Aesthetics

Happy New Year! 2023 started off with rather spring-like weather. It was sunny and nearly 70 degrees, so we were not about to let the day go by without being in the garden! I even planted some Leucojum bulbs that I never got to during Autumn. Follow along as everything awakens from a short winter slumber. Daffodils are popping up everywhere and are about 6” tall already. It is still Winter, correct?

#2023

25 Days of Christmas—Day Six
We interrupt this post to celebrate my sweet husband’s birthday! We had a nice day which included dinner at Provino’s (where dinner on your birthday is free), followed by homemade apple pie. Dennis prefers pie over cake, and apple is his favorite! I gave Dennis a wonderful garden book written by our friend Bryan Huffman This is a beautiful and informative book about the infamous Bunny Mellon and her garden work. If you haven’t added it to your collection, I highly recommend it.

Happy Thanksgiving to one and all! Hope you have plenty of yummy favorites at your home today. It was just the two of us today…so we have lots of leftovers!

It’s beginning to look a lot like…Summer once again!

Tree cutting in our garden equals mulch in our driveway! Moving mulch into the garden (one wheelbarrow full at a time) equals plenty of exercise!

Saving some blooms from our garden before an overnight early freeze takes them. I’m not very good at floral arranging, but at least I can enjoy looking at the flowers.

Late Summer in our garden.

Turtles and Turtleheads (Chelone Lyonii) in the garden today.

Gearing up for some “cool flower” production in our garden. It’s still hot out but it’s time to start my seeds in soil blocks so by mid to late September my seedlings will be ready to place outside in the garden. Much thanks to for all their helpful information on starting seeds early!

Finally came up with a customizable system to organize my hundreds of cookie cutters. This has been a long-overdue project on my To-Do wishlist. My pantry/laundry/mud room space is rather limited, yet I try hard to keep it tidy and well-organized.

Feels nice going into baking season with this task completed!

The Ginger Lilies are blooming! Hedychium coronarium are one of my favorite late summer flowers. They are so very fragrant and the foliage is mighty attractive too.

I love this pair in my garden. Japanese Painted Fern along with Forget-me-not planted along a stone wall in a shady moist area.

The gift of pears from a neighbors tree. 💚🍐

#🍐

New solar lights for our courtyard garden! We sure are enjoying these.

It’s been hot recently, for sure, but I’m still spending time outside taking care of my beloved garden. I just can’t help myself.

Look how nice these solar lights are! These were a recent birthday present from my high school best friend who lives in Reno, Nevada. What a thoughtful friend Cindy is!

First time out at a cinema in over two years and we were blessed to see a gorgeous sunset as we left the theatre. We even ran into two good friends seeing the same film!

A new backyard visitor in our creek. The fishing seems good lately!

It’s the 7-year anniversary of our “Crane Wreck”! That’s right!! 7 years ago a Crane crashed into our roof while trying to remove a tree that crashed into our house during a summer storm. The crane toppled over and crushed our roof, driveway and walkway. It took 6 different cranes over the following 3 days to try and remove the crane. The extended boom, which weighed 30,000 pounds, rested inside our attic while over 200 gallons of diesel fuel leaked all over our front lawn.

No one was injured thankfully, but as you can tell from these photos our garden was quite disrupted. Much of it had to be rebuilt including our front pond.

Needless to say there was quite a bit of damage to the inside of our home too, All in all, it took about 4 months to put things back together and even longer for the trampled garden to recover

Happy Saturday! Today we were busy helping a client/friend clean up her garden after having several overgrown Leland Cypress cut down . . . but did manage a little time outside on our own garden. These three Northern Maidenhair Ferns were added to our woodland garden. We took advantage of a sale at one of our favorite local nurseries. They have plants not usually available at other nurseries. Such delicate little beauties!

I’m trying out some new shoes for working on the garden. My old pair were just about shot. These are called Foamies and made by Skechers. They are completely washable and so far I’m really finding them to be a good fit for my needs. My preference is always for something easy to slip on and kick off when entering the house. These enable me to do just that! Happened to find them on sale for 50% off!! Happy gardening! (Not sponsored, just really like these)

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Two years ago we built this courtyard to replace a too shady lawn area in our garden. We also planted a row of Boxwoods outside our potager wall and added creeping fig to grow and cover the wall. It nice to look back and see the growth and changes after 24 months.

We got some more needed rain today and the bonus of a rainbow!

Waterlilies are blooming today and look so lovely next to the Ice Plant our friend and fellow gardener, Alison shared with us.

Our heatwave continues for at least another couple of days. We haven’t hit triple digits thankfully, but we’ve been close. Watering has been our main garden chore. Despite our watering efforts, plants are looking stressed, except for Supertunia Vista Bubblegum and our beautiful Sedum ‘Brilliant’.

I got to thinking about how many wonderful gifts I’ve received over the years from friends or family…and here’s another example. Each of these items sit together everyday on this tabletop and nearly every one was a gift. The small vase in front was given to me by my brother, sister-in-law and niece. It was purchased in Italy while they were on one of their many trips. The medium clear glass vase was gifted to us from my Aunt Judy many years ago at Christmas. The very tall purple Egyptian perfume bottle was a birthday gift a long time ago from a family friend. The vintage Peter Rabbit book was from my old roommate. Each one, a treasured item and reminder of the kind gift-giver.

Here’s a closer view of the American Sweetheart pattern Depression glass dishes that my mom’s high school best friend “Aunt Joanne” recently gifted me. She has no daughters and is quite a collector of antique things. Since I am the closest thing to a daughter she has, she was so gracious and passed them on to me. I couldn’t wait to set my dining room table and send Aunt Joanne a photo or two.