Monday snap...

Oh Henryi!

this is a "Henryi" clematis, a gift from my son.  this is the first time in three years that he has bloomed.  And yes, that is the correct spelling.

My father's name was Henri, with an 'i," although most people used a 'y.'   He hated it, never used it in life always preferring to go by his middle name.  Strangely enough the name he used was not really his middle name, which I found out when I took care of his estate and had to find his birth certificate.

 He was French-Canadian and as was the custom back in the day his parents gave their children several names.  Henri was only one of five names he had.  Three of which I never knew, but when strung together and spoken in French became very lyrical.

Not so much in English though!  How appropriate that my son would find and gift me with a beautiful bloom that is spelled in such an original way...just like my daddy.

monday snap...

purple Iris on a cool, rainy, stay indoors Sunday.

this was the extent of my yard work!   How was your weekend?

in the garden...

 

first of all~~~fuzzy picture alert!

 

recently the hubs brought home this

unusual bouquet of flowers

nothing that I had ever seen before.

 

 

while beautiful I have not been able to find

any info on just 'what' they are.

the flower sits atop a rather large

pod type of thing,

the leaves are firm and remind me

of eucalyptus.

 

any ideas

my brilliant

gardening friends?

 

 

Enjoy your weekend!

she who is my mother in-law...

...I could make a list

and it would be quite long

regarding

she who is my mother in-law

but

recently she did a very

thoughtful,

caring

thing for me

and I want her to know

just how much

it

means to me.

When our sweet

Graciella

ran over the rainbow bridge

my MIL

remembered

seeing this sculpture at a

garden shoppe in

Olympia.



they made a special

trip

out there to bring it

back for me.

about an hour.



this sweet doggie

is holding a treat

has angel wings

and wearing a choker...

all ready to go for

a nice long

walk.

And look at the heart,

beautiful.

I haven't yet

decided

where I want to put it.

It

would be weatherproof

but

I wouldn't want to have it stolen.

I'm thinking maybe

we'll

bolt it down on the front porch.

Thank you,

Russ and Connie

Peonies

from her yard too!

(don't know why my post is centered and wonky but hey, it's a post!)

Another 'paper' post...

I planted some paper whites a few days ago.  I always enjoy planting them indoors this time of year and this year I put them into a Haegar Pottery bulb bowl that I found while thrifting last Spring.

It's really very easy and in a few weeks you will have some pretty blooms to help remind you that Spring will eventually return!  

Just take a package of bulbs and line them up in a container...pointing up.  It doesn't matter the container although they do get quite tall so you might want to keep that in mind.  This is a very shallow container so I will undoubtedly have to find a way to prop them up when the time comes.

Next fill the container (bowl) with water to just below the spouting tops.  About an 1" or so will do.  Then cover with rocks or gravel, or in the case marbles.   Keep it in a well lit area and in just a few weeks you will have some pretty white blooms.  I don't particularly care for their perfume but I do love seeing flowers in the Winter.

Do you plant paper whites at this time of year?

what once was lost....

...has now been found.   Enjoy!

Simplicity is...

...a blue ball jar and some fresh weeds flowers from the yard...

June gloom...

...well, it's official.  June has been dubbed 'June doom Gloom,' even the weather man says so.  I've also heard 'the spring that wasn't,' 'spring where are you,' hey it's summer somewhere.'  Yeah, there is plenty to go around.  Now we are moving on to the official start of summer, which is July 4th here.  If you have any outdoor events do not plan them in June...period.

My garden is sorely lacking.  Several weeks ago I planted many, many flower seeds in my cutting garden.  As I have stated before, I have never tried growing flowers from seed except Nasturtiums.  So I planted, and planted, and hoped and wished and waited and waited some more.  Want to take a peek?

here's my only peony and it is far from opening...

and here...here is my most expensive wonderful 'Knock-out' rose that got a good beating yesterday when storm after storm blew through here.  Poor thing needs medical attention.  We won't even look out at the veggie patch, and blueberries...gone baby gone.

~

As you can see there is some sunshine here and there today.  I'm hoping to convince it to hang around for awhile...then I'll have something new to complain about!  How does your garden grow?

Again with the yellow tags...

...if you read yesterdays post then you will not be surprised to know that immediately after purchasing the plant stand I ran right back into the store and spent the next 30minutes looking for yellow tags!

And my timing could not have been better:

 this rusty crusty planter looks much better after a quick coat of white spray paint, then I lined it with moss and planted a few fuchsias.  I've not had luck with fuchsias in the past but I'm hoping they like their new home right outside the back door.

 And here we have another rusty-crusty-metal-thingy that looks much better after a quick spray and a little bird house on top.  This is out in my new 'cutting' garden.  (those are not weeds by the way!)

 A cute little wooden wheelbarrow (upside down for some reason)  I'm not going to paint this one since I like it's worn look.  Not sure what I will put in it or if I will just leave it.  Ideas?

And finally, this little garden faerie.  I'm not sure what she really is but she seems quite content to sit in the potted pansies that happen to be sitting on the infamous orange chair...the $3. chair.

