Category Archives: Gardening

Requiem for a Maple Tree Part 2

It finally happened. They came and cut the big maple down this week. When I got the phone call they were coming, I almost felt like I had heard of someone’s death and that night all I could think about was that the next day the big maple would be gone.

We have lived under the shade of the big maple for decades. In the Summer when it would be hot outside, the big maple would shade the north side of the house and make the house a little cooler. In the Autumn, the big maple would drop its leaves and allow the sun to shine on our house to give a little warmth.

I took a final picture of the tree. It looked so beautiful against the blue sky.

My last view of the tree through our kitchen window.

Then it began. The saw began its cutting of the smaller branches first.

Each branch was carefully lowered down with a rope.

One by one the branches came down.

The smaller branches were put into this industrial strength chipper shredder. Wow, I wish I had one one these. David does not think it would be a good idea for me to have this for a playtoy.

Then the big branches were cut.

The big maple was a mere skeleton of itself.

Finally it was down to the large logs.

Logs too big to lift. These will have to be split.

I’m not sure what this tool is called, but it was used to move the large logs. These logs are still beside our house. David has his work cut out for him. The men asked me if we had a log splitter and I said, “Yes, my husband.”

We ended up with a lot of fire wood.

Now the yard is bare on the north side of our house. Next Spring I plan to plant a whole new perennial garden with lots of fall color. Sumac, Japanese maples that come in all shades of reds, oranges and yellows, hydrangeas, maybe a fir or two. Color will return to the yard by next Autumn. And I won’t have to mow there any longer.

I will leave you with a poem I found online about cutting down a tree. It’s kind of how I feel.

Tree I was

That shed its leaves

In winter to let

Sunshine enter

Your home

To brighten life.

Tree I was

That grew leaves

To provide shade

In hot Summer

To cool your home

Providing comfort.

Tree I was

Where birds made

Nests and lived

And you said

How lovely it is

This lovely tree.

Yet you forgot all

And didn’t hesitate

To cut me and slice

For the timber needed

To build your

Vacation home.

Tree I was

That lived a while

Tree I was

Tree no more.

Tirupathi Chandrupatia (2014)

Except for cutting down the tree for a vacation home, that’s my sentiments exactly. Here’s to beautiful trees. May there be more of them. Bye.

Requiem for a Maple Tree

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When we first moved to this house, there were several large, leafy trees in our yard. A huge old elm tree was in the front yard where our younger son built a tree house. There was another medium size maple that our daughter liked to climb. In the back yard was a big maple tree and a tall tulip poplar. In our side yard was a medium size maple tree. There were also several red bud trees. So many that every year I pull up dozens of new red buds. Through the thirty-seven years we have lived here, the maple has tripled in height and has taken over the whole side yard. When I wash dishes, I like to look at that tree where birds nest. In the Autumn it is especially beautiful with is bright orange-red leaves.

Through the years we have had to cut down most of the large trees because of safety or because we wanted a garden and the lawn was too shady. This Autumn the old maple in the side yard is going to be cut down. I hate to see trees cut down. It takes so many years for a tree to get so big and I know with any tree we plant now, I won’t see it grow into its full majesty. But this particular tree has become a hazard to our house. We have cut it back several times from the house, but now it poses a danger because it is losing branches and David is afraid one good storm and we would have the tree on our house. I talked to a tree man this week. In two or three weeks they will come with their saws and they will cut down the beautiful maple and I will feel sadness in my heart.

We have always planted two or three trees to replace any tree we have cut down. We try to plant trees that won’t get so big and become a danger to the house. I will plant two or three trees in our side yard next Spring. I want trees that will be bright and colorful in the Fall. I am thinking Japanese Maples because they don’t get too tall and come in many colors. I want trees that I don’t have to rake bushels of leaves every Autumn.

Maples are so beautiful, but cause a lot of work.

I am taking lots of pictures because the Maple is especially beautiful this year. Maybe it knows this is its last grand showing.

I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear

A nest of robins in her hair.

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,

But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer(1914)

Here is what meets me every time I go outside.

Oh, the excitement when anyone comes out to feed them, play with them or walk them. I don’t walk Bonnie anymore as she can’t go very far and besides, I can’t get her past the cars because she loves car rides.

If they aren’t peeking in the back door they are doing this…

Total relaxation. Molly is getting big. She gained ten pounds in the last month. She will weigh eighty to one hundred pounds when she is grown. She is learning to walk well with me although we are still working on the nipping at the heels.

Hope you are enjoying this beautiful Autumn weather and all the beautiful trees. Bye.

I See the Moon. Oh, No I Didn’t.

