What I've Been Enjoying

The library's sale shelves. I've gotten some great stuff for very little, and I enjoy supporting the library. I try to stop and check at least once a week.

My orchids are all blooming at once.

We spent a few hours in Indianapolis, and I truly enjoyed fabric shopping at the French Seam fine fabric store. I got several stunning pieces to make summer things for Daisy. If you're in the midwest, go there.

I'm finishing up my poetry collection and turning it in tomorrow. 

I've been working at the Sisyphyean task of using up my scraps of jersey by piecing a string quilt. You cut your scraps into strips and sew them to a fabric base. I'm using 10-inch muslin squares and I need to make 81 of them. I do about two a day. I'm not racing through this project, but it is so satisfying to see the scrap heap diminish.

Kale from the garden!!

The First Camellias with the Last Hydrangeas

The Hugels of Felix

When Felix and Molly bought their house in June, the first thing Felix did was start to build some hugels. What was he even doing? 

Now, of course, we know all about hugelculture and we are all true believers. I have paid Felix and Eliot to convert my vegetable garden into hugels. I can only hope that next year, like Felix, I can grow okra plants that are eight feet tall and have to be taken down with a chainsaw.

An Array of Kale

At several plant nurseries this week in search of spirea and oak-leaf hydrangeas for the Stone House. This one had such a beautiful array of ornamental cabbages and kale!

Begonias: The Gift That Keeps Giving

I dearly love the grays inherent in the pot and leaves set against the gray of the sitting room walls.

This begonia won't stop giving to me. It sends a tall shoot up that I have to cut off, and put in water. And then it roots, and I have to pot it up. Repeat.

The Lantana Was a Good Choice

In June I filled in a couple of holes in my front planters with lantana volunteers that had sprung up in my big circle flower bed. Now each plant is about five feet across and hosts a constant kingdom of moths and butterflies. Also the blooms are nonstop and number in the hundreds.

The Gardenias Bloom Again

In the crazy-but-delightful column, the gardenias are blooming again. These are stolen flowers, procured by my painting teacher for a session in the studio. 

Hobby Lobby is carrying canvases primed with black, and I used one to see what would happen.  I'll share when I've finished the painting.

A Consistent August Palette

Today Clara's embroidery project exactly matched the flowers on the dining table.

Shamrock, Thriving

I took my sad spindly indoor shamrock to a bigger pot and put it outside in deep shade for a couple of weeks. That's all it took to grow by leaps and bounds.

Zinnias at The Meadows

After dinner the Composer and I drove over to The Meadows (Felix's house) to deliver that lucky boy a load of goat manure. 

Marriage certainly changes people. Felix has become a super-gardener, and Molly, who grew up in New York and its surroundings, has started carrying a pocketknife so she can cut flowers whenever necessary.

Some Pinks Hanging Out in the Blue Room

Intense pink hydrangeas hanging out with some butterfly bush and some feathery pink spirea.

A Fragrant Garden

The little back porch off the kitchen now has six pots of lavender in bloom, a blooming jasmine vine, and a big blooming tangle of honeysuckle. All at once. It's my dream.

Everything is Pink

Everything blooming in the garden right now is pink--phlox, fairy roses, spirea, salvia.

In other news, I posted my entire collection of Marie Claire Idees magazines in my etsy shop. If you're in need of inspiration for seasonal beauty, check it out!

Under the Wisteria Arbor

The wisteria has grown so thickly that the arbor it's barely visible.

It's a plant that requires very regular cutting back,

but look how it frames the view!

Roses by the Pool Fence

Mint in a Pot

One of those things I'd been planning forever and just hadn't gotten to: planting my mint up in a pot under the spigot. This should be good.

Afternoon in the Backyard

Sister came prowling around the rock work.

Then we went and admired the rosemary in bloom.

But what was *really* interesting was the two giant swallowtail butterflies visiting the honeysuckle.

It's been a great spring for tiger swallowtails--these are our first giants of the year!

Spring Saturday

Some running, some gardening, some sewing, some reading, some cleaning out the mudroom.

The Hyacinths Say Hello

 . . . hello, and Lenten blessings. I am giving up internet distraction for the forty days. I will post on my blog and check my email, but nothing else for the weeks to come. A new season!

At the Greenhouse with Clara

Saturday morning errands with a little recreation thrown in.

I've been wanting a maidenhair fern--they didn't have any, but I got a little rabbit's foot fern.