This and that...

It is only four o’clock, and the privet is alive with twinkling stars—raindrops on leaves like itty bitty luminaries flicker here and there in the thicket.  I love rain and rainy days, and luckily for me, we get plenty of that around here.  I am blessed.

 

We finally got that bare space by the entrance of the garden covered in peat pebbles—lovely, sparkly river pebbles that now, after the afternoon downpour it seem to shine touched by soft, diffused light.

I love ferns... all types and variety of them...

Love their lavishness and deep greenness that seems to speak quietly of enchanted woods and mysterious forests.  I have them everywhere in my garden.

 

Fairies and magical creatures are coming out of their hideouts, birds are cleaning muddy feathers in small fountains scattered around the garden and trees are wearing luscious newly washed sparkling suits—the glories after the rain. 

I cannot love my little paradise any more and I have so many more projects in mind for that space to implement… like an arbor covered in roses, a birdhouse on a tall pole covered in clematis, more hostas and crepe myrtle.  I have five crepe myrtle growing in my newly established garden, but you can never have too many crepe myrtle around here… they come in so many varieties, and all of them exquisite and flamboyant in their own right, all of then brimming with blooms wrap in incomparable beauty and fragrances… oh yes I want more crepe myrtles in my garden.

We finished painting the fence and I have planted a climbing rose against the wall I’m determining to be our entrance to the garden. Home Depot, which is the only place where you can get your plants and such around here has a poor selection of roses. Other than the Knockout variety, they’re practically null on roses, which I find to be must annoying, I should say. And when it comes to climbers, it gets worse. They had only three climbers of the same brand this year—the American Climbing Rose—miserably looking and poorly kept. But I needed one. I asked the attendant for a discount and was allowed a 10% off, so I brought one home and have planted it by the entrance. I don’t know exactly what the flowers may look like because the bush I purchased only had one sad little rose blooming in it... but I'm betting all my hopes in this bush for an abundance of lovelies later on... 

I finally had to be seen by my doctor today for my contact with poison ivy…  I got a steroid shot and Benadryl.  I also found out that aside from my reaction to poison ivy, I was attacked by an army of tiny, fiercely biting mites called Chiggers… never heard that in my life before… you?  If you don’t know what they are, I'm telling you... be careful!  And protect yourselves when outside, if you live in the South.  These are tiny, red mites that cause intensely itchy bites… so be careful. And a huge thank you to the lovely reader who shared the secret of the Baking Soda! Thank YOU!

Have a lovely evening everyone!

Ps:  We're on our way to FL tomorrow morning... 10 hours driving.  I'm taking my Benadryl and comfy pillow... planing on some much needed sleep.  See you soon!

  

Life...

I refuse to complain I refuse I refuse! The Southern summer is eating us alive… literally. Mosquitoes, poison ivy, poison oak, poison sumac, and we had to take my dad to the Emergency room this morning; all swollen up. 

I’ve been affected too, but in a much lesser degree… and perhaps I was saved because I already have the poison antibody in my system? Who knows...  The thing is I have been there too… been poisoned by this wild and treacherous Southern Nature, back when we first came here to check this place out, last summer. 

I never did mention it here, but last July after our very first visit here I ended up in the Emergency room myself, with horrible hives all over my body and swelling of face, mouth, neck, etc. The large blisters on my legs broke some of the thin capillaries and produced some very nasty bruises all over my legs that took forever to clear off.  It really looked as if I had leprosy… it was horrible. 

Any way, as I was saying I refuse to complain… I do I do... have you heard me complaining yet? ;) Oh well, such is life… 

Before mom and dad came to stay with us I had started working on a lengthy project… a paint project I’ve been wanting to tackle down for a few years now, but didn’t had the courage to do it… 

I'd never liked the dark mahogany wood of the furniture in our master's, but it looked OK with the style of our more larger home up north, and it was such a huge project to undertake… but then we moved to our little white cottage where most everything is white and where the painting of furniture is allowed… because, well, this is a cottage right? And you all know how it goes… "painted furniture is especially appealing for the cottage theme, where old nondescript furniture can be gathered together and painted to suit any color scheme one pleases"… isn’t this marvelous? So I have started painting away…

 

  Thus far I have done both of the small side chests only... 

 

Our master bedroom's colors are white, black and yellow.... 

 

I have also painted the originally silver pulls on the drawers in black to match the rest of the decor...

Here I'm using a white ornate vase to hold some yellow roses...

Experimenting with a mercury glass flower vase, originally a candle holder, to match the mercury glass table lamp.

The paint I'm using is "Vintage", from Americana Decor, and it is the same color of paint I used on my small kitchen table.  It is my favorite color right now.  I will be painting the rest of the furniture after we come back from taking mom and dad back to Florida, next week.  The headboard is part wood part leather.  I am leaving the leather as is and will be painting the wood only. I also have to paint the dresser and rest of the hardware...  not an easy task, but now that I have started I'm motivated to finish this up. 

Remember, enjoy your moments... an go with time as clouds go with the sky.

See you soon!

In my element...

I have a new friend, Jane at the blue house down the hill. 