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The other night we had one of the biggest, brightest moons of the year. On my Susan Branch calender it is called the Green Corn Moon. I had every intention of staying up and looking at it and looking for the meteor showers we were suppose to be getting that night also.

Sadly, sleepiness overcame my desire to stay up and look at the moon. So, while I snoozed upstairs, David got the tripod out and took some spectacular pictures of it for me.

This is our front garden at night. It looks magical, doesn’t it?

There were some clouds that night. David wasn’t sure he would get a good shot of the old man in the moon.

But then, there he appeared. A glorious, shining orb in the sky.

Just absolutely gorgeous. To think, men have walked upon the face of the moon.

If you look at these quickly, it looks like the moon is bouncing in the air. To think, God formed this with his own hand and placed it in the sky for us to dream upon, wish upon, and kiss under. How many romantic stories have the moon as a backdrop? Ancient men looked at this very moon and probably wondered about it. We are looking at the very moon Jesus looked upon while he was living on this earth. Galileo looked at this moon. Michelangelo and every human who has ever lived has looked at this moon. It’s nice to know we do share things in common with people all around the world.

Some people said the moon was made of cheese. That would be enough cheese to feed people for thousands of years I expect.

I don’t know when the next big, bright moon will be, but I hope I won’t sleep through it.

In other news, I gave this quilt to a newly married couple this week. People had signed blocks.

It originally started as a twin bed and grew like Topsy until it became a king size quilt. I quilted it all on my sewing machine. I think they were happy to get it.

Here is the birdhouse my sister-in-law Terry painted for me. This is a picture of a hibiscus from our garden.

A sunflower on one side.

A coneflower on the other. She didn’t get to finish it, but I still think it’s beautiful and it will make some bird very happy.

Since I have been talking about the moon, here is some material with the stars and galaxies on it. I am going to make someone something with this.

And now for some pink. It seems pink is the ever present color in my garden.

I hope you saw the moon this week. It’s been a busy one with a revival going on at our church, the garden bursting at the seams with vegetables, finishing a quilt, and Friday, a new puppy is coming to live with us. What more could one ask for? Bye.

Give a Wife a Camera……..

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Yesterday I was sitting in my girly room, minding my own business, knitting a hat. Suddenly David pushed the camera into my face with this picture.

Okay, I thought. A little blurry and I said take another one and he took this…

Much better. You like my blue fingernails? Then David started to show me more pictures.

Okay, what’s going on? ” I used the zoom lens,” David said. “Here, look.” I looked at my camera and saw the zoom was fixed. You see, last summer on a small trip we took, I dropped the camera in my car and broke the zoom thingamajig on it. I have still continued to use my camera, but couldn’t zoom in. Then, David, bless his heart, bought me a new camera for Christmas. Unfortunately, me and that camera did not get along well. It was heavy, took too long(for me) to focus and I had to change lenses if I wanted to zoom. It’s really a nice camera, just too much for me. I told him he could have it and take pictures for me while I would continue to use my little, broken camera. It’s worked out pretty well. David takes good pictures.

Then today he starts using my little camera again. “Did you fix it?” I said. “How did you fix it? Oh, I am so glad to have my camera working again.” Then he began to laugh and I looked at the camera closer. It was a new camera. Just like my little broken one, only better. And I could zoom again.

David had ordered a new pump for our water fountain and I had brought him the box from the mail thinking nothing about it. The camera was in the box with the pump. He sure surprised me. Soooo, today I went around taking pictures just checking it out. Here they are in no particular order.

Getting ripe.

You know those bulbs I bought at a big box store and didn’t think they would grow? Well, they are growing and blooming. I have several different gladiola right now and each one is so pretty.

This one was almost hidden behind the Shasta Daisies. It’s amazingly beautiful in person.

Gorgeous.

Magic or August Lilies. In the Spring these flowers grow their foliage, but no flowers. Then as the Summer progresses, the foliage completely dies and disappears and then these spikes of flowers appear. Then they turn into this.

What I am wondering is, how do they know it’s August?

I have a lot of these around the garden. Whoever lived here before us planted them and they have come up every year since we’ve been here for thirty-seven years almost.

Last Summer a friend and I went to a shop hop and I won this quilting book. I haven’t made anything from it yet, but I keep looking at it and planning.

I think this is a darling pillow. I would make it with wools and I think I will make this pretty soon.

Isn’t this bee skep pin cushion cute. It’s kind of labor intensive, but I won’t take it off my list to make yet.

I love this purse although the giant bee on it kind of turns me off, but I could put something else there where the bee is.