All of these items were originally priced from $3.99 ~ $5.99 and I got them all for $.99 each.  I will be looking out for yellow tag Sundays next time we go out of town. 

This concludes our yellow-tag foray

finally.

Follow the yellow tag...

***before I get started I want to say that I have been having major issues with posting and commenting lately.  I'm losing posts before I can save them, I'm having posts show up when they are not scheduled to and I can't sign in most days.  I spent 45 minutes trying to leave a Happy Birthday comment last night and ended up turning the computer off and going to sleep.  So please just know that I am here and I'm trying to get around and visit all of you and I'm hoping this will be corrected soon.***I also have no control over the spacing, the font and the font size...so sorry~***



...a few weeks ago, after a post Mother's Day get together at the in-laws, we were driving home when I noticed a 'new' thrift store.  I don't usually peruse the shoppes out of town but I was still in the "searching for backyard/garden kitsch" mode and so we stopped in for a look-see.

I wandered around a bit and came upon this little nugget: 



 It looked to be in pretty good shape but it was hard to really tell as it was being used as a repository for artificial flowers and greenery.  It was also hanging up on the wall barely out of reach, so, in order to check it out and find the price I had to yank gently remove it from it's hook, and discreetly remove all the floral pieces.  Eventually, I found the price tag...a small yellow sticker...$4.99.  Well, hmmmm, o.k.

When I got to the counter, much to my surprise, I was informed that all yellow tags were .99 cents today.  Yay, for me.   I brought that baby home, gave her a coat of white spray paint using my new and wonderful sprayer handle gadget, and when it was all nice and dry moved it over to the patio and plopped my Knockout rose in it.

I also went back into the store and did a little more shopping...yellow tags, Oh yeah! I'm getting over my aversion to yellow.

Songs in Ordinary Time...

...those of you who are former Catholic school girls will remember that "Ordinary Time" is time of year following Epiphany and Pentecost.  Rather than meaning common or mundane the term comes from the word "ordinal" which simply means counted time.

The rest of us probably remember it as an Oprah book club choice back in the late '90's and a LMN movie thereafter.  It was an enjoyable book but for me the movie did not live up to it's full potential.  Such as it is with books and movies for me.  

Ordinary time for me is just that...ordinary.  And although it does not celebrate a certain ''feast' or 'event' it is a day to cherish and rejoice.  Today I sang a song of ordinary time.

With no constraints against me for my time or energy I awoke to a beautiful sunny day.  After a great nights rest and no alarm clock grouchily waking me up, I savoured my cup off coffee.  With no where to go, nothing to do I simply went about my day.  Dishes, laundry, making the bed...none of these things feeling like chores today.  Nothing pulling at me to be done or finished I made my way outside and took a little nap in the sunshine.

I pulled some weeds, finished planting my seeds, transplanted a few things that needed bigger pots, re-arranged the old pots to see what or if I needed to replace.  I spray painted some odds and ends, for a later post.  I thought about sweeping the porch, but didn't.  I thought about raking the dying moss in the yard, but didn't.  I thought about walking the dog, but couldn't  didn't.  In every way it was just an ordinary day.

No dinner plans except to throw a few things together as hubby put some Halibut on the grill. 

No misery, no mayhem, no complications.  An ordinary day that would pass others by without an second glance, or be put down as 'boring.'  Not to me...I rejoice in the ordinary days.  They are a rare gift in my life and I love when they come around...my heart sings a song of ordinary days.

Is your heart singing today?

google images

It's a knockout...

...this last fall, winter, spring has been so much rainier than years past, even for us.  We unfortunately have lost a lot of our garden plants.  Most of my bulbs are gone, I think they just may have become water-logged, our Rhododendrons look pitiful and only one of our many rose bushes survived.

We had a small garden of roses along the back of the house, all but one being planted in honor of or in memory of a special person or horrific event.  None of them made it through to bloom so we, meaning the hubs, dug them all out and this became my cutting garden, which remains a work in progress. 

I was a little saddened that so many roses were lost especially since they held a special place in my heart.  So recently, while perusing blogs, I came across several people who were crazy over the Knockout Roses.  I did a little research on them and found that they are a hardy shrub rose that can be grown in a pot.  I mentioned that we should keep an eye out for them next time we were in the store and lo and behold we came across two last week.  One of them jumped right into my cart~~right there on top of all my groceries and such.  I couldn't get it back out as it insisted on coming to live with us...

As directed I planted the little bugger sweetheart in a pot and it's on the patio where I can easily see it.  It is gorgeous!  Scarlett colored blooms, tons of them, and the plant is a nice compact shape.  I can't wait to see it bloom all Spring and Summer and I love the fact that they don't need to be pruned or deadheaded.  I need all my plants to be self sufficient!   Do you own a Knockout?

from the tag:
The Knock Out^® Family of Roses are easy to grow and do not require special care. They are the most disease resistant rose on the market. They have stunning flower power with a generous bloom cycle (about every 5-6 weeks) that will continue until the first hard frost. All of the Knock Out^® Roses are self-cleaning so there is no need to deadhead