Clouds Above Me, Clouds Below Me

Fluffy white clouds reflected in the very still, and very cold, waters of our local pond in the center of town. Lots going on here, I'll try to update the blog more often when I can! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving—I'll be back with more photos before Christmas!

Spring's Rejuvenation Under Way!

This is a multi-petaled tulip. It's not a Parrot tulip but it's close. This was an afternoon sun, very strong, but within a half hour we had a quick thunderstorm and downpour. 

All three of the African violets I've planted together are blooming at the same time. I love the mix of colors. Combined, this planter is now more than 18-inches wide.

A loose arrangement of cut daffodils inside. The yellow variety in front has multiple petals and the barest suggestion of a "trumpet" in the center. The thinner ones in the back are more traditional but they're very tall and thin in the garden.

This Azalea in the yard is more than 8-feet tall. The pink ones are done now but the smaller dark red variety still has tight buds.

A grouping of Grape Hyacinths on my walk to town.

This little family of Canada geese hangs out by the small pond in town. There's a boardwalk at one end of it that's a shortcut to town for me. There are five little goslings.

This is a very nice perennial garden behind one of the town's historic house museums, the Deacon Grave's House. I'll take photos of this garden all summer. It's really one of the nicest ones in town.

Labor Day on the Beach Road

To mark a broken wooden fence rail, a jauntily, and nautically, tied rope is festooned with rainbow ribbons ever two feet or so. I just found it such a fun, unexpected detail along our beach road. The clumps of sea grass in the background are very lightweight and "wave" back and forth with the gentlest of breezes.

MoreColour, More!

Sometimes my little digital camera "freaks out" and can't process the colors correctly. This is one of those happy accidents. Magenta cleomis, black-eyed Susans and their foliage just wreaked havoc with the digital information. I like it though—very artandcolour!

Beach Rose hips. These seed pods are just as attractive as flowers, in my humble opinion!

One of my giant sunflowers this year. This stalk is 8-9 feet all and very popular with the birds!

A beautiful hydrangea from the beach area. The subtle blues and lavenders are just gorgeous.

Bright magenta Beach roses (Rosa rugosa). They are single-petals instead of the multiple-petaled roses most often seen, but have a very saturated color and delicate shapes that move easily with the frequent shore breezes.

Dueling Butterflies! My thistles must have been particularly fragrant this morning. There were two or three butterflies competing for the same flowers! There were bees flitting all around gathering nectar, too. I really love watching my gardening hard work pay off for the wild critters as well as for the beauty of the flowers. Above, a white Cabbage Butterfly and a Painted Lady.

A more realistic color view of the Cleomis and Black-eyed Susans seen at the top of this post. The tall sea grass planted with them is a great touch.

One of my first dahlias has finally flowered.  And it's yellow. I REALLY hope that all of my plants aren't yellow as they were last year. I SHOULD have orange, hot pink, purple, white and some variegated versions, if the tags are to be believed. Last year they all turned out to be yellow. I really want some other colors this year! They're all late to bloom this year too. I hope we have a very long Autumn!

One of my Green Zebra tomatoes. The only way to really tell when they're ripe is to touch them. They'll be a bit soft when ripe. So far this one is rock hard!

One of my Jack-in-the-Pulpit seed pods. Even at this stage they add a lot to my flowerbeds. To see a Jack-in-the-Pulpit in spring, click here.

I'm fascinated by the "ladders" of plum tomatoes. They're great fun to watch grow and ripen. Look at the various colors in this one stem!

My giant "normal" sunflower plant. Even when the blossoms droop and die, I leave them on the stalks for the birds. They love them. I've had more Goldfinches this year than ever before.

The darkest Sunflower has opened up more blossoms. I love the rich mahogany coloring!

My Tardiva Hydrangea has twice as many flowers as last year—two. I only had one flower last year. Let's hope for exponential growth next year, lol.

