Yesterday morning in the Secret Garden. Wildflowers are springing up everywhere. There’s lots of fleabane and some wild phlox. It’s very, very wet there as we’ve had so much rain!
Wild phlox popping up in the rock garden.
Aside from mowing and planting the vintage pots, I haven’t done much else in this space. I’m debating whether to pull some of the weird grass that pops up in the path that leads to The Dude. Do I get in there and get rid of it, or do I just leave it there? No one can answer that question but me. And I’m feeling lazy at the moment.
It was incredibly hot and humid yesterday and, after some great time on the porch in the early morning, we stayed in. Both of us said that the combination of heavy humidity and pollen was making us feel tired and foggy-brained. I know that I felt completely out of it on both Saturday and Sunday. Later in the day, while talking to my sister on the phone, a big storm rolled in – though thankfully, not as big as the storms last weekend – and today it is much cooler around here. Hurrah!
I was reading one of my other books by Elizabeth George while in bed last night and I suddenly realized that I’d read it before, even though it was in my To Be Read pile. So I grabbed the other one that was also in that pile and started in….already read that one, too! Whoops! I think there’s only one Elizabeth George that I haven’t read and I’m going to order it from the library.
So this morning finds me looking around trying to decide what I’m in the mood to read next. In the meantime, I’m reading a short and delightful book from Slightly Foxed/Foxed Quarterly – A Boy at the Hogarth Press by Richard Kennedy. Kennedy worked for Leonard and Virginia Woolf for a while when he was young. It’s a lovely memoir of his time there, complete with his pen and ink drawings. Kennedy went on to be a well-regarded illustrator.
I grabbed a few moments outside yesterday and took Pippa with me:
Here she is in the memorial garden.
And in the secret garden:
The girls are enjoying the opportunity to explore the property.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
Glad to hear that it’s cooled down for you. I find the heat and humidity to be so oppressive, I don’t know how people can function in it. Guess that’s because I’m a northerner.
Your secret garden is so idyllic. Hopefully you can spend more time there. I am curious about the paths into your wooded area that Don cleared a couple of years ago. Did you say, in a previous post, that you are letting the underbrush grow back because of the rabbits, or did I misunderstand. Just curious.
Still cool here for a few more days…but 70’s are promised by the weekend. Good time to finish our projects. Enjoy your day! ;)
He left some of the clearings and a couple of the paths to grow over. We still have about 3 paths in the woods, 2 of which end at our neighbor’s meadow. Don went a little crazy with that project as it was during the first lockdown. A couple of a times, I couldn’t hide my shocked look!
Stay safe, Donnamae.
Thanks for the update. I’m sure the bunnies will be happier! ;)
xo
Cooler temps today….should help us all feel better. I am curious about your secret garden. How did it come about? What plantings are there? Does it get shade or is it in a verry sunny spot? I envy the woods you have on your property. I live in a development, treed but nevertheless neighbors on either side of us. I have to drive to parks or the beach to enjoy what you have surrounding you. Enjoy today Claudia.
It was an open spot behind the kitchen at the bottom of a hill. Most everything was already there, I just decided to define it and tame it a little by adding very old cinder blocks that I brought down from the woods and make a boundary between some of the wild growth and the clearing. Don put in some stepping stones from the side of the house into the garden. They go past the rain barrel and the propane tank. They are much appreciated precisely because it can get so wet back there.
I then bought 4 vintage cement pots and now I plant them every year and they live on that little cinder block wall. So it looks purposeful. I also cleared a path to the crabapple tree. I need to weed there today.
It gets both sun and shade.
Thanks, Maria.
Stay safe.
What a relief to have it cooler. Is the garden very mosquito-ey? I would think so, given the rain and humidity and all but it certainly is beautiful. We cooled off quite a bit. It has been the oddest May!
It’s frustrating to start a book and realize you’ve read it before — even if it was one you liked! Here’s to a brand new read. I hope you get the new George soon!
Yes, it can get mosquitoey. It depends on the year. Some years, it’s relatively dry. This year, I’ve already been bitten!
Thanks, Jeanie.
Stay safe.
appreciate everyone else’s questions about your gardens and that you answered them (i had similar questions). mosquitoes, flies, ants and wasps have been out here for a month or so.
i don’t read near as much as you do so haven’t had the experience of starting to read a book only to realize i had read it before. glad you caught that and have another book to read.
finished with my annual physical this morning, then got my secondcovid booster shot at a pharmacy nearby. tomorrow i go to the dentist. glad to get such things over with and do something fun like spend time with members of my family. :) will do a bit more paper sorting, but am almost done and am happy about that, too.
cooler and overcast here today. am good with that. :)
hope you, don and everyone have a very nice day. stay safe!
kathy
We’re very happy that it’s sunny but cooler.
Thanks, Kathy.
Stay safe.
Love to see Pippa enjoying the outdoors now the humidity is gone! Your home and the yard is so beautiful this time of year. So much green and flowers. I can see why you and Don love sitting out in the mornings and having your coffee. I’m going to be making an apple crumble this morning and I have blackberries to put on top. And of course vanilla ice cream. I will have to work extra hard to work off this dessert! You and Don enjoy the week!
Sounds delicious, Tana!
Stay safe.
The photo of your Secret Garden; wow, it does really look ‘secret’ and private, and so very green!
Very green at this time of year!
Stay safe, Vicki.