Here We Go Again

This is the little single-lane private road leading to Pink Gardens. The overhead Comcast cables/wires are strung all along the right side of the road in this photo. We still have several trees that are leaning precariously from last year's two fall storms, Tropical Storm Irene in early September and the freak Halloween Blizzard. I have zero doubt that many more will come down in the next day with Hurricane Sandy simultaneously taking out my internet, phone and TV. Since it's such a huge storm, I doubt Comcast will be able to get things up and running for weeks. I'm not looking forward to the next month without these utilities! Or heat if the electricity stays off for long, t too! I won't be able to do any work for the publisher or work on my blog. If you don't hear from me for a while, I will be back as soon as I can!

AutumnColour Continues

 

Behold the only purple-and-white dahlia that blossomed this year! It came out two or three days before our frost, so there won't be anymore. Too bad. I would have loved to have lots of these to photograph and enjoy. I've been under the weather for the past week or so. I apologize for the dearth of photos and posts recently!

 

An obligatory photo of typical New England fall foliage! The leaves are all blowing off the trees now. It was a very short colorful season, but much better than last year when the leaves came off in September due to Tropical Storm Irene.

These hydrangeas have turned an absolutely gorgeous shade of raspberry this autumn!

My yellow Butterfly bush still has a few pretty blooms on it. Since I planted it in July, this bush has tripled in width but hasn't gotten much taller. I'm very interested to see how it grows next year in a full season.

That same purple-and-white dahlia in an small arrangement with peach and yellow dahlias around it. A 1:43 scale model of a red '55 Cadillac Eldorado peeks out from behind the flowers...

My African violet garden hanging out on the porch for some fresh fall air. The darker purple plant is more than fifteen inches wide!

AutumnColours—Porch Afternoon

I bought these three awesome heirloom yellow-and-red tomatoes recently at my town's Friday farmer's market on the green. They were so physically beautiful, I decided to set up an impromptu photoshoot on the porch so I picked some of the last dahlias, marigolds, zinnias, and morning glories. I had to shoot quickly as glories fade after just a few minutes. Those rusty clippers were new last fall and are my main summer tool!

Season Over

 

Above, last week, the Hummingbird Gate to the vegetable garden hinted at the blue morning glories within.

Our growing season is officially over now, with our first frost last Friday night. The morning glories, most of the dahlias and a few other tender plantings have finished for the year. My marigolds, Joe-Pye, one dahlia, and the geraniums are all hanging in there. The geraniums will make their annual trek up to the attic soon, and my Christmas cacti, spider plants and ferns are all safely inside again.

Pretty in Peach—This perfect dahlia was pointing towards the ground, so when I photographed it from below with a close focus, the leaves and sky above show up as impressionist shapes and colors

 

The Golden Pair—I forget the name of this annual, but they're still going strong in both cast-iron Victorian planters.

Slow to Unfurl—Dahlias tend to look a bit pie-eyed or lopsided as they slowly unfurl their glorious petals. The soft-focused morning glories formed a ring behind them. Orange and blue are great together!

 

A giant honeybee is in the shadows of this Butterfly bush flower, was so intent on fattening up for the long siesta coming up he couldn't pay me any attention at all. I swear we had hummingbirds smaller than this bee!

Another view of this perfect peach dahlia. I took hundreds of photos of my few dahlias this year so we'll have plenty of nice colors for the winter blog!

Pink Gardens recently received its final coats of paint. The color is a beautiful dark, almost ruddy, salmon. It reminds me of the women's fashion trend from the '80s for darker cheek rouge!

These twin bicolor zinnias were just about on their last "legs" last week when I photographed them one last time. They didn't make it past the frost, but my spider plants are now inside.

Yours Truly, 1959

Approximately 2 years old, U.S. Army base, Stuttgart, Germany. I was born to style, lol.

A cool photo of the family car during our time in Germany, our 1956 Ford Fairlane Sunliner convertible in pink and black. Above, the family German Shepherd, Duke, is sitting in the driver's seat. All sorts of cool European cars are all around, early VW Beetles, Renaults, and what I think is an Austin. The American Army personnel liked their American cars, though. There are two Studebakers on the left, and a Jeepster station wagon in the background. Those early SUVs were all-metal but the early ones were embossed and painted to resemble wood siding. 

Last Sunflowers—Babies!

My sunflowers were pretty successful this summer. I had about half a dozen plants, or stems, with several different color varieties. The original flowers didn't last long, a combination of yard critters and a couple of windy rainstorms pulled down those first large flowers. But I never cut down the plants afterwards, and now they are sending out tiny flowers up and down the stems. Each bloom is only about 2-3 inches across, they're somewhat mishapen, but are a nice surprise in my rapidly aging October flowergardens!

