a fresh breeze

Today was overcast and a wee bit chilly in my neck of the woods so cleaning out my closet was the chore chosen sport of the day. I do this at the start of every season and I always dread it for several days before I finally get on it. My self-made rule is to weed out anything I didn’t wear last season and give it to Goodwill.

I think what prompted me this season was watching the television show “Hoarders”. Have any of you seen this show? If you have, you know that seeing the homes in this show will make anybody start weeding out! I know I’m not a hoarder, really I do, but while watching these poor people climb over trash to get to their own beds (some can’t even get in their own beds for the junk), I start wondering how their homes got to this extreme chaos. And then I start wondering if my practice of keeping little items that other people would probably throw away because I just might use it in one of my craft projects one day could ever grow into not being able to walk to my bed over heaps of trash and junk! YIKES! It’s kinda like when you watch Dr. Oz and worry you have the disease of the day. Can anybody relate?? (I sure hope so.)

Anyway, it’s always a GOOD feeling when I’m done. It’s a feeling like you’re sitting in an adirondack chair on a brisk day drinking a glass of lemonade with a fresh breeze blowing through your hair. Hmmm…I think I’ve been watching too many TV commercials. I’ve got to get out of the house more!

if you could only smell the fragrance!

I’m joining some pretty fine gardeners at Tootsie’s Fertilizer Friday and the Inspired Room.

 

Wisteria blooms have taken over my pergola in the last couple of days with the most stunning  lilac colored blossoms.   The abundance of the color in my garden now is amazing.  It’s like someone takes a paint brush and hurls brilliant hues here and there at night while I’m sleeping.  When I awake I find new splashes of color where dull brown used to be.

Speaking of paint, I played around with textures on this photo and the effect reminded me of a water color painting.  I layered a texture found at Shadowhouse Creations  resembling a blue cracked paper called PG2 at 60% over the first photo to get this look.

Oh, how I wish you could take in the fragrance that envelopes me when I open my back door, but, sadly, I know you can’t.  I can only send you pictures and so that’s what I’ll do.  J

april to august

"Fairest of the months! Ripe summer's queen

The hey-day of the year

With robes that gleam with sunny sheen

Sweet August doth appear."

~R. Combe Miller

Summer's passing quickly. I can't believe August is upon us, can you? I'm contributing to Mosaic and Metamorphosis Monday sharing with you the natural metamorphosis in our gardens from April planting time to mature August.

This was our patio/pergola in April. We had just freshly stained our pergola and planted our flowers. If you would like to see that transformation, click here and here.

Here it is today. Notice how the Wisteria has grown! We planted it five years ago and this year it is barely covering our pergola to provide us shade at last. Oops, there's hubby reading the morning paper.

And this is where it all began in April with a little sweat and hard work and a lot of God's blessings - rain and sunshine!

Here's one of our planters at the end of the pergola freshly planted in April.

And here are our lush planters in August. I also persuaded hubby to secure a hanger to the post to hang one of my watering cans. It just took him 3 months. ;=) Isn't it odd how the smallest of jobs take the longest?

Freshly planted sweet potato vines. Aren't they puny?!

But not anymore!

Will this pretty little mandevilla ever make it to the lattice work??

I'll say she did!!

Here's the view from our water fountain in April - kind of bare.

But in August, the black-eyed Susan's peek out from behind it.

And in April, a mockingbird laid her eggs in our rose trellis.

And raised them till they were old enough to fly away.

So in August, we're left with an empty nest. :=(

In April, I transplanted some ground cover from other parts of the garden to this vintage container. I wasn't sure whether it would catch on or not.

Lookie here! It's growing like crazy. Well, thanks so much for visiting with me. Hope you enjoyed an August tour through the garden. You know in a blink of an eye it will be Autumn and all this will be gone until we do it again next year, Lord willing. Check out the other party goers at Mary's little Red House and Susan's Between Naps on the Porch. She may be taking a nap on her gorgeous porch, but just give her a click and she'll wake up for you. Thanks Mary and Susan for a wonderful party!!

Outside Entertaining 101

How to entertain on the porch...without a lot of effort...


Gather flowers from your yard or buy them at the nearest market.

(I'll bet you thought I was going to give you a recipe for the crab cheese ball - nope - I picked it up at the grocers)


Buy a cheese ball from your local deli and put it on a pretty plate.

