Rose de Rescht, flowers, granny heart & a smile

 

Good early evening Friends ~ My heart and prayers are going out for all dealing with this latest round of ice/snow/sleet nasty weather.  I have a friend in NC and two in northern GA who are in the thick of it.

I feel a little ‘guilty’ living down here in s.e. FL where it was in the low 80’s, stiff breezes, and sunshine today.  We are expecting thunderstorms through the night. I decided yesterday since rain was coming to get out and mow this morning and that’s what I did, plus I pulled weeds, trimmed, raked and bagged, for about 3 hours. It felt good being outdoors accomplishing what I did.

This morning before I went out to work, I raised the blinds here in my little space and what did I see but the first opened rose of my sweet ‘Rose de Rescht’ from Deb and her husband. I took some pictures from inside, then had to get out there and put my nose in the bloom because it is supposed to be deeply scented. Oh my gosh, the scent is just what I want in a rose, beautiful, wonderful. I love roses with scents. Whenever I see a rose and lean down to smell it, if there is no smell, I am disappointed.  Anyway, here are the pics of this lovely rose from morning through this afternoon. I love the effect with the lace curtains I just bought $3 for two pr.

That inspired me to see what else I could find in the gardens to be photo worthy.

Mm. Laurette Messimy

This I’m not sure of.  I thought Old Blush, but I don’t really know.

Azalea

Clock vine

Don’t remember what this little spreader is. It takes over by ‘spitting seeds’ everywhere. Really, I can hear the seeds as they leave the plant. I’m amazed I’ve not been hit yet.  Although maybe the sound is greater than the flight of seeds.

Tibouchina

Caravan & heart patio area

This area below is the ‘stag garden’ and I got the idea to use these broken marble pieces that we have in our stash as another patio beside the caravan. To the right of the caravan in the photo above. I’ve still some tweaking to do, may just lift them all up, jumble up the soil and get rid of weeds etc. level it out and lay them back down better. This is work, lift, move, bend, over and over.

I crocheted this ‘granny heart’ the other day. 

I love it.  It is a free pattern and you can find it here.

Last but not least, a smile to end this post. Last night I popped a chicken pot pie into the oven and when it was done, I poked vent holes in the top to let out the steam. I was doing this randomly and when I got done and looked at it I cracked up and had to take a picture.  Couldn’t have done this as well if I had tried.

The aroma of supper tonight is beckoning, Moroccan Chickpea Chili.

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Love and hugs to all of you this Valentine’s Day week.

FlowerLady

Plumbing, blooms, a surprise

 

Good evening Folks ~ It is Monday evening and I’m feeling ready to get horizontal to read before sleep.

Today was beautiful here in s.e. FL.  I took some pics of blooms this morning. The air is filled with bird song, scents of callisia fragrans, it was cool and I was thankful for another new day.

The giant fish is swimming in among some snake plants, moses-in-the-bullrushes, and callisia fragrans, which are the lacy little white blooms on skinny stalks.

Clerodendrum shooting star

Mom-of-millions with reed orchids and blue sage in the background.

‘Cocktail’ roses.

This is a huge aloe by the back shed, probably a couple of feet tall by three feet across.

Early morning fog on Saturday.  My brother-in-law was driving down from an hour away in this. Out on the road it was really thick, I couldn’t even see the intersection a few blocks away.

Well, we are hoping and praying that we are done with plumbing work under the house.  This time we cut two holes in the flooring to fix the leak, change pipe and we worked from 8:45-6:45, pooped at the end.  We had to go to HD for supplies, not much, and we had a lunch break. 

Cutting holes in the floor got to me and I had a good little cry, then pulled myself together so that we could get on with the work. Crying released tension.  Todd told me he is amazed at the work dear Mark did under the house as an older man by himself.  It was a LOT of work, new center beam and shoring all the cross beams up on blocks, but well worth it and hearing Todd say that really blessed my heart. I was Mark’s helper above ground, but Mark was the one crawling around on his stomach doing all the hard work.

This hole is under the kitchen sink, stove to the right of my nice pvc pipe cutter.

Todd on his stomach replacing old copper, with pvc. This second leak was bigger than the first one. It was probably there but we just didn’t notice it because of where it was, under the refrigerator flooring.  I sure could hear the water though, so kept the water turned off to the house except for short periods of time to wash dishes and take a shower.  Doing without water at the turn of a faucet or flush of a toilet, sure makes you appreciate that convenience.

Todd had to knock out some old concrete chunks that were blocking the way to do the pipe work. This hole is under where the fridge sits, in it’s own little cubbyhole.  Cutting this hole is what made me cry for some reason.  I just missed Mark so much and we were cutting up the flooring he had done for the scullery. SIGH. The silver covered pipe you see is the hot water pipe. We just have a couple of sections of older, but looking good, copper pipe now, everything else is pvc.

I forgot to take pictures of the finished work.  We were tired and moving right along to get the flooring back in place, etc. after waiting a couple of hours for the pvc cement to set up good. All looked fine, flooring back down, fridge moved back into place and I would handle the rest later, vacuuming, mopping, etc.

I had put the two chunks of concrete he had given me from under the house, in the mop bucket. This morning I took them out because I was going to mop and lo and behold there was a ‘prize’ just for me that I didn’t even see when we brought them up.

