Wind Chimes

Pink Gardens' wind chimes were making such a beautiful "racket" the other day that I wanted to capture their aural essence visually. They sounded hollow, but harmonious, tone-full and soulful, balanced and beautiful.

 

Happy Mother's Day!

This is a perfume "decanter" from the 1920s in the shape of a crescent moon. The stopper is sanded glass for a tight fit.

A Little Tease, Works-in-Progress

Turned on its side outside, drying in the sun this afternoon, is a four-drawer chest I'm working on for a friend. I completely stripped it and primed it inside and out with a nice bright white to give myself a clean slate. I'm going with all the flaws in this old wooden piece, highlighting each and every repair someone made to it through the years. The main color is a grayish green, inside and out for a beachy look. This side is rather Harlequin-like, with the diamond-shape segments of the checkerboard a new motif for me. I was analyzing an antique afghan my grandmother made and then decided to use those diamond "pieces" in my next piece of art. More to come as I finish it!

My newest painting is on industrial-grade grooved plywood. I found a bunch of pieces of it at a construction site, cut in various sizes and thrown out next to a dumpster. I walked home with all I could carry under my arms! This is a first layer of painting. I'll sand this down and then do as many as 12-15 more layers of paint and glazes. The right edge will get some gold-leaf paint, evocative of a frame as none of my pieces are ever framed.

AfternoonColour: May Day 2013

I placed my long-lived cactuses outside today for their summer sojourn. This year they're on tree stumps next to the shade garden. Dragonwing Begonias join them after wintering over inside once again. All photos clickable to enlarge, as always.

 

My pink African violets are producing like crazy now.

Shade garden and beyond. That's an ancient pink azalea shrub, which almost resembles a laurel bush until it blooms.

Fun with Photoshop filters. Another shot of my beautiful (if I do say so myself, lol) purple violets. They're in a single indoor garden pot along with a second variety of purple and the pink seen in this post, too.

 

Looking slightly north this view includes the tiny road to town. In the distance is some Land Trust acreage and then a condominium.

Slightly longer view shows the fuzzy dark green foliage of this pink violet.

Poppin' Fresh (Up)

 

My violets are really going crazy these days. All three plants in this indoor garden are blooming, I'll take it out on the porch tomorrow and photograph the entire thing with good outdoor light.

 

Probably the last Daffodil arrangement this year. They were really beautiful and strong this year, though.

I think the back of flowers is just as interesting as the front...

 

This forsythia was heavily damaged in the last 25 inch snowfall. As soon as these meager, though pretty, blooms are finished, I'll prune the bush to the ground and let it come up fresh all summer. It should be perfect for next spring.

Pointing the camera towards the ground, the petals remain a solid look in the strong, late afternoon sun.

I have at least six varieties of ferns. They range from bright green to dark green, from frilly to thick, matter to shiny. They all love shade or "dappled" sunlight the best, though.

 

My mother's perennial Primrose has come up once again. It seems to be getting smaller each year, but what's left always makes me smile.

 

This variety of fern has a fuzzy frond when full grown. The late afternoon sun really gave them a golden hue.

My pink granite bird bath. I gave this to my mother for Mother's Day in the mid 1980s and I've moved it to wherever I live. This is the same type and color of granite as my ancestral family's granite quarry in Leete's Island, Guilford, Connecticut. Our quarry furnished much of the granite for the base of the Statue of Liberty.

 

 Blooming valiantly on broken stems. Next year will be their year!

My grandmother brought this ornamental Ribbon grass to the shoreline area in the 1930s. I believe she sent away for it from a western company. It grows perfectly almost anywhere and I always bring it with me. I have a couple of dozen clumps of these around Pink Gardens now. This one is only a few inches tall right now. They'll get to about two feet with four foot tall "wheats."

This is a giant fern. My friend Mary gave several of them to me a few years ago. They grow to about three feet tall and have dark fronds with a sheen to them.

A slightly longer view of my violet garden. The pink plant can be seen peeking from behind, and there is a second purple plant. The flowers are slightly lighter and smaller then this one.

 Rescued from the woods, Solomon Seals just began to pop up from the ground this season.

One of the three white Triliums I found under some wild rose bushes last year, I transplant them to the shade garden right next to the granite bird bath. I planted three last summer and now I have four! They've only broken ground in the past two weeks and are about four-inches tall. They should get another foot taller and will have beautiful white flowers.

