Basye’s Purple rose first bloom and other flowers

Good afternoon Folks ~ I hope you are all enjoying your weekend. We have had rain and more rain. Everything is growing like weeds here.

I have been waiting for over a year to see this particular rose in bloom, today the first bud opened.  The rose is Basye’s Purple. First photo was taken yesterday, the others were taken this morning. When I saw it was open I could hardly get my camera fast enough. When I got over to the bloom and smelled it I wanted to cry. I thanked God for such a beautiful creation and wonderful scent. I bought this rose as a baby from Rose Petals Nursery.

Butterflies have been having a feast on my Byron Beauty passion flower vine. Below is a flower that has been pelted with some heavy rains and I see that the curly bits of the flower have straightened out.

Below are caterpillars enjoying themselves.

Here are two chrysallis.  I saw one of these as a caterpillar yesterday hanging upside down and then came out to it being in hibernation on it’s way to becoming a butterfly.

Well watered blooms.

Golden dew drop (purple blooms), red pentas, and hamelia patens.

I don’t know what the name of this hibiscus is. I got it as a cutting many, many years ago from my Mom.

This is sandpaper vine with it’s sandpaper feeling leaves and wonderful purple star flowers. I grew this from a cutting. These are the first blooms that it has had. Also called Queen’s Wreath. It is growing up over an arbor and I can hardly wait until the arbor is covered. There is also a blue pea vine and a garlic vine growing on this harbor so it will be quite the combination when all in bloom.

This is a wonderful alamanda, don’t know the name of it. Grew it from a cutting also.

Spicy Jatropha ~ this I grew from a cutting from my dear husband’s family home. I believe his younger sister had given a plant to their parents one year. I love this plant, and so do the butterflies.

This is Tahitian Gardenia. What a scent!!! Huge blooms.

This is my ‘secret garden jungle’ as seen through the window of my scullery, where I wash dishes. The scraggly tall limbs in the foreground are of a avacado tree container grown. I should prune it.

Well, that’s it from my well watered gardens here at Plum Cottage.

Remember to stop and really see all of the beauty that surrounds you and know that you are even more wonderful and beautiful and loved by Jesus who is God the Great Creator. We have so much to be thankful for.

Happy Summer ~ FlowerLady

Flowers, goodies, needlework, T-storms

Good afternoon Friends ~ It is Sunday and hot and humid, it is 84 and feels like it is 94 with the humidity at 71%. We’ve had some nasty T-storms the past few days, strong winds, heavy rains and thunder and lightening. More rain is expected this afternoon and the next few days.  We’ve needed the rain, and I am thankful for it.

The gardens love the rain too, not just flowers but weeds too. I’ve got vines and weeds taking over the ‘back 40’, and other areas at the back of the property. UGH!  There’s nothing like ‘liquid sunshine’ for making things grow.

Here are  some of the blooms in the gardens right now.

This is my favorite hibiscus ~ ‘Hugs-n-Kisses’.

Night blooming jasmine.

‘Plumeria’ a bloom blown out of one of my three plumeria trees in the front garden.

Rubber vine

Spicy Jatropha

Vanda ‘Miss Joachim’

‘Cocktail’

‘Kathleen’

Remember me telling about receiving a monetary gift from a dear family member and she told me to spend it however I saw fit.  I told you I thought of a bread machine since my old one that served me well for 14 years pooped out recently. Well, I ordered the same make, and picked it up Friday morning before work. It’s a little bigger than the last one, but basically the same. I did peel off the label after I made a loaf of oatmeal bread yesterday morning before work.

This was a new recipe which had more oatmeal in it than what I usually use, and while the bread ‘fell’ a little it was still delicious! This  does happen occasionally, not the fault of the machine, it could be any number of reasons.  There is something really wonderful about homemade bread.  The aroma while it was baking was so ‘homey’ and comforting.

With the money left-over , I decided to get a new ironing board cover. This old one has served me many years, but it’s not really me.

I found out about these hand made quilted ironing board covers from a blogging friend. She bought one and posted about it here. I emailed her and asked her where she got her cover and she sent me the link to the lady who makes these and sells them in her Etsy shop. You can visit her here.

She mailed it right out and I think that was Thursday and I got it Sat. afternoon. She’s in Maine and I’m way down here in s.e. FL.

I love this and the quality is and the workmanship is GREAT!

