WOW! Deliciously cool temps :-)

 

Good morning Friends ~ What a pleasant surprise when I just went out with coffee cup in hand to sit in the screened porch. It is 65 degrees F and feels like it is 62.  Now that is absolutely wonderful on this first day of May.

I am feeling so much better, more like my old self, that is nice too. Yesterday morning it was cloudy and there was a nice brisk cool breeze, so I decided to mow.  It took four tries with the cord before it started, and then I was off.  It felt so good, and I moved right along as it felt like it could rain at any minute, but it didn’t and I was thankful for that.  I still have a small section to mow, but my body was telling me I had done enough, and I needed a drink of water so I quit. I ordered the electric lawn mower  and it will be delivered to my local HD and I should be able to pick it up on Monday.  I am looking forward to using that. I used one many years ago and it was so much quieter and lighter to push around too. At this age, I need ‘easier’.

After that, I felt the need to get out. I had lost the two pink flowering manuka myrtles I bought back in Feb. I didn’t have the pots lifted off the patio surface and the pots filled with water and I didn’t notice until it was too late. Standing in a couple of inches of water, when these are drought resistant plants was just too much for them. So I visited to close nursery garden centers to see about replacements and what else they might have relatively cheap.

The replacement plants are thryallis. Yellow blooms and a sweet scent that do very well here in s.e. FL.

I did lift the pots up off the patio surface, I learned my lesson, the hard way.  I ‘hate’ to lose plants.

The yellow ‘dancing lady’ orchids are about to fade away.  I have enjoyed them once again.  They are in the center pot with the ficus tree and Moses-in-the-bullrushes plants.

The other plants I bought were two hibiscus, which also do very well down here in s.e. FL. I don’t know the name as this nursery does not put tags on their plants.

I also bought 4 bags of potting soil. Time to make cuttings of different things for ‘free’ plants.

Below are some plants blooming in my gardens right now.

Tahitian Gardenia is ‘wonderful’ and the scent luscious of these great big blooms.

This is a ginger, I don’t know what type, got it at a yard sale awhile back. If anyone knows that ginger this is, please let me know.

Here is another unknown plant.  It has really taken off since I bought it and I’m going to trim it for cuttings to root.  I think I already saw tiny roots on some of the stems. I have it hanging from a ‘shepherd’s crook’ underneath the Queen Crepe myrtle.

Here is a picture of the pretty blooms it gets. I think they only last a day so one has to be quick and catch a photo when you see them.

Below is an old stand by that takes no effort on my part and it blooms every spring. I have two colors of amaryllis, one an orangey/red and then this striped one.

This is a Vanda orchid, that grows ‘wild’ in my gardens. ‘Miss Joaquim’.

In these two photos she is held up against the latest ‘plum’ paint sample. I’m getting ready to buy the 5 gal. bucket so that I can start this house painting project, doing a little at a time. As I’ve said before, the paint looks different depending on the light of day.

This is another unknown rose growing in my main garden.

Some photos of the east side gardens.

I have two pots of coleus with white impatiens, sitting in the shell planter.  I need to take cuttings of the coleus.  They root very well in water. The tree in the  photo is my ‘Queen Crepe’, bought in 2007 for our 38th anniversary.

This photo is from 2007. You can also see that our house color was definitely a plum/purple color back then.

Path in St. Frances garden overgrown.

Now for a bit of God’s creation taking care of things. I was outside and noticed buzzards/vultures flying pretty close and landing on the light pole and in the tree out front.  I decided to go out to the sidewalk to see what there was out there grabbing their attention. A dead possum. It sure doesn’t take them long to gather in for a ‘free’ meal.

In the picture below there are at least 13 of these ugly birds. If you ever saw them up close, you would say they were ugly too.

Here are more grouped on the neighbor’s roof.

To close this post I will show my bedroom on a cloudy afternoon.  I just love how the light shines in the stained glass. I have heavy curtains on the windows because of the orange bright street lights at night.

Have a great weekend ~ FlowerLady

***

Home is a shelter from storms — all sorts of storms.

William J. Bennett

Happy 4th

Good afternoon Folks ~ I hope those here in the US are enjoying this day.  It is hot and humid, with a nice breeze down here in s.e. FL.  We’ve had a few sprinkles too. I was going to putter indoors today, but it was cooler out this morning than it has been, and since my cold is just about totally gone, I did some tree trimming and then mowed.  I also got a load of laundry washed and hung out on the lines to dry. For my holiday lunch I opened a can of Bush’s baked beans, heated up with all beef hot dogs, and I made some potato salad.

It was 47 years ago today that a teenage boy took a teenage girl to her home after a church youth group beach party. He gently kissed her on the forehead, as she wasn’t feeling too good from so much sun.  That was the start of the romance that blossomed and grew and that fills my heart today with so many memories.

Yesterday morning I had pulled up the blinds in the living room and looked up from reading my Bible and there was a rainbow.  Wow, how cool is that and what a great way to start the day.  I grabbed my camera and took some photos even though it was lightly sprinkling.  When I edited them to put in this post, I saw a ‘faint’ second rainbow above the first.  Rainbows are symbols of hope and faith, and I am always thankful when I see one.

This is a spider web hanging inside the screened room off the back of the cottage.