 

Last But Not Least

 

The vegetable garden this afternoon. I've established perennial gardens all around the perimeter of it. I have a few varieties of day lilies, iris, sedum, foxglove, rose campion, ribbon grass, cinquefoils, hosta, thistles, Solomon seals, jack-in-the-pulpits, and I'm sure a few more, lol. As each perennial finishes its cycle, I plant Marigold seeds so by fall it's full of tall orange flowers.

More Color Each Day!

Cherry blossoms in town, at dusk. I love them at this stage, with some flowers fully opened and others in various stages, from tight buds to almost-open. All photos clickable thumbnails to enlarge.

Another "low view" of Pink Gardens. These bi-color daffodils complement the colors of the house perfectly.

Our large forsythia was damaged in the last blizzard. It was completely flattened by the massive heavy snowfall. It has a few flowers on it, but I think I'm going to cut it all the way down to the ground and let it grow back up again. Forsythias need to be cut back every decade or so or they stop producing enough flowers to fill in all the branches.

I grew a marigold indoors this winter! I planted some seeds in one of my potted plants in December and just this week I had my first bloom. I was so surprised it actually blossomed indoors!

 

This rusty-colored plant is actually my purple tradescanthia. It's an outdoors annual, but for the past four years, every October I cut several stems off of it and them root them in water for the next spring. Once they're outside and in the sunlight again, these reddish-green leaves will turn to purple and throw off small pink flowers.

A second African Violet has bloomed, my deep purple one. This plant is ten years old and the plant stretches almost fourteen inches wide!

And Thus the Season Begins. . .

This is the first year I've had miniature Daffodils in my yard! I placed the camera right on the ground for this photo. Though the perspective makes them look large, they are only 4-inches high! My friend, Lisa Mikulski, gave me these bulbs last year just before she moved to Sweden. Although she may be thousands of miles away, her flowers are going to be in my garden for years to come!

 

I think the aroma of hyacinths is among the best in all of flowerland! I love the scent of roses and lilacs, and virtually every flower, but there is something about Hyacinths that is just pure sweetness without any overtones of anything else. My friend Nikki gave me these bulbs a few years ago and they're just about the first flowers to ever bloom in the spring.

 

I think I posted almost exactly the same photo last year, lol, but it's a sure sign of spring when the turtles emerge from their winter rest and start sunning themselves at Tuxis Pond again!

Yes, my African Violets are indoor plants, but they are just beginning to bloom again from their winter greenery. This bright magenta one has huge blossoms. Each is more than an inch-and-a-half wide. The other two plants in this violet garden are about to bloom, one of them for the very first time, so stay tuned for more photos in the weeks to come!

Bonus Photo

 

On a wall near my violets hangs this self-portrait from 1983. It's cut paper, pen, and Saran wrap. Hard to believe it's 30 years old this year.

Best American Idol Performance Ever?

Candice Glover, a "Final 6" contestant on this year's American Idol TV show, turned in what I think will go down in history as one of the best performances of their 12 years on air, ever. The judges were in awe. I had tears in my eyes at the end of it last night, and just now when I heard it again. She takes The Cure's 1989 song, Lovesong and turns it into a Billie Holiday/Mary J. Blige, AWESOME contemporary piece.

It doesn't even matter if she wins next month. I'm pretty sure she just ensured her career right there! Remember, Jennifer Hudson didn't actually win Idol that year!

Study in Blue

I just came across this "Study in Blue" on my hard-drive. I've probably posted it here before, but I love the colors so much I think it will brighten up the homepage perfectly today. Some of my collectibles include a vintage tobacco tin, Hull "Freesia" vase, a "splatterware" bowl, hydrangea and, of course, scale model cars!

Getting Outside Again, Late March 2013

Above, a Mallard couple in the creek that borders Pink Gardens. The reflections in the water remind me of Op-Art from the 1960s.

I spent about four hours outside today starting to clean off the flowerbeds. I always cover them with fall leaves for the winter. I did a pretty good job on the initial raking on six beds. I have another six or so to go and then my two larger shade gardens. Afterward I walked around and shot some photos. I have been very inactive in the photography department lately!

The creek is quite full this spring. It tends to dry up in August for a month or two.

Almost Surreal landscape in the backyard.

I believe the red stems visible in the middle of this watery landscape are a form of long-ago-naturalized witch-hazel.

Birdhouse and late afternoon western sky.

 

Central in my main perennial garden is this decaying tree stump. It's very medieval looking this year after the heavy winter snows. I don't believe I can even put the blue glass garden globe out on this year. There is no place to secure it anymore. I might start looking at garage sales for a birdbath base to hold it. I think this stump looks like a little crazy castle. The chipmunks gather around it and so do the rabbits once it fills in mid-June or so.