Here’s the quilting pattern.  Definitely made for ‘FlowerLady’ who loves roses.

The bread machine and the ironing board cover will make me think of this dear person in my family when I use them. I want to say a public thank you to her right now, without telling who she is. She knows.

Now, here are some needlework projects. This one below is still a work in progress. Silk ribbon embroidery, and a crocheted/beaded trim. I love working with threads, hooks, needles, beads and ribbon.

Not sure what I’m going to do with this one yet.

Here is more silk ribbon embroidery ~ Started out with white ribbon for rose and leaves, three different sizes of silk ribbon, colored with alcohol ink markers. The little French knots are  a variegated purple embroidery floss.

The frame I picked up at a little flea market in the spring. It was perfect for this piece, made for a friend who had a birthday. Yellow roses are special to her. I also colored the roses on the frame with the alcohol ink markers.

Tomorrow is our widow’s group, ‘Friends Needing Friends’, meeting and luncheon, and I’ll be talking in front of the group. Yikes! First on how I came to start the blog (one year ago), for the group, and secondly I’ll be talking on the widow ‘Anna the Prophetess’, and how this widow in the Bible has inspired me in my widowhood journey.  If you think of it, say a little prayer for me. Writing a blog is a whole different thing than speaking in front of a group.

“The Lord is my strength”.

He is how I’m able to move forward and grow in His love, grace and mercy.

Thank you all again for being such a great bunch of friends. You’ve blessed, encouraged and inspired me in many ways.

Have a GREAT week whatever you do. 

Trust in the Lord. Call on Him and He will work all things out.

FlowerLady

Mostly Macros

Good morning Friends ~ Here it is another Friday.  Time is zipping right along.

We had thunderstorms yesterday afternoon, which has given us another blast of cool air and for that I am grateful.  It is supposed to get down to 53 and feel like 48 tonight.

This post is filled with mainly macros, hence the title of this post.

First is not macro though and  is a photo of our big palm with the morning sky behind. 

Ok, here we go for the blooms.

Azaleas

Sweetly scented begonias with big round leaves.

This is a Clerodendrum that we down here call ‘Bleeding Hearts”

This is a buddleia that I’ve had almost a year now and it is still alive and growing

This is gazania or blanket flower. Self sows and a winner in my humble cottage gardens.

Ground orchid blooms

This is an unknown orchid bought last spring.

Mexican Heather

Hibiscus

Panama Rose

Penta blooms

Lowly periwinkles that grow like a weed down here in s.e. FL.

I have pink and white.

Mexican Petunia

Spanish needle blossom

Spicy Jatropha

Thunbergia erecta  in purple and white. I love the yellow throats.

This is related to the clock vine

Spiderwort

Trailing Lantana

Vanda orchids

Yarrow

Miss T

On November 17 2012, when my dear husband was ill and a couple of weeks before he went to his heavenly home, I came home from work and as always headed straight for the bedroom to check on him. He said to me, “The verse of the day is, ‘Cast all your care upon Him’.

That verse is still a verse for me each and every day. The Him in this verse is God, and the rest of the verse says, ‘for He careth for you’.

I had this in my mind to write before I headed off to work this morning, but didn’t have time to get it all done.

This verse was perfect for me today because when I got to work I found out that my friends next door had been hit by thieves right after I left yesterday afternoon. They have two shops next to each other, and she had gone to the other shop where her husband and nephew were, leaving her purse sitting in her desk chair, which is behind a partition. We were having stormy weather then too and she was in the other shop a few minutes. When she got back her purse was gone, her lap top computer and their two cell phones.  They called the cops and they came to get the info. There is a surveillance camera up on a building across the street and later the cops called to say they had seen a vehicle and a couple that looked suspicious to them. I also had a suspicious message left on the answering machine where I work asking what time we close, and reported it to my friends and they told the cops.  They told my friend to come over to see if she could get the number off my phone there, she did, so maybe that will help in the case.

I do not want to be scared to go to work. This news is one of the cares that came into my life that I am to cast upon Him. Worry accomplishes nothing!

Say a prayer for my friends that things will work out for them with this. They got in touch with their bank, credit card people etc. The husband said it’s awful because they feel so violated. They were both exhausted when I left this afternoon, from the stress of it all.

Love and hugs to all of you,

FlowerLady