Twinkle lights

Hello my friends, how are you?  We finally have a clear day today after lots of rain, but still very overcast and gray.  I have been feeling the need to get out in the garden and do something, even if it's just pulling weeds.  Does the garden ever call to you?  Galen thinks I'm crazy, but I find it very rewarding and therapeutic.  

I decided to restring twinkle lights outside in the jasmine over the back porch.  The lights will usually last about six months so I only have to replace them twice a year.  They went out two nights ago.  

I twist the lights through the vines starting at the bottom, taking them up and over the porch door and ending near the pergola.  It makes the prettiest light at night.  No matter how dark it is you can always see without turning a harsh overhead light on.  The twinkle lights create a nice ambiance.  

Lights are done....now maybe I'll go pull those weeds.    

Enjoy your day!  

A silly rose story

About a year and a half ago I ordered a rose bush from a catalog.... a Zephririne Drouhn rose, a climber, for our pergola over the patio.  Catalog places usually mail the plant when it's time to put them in the ground, so last year, the end of February, my rose came in the mail.  It was right after the time I was diagnosed with breast cancer.  

Galen dug the hole and we planted the rose.  I said to him, this is my cancer rose.  We will watch it grow and survive.....ah, unless it dies, which we don't want to think about, and we snickered and said, no it's going to live and grow to be beautiful.)    

One year later ~ 

the rose has grown almost four feet tall, and, yes, it has survived.  Yesterday it bloomed.  What a beautiful pink bloom and so fragrant.  I can't wait until it covers the pergola.  

I know this is a silly story, but it's just something that came about on it's own.  Some things are meant to happen that way, I think.  I believe in small miracles and this, to me, is kind of a small miracle.  

Yay!  It survived and I survived the first year.  

  

Gardens

Hello everyone!  How are you?  It's been a while since I posted so I just wanted to wish all of you a wonderful year!  

January calls for digging out all those garden books (no pun intended) and gathering ideas for your garden come spring.  Oh yes, we're thinking spring here.  The anticipation is exhilarating.    

Climbing roses...

stone pathways with flowers along walkways...

pergolas and trellises filled with climbers...

and beautiful color everywhere.  Fill flower pots for even more interest.  Just a few ideas to get you going!  

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.

~Walt Whitman

Photos from Alastair Sawday's Special places to stay.  Garden Bed and Breakfast

Change

Change happens everyday, and a lot of changes can occur over 15 years.  That's how long we've lived in our home, now called Mourning Dove Cottage. 

What prompted this post was a tree that was cut down over the weekend in our neighbor's yard right behind us.  That neighbor (an elderly lady and an avid gardener) has now gone to a nursing home and her house is up for sale.  She had a beautiful garden, by the way.   

The tree that was cut down has made a big difference in the look of our back yard because it was along the fence line and gave us a lot of privacy, not to mention a haven for the birds, and it softened the look of the fence.  

I miss the tree.  It was a big beautiful Elaeagnus tree.  

Let me show you some of the changes that have occurred in our back yard since we moved in 15 years ago.  

This was the back yard looking toward the back of the house (before we painted the house) and before the patio was layed, and before the pergola was built, and before the back yard was fenced in.

The back yard when we moved in.  A tree stump in the middle of the yard.  One tree.   

The above photo shows the neighbor's tree that was recently cut down. 

This is the neighbor's house, minus the tree.  It looks so bare now.  We had the privacy fence put up several years ago.   

So you see, many changes have occurred over the years.   

And many more changes will come!