The Great Balancing Act

Lilacs

 

I love me some lilacs!  I know I have written about our lilac bushes in this blog before, but in three years, I’ve never taken the time to go out and photograph them.  So . . . here you go! 

 

Our whole yard is surrounded by lilac bushes -- love it! 

 

Early July Garden

 Jabba the Frog is enjoying his time in the front garden this year.  We have had a pretty mild summer here thus far.  I’d say our growing season is about three weeks behind last year.  My clematis vine has finally started to bloom.  I’ve not had a lot of luck with the vines I’ve been trying to grow.  I think part of the problem is my ability to understand the German to English translation of the properties of the vine I’m trying to grow.  Of course, it also doesn’t help that the painters this winter completely destroyed the vines I worked so hard to establish last year.  I also have a honey suckle that I am trying to get to bloom, but there are no signs of that yet.  My nice big day lily did come back despite the abuses of the painters so, I am please with that.  I also had an unexpected dahlia resurface.  I think my window boxes are on the verge of something spectacular – only time will tell.

(You can click on the small images below to link to a larger version.)

 

My Red Garden Chair

It’s taken me awhile to post this update, but I know you’ve all been dying to know what has become of the red garden chair I pilfered from the neighbor’s cast offs.  If not, you’re here anyway so here is the mid-June chair shot.  The colander I am using for a planter on top of the chair was also someone’s cast off.  I picked it up about a year ago and told Curtis I’d plant something in it some time. So . . . here you go, planted.

And . . . a Holly-ism.  I was driving Holly home from school today, and we were chatting about her day.  “Holly,” I said, “Who did you play with today?” 

“I played with my-shelf.”

“Are you sure you didn’t play with any kids all day?”

Louder, “I played with my-shelf.”

“I hear you.  What toys did you play with by yourself?”

Firmly, “I played with my-shelf.”

“But what toys did you use?”

“Momma!  I said I played with MY SHELL!”

“Oh, you played with Michelle?”

“Yes, we did art.  Then we cut it and glued it. Then we played with her bunny."  (On Mondays the kids get to bring a stuffed animal or doll to school.)

"Holly, where is Meow Kitty?"

"She's in my classroomm!  She's lost forever!  I need her, she's my special luvie!"

We made it back to the school 3 mintues before they locked the door for the day.

To be fair to my hearing, between the two classrooms there are almost 40 children with names that are oh so difficult to my American ears like "Ozgar", "Oli", and "Fabrizio".  Combine that with the speech oddities of a 3-year-old learning German and I’m lucky we aren’t still having this conversation.

My New, Red Garden Chair

Now presenting my Red Chair.  Isn't it fantastic!  The neighbor across the street was throwing it out.  I told her it would look great in her garden, but she said she had enough in her garden and this she didn't want.  "Well", I said, "if you're sure it will look great in my garden."

Katie came home from school and said, "Where did you get that chair?"  "It looks like it could be a place where an old man used to sit and tell people stories."

We are in love with the chair!  All I've done with it so far is sit it down where one of my winter pots was and put the pot on top of it, but I have plans.  Look back for more great things with The Chair in the future.  I love gardening season!

Gardening

I've been a gardening and a gardening.  The beds were a mess when we moved in here and we really had to renovate them.  It was a lot of work, but now we can plant them!  We are at the point now that Holly knows if I take her to the "flower store" the cashier will give her a small bag of gummi bears when we check out.  The picture of the whole house turned out to be in the shadows, so I'll have to try again later, but this one should at least give you an idea.  Can't you just smell those purple petunias?  I love to stand on my front porch and breathe them in.

Spring Flowers

     Here is a picture I took of the planting area around my bird bath, and one of the girls blowing bubbles.  I planted the bulbs when we moved in this fall.  I can't wait until I can plant more stuff!  We have been enjoying some marvelous spring weather this week.  All we want to do is be outside!

Early Spring Planting

     About 2 weeks ago, I went to the garden center and got some marvelous pre-spring deals.  Mostly potting supplies, but one find is the miniature rose tree pictured here on my front porch.  I under-planted it with some miniature irises and daffodils, ivy, violets, and white pansies.  The irises and daffodils are starting to put on their show and the sun was shinning, so I was inspired to photograph it this afternoon.  We really have had warm weather this year.  We've had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks, and a big hail storm yesterday that prompted Katie to say, "March really does come in like a lion.  We'll have to see if it goes out like a lamb."  However, its been warm with all this rain and I have a lot of bulbs up.