Hot! Hot! Hot!

Today is a holiday in the USA, Memorial Day.  It must be almost one hundred degrees F.  Yesterday I had friends over for Tea, Sandwiches and Scones, before which I served Sangria.  Made with my at least fourteen year old wine, I know it's that old because I made it when Rob was a little boy, and I have a photo of him sitting beside the kitchen sink helping me to destem the grapes.  To the Sangria I added apples, oranges and strawberries, mixed berry juice and it needed a little kick so I added Kirsch.

So Monday there was some left over and I thought I'll have a glass of Sangria and read my book, 'The Making of a Marchioness' The first part is very good, I don't think the second part is as good, by Francis Hodgson Burnett.

I have a set of six of the silver long spoons.  They look like a bamboo stem, and each one has a different Asian themed trinket on, I guess to tell the drinks apart, probably for iced tea, but I thought they were just right for this, with the lotus flower spoon piece, one can scoop out the fruit and eat it.

My bamboo screen with the afternoon light coming through across my desk always remind me of Saigon, not that I've ever been to Saigon, which of course now has a different name, but in the old movies you see those screens and the ceiling fans running, it depicts an era of Vietnam before the war.

Well that was my day, just trying to take it easy on a terribly hot day.

Christy

I know orchids are notoriously hard to keep.  But they are so beautiful who can resist.  Actually this was a gift from M. I have to make mention that my grandmother Kitty, did not like orchids, she felt there was something fake about them and I can see what she meant. I don't know if it's right therefore to keep it in the Victorian copper pot; which came from my grandmother.  But they looked right together.

Georgia O'Keeffe often painted orchids.

The one photo looks as if a pearl is embedded in the flower.

I will see if I have found the right spot for it, I hope so, because I don't know where else to keep it, having my rather over eclectic house.

Christy

Fledgling Cardinal

Saturday morning a week ago, Bo and I are sitting on the Simla patio, when we notice that mum and dad Cardinal are in a dither, flying around and giving off their shrill cheep.  The next moment I felt something touch my leg, I looked down and a fledgling cardinal had just brushed past me.  Half hopping and flying.  He must have been experimenting with his flying, but was such a novice that mum and dad were flustering around.

He half flew down towards the kitchen and the rose bushes there and then on his parents insistence started coming back, to where his nest must have been in the evergreens.  Eventually he flew up to the pergola and there he sat for quite a while.  His landing was totery, as he has no tail feathers.

After taking photos we left him to be escorted home by his parents, I'm assuming he did get back to his nest.

It was a sweet event to witness.

Christy

House on Fire

The house on the corner across the road from us caught fire in the wee hours of Monday morning, about 1:00 AM.  I heard what I thought was a tractor trailing at the corner, who must have been lost, but when I looked out there were several fire trucks.

There was so much commotion going on, that I sat outside on the Simla Patio and watched.  I can't say I knew the people across the street as it has had many comings and goings of people, somewhat to be desired.  My other corner neighbours I know well and they have both lived here longer than us.

Christy

Peonies Saved from The Rain

I have two types of peonies growing in my garden.  This very open type and a more traditional dark red closed ball type of peony.  I should look their names up.  In any case I saved these from the garden rains and made a bouquet of them.

By the way the vase was Bo's mum's, it's a pale pink, depression glass I think, I do love it.

Christy

Christy

A Rainy Day Tour of My Garden

It rained yet again, so what's new?  It's rained all spring and it's as green as Ireland.  The trees and shrubs are loving it, but I'm afraid it's bad news for my peonies.  Every year they bloom and it seems to rain on them, their glory is only two days, it seems highly unfair.

I love my new trellis, a brain wave, did I mention this in a previous post?  Well the trellis has sat around for ever, it's from IKEA, and I had the brain wave to attach it to the bamboo posts we picked up last year.  Bo carried it out, screwing it on etc and Voila!  It's great.  Now I'm growing peas up it.

We brought a new grill, to go with our new fence.  No not really.  The old one was burnt out and the inner workings had been replaced a couple of times.  It was larger than this one, but in all honesty we never need it that large, so now we have a neater, smaller one.

Our wood pile is all ready for next winter and I added more ferns and a bleeding heart to my burial mound garden, in what I like to call my woodland area.  I think of my garden as I do of Britain, a small area with diversity of scenery.  My patio areas, the Kitchen Patio, the Simla Patio and the Pond Patio, my pond, my vege garden, my kitchen garden, my lawns and the woodland area, all different little places to sit and enjoy.

Well that's a rainy day in my garden.

Christy

Posy from Hubby

A little posy my husband put together for me from my kitchen garden.

Christy

A Sunday Afternoon at Jenkins Arboretum

Sunday afternoon the sun came out and we decided to visit the Jenkins Arboretum, just Bo and I.  We knew that we were probably a week late in seeing the azaleas at their best and with all the rain their little heads would be bowing.  But the rhododendrons were out and they were lovely.

The garden was full of garden sculpture and artwork interspersed among the trees, which added fun to the pathways and sights.  So here are a few photos of our peaceful walk.  Plus what's so nice about the Jenkins' is that it is free.

I had wanted to buy a Jack in the Pulpit, which just the day before Candyce and I had spoken about, but unfortunately the shop was closed by the time we got back.  So maybe another time I will get one.  I would like to plant one on my burial mound, which I'd like to make a quasi woodland garden.  My grandmother had a whole dinner service with Jack in the Pulpit in the center of the plates, a deep green edging, trimmed in gold.  That special dinner service always intrigued me with that pattern, it was so unusual, I've never seen another like it.

I love the Lady Slippers, what a gossamer name for those beautiful orchids.

Christy