Right now I am making a quilt from this book.

Yes, I am making a sheep quilt. I am not going to make it exactly like in the book, but I think it will be cute when I am finished. I’ll try to remember to show you when it’s done. I won’t guarantee it. But I will try.

For those of you too young to remember these are insulators that use to be on the top of electric line poles. When the poles started to be taken down, the workmen would often just leave these laying around. My dad collected a few and I have found some at auctions. They are just a part of history and I like history.

My trusty Riccar sewing machine. One of four I have plus I have a few other sewing machines. A friend asked me one time why I had so many sewing machines. I told her it was because I never wanted to be without a sewing machine when I am working on a project should the one I am using break. Plus, we sold these years ago and I brought the leftovers home with me when we closed our store.

I collect old chairs.

I come from creative parents. My dad used to build and paint these little houses and sell them. I was blessed to receive some from him.

He made this little church.

It even has a bell in the belfrey.

This was the last thing my dad gave me before he died. The cow’s eyes are a little wonky which makes me love it even more. Dad had had gall bladder surgery that year and his health never got back to normal. I use to just put these houses out at Christmas, but I keep them out all year now to remind me of my father. I can’t wait to see him again and I know I will.

Shhh, this is my favorite chicken, but the others don’t know it. Penninah always greets me when I come into the chicken yard. Honestly, sometimes I think I can understand what she is clucking. Here she is engrossed in my pants.

Ada and Abby are now in with the big chooks. David said they went into the coop all by themselves last night. He had been putting them in after it got dark. Seems things have settled down and the big chooks have accepted them more or less although there is an occasional peck when the younguns’ get around their food.

The best fertilizer. I’m just sayin’.

Bonnie. I love this dog. She is getting old. Ten years. We are looking to get another puppy maybe this Fall. When we got Bonnie, we had an older dog who got a new lease on life when Bonnie arrived. They played together and ran and had so much fun. That dog, Subaka, lived to be eighteen years old. I hope Bonnie lives that long. Seems that it would be nice if your dog could live as long as you do, but it’s not the way. I have many dogs waiting for me at the Rainbow Bridge. Dogs are the best and the nearest thing to how we people should treat each other. They love us unconditionally, forgive everything and only live to be with you. Sounds like God, doesn’t it?

Belle, the silly girl. She always manages to strike a very silly pose every time I try to get her picture.

Here’s to new cameras and the wonderful husband who surprised me with one. Bye.

Summer

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You know that first day of June when Summer stretches out before you with all its sunny days, times to relax by the pool, read a good book, garden, stay outside until dark and watch the lightening bugs flickering in the trees? It’s halfway over already and I still haven’t done half the things I wanted to do.

We have made a trip to Chicago, spent time in the pool, had the grandkids over, gardened and enjoyed the warm, hazy days. We want to go to the zoo, the state fair, and to Cincinnati before our son moves to Florida(ah, a new place to visit.) We said we would go to at least one auction this Summer. We haven’t made it to one yet. David works so many Saturdays so we can’t go. Already Autumn is beckoning. I see pumpkins and Autumn leaves in the stores. Halloween is just around the corner. I want Summer to last at least two more months. All my grandkids go back to school on August 4th. August 4th!!! That’s taking away a whole month of Summer from them. When I was in school back in the age when we chipped the alphabet on rocks, we didn’t go back to school until after Labor Day and one year we got out of school for the Summer on May 6th. That was a loooong, lazy, wonderful Summer.

But times have changed and the school year is different now. I’m just glad I went to school when I did.

Even the garden is showing me that the last days of Summer are upon us. The sunflowers are blooming. Some of them have already been eaten by the goldfinches and lay on the ground.

The zinnia patch is growing and starting to dry into the seeds I will gather for next year.

Bernice, or is it Dorcas says, ” What’s Summer?” Chickens don’t care as long as they are fed and watered.

By the way, here are the new chicks on the block. This is our new silver laced wyndotte chick. She is so pretty. We’ve clipped her wings. She still manages to fly up and roost in a giant bush by her pen.

The black chick is our new Australorp. When they get separated, they get very nervous. Here Abby, the Wyndotte, is inside the cage and Ada, the Australorp, is outside and neither one likes it. Both will be medium sized chickens and lay medium sized brown eggs. Both have to be hunted at night up in the big bush by their pen. Last night they were in the very tiptop and we could not find them for quite a while.

Our youngest grandson. He is getting really good at swimming. Last year he was afraid of the deep water. This year he swims like a fish. I didn’t learn to swim until we got our first pool. I was always afraid of deep water too. I even took swimming in college, but never got over my fear of going in water that I couldn’t stand in. Now I can swim in the deep end and not be afraid. It’s all in practicing. You can learn about anything if you practice it enough.

