Another mystery flower, and odds and ends

Good morning Everyone ~ Hope you have a great day today whatever you do. I got up at 5 this morning as I just couldn't sleep any longer. I crocheted a bit, answered some emails, and read and answered blog posts. I want to get a crock-pot meal going, make coleslaw, and some oatmeal-craisin cookies. I've got clean laundry to fold and put away too. Plus I'm itchin' to be stitchin' and beading again, and I need to take pictures of things ready to sell, and upload them into my blog.

I want to thank Bernie of Bush Bernie's Garden Blog, for the name of my last mystery plant. Urena sinuata or the Burr Mallow, or Caesar Weed. Here in FL it is on the invasive plant list, so I guess I'll pull this one up and any others that I see. I don't have many, though, and have always enjoyed them when they bloom. They look like a sweet cottage type plant. They were originally brought here for a cash crop for fiber, I think. They grow lushly in moist areas, which my gardens are not, so I only have one or two at a time.

The mystery plant for today is a shrub that gets to be about 10' tall and I see these growing all over. I finally took 6 cuttings from shrubs in an empty lot the other day and potted them up, after re-cutting the ends, plus I scraped the ends up about an inch, and sprinkled them with root tone, for promoting root growth. The flowers smell like honey, to me, and are huge.



Monday morning before heading out to do our errands DH visited a curbside pile on the next street sw of us. I saw him coming in the driveway with a 3 drawer plastic storage unit. Inside one of the drawers was something lacey in a sage green color. I took it out and it is a curtain panel, made in America. I was thrilled. I was already happy over the storage unit, but the curtain was the icing on the cake. I hand washed it, and then washed the storage unit too, after we got back home and after lunch.

I measured the unit, and saw that it would fit next to my other ones in my little workspace here, so had to take out what was in that space holding my magazines, which lead to reorganizing in here and in the bedroom too yesterday. I also hung the curtain panel in the window and just love how it transforms the space. DH liked the new look as well. I've still got to cut wall paper panels for the drawer fronts, as I did in the other units. Excuse the pink and purple unit, it also was found curbside sometime ago, beggars can't be choosers. :-)







Here is a beaded parrot that DH got a week or so ago, from the same yard sale that he got my nice Mexican glazed planter from, only on the next weekend. He told me there was something for me in a room I spend a lot of time in. I thought he meant the scullery/kitchen area, so looked in there first. Then I came in here to my little space, where I do spend a lot of time, and saw it, and laughed with delight. He looks great in here. He stands about 8 1/2 inches tall. He was only $2, and DH couldn't pass him up for that price.







Guess that's it from Plum Cottage this morning.

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Don't underestimate the therapeutic value of gardening.
It's the one area where we can all use our nascent creative talents
to make a truly satisfying work of art.

Every individual,
with thought, patience and a large portion of help from nature,
has it in them to create their own private paradise:
truly a thing of beauty
and a joy for ever.

Geoff Hamilton, Paradise Gardens

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The above quote reminds me of Karen's post this morning over at the Quarry Garden.

It was a great read, as are all the other posts in this series.

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Zone 10 ~ s.e. FL