Photopourri, Early August

Garden Deviled Eggs—I made up a quick "recipe" for deviled eggs using fresh ingredients from my vegetable garden. I picked a San Marzano plum tomato, basil, dill and parsley. I added a tiny dice of celery and onion (from the store), some celery seed and a bit of stone ground dijon mustard (with the seeds) and Hellmann's mayonnaise. They were colorful, zesty and quite good to eat!

Seen recently in town, this 1961 Chrysler 300G was a really special treat to behold. I can't find production figures right now, but I don't think Chrysler ever sold more than 1,000 per year, and probably less than that. They can sell in the 6-figure range these days. 

One of my sunflowers bent over at a 90-degree angle in May. I taped the stem, and then splinted it, and really tried everything to keep it going. It grew to about 6 feet tall before it just started to die above the injury. I finally cut it down and I've been seeing if it will bloom indoors. I don't give up on my plants easily! Even if it doesn't quite blossom, I love the shape of the buds. They remind me of a stylized sun, even more than the flowers themselves do.

JulyColour: Bustin' Out All Over!

This is a new annual this year, well new to me, anyway. I can't even remember the name of it. This is the first bud that the chipmunks have allowed to open. They are crazy eaters this year, munching my geraniums down to the roots. Several of the geraniums I've had for years, and winter over in the attic, have been decimated by the little striped rodents. I'm hoping that since they've let this flower bloom, perhaps the plant is turning bitter as it ages. I'm really sick of the chipmunks. I have this annual in a container along with some purple alyssum, an orange marigold and a white geranium if it ever gets beyond 3 leaves and a stem.

Moving on to the center of Madison, one of the little shops has this outrageous Hydrangea. Just look at all the variations of colors there on this one bush! Some are purple, some are cream, some are pink, some are variegated and some are solid. I love it!

Another little shop in town has several containers of Coleus out front. I love these variegated annuals. There are so many new varieties, it seems they develop new ones every year.

This blue Hydrangea is outside a store very near the purple one above (and below). I love this "subdued" blue; it almost has gray tones to it. It's coloring is more subtle than other blue ones nearby.

July is surely "Hydrangea Month" around here. This pink version is just lovely with its pale yellow centers.

Another type of Coleus from town. It's hard to see where one plant stops and another one starts. Pinks and greens really suit this little shoreline town, lol. Lilly Pulitzer anyone?

Look at how different each blossom is on this plant! I checked the stems to make sure it was the same plant. As each bloom ages, it changes its coloring. I can't really think of many flowers that do this. And then you can dry the flowers during the fall for winter bouquets!

This bright blue Hydrangea literally screams at you when you walk by, lol.

I guess you can tell I was really taken with this plant. Look at the various colors combinations on this one plant.

The green, cream and magenta Coleus in the center has larger leaves, and is a nice foil for the more brightly variegated leaves around it.

A huge lavender plant next to the boardwalk I take into town. It also borders a parking lot and receives zero care. Sometimes I think I "love" my plants too much, lol. I should ignore them and let them work for my attention!

 

Purple, Rubine, Magenta, Indigo—however you'd like to describe it, this bloom is magnificent.

BTW:

 

Flitting around the lavender bush posted above, I found this gorgeous, and psychedelic "Painted Lady" butterfly. Apparently they are quite common, just about the most common butterfly there is, but I've never seen one before, lol. The top wings are mostly orange, but the bottom ones look like they're pen-and-ink outlines. 

BTW 2:

Mystery Shot! This is a photograph of a Great Egret that has been recently visiting the small brook that borders Pink Gardens' driveway and backyard. I'm not sure why this photo came out like this. He flew up into the trees several seconds after I snapped the photo, but for some reason the camera delayed the shutter. I guess I captured him as he began to spread his wings. Oddly enough, I've been watching "Ancient Aliens" on TV tonight, and  the episode tonight was titled, "Angels and Aliens." When I downloaded these photos into my computer tonight, at first I thought I'd captured an angel!