Flowers in the garden. Morning glories, perovskia and coneflowers, and hibiscus. The hibicus make my yard look very tropical. They have spread everywhere from one little plant my neighbor gave me years ago. This one is almost eight inches across.

Remember the soda shoppe chair I showed you in a previous post? David chipped all the old paint off it.

He had taken the chair completely apart.

He said it looked like originally there was a copper plating on the chair.

He spent a lot of time getting all the chipped paint removed. That’s why I bought the chair in the first place. Its chipped paint, but through the years it began to look really bad. After all the paint was removed, David spray painted it.

And here it is now. I love it. I also added my touch.

I stuck butterflies on it.

Now it’s a real, girly chair that I will keep in my shop. David had also replaced the old wooden seat that was rotten so the chair can be sat in. He is so handy. He says that’s why I keep him around.

Meanwhile, since I haven’t anything better to do, I have this basket of one and a half inch blocks I have cut out over time and am sewing them together.

I figure eighty of these across and eighty down would make a good size quilt. That’s six thousand and four hundred little squares. Yes, I’m crazy.

I will leave you with a picture of Lunaria Annua, or Honesty or Money plant that grows around our garden. I can see why it’s called Money plant as it glows like Spanish coins when the sun shines through them. See the seeds inside? These will drop and reseed the plant for another year.

Here’s to Summer, industrious husbands and tree roosting chicks. Bye.

Beautilicious Beauty

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Sometimes I get so busy, I forget to notice the flowers in my garden until they have come and gone. Stop and smell the roses, Katie. So I went into my garden to photograph all the beautiliciousness that is going on right now right under my nose.

Zinnias. Next to peonies zinnias are my favorite flowers. They are so easy to grow and come in every color in the rainbow.

Almost like a dahlia. So pretty.

Love, love this salmon color. I think I painted a room that color once. But we called it Pepto-bismo pink.

I get my zinnia seeds from Wildseed Farm out of Texas. I order them by the pound and you really get a lot of seeds in a pound. I can have zinnias all over the yard. How can you not smile when you see this sunshiny color in the garden?

Two of my favorite colors together, pink and white.

Hard to believe this……

Will turn into this in a day. Sunshine from a seed.

Why don’t people believe in miracles? They happen right under our noses every single day. A seed in the ground grows into a beautiful flower in a matter of weeks. That’s miraculous to me.

Cleome. An old fashion flower that I have all over the garden. Some I have planted. Some that have reseeded themselves. They are such good little plants. David does not like them close to the pool because they like to droop over and drop their seeds right by the patio around it. So I try to keep them a good distance from the pool, but they still creep back sometimes.

They look good beside the zinnia bed.

I want to get this imprinted on my mind so that this winter when I am looking out at a foot of snow on the ground and everything is white, brown and grey, I will know that one day there will be an abundance of colors once again. God is good. He sends Spring to us when we need it most.

I found three new plants at a grocery store this week. This I thought was a cone flower or echinacea, but after I planted it and read the message with it I found it was a rudbeckia or black eyed Susan.

It didn’t look like any black eyed Susans I have grown before.

This is a coneflower. A white one that I have never seen. I have a red one, a green one, an orange one and the ordinary pink ones that I have grown for years. I hope this one will multiply like the pink ones do.

I am going to try to grow this crepe myrtle. I always thought they were more of a southern plant, but this one says to mulch it well in the autumn to overwinter it. So we shall see.

I do grow vegetables in my garden. I have dozens of tomatoes almost ready. I can’t wait to bite into that first red, ripe tomato still warm from the sun.

More green beans than we can eat.

Pumpkin blossoms dredged in egg and flour and fried in butter. Yum. What I couldn’t eat, the chickens loved.

We have pumpkin vines taking over the garden and into the flower beds. There are several pumpkins growing.

I’ve seen a couple of these big ones. I never get over the excitement of finding these in the garden. Sometimes I have good luck with pumpkin growing and some years, not so much, but so far, this has been a good year for just about everything. I think letting the chickens scratch in the garden over the fall and winter and leaving their, ahem, fertilizer, has really made the garden the best ever. They will do their work again this year. Such good chickens. I love those little girls. I will have to show you our two new ones soon. They are still being kept in a cage right now to protect them from the bigger chooks, but in a few weeks we will clip their wings and let them out. I let them out one day and they flew up onto the gate. Can’t let them do that with the dogs around.

