More January blooms

A little color to brighten and cheer your days.

Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity. 

John Ruskin

***

Days of Liquid Sunshine

Good morning Folks,

We’ve had days of what we call ‘liquid sunshine’ and there is more to come. I am not complaining as we really needed the rain badly. I planted seeds a week or so ago, some have come up and I’m still watching to see what others will sprout. Hopefully all of this rain won’t make the seeds rot.

The other day though we had some time where we didn’t get rain and I was able to get a load of laundry washed and hung out and almost dry before the next rains came. Brought it in and hung it around to continue drying, which didn’t take long.

Thank you to those who have wondered where I’ve been. I worked a 5 day work week last week, and when I get home from work I just want to relax. It’s not the work that wears me out, it’s the going to and from work, and being around people. It is our ‘busy season’ so some days are busier than others. Things are looking up at work and I’ve had my pay raised back ‘almost’ to where it was before the economy crashed. I am thankful. I’m working today through Saturday this week, so today will be my first day of work.

I do have some pictures for you.

La Marne roses.

Fading Phyllis Bide blooms.

‘Cocktail’ rose blooms

This is the same bloom, only a day later.

‘Callisia fragrans’ or basket plant. I love the scent of these blooms and the bees love them too.

‘Mom-of-millions’ love the difference in colors of these two pictures.

‘Bon Silene’ rose

‘Cocktail’ roses again.

Cordyline ~ I just love these vibrant colors.

Next is an epiphyte, and air plant.

Kalanchoe blooms

La Marne rose rain drenched.

Reed orchid blooms

This is a tiny little orchid plant that I thought I had lost. I went out and lay in the swing in our screened in ‘catrium’ on the back of our cottage the other day and in this pot of some kind of fern, lo and behold, the orchid wasn’t dead after all. I went through old pictures to find the name of this but alas I couldn’t find them.

Firecracker blooms by the front gate, looking out onto the 5 lane busy highway.

Tuesday morning I made these two loaves of bread. Well, the bread machine made the high oatmeal loaf of bread. The other loaf is fresh strawberry and cream cheese bread. Nice with afternoon tea or morning coffee.

Let’s see, as to crafts, my needle tatting book came in so we picked it up at Walmart the other day. Now I can practice until I am comfortable and having fun with this new (to me) needle art. I also ordered some lovely colors for more needle cases. I sold another one the other day, which makes 3 now. The ordered colors are ~ russet, river blue, copper mist, silver, maize, wood violet, light peach, dusty rose, myrtle green, linen, French rose, and orchid pink, those are all size 10 thread. Then I got 3 size 30, fine thread, in cream, white and natural. I love making these needle cases, and I really like using my own. It is so nice to have needles where you can find them, instead of hunting all over your pincushion.

Work on the caravan is a bit slow right now as DH is reading up on electrical stuff, which caused him to go up into the attic and add another ground wire for our hot water heater sub panel. He passed all inspections years ago when we did some building here but things have changed so he did an improvement before doing anymore on the caravan. The little propane/electric refrigerator that came with the caravan is waiting to be installed next, and a counter built, the little stainless steel sink and the stove set in too. The 6’x8’ space is shrinking.

Well, I need to get a move on, so that I can get a few things done before heading off to work. Hope you all have a great day.

Hugs ~ FlowerLady

****

Life can be found only in the present moment.
The past is gone, the future is not yet here,
and if we do not go back to ourselves in the present moment,
we cannot be in touch with life.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Where has a week gone? Blooms ~ lots of pictures

Good morning Folks,

Well, it’s Monday morning here in s.e. FL.  I hope you all had a great weekend. I planted some seeds yesterday, repotted a rose and moved it into the main garden. Last week I worked in the secret garden and in the main gardens, and it felt great working in them. I even got a scrape and bruise down my right shin bone, front of leg when a piece of decorative cement fell over and scraped down the leg. OUCH!  At least I had my long jeans on, but it sure hurt like crazy. It’s much better today. I’m going to try to stress less this year, go with the flow, and not be too envious of all the beautiful gardens I see on the internet. I’ve more seeds to plant, and cuttings to take, that I hope will root.

Oh yea, yesterday while out in the main garden taking pictures, I looked at a vine I’ve been watching as I noticed it had buds on it.  I thought it was going to have purple morning glory type blooms, but instead these are tiny little that smell like honeysuckle, at least that was my interpretation of the scent.  What a pleasant surprise as I love sweet scents in the garden.  I’ll show some pictures in the next post in hopes that someone in garden land will be able to identify it.

These pictures were taken over the last 3-4 days.

Four o’clocks.

Dainty Bess

Louis Philippe

Love ~ The first two pics were without the sun hitting the bloom. I then walked away, and a little bit later turned around and the sunlight hitting the bloom made me take another couple of pics.

Plumbago

Blue Sage

Spiderwort

Phyllis bide from bud to open bloom.

Kathleen

La Marne

Louis Philippe

Mm. Laurette Messimy

It’s time to fix us some breakfast.

Hope you all have a great week.

FlowerLady