Stuff a glass with lettuce.

Drape a few shrimp around the rim.

Top the lettuce with a few spoonfuls of cocktail sauce (store-bought, of course).

Add some wine and candles.




Enjoy yourself! And so will your guests!

BTW, If you haven't seen the rest of the pergola, you can click here.

And now continue to enjoy yourself at Susan's Tablescape Thursday...

Follow me through the rose trellis

Come. Follow me through the rose trellis and down the rock path. I’ve been looking forward to your visit.

Before we sit down for a little R&R, let’s enjoy the walk along the way. This miniature gazebo serves as the local buffet for all kinds of birds and the fountain behind it their bathhouse. We can watch them frolic from our bedroom window. The cement bench behind the fountain is a quiet, secluded place to ponder. You can see a bird bath in the distance. The photo below is what it looked like in past years.

Since then, I got tired of the wildflowers and tore them out. They are lovely for a short season, but then they are really a mess for a l-o-o-o-n-g season.

Close up of the fountain

Across from the gazebo bird feeder and fountain is a rustic iron bench which serves as a potting bench. The tall pot is filled with dried hydrangeas from last year's season. I was able to cut enough hydrangea blooms off one bush to decorate more than 10 tables at a church retreat! Hope it produces like that this year.

I bought this old “thing” for lack of a better word at a garage sale. It had a leather strap as if to wear as a shoulder bag. I am not sure what it was used for, but if you know, please let me in on it.

Say Hi to Mildred and her baby, Molly.

A rustic iron planter with sweet potato vine

And here we are. The flowers are planted and the table is set, ready for a little relaxation on the back porch.

I’ve started an herb garden this year for the first time. To store them, I used this baker's rack, formerly in my kitchen. I sprayed it grey to go along with my color theme and placed it on my deck. I love watering cans, old and new, and have several setting around.
Lavender, oregano, basil, thyme, parsley, rosemary, and chives. This old wooden tool box with green faded paint belonged to hubby's father. I thought I’d put it to good use. Since I thought I might get my herbs mixed up, I labeled them by painting craft sticks and stamping the particular herb on the stick. I sealed them with a clear outdoor polyurethane vanish.

Another view of the pergola and patio. You can barely see my set of adirondack chairs, but if you want to learn what I did with them and more on the deck redo, click here.

Since, I’m prone to be a little “project” driven, I needed a reminder to relax so I wrote it on the wall. Surely, I'll get the point if it's staring me in the face! I plan on stenciling calming phrases like this down the entire side of the lattice topped wall.

On the other end of the patio, a vintage fan tops a small table between two rockers.

Beside the glider, I placed a planter with a faux star and seashell at its foot.

A view of the pergola and patio from the back door.

Looking past the planter setting on the back bench of the pergola is a little yellow speck. If you look real close, you can tell it's a finch having lunch at a thistle feeder. In the planter you'll see an assortment of plants including a pink geranium which was just planted. Hopefully, it will grow and have lots of blooms.

Close at hand, my garden gloves, clogs and yet another watering can.

Where has the time gone? It’s getting dark and we still want to check out all the lovely outdoor areas at Barb’s at Grits and Glamour , Rhoda's at Southern Hospitality, and Diane's at 2nd time around Tuesday. Come back again soon!

Two chairs and a planter - the long way

Our deck needed an overhaul this year. As you can see, the grey stain from five years ago has seen better days. Don’t tell anyone, but I never liked the grey anyway.


So we stained the floor Lowe’s Olympic, Jefferson Tan and on the arbor, wall, and lattice work, we matched the color of the trim on the house. It’s been a slow process. We’re still not finished, but for Metamorphosis Monday at http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com I thought I would show you a portion of what we have accomplished.

Our adirondack chairs and glider were previously painted white so we repainted them to match the arbor, wall, etc. YES, I did help!

Bought this planter at Target

Filled it with newspapers.
Topped that with shredded grass.
Displayed old metal garden tools and clay pots.

Sealed it with a glass top
Set a water fountain that I picked up at a garage sale on the glass top

Stenciled the Adirondack chair

Flanked the table with our Adirondack chairs, freshly painted and stenciled

WHEW! Where’s that jug of iced tea.