Along the Side of the Road

Sweet Peas (Lathyrus), growing along the side of the road. This is probably railroad property.

 

This is an enormous Hosta variety growing along the beach road. The leaves are enormous, well more than a foot apiece. These are the "strongest" looking Hosta flowers I've seen.

The unkempt yard of an empty house for sale—still the perennial Lobelias bloom.

Honeybee visiting a Milkweed (Asclepias) plant. I love the shape of these flowers, but the seedpods that appear in the fall are very cool, too.

One of my favorite roadside "weeds," the Vetch (Vicia). This wildflower grows quickly each spring and is full bloom right now. It can be a vine if it can find sunlight above the frey, otherwise it's perfectly happy to grow along the ground.

 

The foliage of the Vetch perfectly complements the size, shape and coloring of the flowers.

Dreaming & Flying & Living

"Deadly" Nightshade climbing on the boardwalk in town.

I think the shadows in this photo look like they're leaving for their own afternoon adventure. They don't really seem all that connected to-, or even related to-, the leaves and stems. I like to think I captured this this purple-and-yellow flowering wild vine as it was lazily daydreaming. Perhaps I captured its shadow/dreams departing on their almost-Summer mid-afternoon romp.

B T W : 

"Birds sing after a storm; Why shouldn't people feel as free to delight in whatever sunlight remains yo them."

—Rose Kennedy (1890-1995)

This photo was shot on Thursday, with birds flying under the storm clouds, while there's just a bit of blue sky finally breaking out on the right. These birds were squawking, and singing, and shaking the rain off their wings, and the scene reminded me of the quote by President Kennedy's mother, Rose, above. If it reminds long-time readers of something else, I paraphrased the quote last year on this chop of a new Lincoln sport sedan...

I paraphrased Mrs. Kennedy's quote for the tagline on this early 2011 chop of a rear wheel-drive Lincoln sport sedan.

Photopourri: Sun and Shade

Pink Gardens' Victorian planters are shaping up nicely this year. I've planted bright chartreuse sweet potato vine, pansies, vinca, spikes, petunias, mini dahlias, perilla, ferns and few things I've forgotten the names of, lol. Hopefully, there will be cascading foliage and tall flowers in these more than 100 year old, 4-feet tall, cast-iron planters. All photos clickable to enlarge, as always!

A lone Japanese iris in the background, framed by my pink Foxgloves.

My pink Foxgloves are more than 6-feet tall! Enlarged, you can see a white Foxglove in the shade garden in the background. I have Foxgloves in the shade and in the sun.

 

The white Foxglove has deep maroon markings inside each flower.

Sitting pretty in the sun . . . This is part of the condominium yard I pass by every day on my way to town.

A single perfect rose in this condominium complex.

One of my projects this year was to create this meandering path through my side shade garden. I transplanted almost everything this year, making this fun little walkway. I have day lilies, iris, lemon verbena, Queen Anne's Lace (wild carrots), Jack-in-the-Pulpits, Solomon's Seals, and many other plantings here. I've probably spent at least 60 hours this spring in this square garden.

My Solomon's Seals doing what they do best: elegantly bowing over with this cream flowers about to open. Each stem is about 4 feet tall, but they bend over in various ways creating a great flowing look to this shade garden.

Rose Campions are one of my favorite perennials. I have very few in my garden, but I grew up with clusters of them just like this property. This is one of my town's historic home museums.

A long-view of the campions. Their grayish green foliage contrasts perfectly with their bright magenta flowers.

 

The side shade garden is shaping up nicely this year, too. I've added a lot more ferns and hostas. There is a bed of purple perilla coming up all around everything, as a ground cover, and it contrasts beautifully with the greener foliage. Above, my late mother's granite-hewn bird bath. I bought this handmade rock garden feature for her on Mother's Day sometime in the 1980s.

Visible here is the perilla ground cover. I just caught the 10-minutes of direct sunlight this shade garden receives.