My Island Out Front

Hello and happy Saturday!

I've been out trimming shrubs, clipping branches and deadheading.  

I've been letting things slip lately so I decided I better 

get out there.

Early this morning I snapped this picture of my 

Limelight Hydrangeas.

Definitely my favorite!

How can you not like these!  Even with our winters up north here they do well,  so they are an A++  in my book!

 It's really grown a lot.

I have some small Spirea shrubs planted at the 

base which fill in the bottom nicely.

Hubby was mowing while I took these and the

grass wasn't cleaned up yet.

This is the island at a distance.  I'm standing by the house trying to capture it from end to end.  The big limelight

hydrangea is on the right but didn't show because of my weeping mulberry tree.

Standing on the driveway looking across the island at the woods. 

The Shasta Daisies are about done.  The Pixie Meadowbrite Coneflowers are still going strong and the Black Eyed Susan's are finally blooming.  

The Russian Sage would do better by itself.  I've seen some really grand displays of them around town and they are always by themselves.  I guess they don't share well!

Love this Coneflower.  The tag is down in the ground, I need to dig it out.  Love the color- I hope it starts to expand into a larger plant in the next year or two!

Some wimpy little Cones that I planted several years ago.  They were part of the series called Sunset.  They don't have good reviews and I probably should have removed them, but they keep struggling and I have a hard to booting something out that has survived.

The Max Frei Cranesbill are still kicking out a few flowers.  

I love to see these guys blooming.  They seemed late this year.

These Phlox are about done.  I look forward to seeing these come back next year.  I just planted a couple of them this year so I only have a single stalk on each plant. There seems to be some mildew on them- I wonder if they are prone to it?

These Aster's came back nicely from last year.

  

Peachie's Pick stokes Aster

I will end with this shot of  the pretty sky and Limelights!

Summer is returning (It seemed to have left us for a few weeks- with temps in the low 70's and night time temps in the 50's.)  We're heading back into the mid to upper 80's this week.  Summer's final push!  We need it to finish growing all the vegetables and pumpkins for Halloween!

I guess I better get back outside and work in the back yard now!!

Have a great weekend!

I've jointed
Fishtail Cottage for
Garden Party #18

Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Rum!

Ahoy there matey! 

Come on in and see what I've been up to!

 I decided to fill this old chest up with some

nautical goodies.

My ships mascot (le' cat) had to inspect as I 

began my creating my treasure chest.

This was the family room up until recently. The ships wheel is the table you see here with the glass top.  I'm in the process of completing the change so it's not ready to show yet.  The sofa is upstairs now in a small bedroom that we're calling the den now.

Back to the box...

Complete with it's old hardware it seemed like a good beginning for the treasure chest I wanted to create. 

Some seashells and starfish helped create the scene...

 Some pirates booty

 A lantern, books and bottles...

and the fishnet really brought it together!

My little deep sea diver with the diving helmet helped anchor the big ships wheel in place.  He's been with me for a bout 10 years.  I already had everything- I just gave it a new home.  I think I need some dead sea scrolls though... argh!!

The display cabinet next to it just got moved. 

(You can see where it was in the before picture)

It's sitting where the tv used to.

A tour of the different shelves.

Some things were acquired while on vacations.

Byer's Choice Carolers collected in the 

early 2000's

The ship in the bottle was from our visit to

Boston...that's the USS Constitution

I saw the chubby lady at Cracker Barrel one year and grabbed it...I said it looked like me! 

Aren't the kids cute!

 So this is one of the projects that's been keeping me busy lately.

Fifteen men on a dead man's chest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum
Drink and the devil be done for the rest
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!

I'm joining 
Between Naps on the Porch 
for
Metamorphosis Monday

And 

Ivy and Elephants

As Always....

Friday Morning Flower Gazing

Happy Friday!

I hope you've had a good week and are happy to see 

Friday come.

We've been experiencing some rather mild temperatures and the nights have been cooling off into the 50's.  It feels like early fall at times.  The farmers are unhappy because the mild temps are slowing down the ripening of their crops.  All I can see is that it makes for good sleeping!

I buzzed out this morning (7:30'ish) with a jacket over my pj's and snapped a few early morning pictures.  I've been absent outside lately because of a few projects that have been occupying my time.  Forgive my lack of visits to your blogs, it's just been hard to devote much time to the computer.

  The wind chime post even got into the pictures

The begonias turned out to be a good choice for outlining the  fountain area.  The hostas have covered them up though in this area.  The Japanese Forest Grass are doing well this year too.  

I watched the hummingbirds dancing around these flowers earlier this morning.  There were 3 of them.  I wish I could capture their activity but whenever I try to take a picture they quickly fly off.

In a matter of moments the sun moves on...

These small hostas add a little interest...

I believe they are called Fireworks

Ready to bloom too...

These Gardenmeister Fuchsia are a favorite for the hummingbirds too.  

The Annabelles have been blooming for a couple of weeks.  I gave some of the blooms some help with some stakes.  When they get wet they lay right down on the ground.  Their are delicate for such a heavy flower.

This Alyssum has come back each year since I planted them and I do enjoy them.  They've jumped over the sidewalk into another bed and are blooming there too.  

I planted Alyssum in this window box but only this one made it.  The geraniums crowded out the rest.  I like how it's cascading down the side.  I've been very happy with the performance of the Raspberry Twizzle Geraniums.  The blooms are long lasting and frequent.

In front of the garage I have three planters.  I got creative this year and didn't use my usual spike type plant for the center.  The Mystic Spires Blue Salvia really got big....I have one on the other side that is much larger.  The are some Gaura, Belleza (talll white flowers) mixed in there and the Raspberry Blast Supertunias are spilling all over the bottom.  The bees and hummimgbirds really like the Salvia and Gaura.  There is some Bacopa in there too but the Supertunias seem to have gobbled up most of the space.

I cheated and took this from my window through a screen.  My favorite Limelight Hydrangea is just starting to bloom.

This little Cityline Paris hydrangea doesn't disappoint!

Love

So happy together... 

My little buckets of flowers took their time to get filled out but now they are blooming nicely. 

The Sonic Magic Pink New Guinea Impatiens are a favorite.

I love variegated flowers and plants.

Joy!

Have a great weekend!

Thanks for visiting!

Liz

The move.....

Last week we helped our daughter move to her 

new rental home.  We packed up some of the 

things from our home in the van and on our trailer.

She lives about 180 miles south of us.   

 

Spring 2012

When she was in junior high we bought her a new bedroom outfit.  I told her someday when she was ready she could have it in her own place and so it seemed the time had come.

This was the dining and the bedroom (below) last week before the move.

Notice the large armoire in this room.

 The armoire doesn't look so big in this room!

These must be 12 ft. ceilings. 

She decided to use it for a tv cabinet instead of

putting it in her bedroom.

This is the living room (before the armoire was in). 

 Looking back towards the kitchen.

The cupboards are old and painted, but I doubt

original to the home. There's a fair amount of

storage and behind me is the stove and fridge.

Standing at the kitchen looking back to 

the entry hall and living room.  This 

whole area is for dining.

This is the front door. It has such interesting detail.

I can't believe it's not preserved better, but these

rentals get a lot of use so I guess the landlords 

don't care to put that much effort into them.

A short banister as you go upstairs to the bedrooms.

Her bedroom.  As you can see we got a little crazy with plastic wrap! It worked really well and it was raining that day so we were even happier that we chose to wrap everything.

It's a duplex home that is probably 80 to 100 

years old.  She's happy with it and that makes

us happy!  

We were worn out for the next two

days after this, but we've recovered and now the empty bedroom in our home is undergoing a small change.  Always something!!