This heart is lopsided, has a fault line and a gash, which is how my heart feels these days missing my love.  Mark and I always looked for hearts and this is a special one for me this Valentine’s week.  I hosed it down and brought it indoors and now it has a special place of honor.

Well, that’s it from Plum Cottage for now. 

Happy Valentine’s Day to all.

FlowerLady

Blue Sage ~ Eranthemum pulchellum

 

I bought this plant many, many, many years ago at a local flea market.

I don’t believe I’ve seen it anywhere for sale.  It is one of my very favorite plants in the garden.  It is evergreen, it roots easily from cuttings, which makes me think I need to root some myself for new plants.

You can read about it at:

Top Tropicals.

Dave’s Garden

What’s Blooming

That’s it for now ~ Flowerlady

A new day

 

Good morning Folks ~ Here it is Thursday already. A friend left a comment saying she keeps checking my blog to see if there are any new posts.  I checked and it’s been a week since my last one. Sorry about that.

Sunday I worked on moving more potted plants to the caravan heart patio area.  Monday and Tuesday I puttered indoors doing some rearranging of storage units for crafts, etc. Yesterday I did errands. Each day I usually take a nap too, then have a nice cup of herbal (this week it’s been a blend of peppermint and nettle) tea sweetened with Florida honey.  At Christmas time I bought a jar of wildflower honey, my friends bought me a jar of Gallberry honey last week. The gentleman comes around to the area where I work with jars of honey and other goodies too.  (My boss bought me a larger jar my first Christmas without my hear husband.) Honey is very good for us and so are the herbs.

I’ve been working a little on the beaded and embroidered heart.  It takes time. I’ve been crocheting on a couple of blankets. Ideas are whirling in my head too.  I’ve got to get things back in my little Etsy shop.

Yesterday we had a thunderstorm roll in with lots of rain, which we needed.  More rain expected today and tomorrow.  Great for the gardens.

Yesterday I stopped at the Good Will thrift store since it is Sr. Citizen’s day, 25% off.  I found some tops, a skirt to wear and one that I will use in needlework creations, and some books.

This skirt is very tiny, seems more like slip, and maybe it was, but it was hanging with the skirts.  I could hardly believe it when I saw it. It is beautiful and so intricate.

I don’t know how they made the netting part, but it is all joined together and just wonderful.  What a lot of time went into this.  It was made in China, and they do fine needlework there. I’ve never seen anything like this.

Here are my latest shirts. The middle one has beads sewn on the top part of the shirt. I wear colorful shirts then look through my older clip-on or screw-on earrings for something to go with the color scheme.  DH also called me ‘earring lady’.

I decided to look through the books while I was there, not fiction, I can get those at the library and return them.  Ones on gardening, or crafts, or the odd cookbook, or poetry, or spiritual writings. What I found yesterday were spiritual and seemed just meant for me.  They were at the end of a row of books at the back of the section. I picked up the first one, checked it out and then the next and the next, until I had 8 of them, if they were ever read, they do not look it.  Normally they are 79 cents each for paper backes, I got them for 59 cents because I am a sr.

Last night before sleep, I started reading “Devotion Explosion – Getting REAL with God.” by Christy Bower. We have believed for years that we can talk to God at any time, anywhere. That’s what this book is about.  We don’t have to have a certain time to get close to God, we can do so all day long through whatever we are doing or whatever we are going through.

I look forward to reading all of these and am happy to have found them.  I think they were gifts to me from God, sitting all together just waiting for me to find them. I don’t always do errands on Wed. and I don’t always go to the GW thrift store either.

Here are some blooms from my gardens yesterday. More gifts from the Giver of All Gifts.

I had to take this photo because of the lone purple bloom on this shrub.  Isn’t that neat?

Azaleas

Blue Sage ~ one of my favorites.

Reed orchids with blue clock vine in the background.

This is ‘Cocktail’, a bush I’ve had for many, many years, growing in a huge terra cotta pot.

This is my gifted rose “Rose de Rescht”. It’s really grown since I got it as a rooted band/cutting from Heirloom Roses, a gift from a blogging friend and follower, Deb and her husband . This little bush is about 12 inches tall now and has three buds on it.  This was the only one showing color.  I can hardly wait to get a scent of this wonderful rose.  Thank you again Deb and hubby.

I will close with a lovely piece I got in my email box the other morning from ‘Desert Streams’. 

May it bless your heart as it has mine. (This can be for a son of God’s too, just replace daughter with the word son.)

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Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!

Nor deem these days--these waiting days--as ill!

The One who loves thee best, who plans thy way,

Hath not forgotten thy great need today!

And, if He waits, 'tis sure He waits to prove

To thee, His tender child, His heart's deep love.

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!

Thou longest much to know thy dear Lord's will!

While anxious thoughts would almost steal their way

Corrodingly within, because of His delay

Persuade thyself in simple faith to rest

That He, who knows and loves, will do the best.

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!

Nor move one step, not even one, until

His way hath opened. Then, ah then, how sweet!

How glad thy heart, and then how swift thy feet

Thy inner being then, ah then, how strong!

And waiting days not counted then too long.

Sit still, my daughter! Just sit calmly still!

What higher service could'st thou for Him fill?

'Tis hard! ah yes! But choicest things must cost!

For lack of losing all how much is lost!

'Tis hard, 'tis true! But then--He giveth grace

To count the hardest spot the sweetest place.

J. D. Smith

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Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady