Flowers & a ‘shark’

Good Thursday early evening. Supper is heating up, I’m sipping on a glass of wine & I am feeling thankful for so much.

I hope you all had nice times with family & friends. From what I’ve seen on blogs, you certainly did.  I had a very nice time with friends, love, laughter & good food. Prime rib, something I’ve never had before. I came home with some and found a couple of recipes for using it and am looking forward to that.

Before I left Plum Cottage Christmas morning, I went out to see what was blooming and below are the photos. Enjoy!

Azaleas

Blue Lips

Bougainvillea

Cape Honeysuckle

Native, coral honeysuckle

Firecracker ~ have this in yellow too.

Dwarf Poinciana ~ I also have this in yellow.

Tropical hydrangea

An unknown

Another unknown that spreads by seeds shooting out from the spent flowers

I think this is wild petunia and it spreads like crazy.

Hibiscus in front of storage building. Looking at the faded paint makes me want to paint at least the front and the side that you can see.

Blue butterfly blooms.

Kathleen roses, one of my very first roses, the other is Louis Philippe. I love Kathleen’s delicate beauty and scent.

I think this is a knock-out rose.

Another knock-out.

I loved the way the sunlight was hitting this dragonfly.

When I went out to get in my van to leave, I saw this in the grass, brought from somewhere either by a cat or a racoon.

This is a present I bought with a $ gift from friends. I had been doing research and finally chose this model. Bought it from Bed Bath & Beyond and had a 20% discount coupon. Yay! This model had GREAT reviews as did the professional model, but there was a $40 difference in price. I looked at the list of differences and there wasn’t much, so I went for the cheaper model. I had to laugh because it is a light purple in color. It even has a little glitter in it. What a hoot. I didn’t choose this model because of the color,  it was the only color it came in.

Putting it together was relatively easy after reading and looking at the instruction a couple of three times.

I could NOT believe how much debris this vac sucked up, it was all hiding. I can hardly wait to get into some serious vacuuming and then keep on top of it all, this was just a test run. Miss Tork sheds her hair and I shed mine, plus there are ‘dust bunnies’ and this takes care of it all. Oh yea, my throw rugs are so much fluffier and colorful after vacuuming.  I really am thrilled with this purchase and thankful to N & J for their $ gift.

I have an old hoover cannister model that I’ve had for years and years. It is not sealed like this one is and stuff was always shooting out and around. One of my friends said it was about time I got into the next century. We both laughed.

Another bonuse about this vacuum is that it is so much quieter than my old hoover. It is also light in weight, and I like that you can lift away the cannister part to carry it and vacuum areas. Cannister is very easy to empty also.

After I unboxed the parts, I saw that the pet power brush was missing. It did say it was supposed to be one of the included tools. I called up Shark and told them, and they are sending me the part and it should be here next week. The young man was very courteous and helpful.

Ok, that’s it from Plum Cottage. We are having a very light rain, it is warm, a.c. is on. I’m starting to feel like getting horizontal to read. I didn’t get to sleep last night until 1, I just couldn’t fall asleep, unusual for me. I was up a little after 6 this morning, & did take a nap but will be ready for sleep soon.

Enjoy these last few days of 2017 and have a wonderful 2018.

Let us all be thankful to God for the blessimgs we received this year, and for lessons learned.

FlowerLady

A Plum Cottage Christmas

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

("Simple Gifts" is a Shaker song written and composed in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett.)

This piece came to mind this morning, so I looked it up and here it is.

Good morning Friends ~ I hope you all are enjoying this Christmas holiday time, cooking, baking, different festivities with family and friends.

May we all take a moment or two to ponder what this season is all about.  The greatest gift for all mankind had been the gift that God gave us, when He became flesh to be our Saviour. He was born in a lowly manger, in a stable in Bethlehem.

“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.”

For unto us a Child is born,
Unto us a Son is given;
And the government will be upon His shoulder.
And His name will be called
Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

He came that we might have life more abundantly, here and in eternity.

All we have to do is call on Him. He has promised to never leave or forsake us. We are very dear to Him.

Christmas here at Plum Cottage is simple and quiet. This is my 6th Christmas without my dear husband. I miss him but knowing he is with Jesus our awesome God, I have peace. I will be having Christmas with friends this year and am looking forward to it.

I found purple lights for Plum Cottage and love them.

Here are some photos from inside.

             

May you all have love, peace & joy this Christmas season

and a blessed year in 2018.

Love, hugs & prayers for all of you,

FlowerLady

A gift for the caravan

Good morning Folks ~ It is still a tad chilly down here during the nights and mornings. Today is simply beautiful though. It is ‘why’ the ‘snowbirds’ drive or fly distances to visit our state, to spend time down here during their miserable winter weather up north. We who live here year round wish our weather was like this all of the time.

Last week I recieved an email from Plantscape Inc. I was asked if I’d like to recieve a product of my choosing, to keep and write a review for. I checked out the website, read other reviews and decided, why not?

