Thankful for the Gift of Spring!

Outside the Front Door

We only had a little bit of winter, if you can even call it winter.  Mostly milder days, a good bit of rain (enough to create a small lake in the backyard for a few days).  Seems like just a few weeks were below freezing. 

The grey rainy days chilled my bones but felt good, like the right kind of rest.  A state of suspended animation, close - so close - but not there yet.  We stretched our way from holidays through illness and then, quite beautifully, into the start of spring.

My yard and garden surprised me like they do every year, sharing blooms in the most unexpected places, giving color every which where. 

I hope to have a chance to wander outside with the camera this week and capture some of the ephemeral moments of beauty, although I have missed getting pictures of some of it already - the yellow and purple crocuses, the full blooms of the wisteria and the bridal veil.   I have been amazingly fortunate to enjoy the colors from inside the windows, and completely appreciate this gift of spring in 2012!

Today: I woke up late, luxuriating in the weekend sleeping in.  I went to yoga and had an amazing hot yoga class that left me trembling in the very best way.  Wait Wait Don't Tell Me! cracked me up as I rested with 32 ounces of water and some almonds.  A second shower and I am ready to go!

Now: Off to the grocery and then home to make a Baked Alaska.  Family Dinner will be Grilled Chicken / Pimento Cheese sandwiches, Baked Sweet Potato Fries, and Baked Alaska.  We are wrapping up Asa and Jaya's birthday celebrations tonight.  Baked Alaska seems like just the ticket to celebrate.

Garden Gift

After all these years I finally have a hydrangea in bloom!

 The garden is looking amazing with all of ADR's focused work.  He has pulled poison ivey (the birds just love the danged stuff) and grapevines, and planted and mulched.  Flowers are blooming on both sides of the front walk and also in the side garden, and it is so wonderful!  It still has a rambling, wild, dense look that I love so much - random and full of energy.  But everything looks super healthy - better than it has in the last seven years - which is when I stopped gardening to travel for work.  Bah!

* * * *
I have been focusing on cleaning up inside, taking care of the absolute disaster that my art / craft space had become.  With work demanding time, I find that I so desperately want to make time for art that I just sit down and do it, and then never have the opportunity to clean up the resulting mess. And I am in the middle of a very cool art project right now, doing some work for a friend, so I really need the space.  So, I have been spending time digging through everything on the desk and floor, organizing like items into containers, labeling, filing.  It has been several weeks of this effort, and about two weeks ago I finally had a cleaner desk - enough that I could actually make space on top to work.  I found lots of cool things during this process - art supplies I didn't remember I had, little pieces of ephemera that I can use to make more art, interesting colors and stamps and brushes.  Buried treasure!  

Even now with the desk clean, there are things that sit all over the top of the desk - containers filled with paint brushes, big glass containers willed with tubes of acrylic paints, ceramic rectangular dishes to the brim with chalks.  I need all these things in easy reach when I am working (playing!) and I like the way they bring color to the desk.  I also have a super cool piece of bamboo that ADR gave me, filled with markers that I use for my envelope art.

ADR found this bamboo growing wild near his in-laws house.  No one wanted it, so he spent days with a machete out in the heat, cutting down long poles of bamboo.  Then he researched how to treat it so that it dried appropriately and cured the way it is supposed to, to make it strong.  He has used the bamboo to make a table and a really cool garden gate.  The piece that he gave me is about 4 and a half inches in diameter, and as tall as a coffee cup.  It is a beautiful subtle brown, and stronger than you might imagine.  I think that it is such a cool container - such a cool natural gift!  When I found the bamboo on my desk I was tickled and immediately made use of it for the markers. 

In passing the next day or so, I mentioned to ADR how cool my bamboo was that he had given me.

About a week later everyone came up for family dinner.  They were late in arriving and Mr. Bryant and I were out on the porch when they pulled up.  The kids hopped out of the car and came running for hugs and hellos, and SRR had a big smile and hug for us too.  ADR was carrying something and he said - I have a surprise for you mom.  Now, I am not usually much for surprises - but look at what this creative man brought to me.

Bamboo Garden Sculpture

 A one of a kind, hand made just for me, bamboo garden sculpture!  Made of six or seven pieces of bamboo and thick gauge copper wire, it is just so very good.  I am sure that it is excellent feng shui!  ADR installed it in the garden on Monday last, as you see it above.  He has big plans for mulch and flowers that will be planted all around to make it even more fabulous and more an integral part of the garden.

I feel very lucky and blessed to have creativity and beauty all around.  No wonder why I would rather be home than anywhere else!

Thank you dearest son.  I love my garden, and I love my sculpture.

Wordless on Wednesday from the Front Garden

Gardening, Front and Back

At the back of the yard, Mr. Bryant plants the plants that are leftovers.  The ones that are at the edge of the nursery, the ones that are left to sit by the side, that no one wants to buy, the ones that the nursery eventually marks down to almost nothing.

When Mr. Bryant brings these plants home, they look bad, every time.  Like no one ever watered them.  Like really, they are probably dead.  Like doing anything with them was a complete waste of effort.  Like if you paid for them at all, you paid too much.

Mr. Bryant plants these sad looking plants in rocky soil, at the back edge of the yard.  He fondly calls the area his rock garden.  He waters the plants with dedication, but he doesn't do anything special otherwise.  Well, maybe a little compost occasionally - but many times not even that.  Amazingly, every dying plant Mr. Bryant has put into the rocky clay soil at the back of the yard has prospered.  While my front garden delphiniums have died and I have purchased more and they have died, and once again more.....Mr. Bryant's spindly plants have grown and showered us with blooms.