It looks like a lacy diamond necklace.

Here is our state butterfly, the zebra longwing.

A longview.  I have 1/4 acre that I take care of and lately it has seemed daunting to say the least.  It didn’t seem so bad when DH was here with me, because we both handled it.  I’m going to have to find someone who will trim the trees from the neighbors that is hanging over the fence into the driveway.  I can only trim up so far.  DH used to take his sawsall and cut them off at fence line, and I would then cut them up smaller to cart out front for pick up.

This is looking north.

Looking north west.

The caravan garden patio area has weeds all grown up in the cracks of the patio stones. I need to get out the weedwacker, but I can’t do it all in one day.

This is some sort of thistle that I bought at a yardsale the other day.

Does anyone have any idea what it is?  I thought the lady told me it was a Mexican thistle, but I don’t know for sure.  She had cottage style garden beds in her front yard, roses and anything else that grows well for her.  I also bought a So. African foxglove, and a variegated periwinkle.

I love the heart shaped leaves and the blooms of the clock vine.

Aren’t these buds neat?

Here is the hibiscus ‘hugs-n-kisses’.

I’ve been working on my creative space, trying to get it more organized as I want to get things I’ve made listed in my little Etsy shop again and I want to do more creating. Losing my best friend knocked the winds out of my sails.  I feel his love and encouragement as I move along with each new day.  I miss him terribly, that isn’t going to go away, but I am getting into my little groove, and looking to and thanking God for taking care of me and for my many blessings and for lessons I am learning.

Each day is a gift.  Love, forgive, encourage, laugh, learn and be thankful.

FlowerLady

***

"There is no season such delight can bring,
As summer, autumn, winter and the spring."
  William Browne, Variety, 1630

Blooms, lost-found, tide will turn, lots of photos

Hello Folks ~

I hope you are all doing well. I want to thank you again for get well wishes and prayers for DH. He is getting better and we are thankful for that. Since it hurts him to chew food, I’ve been making him smoothies for breakfast, and different soups for lunch and supper. We’ve had pumpkin/potato, potato/carrot, cauliflower/broccoli and there’s a pot of split pea soup for tomorrow. I’ve been adding organic beef and vegetable broths, herbs, spices, onion and garlic. I want to make a beet soup next. These soups are all blended so that he can just drink it up from a cup. 

I am so glad that he’s doing better. There’s still a way to go until he’s back to normal, but he’s so much better than he was. As oldsters, we think we are still able to do things, but age, heat, humidity, vitamin depletion, etc. can and do take their toll. We’ve learned from this experience in many ways. I’ve also been thinking more about those in chronic pain and about care-givers.

We felt a change in the air today when we were out running an errand.  It is the end of Sept. so there should be some changes going on and we enjoyed being outside.

Over the past week or so I ‘lost’ two things, couldn’t find them anywhere and I looked high and low. I finally told DH (dear husband) and he started thinking of places for me to look, some I had already looked into and others, no findy items. Yesterday morning I was still frustrated by not being able to find them,  I picked up my library book bag and ‘found’ one of the items, an embroidery book underneath. I let out a whoop and DH said you’re going to find the ‘scissors' next.  Between 5-10 minutes later, I was sitting here in my chair, and pulled the bigger scizzors out of their pouch stuck my fingers in the space, and lo and behold, there was the pair I was looking for. I was thrilled.  I hate misplacing things.  I usually find them sooner than I did these two items. I’ve been flustered and preoccupied with DH and how he’s feeling that it’s a wonder I didn’t lose more things.

The little scissors I got when my late MIL passed away, with other craft items, so they mean a lot to me. I love the patina on them.

You can see that the scissors each have their own little space in my pincushion, scissor and debris bag,(I won this several years ago in a drawing and love it).  I absentmindedly put the little scissors in the wrong pouch, then put the larger scissors on top of them. Now they are where they belong once again. Sheesh.

This is the heart I’ve been working on. I added the lace stitched on with French knots. I’ve still more embroidery and beading to do before I feel it is finished. The colors are a bit more subdued than in these two photos, because of the lighting.

This is a little heart I worked on the past few days.  I love it.  It is 2 1/2 inches wide by 2 1/4 inches high.

Now, here are blooms I took photos of yesterday morning. It was very cloudy.

Blanket flowers

A weed, that I think is a Florida native, not sure though.

A fallen frangipani bloom.

Hibiscus

Passion flower. These are so amazing I can’t quit taking photos of them.  They are still blooming and there are quite a few buds too.

Philippine violet

An old poinsettia that is getting ready for it’s time of year.

Salvia greggii

La Marne roses.

Louis Philippe

Climbing Maman Cochet

Louis Philippe growing up over my shed.

Front gate from the sidewalk.

Side front entry gate into patio area, off the driveway.

Driveway gate. I love the plumbago from next door, very pretty.

That’s it from soggy s.e. FL. We had quite a bit of rain over the weekend and lots of cloud cover. I hope today to be able to wash and hang out laundry as we’re supposed to have some sunshine and little if any rain.

I’ll close this with a quote I came across recently.

FlowerLady Lorraine

***

“When you get in a tight place and everything goes against you,

till it seems as though you could not hold on a minute longer,

never give up then,

for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn”.

Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author.