Do you like butternut squash? I don’t know why I planted these other than I just like to grow them. They are good cut in half, sprinkled with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon and baked in the oven.

This is the pumpkin vines coming right up to the fence saying, “Let us out.” They don’t listen to me and come right on over and spread over everything. The good thing about that is that I have less lawn to mow.

Belle in the garden. I have always said the backyard garden is the dog garden because I don’t get too upset when they walk through a flower bed or eat a few blossoms. Belle likes to smell the flowers too.

Bonnie has been with us for ten years and ever since she was a pup she has been right beside me when I plant and weed in the garden. She’s a flower child dog.

We keep a small patch of clover for the bees. Actually, it’s so I don’t have to mow here!

I’ve given David a new project.

Years ago we bought this old soda shoppe chair at an auction and I have wanted to do something with it. So…..David is taking it apart and I will sand it and paint it(David will sand and paint it)and David will add a new wooden seat to it and then I will add something else that you will have to wait to see when it is finished. I can’t wait to show it to you.

Meanwhile, I am working on this, but cannot show any more because who I am making it for is nosy and reads my blog(you know who you are.) I am really liking how this is looking and I hope I can get it done before Christmas. I have five other quilts looking at me and saying, “Finish me!!!” So many quilts, so little time.

Here’s to gardens, flower child dogs and the One who made them all. Bye.

Come Walk in my Garden

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I love to garden. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love flowers, especially perennials. Perennials are the backbone of my garden and through the years I have amassed quite a few. My mother was a flower gardener. She always got pansies to plant early in the Spring and later she would fill her porch boxes with annuals. Petunias, geraniums, bachelor buttons, marigolds and many others. Her porch boxes were always glorious bursts of color. We use to tease her that the man who owned the nursery she went to was her boyfriend because she was always going there to purchase more flowers and he always made it a point to talk to Mother. One time he even delivered some flowers she wanted to our house. We really teased her then. He knew a lot about flowers and I know now Mother was just getting advice about what and where to plant certain flowers.

Mother always had the old fashioned day lilies. The big, tall, orange ones you see sometimes by the side of country roads. I have some of her day lilies in my garden and they are prolific. I have dug them out and tried to contain them in one part of the garden, but before I know it, they are spreading to another place. You can’t kill them, but why would you try?

They are pretty. After they die, they leave these long wooden like stems. My brothers and I use to throw them at each other like spears. I think of that every year when I am removing the stems from the flowers. Then I throw one.

David’s grandmother’s clematis is very pretty this year. It’s at least fifty or more years old and still going strong. My other clematis beside it looks puny and sick. I don’t know why, but I have not had any luck planting clematis and having it live for more than two years, but Grandma Henley’s comes back year after year. I don’t want to be the one to kill it.

We are in the peak of flower season in the garden. We started with crocuses and daffodils at the first of Spring. Then the irises came and went so quickly I hardly saw them. Now there are many plants in bloom. Here are a few

Asiatic lilies. They are becoming some of my favorite flowers in the garden. They have such vibrant colors and keep multiplying. Something that is becoming a requirement of flowers I buy. You get lots more flowers through the years that way when you divide the plants.

Sweet pea. I never planted this. It grew beside our above ground pool years ago and came back every year. When we put in our inground pool, I transplanted them and they have come up year after year since with me doing absolutely nothing for them or to them.

Love in the mist. Isn’t that a sweet name for a flower? I missed getting a picture when it was loaded with those tiny blue flowers. Now the seed pods are coming on and these will reseed themselves. Good flowers. Pat you on the head.

Speedwell. Reminds me of salvia, but the flowers are a little more tight. I have one in pink also.

Achillea. This one surprised me in a bed I started a few years ago. It is such a pretty color. It hides beneath some taller plants so it isn’t noticeable right off.

I didn’t even remember planting this white achillea, but here it is. I don’t use much white in my garden although I have seen all white gardens that are absolutely beautiful. Maybe I ought to try one. A white garden, I mean.

Echinacea or coneflower. I have several of these in the standard purple color, but they are coming out with more colors now and I think this one is a stand out. They, too, multiply. I really don’t need to plant another plant, but will I stop? I don’t think so. Not until there is only a little patch of lawn left. The people who live here after us had better like flowers or they are going to have a lot of work to do to get a lawn back.

The hardy, ever delightful, Stella de Oro. You can hardly kill this plant. If given sun and enough water, it will do the rest. No deadheading or fertilizer needed unless you just want to throw a handful around them. They are so pretty and bright in the garden right now.

My garden is just getting started. Hibiscus, Hydrangeas, August lilies, morning glories, and many other flowers are waiting to make their debut. Come walk in my garden with me. It’s peaceful(except when a train goes by) and it smells heavenly. Bye.