 
After much plant distress out front I let the garden just go for two years.  I pulled the big weeds, but didn't care much about most of it.  It grew wild and the birds loved the brush.  The poison ivy started to take over though, so something had to be done.  Now I have a gardener in the person of my son, who tends the front garden and fills it with glorious perennials.  Some of the hidden roses that never bloomed are blooming beautifully, and although the yellow rose is gone, the white one is prospering.  The garden is recovering and is filled with such beautiful plants that I am nearly to tears.  My son is a blessing to me, as are the flowers. 

And out back, Mr. Bryant's rock garden blooms exotic.

These men in the family, I swear they must have green thumbs.

The Garden in the Heat of August

Mr. Bryant's garden was supposed to be mostly tomatoes - but that was before the pumpkin from last Halloween decided to sprout and take things over. Things are really beautiful in this hottest time of the year with all the garden colors.

The pumpkins vine is actually beginning to die from the heat, but the pumpkins have already grown nice, round, and orange. The colors in the garden run from yellow and orange through all shades of green and then to red.


There are accents of bright purple where the morning glories have wound their way through the other vines. Below you can see some of the delicious orange cherry tomatoes from Karla - they are so sweet it is unbelievable.


Mr. Bryant's crepe myrtle is still blooming its beautiful blooms. It gives us color and shade all summer.


And the lemon tree looks like it is going to provide an excellent crop this year, with enough lemons to maybe do a pitcher or two!

But it is the surprise of the pumpkins that has us most delighted. Finding them amidst the vines has been such fun, and the grands are really excited about carving them for Halloween - while Ama and ADR are mostly excited about the pumpkin seeds!

The birds don't mind

I have a little water feature in the front flower garden. Right under the windows where one of those wasps nests was found.

As I looked out the windows and smiled at my my flowers, I saw this little guy, enjoying the cool water in the fountain. He drank and washed and even swam across the top of the flowing water. It made my day to see him enjoying the cool water, and I snapped this shot through the glass.

And I must say, it is heartening to know, that wasps or no, the birds don't mind.

Spring has surely sprung!

The beautiful white rose that was hidden by shrubs last year,
blooming this year. :)

The garden is really in bloom. More flowers come out and up every day, and even these pictures won't truly do it justice. ADR has been doing lots of garden work and this spring it is really paying off. Just for grins, take a look.

Lady Banks, lovely as ever.

Azaleas by the front porch.

And beside Stephanie's House.

Welcome Spring!

The path that ADR built

Mr. Bryant's Wisteria out front

The fence is nearly done around the side of the house, but I have waiting for flower beds to plant my poor potted plants. With the coming of spring and many wonderful things blooming, the side of the house has been looking a bit sad.

Mr. Bryant and ADR met and had a confab around what to do, and talked about how we could re-use the stones from former paths to make something wonderful. Our "final" design has a path and lights - and maybe even a water feature - but right now the big Camellia plant looks like it is almost right in the middle of the space. So they decided that the first step needed to be the path - to see if things would fit and to define the rest of the design.


ADR got started with the slate and stones we had, and dug a path back by the patio. Before we knew it we had to head to the store for more stone - and before I knew it, look what I had!

The path runs right by the fence, with plenty of flower bed room by the house.

The path approaching the wisteria - and where there will soon be a gate.

Coming around the corner into the front garden

Curving around the roses and wisteria

What a lovely curving garden path from my sweet ones! A perfect Mother's Day gift, I must say! :)

Halloween and Purple Rain

We woke up this morning to a grey spooky very Halloween like day. Not to hot, not too cool, a little rain misting, clouds everywhere. I walked around the house to capture some of the purple rain and see what might be seen as we came to the end of the summer. Would there be color anywhere? Or only the grey of a spooky day?

I have a picture full post to update you all on what I found, just here, just around. First, the house has lots of color in it - look, for example, at the "haint blue" porch ceiling! How about those freshly stained shingles? We are looking pretty snazzy, right?

Truly, I love the grey-green along with a fabulous Philadelphia Cream and that wonderful Purple Rain accent. In fact, the grey day seems like purple rain is falling - and it is all around the house, too! And look here - a fab ORANGE pumpkin, thanks to that loving Mr. Bryant.

Then, the old old philodendron, in the Purple Rain pot that was a happy accident - thank you ADR!

Around the side by the "natural area," some lovely color coming into the trees - and the bushes. Look at that spooky fog!

And then, much to my surprise as I came around the corner, I saw a yellow rose, hiding in the garden.

That got me started looking for more treasures as I moved down the garden path.

Wonderful greens and browns made the garden look rich, even with the foggy grey day.


Tiny white flowers with beautiful fern-y leaves.


Wisps of burgundy foliage and pink flowers.


Delicate light green leaves with bright tiny reds.


Then another hidden rose, this one a beautiful perfect pink. What a wonderful reason to smile, as the flowers gather for us in the fall!


And then, around the side, down the narrow path to see if anything spooky might be found here...


But instead, more lovely blossoms waiting to be admired!

Lovely everywhere, spooky day, fabulous Halloween wishes to you all!

The garden is beginning!

The earliest goodies in the garden are beginning to peek out at us from the winters dried leaves and the earliest springs weeds that haven't yet been pulled. Above is the dogwood from the back garden. This was a "throw away" from a local nursery many years ago, and Mr. Bryant rescued it, planted it, and take a look at it now! Plants are wonderfully resilliant - sometimes surprising everyone.

Here is a view of some of the things I found on this first of many garden walks.... I hope you enjoy these photos, and that all of you are enjoying a wonderful spring!

The Camellia usually begins things, right by the front door.

Some of the first flowers to bloom every year, these old perennials make me smile each time I see them!

These little pinks are a delight, and I plan to plant more.

The wandering Lady Banks is a favorite splash of yellow in the front garden.

The azaleas come in full right after Easter every year.

The back garden pink dogwood, close up - too beautiful to miss!