Give-away winner & roses from my gardens

Good afternoon Folks ~ Here is is another Monday, the last Monday of February. Time is zipping right along.

The give-away contest for the book David  Austin’s ‘The English Rose’ has ended and the winner is # 1, who is Rebecca, of Thrifty Style at 68.  Congrats to you Rebecca.

Be watching for two more gardening books to be reviewed and given away in the next couple of weeks.

I’ve taken quite a few pictures of roses that have been in bloom the past couple of weeks. Their scents, along with the scents of jasmines and other flower scents have been filling the air around Plum Cottage.  My heart if filled with thanksgiving and joy for God’s goodness and His beautiful creation.

I really love roses. Many, many years ago, I told my dear husband that I’d rather have living flowers to grow and enjoy in my gardens than to receive dying bouquets. He went along with my idea and would occasionally pick small bouquets from our own flowers. Sweet, sweet, sweet memories.

Ok, here we go for some rose eye-candy.

‘Don Juan’ compliments of friends Nanci & John

‘International Herald Tribune’ from Rose Petals Nursery

‘Knock-out’ local nursery

Not sure what these next blooms are.  I’ve had the bush a long, long time and think it might be ‘Bon Silene’.

This one might be ‘Old Blush’. Have had this for many years also.

‘Carnation’ from Rose Petals Nursery.

‘Mm. Laurette Messimy’. Bought this many, many years ago.

‘Cemetery Rose’ traded with Connie of Hartwood Roses for one of my rose needleworked pieces.

‘Rose de Rescht’ from friends Deb & Charly.

‘Love’ compliments of friends Nanci & John.

‘Fragrant Cloud’ compliments of friends Nanci & John

‘Granada’ ~ I bought this rose soon after losing my dear husband. Bought it at Sam’s Club, spring 2013. Granada, Spain was one of our favorite places and we visited it 2-3 times while we lived in Spain when DH served his tour of duty for the US Navy. The roses in the Generalife gardens had ‘huge’ rose blooms and I’m happy to say this rose produced huge blooms for me this year.

The bud belies the size the flower will become.

Look at the size of this next to my hand. The colors are stunningly beautiful.

‘Winecup’ this color grabs my heart, from Rose Petals Nursery.

S-i-g-h, ~  I hope you enjoyed seeing these beauties. Some are large, some are small, all are wonderful. Some are old garden varietes while others are more modern.

Thank you for visiting and for all of your kind comments in previous posts. I appreciate them and your time in writing them.

Have a great week ~ FlowerLady ~ who will be spending more time in my gardens trying to bring some semblance of order out of this sub-tropical jungle. I’ll blog whenever.

March is here

 

Hello Friends ~ What beautiful weather we are having down here in so. FL.  We got another bit of ‘cool’ weather which has been a blessing. Today I worked out in my main garden for a couple of hours. I know when it’s time to quit, with the first stumble, that always lets me know I’ve had enough. Getting too tired to pick up my feet. There’s still more to do, but I’m happy with the days’ accomplishment.  I was sweating too, but not as bad as in the summer.

Here are some pics from around here the last few days. Quite a few actually, hope it isn’t too much.

I’m looking south at the north side of the caravan.

I’m now inside looking north/east. I want to put something on the door of the shed, but haven’t figured out what yet.  Need to look in my ‘stash’.

When I went to work the other morning, on the desk was a sweet beaded hanging glass pot.  My friend had found two of these at the thrift store and gave me one.  It looks perfect in FlowerLady’s  ‘gypsy caravan’.

This is a fold up chair, one of two that we used to use when we set up at a local flea market many, many years ago.  I’m going to make a new back and seat using those two valance pieces I bought for $2 each.  I’m going to sand down and probably just oil the frame work.   The yellow cedar hope chest to the right, I found ‘curbside’ a few years ago. It was out front of a day care place, I made a u-ie and picked it up.  Where there’s a will, there’s a way.  I was going to repaint it if I left it in the house, but since I moved it to the caravan, the color is bright, perfect and gyspy-ish. It makes a good bench and is great storage.

Now on with what’s blooming around here.

Hibiscus

This is ‘hugs-n-kisses’ hibiscus before it opens, unfurling. I was going to take a picture after it opened, but forgot to.

Below is ‘Heirloom’. Such a beauty and the scent fills the space around it.

Here are the same two blooms a couple of days later after a rain, fading, but still beautiful.

This is sweet and deliciously scented ‘Angel Face’.

Next is a sweet little rose Mm. Laurette Messimy.

I love the curled petal in this photo.

Now, here is my latest needlework creation. It was inspired by https://www.youtube.com/user/wwpaperprintablescom

I don’t have silk ribbon yet, so used ribbon I had.  I’m sure the silk is nicer to work with. This lady buys white silk and colors it with Promarker pens. I want to get these eventually, but will have to wait a bit. I thought there might be some inks in the workshop, so I went out to Mark’s domain, now mine, and found a box of never opened set of 6 Pelikan drawing inks.  I decided not to use those though as I thought of my tin of Pelikan 24 water colors and as I was working on this piece, she said you could use just about anything to color the silks. So, after I had all of the bits embroidered on the piece I colored them in with watercolors. Cool!

A spider rose is the big one, then we have French knot ribbon roses at the bottom, I still need lots of practice with this one, then a what is supposed to be a dog-rose on the left, not a very good one, and then little ribbon rose buds in the middle.  The French knots all around are DMC Perle cotton. The only things not tinted with watercolors are the larger ribbon leaves and the border which is DMC perle cotton too.

An online blogging friend and fellow embroiderer, Shirley from Stitches and Life blog sent me a link via email for silk ribbon today and I plant to buy some as the price is reasonable.  Shirley is an exquisite embroiderer, I am a novice.  I do love embroidering with thread and now ribbon. 

While working on this piece I thought about my dear husband and wanting to show him my latest work. I know he would like it and would lovingly encourage me to keep on learning and doing.

I am thankful for the day I had, thankful for our 43 years together, thankful we will be reunited one day to live forever with Jesus our God and Savior/Creator. Wow! That keeps me going each and every day.

I would like to ask for prayer for a new and dear online blogging friend Tammy and her husband Jack. He has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of bladder cancer that there isn’t treatment for. Pray for them to have strength with each new day and that they will feel God’s love and peace flowing through and surrounding them. This is a rough place for them to be, I know all too well.

Life doesn’t always turn out the way we want.  But as a believer in Jesus I believe He works all things out. Through our trials and tribulations, He draws us closer to Him and lifts us up. One day we will know all of the reasons why and have all of our questions answered.

Each day is a gift, I don’t know how many times I’ve said this in my blog, but it is oh so true. Let your loved ones know you love them, forgive them, encourage them, and be kind. None of us knows when our time on this earth is over.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

Projects and blooms

 

Hello Folks ~ It is Wednesday afternoon, 4:35 p.m. EST. Thought I’d get a post in before supper.

It’s been lovely here in s.e. FL. It’s why the ‘snow birds’ flock here every winter, although this year not as many of them have come down, as the winter has not been as harsh as some years. They head back home around Easter before the heat and humidity start in earnest.

This morning I had some errands to run, stop by the post office to mail some things, and Home Depot is right next door and that was my next stop. I wanted to see about mini blinds, one for the kitchen door and one for the south bedroom window. Boy, did I get sticker shock in there today. Blinds were ‘expensive’ and I thought they were ‘cheap’ the last time we bought any. I was getting depressed, and then I spied the ‘cheapies’. I was thrilled. I bought two. The one for the kitchen door isn’t as long as I wanted, but they didn’t make them 68”, only 64” in length. Maybe with the more expensive brand I could have gotten them, but heck, it’s only me here, and my house isn’t going to be in some magazine.

I wanted them on this door because I felt vulnerable at night. Even though our gates are locked, someone could still sneak in here if they wanted to. the door is facing the driveway. So these blinds will keep the ‘boogies’ from seeing in.  I am happy with them.

Here they are up.

Down and open

Closed

Another thing I had sticker shock on is the cost of paint!!! We do have one gallon of white for the living room, so I won’t have to get that.  But, I’m thinking of the bedroom after I do some work in there. I did bring home some color samples to tape to the wall, they were ‘free’. At least our house is tiny, so it should take more than a gallon or two at the most to paint the bedroom.

I then went out to the garden dept., of course, I wanted to see if they had any herb seeds, and they did, and I got three packets of flower seeds too. Plus a bag of seed starting mix and a bag of potting soil. Oh yea, and one pineapple sage plant. They attract hummingbirds and make a nice hot tea too. I took cuttings from the top and stuck them in water to root.

Here are the seeds.

While there a couple was talking about the potting soil and there were bags of garden soil there too. She went to look at another brand, and I said to him, if you want potting soil, you don’t want to get the garden soil. I made a mistake and bought that for potting and didn’t realize it until I got home. The lady comes back and she says, Rainey is that you? I looked at her, and recognized her as she said ‘I’m Ida’. We used to set up next to each other at the local flea market. This is probably at least 25 years ago. She and her husband grow a lot of their own fruits and veggies. I was impressed with what they were telling me. Their garden is 10’x30’. They live in a mobile home park and the owners are ok with their doing this, which is great. She’s going to come over for a visit and bring me an oregano that has big fat velvety leaves that I’ve been looking for. I’m thrilled. I think I was led there today for this rekindling of a friendship.

Yesterday I decided to putter in the workshop as I’m trying to find the keys for the caravan. I didn’t find them there and I’ve exhausted places to look in here. I was depressed not finding them, but feel I will eventually. I’ve also asked God to help me find them, because after all, he knows exactly where they are.  I’m trying too hard right now, and need to relax.

Mark has three wonderful work benches in the workshop that are made from old cutting block tables. They were piled high as he was working on several things at once back there. He had cleared them off not that long before he took ill, but they filled up quickly once projects were started. This work shop is a dream come true. We built it ourselves, with permits, from the ground up, except for the concrete which was poured by a company. Mark loved this space and I do too. I cried while working in here.

See the two cupboards in the back, they were built-ins that were in homes in an area that was being torn down because of the airport. These were out curbside for free. The one on the left, is just like the one I have in the scullery.  The windows at the back of this photo face my main garden.

Before

After

There’s still much to do in here, I made some forward progress though so I’m not going to stress about it. I can’t do it all at once anyway. There are only so many hours in a day and it’s just little ol’ me. I got bummed out because I don’t know exactly where some things go, and there’s stuff that I’m going to get rid of too. He told me to get rid of the ‘junk’ around here and told me to make the workshop mine before he died, but to me it will always be his, I’ll just use it and the tools, once I learn how. I’ve been told that there are gobs of videos on you tube to learn how to do things.

Which reminds me. When I went to put up the mini blinds, I found out that the door was metal, then I thought oh for Pete’s sake, I don’t know if I can use these bits on metal or not, so did a quick search and figured out I could, so I did and was thrilled with my success.

Now, here are some blooms.

Bon Silene roses.

Mm. Laurette Messimy

Louis Philippe roses, first blooms after I pruned this way back.

Old Blush roses

Reflections in the living room window, early morning. I had not raised the blinds yet. You can see my lovely stained glass piece from Karen, Carl and Joel.

I dreamed about Mark right before I woke up this morning. He was here, it was like he had just been away, and he sat down in his chair and said, ‘It feels good to sit in my chair.’ I was happy too because of that. His computer is right beside his chair and I told him, ‘The receipts are in order from the last 4 months of 2012’. and that was the end of the dream. I felt happy, even though he isn’t here. He had been bed ridden the last month, so for him to be sitting in his chair was wonderful. It was our dream and hope, but that wasn’t God’s plan. God took him home. (I think I had the dream partly because I am thinking about the bookwork and taxes. He has a program that he made up his own system for bookkeeping and it is very detailed, with formulas that figure things out every time you add a new figure.)

My love for him is even stronger every day as I putter in the workshop, look at his tools, think of the projects we worked on together. We used to say we were Jack and Jill of all trades, as we did a lot of different things through the years.

I’m reading a collection of Clive Custler books that he bought cheap and didn’t get to read, maybe one or two. I burst out laughing at times because of the way the author writes that sounds like Mark and I and our crazy way of thinking about things. I get the sense of humor and I miss him so much.

Each day is a gift, and I am learning to live a different life.  I am learning to figure things out for myself, to make decisions by myself about things that we used to make decisions about together. I have to stop and think and pray and God is blessing me in ways I don’t even realize yet.

Take nothing for granted, live each day as best you can, be thankful in all things, good or bad, learn from mistakes, and don’t be afraid to try new things.

FlowerLady Lorraine