It All Started With a Picture

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Several months or years ago, I’m not sure, time goes by so quickly, I saw this picture in a magazine. I think it was Country Living or Southern Living.

I fell in love with the porch on this house. The stone pillars, the railings, the metal roof. We already have a metal roof on our house which we love so this just looked like something that would go with our house.

I filed the picture away for future reference. At that time, a new porch wasn’t even on our agenda. Then one day David said our old porch was pulling the walls outward in our living room, causing cracks in the wall and it was going to have to go. “How soon?” I asked. “Sooner rather than later,” he replied. So began our adventure into porch building.

We called our favorite contractor, Claude Wright Jr. and asked him to give us an estimate on adding a porch and on replacing more of our old windows. We got the estimate, I almost passed out and then we invited him over to talk.

He, David and I sat around our dining room table discussing what needed to be done. ” Maybe we could save some money by not having the pillars across the front,” David suggested. My heart sunk clear to my feet. The pillars are what I loved about the picture in the first place. “No,” I said. “Those pillars have been a dream of mine for a long time.” After some more discussion, we decided to bite the bullet and go for it. After all, we will probably live in this house for the rest of our lives if we are blessed. I’m not planning any moves, anyway.

Thinking I had lots of time to move the flowers in front of our old porch, David then asked, “How soon can you start?” “Next week,” Claude said. Yikes. I had just a few days to move a lot of flowers. So we said go for it and the fun began.

David and I spent a couple of days digging up and replanting dozens of flowers. He measured how far out the new porch would come so that we would be sure to get the flowers all out of the way. I have a little magnolia tree I have been babying for a couple of years and this is the first year it had blooms on it. I put a fence around it. I cringed for that little tree the entire building process, but the builders were very careful about working around it even though they had to squeeze around it at times.

Soon it was going like gang busters. The old porch was torn down. My house was dusty. The new porch went up. My house got dustier. Then we had a roof, railings, a new tongue and groove floor, wide steps and finally the stone pillars. Hey, so I didn’t dust for a few weeks. The men worked together like clock work. They each knew their job and did it quickly and efficiently. Wiring was done. We even got a couple of extra outlets put in while the walls were open. Men came to install new gutters. It was a busy time around the old Craig house. I had to watch what I was wearing because I never knew when a man would be working right outside a window. Reminds me of a show I use to watch, The Gilmore Girls, where Lorelie Gilmore was having some construction work done on her house and one day she came out of the shower stark naked and found a construction guy standing in the hallway. I did not want that happening to me.

It took about a month, but the work was finally all completed. The dust settled. It’s still settling. I could not wait to start landscaping. I had been purchasing perennials here and there wherever I went and had them waiting to go in the ground. I spent the next few days staining the floor and steps, planting the perennials, replanting some of the flowers I had had to move, decorating the porch, and hanging new hanging baskets.

Want to see the finished project? You don’t? I’m sorry, I am going to show it to you anyway.

First you are welcomed by my little chicken welcome sign.

Come up the wide steps. See the walk David put in all by himself? He planned it and he did all the work. I love it. He’s quite a man. Flower beds on either side. On the left use to be grass. I got rid of more grass. Yay. I hate to mow.

David’s and my rockers. His is the one with padding. I don’t need padding.

David used left over lumber and built this little table to put our drinks upon. It’s really heavy. Took us both to carry it up here. I stained it the same color as the railings.

I put a table and chairs on the porch so we could eat outside. Have we ate outside yet? Nope.

I brought this little chair and pillow that were in the grandchildren’s Adirondack room down and put it in the corner. So, we don’t really have a cabin. I can pretend.

What’s a porch without some flowers?

I placed humming bird feeders all around. The little rascals sometimes zoom right over our heads as they fly through the porch.

David placed our fountain in front of the porch so we could sit and listen to it gurgle and splash. The birds like to drink from it also. We saw one like this in Nashville years ago, but when we went to buy one, no one had any so I went on the internet and found this one. We have been using it for years. It looks like stone, but it isn’t. We have had people go up and touch it thinking it was stone. Our grandchildren, when they were little, ,liked to slap their hand on the fountain and make a splash. Where did those little ones go?

We bought this wind spinner online. When it spins it looks like a rainbow.

David built this bench from a leftover piece of the old porch and some cement blocks and I painted it.

We hung our not glass, stained glass window in our new front window.

I planted annuals in a piece of the old porch.

This use to be one of our dining room chairs that had seen better days. I painted it lavender and set it in the garden.

