sink down in the earth and then we feel like we’re sitting off-balance. Plus, the bugs like me, and then ants tend to run up my ankles; our subdivision is built on an old walnut orchard and we have a lot of wildlife and a lot of buglife. So, I need a platform and a cover/roof for the sun; I have it drawn out on paper and it’s not complicated; sort of like a rustic lean-to. Soon!
I sat on my butt yesterday; ‘way too much time on the computer. Left me feeling sad and frustrated and unsettled. So, I’m taking a 2-day break from headlines. I haven’t taken Xanax (anxiety) for 17 years but I felt like I needed one yesterday to calm my ‘insides’. I think with you, too, Claudia, it’s your whole planned life of the next year having been upended, finding your way thru that and adjusting, then the crap in the news piling up, it’s no wonder you’re feeling edgy; you’re allowed; just gotta pace yourself thru the transition as you know how to do. Even though the city will be beastly hot on Monday/Tues, you and Don will be together and, well, what else matters? It’ll help you both.
I decided on Don’s last performance day, I’ll run the Escape to Margaritaville CD in loops, all day long in solidarity/support. I so love that CD! Long live the cast, Jimmy and songs that will last!
What a lovely tribute to ETM, Vicki. Thank you.
Claudia, I really like the new “set” of patio furniture. I am not a big matchy-match person either. Good buys. . Blessings, xoxo, Susie
Thank you, Susie!
Lovely, lovely. And those poppy seed pods! I prowl the garden with my telephone lens, getting in as close as I can too. Last summer I became obsessed with the centers of the “accidental” sunflowers we suddenly had (planed by the birds at the feeders, we assume. The geometric circles within the sunflowers are gorgeous and when a beautiful butterfly landed on one I had my enlargement for the fireplace mantle. Enjoy your cute new sitting area. Hope it cools off enough so you can.
There’s so much beauty when we look closely, Kay. Thank you!
your table and chairs look wonderful together and meant to be just where you put them … great choices, claudia!
we have a lot of high heat and humidity here, too (ugh). hope the weather’s better for you than what’s been forecast, especially when you’re in nyc with don. know you’ll both be glad to be together and will have fun no matter the weather. :) travel safe.
kathy in iowa
Thank you, Kathy!
Oh Claudia! Everything is looking so nice at Mockingbird Hill Cottage!!…I am loving the new secret garden..the table and chairs have added just the right touch!…What a sweet place to sit and enjoy nature and those beautiful English pots you have planted!…I’m sure Don will enjoy sitting there to relax too!…Wishing you both a great time in the city once again!
Thank you, Nancy!
What a perfect spot to chat with a friend or sit and just be. I love spaces like that in the garden.
I got lost in three books this weekend and it was such a pleasure; looking forward to more of that – it gives me incentive to simplify my life.
Me too. I finished the Lee Child and now I’m into one by John Connolly. Huzzah!
Oh Claudia,this takes me back. We used to call the pods from the Poppies” Pepper Shakes” and of course shook the “Pepper” all over the place.
Thank You for the Big smile this morning! Judy A
You’re very welcome, Judy!