From their website: Founded in 1974, Plantscape Inc. is a leading national interior landscape firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We have over 40 years of experience in offering a diverse set of specialty services in landscape planning and design, landscape architecture, trees installation, plant service and maintenance programs and commercial décor. Our team of professionals have decades of experience in designing interior and outdoor landscapes using live plants and trees, especially tropical plants.

We have expanded our interior landscaping design business to include our artificial plant division, with a goal to produce the world's finest, most authentic artificial trees and plants for commercial projects. Our depth of experience, skilled craftsmanship and extensive capabilities in dealing with both, live and artificial plants and trees allow us to undertake a range of projects irrespective of the business and its scale, meet complex requirements and take on the most challenging landscape projects from planning to completion.

Our mission is to create better environments which will enrich the lives of people and help them feel more relaxed, productive and happier. We take pride in building strong partnerships with our clients and we’re proud to say that we still provide weekly plant care to our very first client. Our firm is driven by values and every project member has a passion for the most distinct and perfect landscape. Whether it's the creation of custom plants and trees to make your business a unique space or the creation of the perfect commercial landscape design and planning, our idea is to make your setting a better and brighter space.

Artificial plants and trees are crafted using high quality material, our selection of fade resistant faux plants and trees are designed by highly experienced designers and are botanically correct specimens with extremely realistic foliage. These plants and trees are inherently fade resistant as it is crafted using our innovative PermaLeaf® technology, which combines UV blocking with strong colorfast pigments. This enables you to use them outdoors and no matter how harsh the weather elements are, you can be assured that there won’t be any color loss.

I was asked to choose from their outdoor collection and after perusing the offerings I finally chose  a set of hanging ferns. I knew just the place for them, hanging from these lovely plant hangers from my friends Nanci & John. The hangers were empty on the caravan wall just waiting for something, and these ferns are just right.

FedEx delivered them this morning and I just love where they are hanging and I won’t have to worry about watering them to keep them alive. They really add a nice touch to the front of the caravan and they go so well with my tropical, cottage garden, jungle. I have a big smile on my face as I look at the photo below.

These make me smile and make me want to work in this area again. They have given me a spark of motivation to keep living, joyfully with the gift of each new day.

If you have a business and want to add some good feelings to your workspace, or even to your home, check out their Interior landscaping services, and their products also.

I thank you Plantscape Inc. for these sweet hanging baskets of ferns.

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Have a great day dear Friends. It is hard to believe Christmas is just 9 1/2 days away now. Time is zipping right along.

Happy Christmas holidays ~ FlowerLady

Baby it’s cold outside

Good morning Folks ~ Saturday was gray, windy, rainy and the temps went from warm and humid with the a.c. on, to growing chillier as the day wore on. Sunday morning 7:27 a.m. was the coldest at 44 degrees and real feel was 33 degrees. This morning it got down to 43 but real feel only got as low as 39 degrees and that is because we were not having the wind like yesterday morning. That makes all the difference.

I’m sitting here in capri pants, a t-shirt and bare feet. Have not put the heater on. It’s around 68 inside and probably about the same outside. I worked outside in the secret garden for around 30-45 min. and it felt good. Came in for lunch, and now I feel like catching some zzzzz’s snuggled under the blankets.

The other day I was visiting  a blog and I don’t remember which one, but I saw a yarn give-away and decided to check it out. They have two give-aways, one for individuals, and one for groups who knit or crochet items for charity. I signed up as an individual as I have been crocheting either prayer shawls or comfort lapghans for other widows or ladies who need some love and encouragement. I don’t even know how many I’ve made in the 5 years since my dear husband left this planet. It is something I enjoy and my prayer is that each recipient will feel God’s love surrounding them in their time of need.

If there are any of you out there who would like to enter the drawing, here is the link: Yarn Canada. The drawing ends Dec. 15th.

I was blessed with peace and joy Saturday and I know it is because of the love of God and all of the prayers and well-wishes from all of you.  Thank you. Saturday afternoon I was sitting here in my space, and something caught my eye through the open blinds, I looked and lo and behold it was a humming bird. Such a treat to see. I should think about investing in a feeder for these flying jewels so that I can get some photos of them. They flit so fast it is unbelievable. I was thankful for the gift of seeing this one even for a second.

Here are some more blooms from my gardens for you to enjoy.

These white blooms are from the Montanoa atriplicifolia (Yucatan Daisy) or common name is  ‘Daisy Tree’.

In the background  below, are the purple blossoms of, Philippine Violets, the white flowers in foreground partially covering a metal floral chandelier is some kind of ‘weed’. Hard to get rid of, hard to pull out, have to be dug up.

I need to find a place to hang the chandelier. We found it curbside many years ago.

Thunbergia erecta, ‘King’s Mantle’ shrub.

Below is the first bloom from a vine I bought this past spring. They didn’t know the name of it. I love it. Maybe someone out there with tropical bloomers can identify this for me.

Last but not least for this post, is ‘Miss Attwood’.

Happy holidays to all ~ FlowerLady