So this is the ta-da moment. The porch I had dreamed of and kept that picture for. It’s everything and more that I could ever want. David and I spend a lot of time sitting out here and talking and watching the world go by. Why don’t you join us?

It’s almost impossible for me to write a blog and not include flowers. I can’t remember what the yellow one is called, but the lavender one is called speedwell. Kind of looks like salvia to me.

Summer is reading time(although I read all the time). But, anyway, I have a couple of books that I would recommend for reading For my Christian friends out there and those who would like to know more about the Christ I serve there is this book by Max Lucado.

It’s a wonderful book about Jesus. There is a description of Jesus that I have never heard about before. I don’t know where Mr. Lucado got the information, but read the book and see how he describes Jesus’ appearance.

There’s a wonderful series on Netflix called All Creatures Great and Small. It is based on books by this author, James Herriot. This book is about some of the dogs he treated in his veterinary practice and their wild, wacky and sometimes odd owners. I have laughed out loud at some of his stories. All true, with names changed to protect the innocent.

Hope you are having a wonderful summer. Take some time to smell the flowers and read a book. Enjoy it. It will be gone before you know it. Bye.

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Here we are looking at June coming in a few days and I’m wondering where my three favorite months went. I love March, April and May. They are the months that bring the first warm weather after the cold of winter. Flowers appear again and everything turns green after a season of grays and browns. My garden is blooming. Here, let me show you a few of the flowers.

A peony growing in my kitchen garden.

A beautiful yellow iris. I love its bright orange center. Is that the stamen? I forget my flower parts.

Peonies and Irises make good companion plants.

I love salvia. It’s a xeric plant and pretty much takes care of itself.

This plant mysteriously appeared in the garden last summer. I truly do not remember planting it and haven’t a clue what it is. Anyone know?

It has this lacy, ferny foliage.

Gorgeous. There are thousands of different irises. I have just a few, but each one is a work of art.

They come in every hue and color. I was looking at some in a catalog and some of their roots cost twenty and thirty dollars a piece. I will stick with the less expensive ones. They are just as pretty. This one reminds me of a bright, beautiful sunset.

Who’s that I see wandering in my flower beds?

It’s my sweet Belle, here in her bed with her bear. Such a spoiled pupper.

My grandchildren were here this past weekend and one of them still likes taking walks with me. I told him to look down as we walk because I always am finding things. Keys, balls, flags, tools, money. Well, he spotted something as we walked.

He found this little screw driver laying by the side of the road.

He was very proud that he found something. This grandson is walking with me this Saturday in a Color Blaze 5K. You get splashed with colors after every mile you complete. We have to wear white. I am so looking forward to it. I love walking 5Ks and no, I don’t run. I use to run years ago, but my joints won’t take it anymore.

Have any of you seen this hose advertised on television? Have any of you purchased one? We bought one and I tried using it the other day and it squirted water all around the couplings. It’s a piece of junk. I might be able to use it as a jump rope.

Ah, the fairies are coming into my yard. They sit on these toadstools every night. I never can catch them, but I know they are here.

The queen of the fairies sits here and reigns over her subjects.

I hope your day is bright and sunny. I have this sign outside my shop. My cousin was visiting one day and it was raining and he said my sign was wrong. I told him it’s always bright and sunny here. Hope it is where you are today. Bye.

Seasonal Snippets

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It’s been a very busy month. By busy I mean planting, cleaning, building, sewing, walking, and visiting among other things. Summer is building up to be very busy also. Every Summer we look at the three long months ahead and think of all the time we’ll have and then things start to be planned and before we know it, Summer is over. Right now we have a graduation party, a wedding, a trip to Chicago, visiting relatives and a Sunday school party planned. I would like to have a candlelight dinner on our new porch, but haven’t got the plans all together for that yet. I’d love to have a ladies’ day camp at my house where all my friends could come to spend the day, without children, and swim, sun, hot tub and eat yummy food all day. Doesn’t that sound like fun? I’d love to have all you girls come enjoy the day with me.

I am going to talk about our new porch for a minute. I know you are thinking, “blah, blah, blah, that’s all she talks about. Her new porch. Boring.” I know, but I just love my new porch so much. David and I go out every day and look around and tell each other how much we love it. The stone mason got the stone laid last week despite that it rained every single day.

We had cloudbursts after cloudbursts. The garden loved it, but it made it hard to lay stone as the cement couldn’t set in the rain.

The stone masons made themselves a little tent to work under. I felt so bad for them as I stood inside my nice, dry house and watched them work. They are truly artists at their work. The pillars came out even more beautiful than I ever could have imagined. I am so glad we decided to do them as we were a little afraid of the cost. Since we plan to live in this house the rest of our lives, I think we made the right decision.