Yesterday Jane and her family stopped by our little white cottage while at their evening stroll through the neighborhood to say hi. We talked for a while out in the front yard, and later I invited them over to the back… to see the garden and they were delighted—the garden drenched with the scent brought in by a boisterous evening; of crickets chirping loudly deep in the thicket and frogs serenading the early moon… 

Jane promised to share some plant cuttings... from her mother’s garden, and asked if she could come back again to take some photograph... for inspiration.  She has always dreamed of having a lovely garden, but haven’t had the courage to start one… and how was I able to create my little paradise in such short time? 

Well, we best ask Apollo if he knows how that happened... Apollo, who by the way, had finally found his way to our new home… it took him a while to get here, but he finally made it.  Best ask him if he may know how this garden happened to be, because all I know is I've been working working working day and night and night and day and then one day it all came into being… like magic.  And now people are saying how lovely this place is looking and what an outstanding change from what it was just a few months ago…  I am truly thrilled.

In the morning, a lovely bouquet of blue hydrangeas was waiting for me at the front door…

From Jane’s. 

 

I was told that my hydrangeas will grow to some rather big bushes and the window behind them most probably be almost completely hidden. I have no experience whatsoever with hydrangeas. Do they really grow that tall? My hydrangeas are in bloom but I haven’t’ done any cuttings, cause I have read that hydrangeas grow on new wood… and how far into the plant can one cut the flowers without damaging next summer’s bloom?  I dunno.

Basking in the sun in the stillness of mid-morning… enchanted by the songs of birds—the “pretty pretty pretty” flatteries of the Mockingbird mingling with the “chowee chowee” chirrups of those other birds, and over there farther down the privet, the chanting of the ravens. And there are those huge fat types of bumblebees fluttering the idle hours away; over my head in boisterous concerts of buzzing and burrowing into the wood. I have learned that these creatures are called the Carpenter Bumblebees… they insist in destroying the gutters of our roof. And there are big menacing orange wasps such as ones I’d never seen. Every creature visits now and then… but I’m not afraid of their nearness. Of none of them. Nor of their buzzing or bustling or humming hustles and bustles all around me. They don’t troubled me at all; except perhaps, for the Yeppers Creeper the mosquitoes. I’m learning that I’m allergic to them… They're driving me insane...

Anything new, or exciting, or interesting going on in your neck of the woods?

Please do share!

Living outside...

Our little white cottage has been most happy accommodating and entertaining some very dear people… loved ones who have come all the way from Florida to stay with us for a while.  Dear people who also require every bit of my attention and time—mom and dad.  Hence the absence from Blogland.  They’re the air under my wings.  I am blessed.

Our patio umbrella has finally arrived.  It is the largest umbrella I’ve ever seen.  Sturdy and shielding—like a nice roof over our heads.  But summer is relentless here, and it had launched itself unsympathetic upon the land and without a proper introduction, I should say… smoldering, as it travels the horizon, the tips of wings under our hearts. 

Birds have been hiding from it too, and the turtles-creatures of the small creek behind the garden have chosen to live underwater, day and night. 

I’d never expected summer to be this blunt, at least not this early in the year, and it is discouraging too—not being able to live outside as much as we had expected to, and dreamt about.  If you pay attention, really pay attention to your surroundings, you’d see this strange breath of something seething out of the earth like a malevolent serpent… slowly stretching up up up…  It is the heat. 

And when finally the evening breezes start to cool things down a bit, out comes those assassins creatures of the air—the mosquitoes, to bite off the last of our optimisms.

So yeah it’s been quite a disenchantment for the spirit… but always always it is pure magic, and magical… when all of a sudden under the intense heat you feel so alive and blessed and your skin gets all wrinkled up—those Goosebumps all over your soul… and you know it, you know it's something to do with those familiar yet most inexplicable feelings and an awe of the spirit so pure and divine that you just have to breath deep... deeper, and smile and be thankful again and again…

I’ve been working in the garden every day despite the heat.  Perspiration drains my veins and I’ve never been this dark in all my life.  But the garden is looking marvelous… truly marvelous.

Our fence had been finally installed.  I just love it… love the immediate sense of security and seclusion it offered.  I spent a whole day last week removing all the sod—a huge space around the fence where we’re planning on adding pea pebbles and build the garden’s entrance… an arbor with climbing roses.    

I have so many stories to share, so many photographs to show, but as you know, I’m busy busy sharing loving caring for chatting cooking planting laughing and working working working along paths of joys, and some distress too, but always thankfulness, and blessedness.

I hope you all are having a blessed summer and some marvelous days...

What's your favorite color?

The other day when I was unpacking some of the boxes I’d brought over from our storage unit, I noticed that perhaps my new-found love for greens and blues is more of a longtime affair than I had realized…

 

I could hardly believe how many of my little treasures I brought from the house in the roses were either blue or green or teal, which of course, is a combination of blue and green color...

 This came as a total surprise to me…

 

But it really shouldn't...

Blues and greens of open skies and our beautiful earthy planet. 

These two colors are peaceful and homey.

And I love them... 

Interesting how we change...

And all these years I thought I was a 'pink' girl!

I truly did ;)

 What is your favorite color these days?

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