David had had his eye on these rocking chairs we saw at Sam’s Club and he finally decided to go buy them. They were the last two they had so I think we were meant to have them. They are so comfortable and made of teak so they will fade to a grey. We have originally become old, I said. Two old folks sitting and rocking on their front porch. I would love to put a bed out there also. To sleep under a metal roof while a soft rain is falling upon it sounds like bliss to me. I fell asleep on our swing in our back yard yesterday and when I opened my eyes, there was a carpenter bee right in front of my eyes. So close that when I swatted at it, I hit it. I wondered just how long it had been flying around my head and looking at my nostrils as a place to call home! Yikes!

I love the way the shadows fall upon the porch. It’s just a magical place, I have to tell you. I know it’s just a porch, but it just makes you feel good to sit out there.

I have been having a wonderful time landscaping around the porch. I had purchased a lot of perennials that I was just itching to get into the ground. I spent a couple of days planting.

This little patch of flowers are on the left side of the steps.

We dug up some more yard for another bed. The less grass I have to mow the better I like it. I have planted these plants and sowed zinnia and cleome around them I also planted some hollyhock bulbs, but I am not sure they will grow. I have decided buying prepackaged bulbs from certain stores are not the healthiest of bulbs. I bought garlic bulbs from one particular store a couple of years ago and not one grew.

Now you know I have to have something about chickens in my garden. I found this cute garden stake at Rural King, one of my favorite stores. It has a little bell that really rings.

I’ve planted and planted. Did I really need to buy eight packets of sunflower seeds? Really?? I managed to find places to plant them, but my garden is getting packed full. This is an old lawn spreader that I painted pink and planted with annuals. A movable flower pot!

I never tire of seeing the perennials bloom every year. The irises, poppies and peonies are beautiful right now. Peonies are probably my very favorite flower. The poppies were started from David’s grandmother’s garden. She always had a beautiful garden in her backyard. I can still see it in my mind’s eye.

Peonies make such a beautiful bouquet. If I were getting married again, I would want to get married when the peonies are in bloom so that I could have them in my wedding bouquet.

Two of my favorite colors together.

Even the white ones are gorgeous.

Meanwhile, David has been working hard to get things ready for summer.

Want to come swim in our pool? What’s that? You say it’s green? This is what it looks like every year when we(meaning David) takes the cover off. Then the real work begins.

David spends many hours cleaning, flushing and checking the chemicals. It’s hard to believe that soon this green pool will be a beautiful, clear blue ready for swimming. Our grandkids are coming over this weekend, so hope the pool will be ready.

We needed a new walkway to our porch and David spent a day working on it. It was his plan and I must say it turned out really well. I will show you the ta-da moment on another post as I forgot to take pictures of the finished project.

Doesn’t he have a nicely tanned head? Working outside in the sunshine will do that.

Over a year ago, when our new porch was just a figment of our imaginations, we bought this stained glass picture to hang in our front window. We didn’t want to put it up until it would be in the shade as my stained glass pictures in my shop windows faded after years in the sun. I love this with all the different birds on it.

Less you think I have forgotten all about the chooks, I haven’t.

They are so happy to have ground where they can take their dust baths again. Here they are in front of one of the dog houses. There’s Freedom getting ready to run. She always runs when she sees me despite the fact I spent weeks nursing her back to health last year. Ungrateful chicken.

Here she is thinking she has escaped me, but I cut her off at the pass.

Dorcas, or is it Beatrice, is friendlier to me and will come right up to me and let me pick her up. She’s such a pretty girl.

Even though Freedom is afraid of me, she keeps her eye on me. She will follow me all around the coop, but as soon as I go to pet her she’s off to the races again.

Of course laying season is picking up. Sometimes I will find as many as four eggs in one nest. Chickens like communal laying, I guess. We give a lot of eggs away. They are good, organic, free range chicken eggs and taste like butter. I have eaten more eggs this year than I think I have all my life. Egg salad is a mainstay at the Craig house.

Well, hope you are enjoying the weather and getting outdoors and giving God the praise for His glorious creation. Bye.

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Snicklefritz

So glad you came. Come sit a spell and read about the tale of my life.

Category Archives: Gardening

Requiem for a Maple Tree Part 2

Requiem for a Maple Tree

I See the Moon. Oh, No I Didn’t.

Give a Wife a Camera……..

Summer

Beautilicious Beauty

Come Walk in my Garden

It All Started With a Picture

Seasonal Snippets