 

BIzzy Buzzy Bees

I can't shoot a single photo of a flower these days without bees, butterflies, late hummingbirds, and even birds, competing with me for their attention. It's really incredible how Nature knows the seasons are changing and they change their innate behaviors without thought. I've noticed that each insect stays a bit longer at each flower. They aren't so anxious to use any energy to find their glorious nectar. In spring and summer, these same insects are just fast as can be, flitting here and there, from flower to flower, excited about the next, and the next, and the NEXT bit of nectar! These days, they're happy to sit on each petal and suck it all down for everything its worth. 'Til it's sucked dry.

October Connecticut flowers are like 2 am Last Calls: Earlier than you'd like but later than some places, lol.

Early October IndoorColour

Mid-day ambient light, southern and western exposure. Digital cam chose to "paint" the violets two different hues which I worked with instead of correcting. As the camera fades from everyday usability, I'm going to keep documenting its work.

I picked an impromptu arrangement the other day, of whatever was blooming around Pink Gardens. Still in flower are marigolds, dahlias, Joe-Pye, goldenrod, geraniums, and zinnias. They all work together beautifully. I walked around the apartment photographing the arrangement in different settings and lighting.

My camera is either possessed or in a downward spiral of effectiveness, lol. I'm going to be working with the results, but you'll notice soft focusing and odd coloring in some. I've used Photoshop to enlarge and enhance and work with the flaws instead of covering them up.

 Upstairs foyer, no direct natural light, mid-day.

 Western window, direct sunlight filtered through evergreen trees.

Overhead ceiling light, mid-day, ambient light.

Upstairs foyer, late afternoon, no direct lighting, inadvertent flash on foreground. Possessed rabbit grooms are fun.

Upstairs foyer, late afternoon, no direct lighting, inadvertent flash on foreground. Camera does whatever Camera wants to these days, lo.

Overhead ceiling light, mid-day

Overhead ceiling light, mid-day

South window, not-quite-dusk, ambient light from iMac flatscreen

Making Up an October Pie . . .

Granny Grape Pie—Granny Smith sour apples, Rose's Lime Juice and grape jam combined with graphic pastry for my latest made-up pie. I've read lots of pie recipes and seen a lot of pies, lol, and I'm in the process of trying to create "undiscovered" ones. Instead of using sugar to sweeten the pie apples, I used grape jam. And to keep the apples from discoloring while I was coring and peeling them, I doused them with the commercial cocktail lime juice.  A healthy amount of freshly grated nutmeg and rainbow peppercorns add just the right amount of spice to the sweet-and-sour. Now that I've perfected the classic latticework top I'm starting to paint with pastry, lol.

Pssst, Singalong! "Happy Birthday to You..."

One of my original readers, TampaGranny, is celebrating her birthday today! Let's all gather 'round and sing "Happy Birthday" to her. Thank you so much, Granny, for all of your comments and support these paste [almost] three years! I hope you have a great day!

Above, a dark pink dahlia blooming in my cutting garden.

Heavenly Blue morning glories are almost twice as large as other varieties of glories, and I just love their color. They are very prolific, too, in both vine length and number of blooms. These photos are from a few days ago, the last time we had full sunshine!

Trying to escape from the cutting garden, these orange dahlias really caught my eye the other day.

 

The Victorian cast-iron planters in front of Pink Gardens are blooming profusely this year, with sweet potato vine, Vinca, geraniums, Joe-Pye, mini Dahlias, and these multi-colored morning glories. These dark blue and pink glories remind me of those Hubble photos of galaxies "floating around" in space.

 

A longer view of the blue morning glories. They're on three sides of my vegetable garden. I spent all summer weaving the vines in and out of the fencing, not letting them grow "upwards" until the very end of the summer. If you let them grow vertically too soon, they run out of things to climb on and then just weave themselves around each other. They're still pretty, but you don't get as much of a "bang for your buck" in just one big jumble. These vines are now almost twenty feet wide in every direction. Once they had cleared three sides of the fence, I let them do their thing naturally, growing upwards, and then they just took off. Now I enjoy hundreds of new blooms every day. I hope we have a very late frost this year!

Busy Days!

The past few weeks have been BUSY for me at home. The weather was changing, I had old friends coming to visit, a friend gave me two really nice bookcases, and it had been quite a while since I had rearranged my collections. I have so many collectibles, that it's hard to clean and dust, and I generally do that every few months when I move things around. I'll set up a folding table, and take everything off of one shelf at a time. I'll dust them and them place them back in a new arrangement, or I'll pack them up and bring something "new" down from the attic. Above, a rare Hitchcock wooden chair that commemorates the Henry Whitfield House in Guilford, my hometown. The Whitfield house is the oldest stone house in New England, dating to 1639, and has been a museum for almost 100 years. There is a painting of the house on the top of the back of the chair,  with the name painted on the reverse side. Also in attendance are vintage dolls; the Cabbage Patch doll dates to the early 1980s and the bisque doll to the 1920s. This is the upstairs foyer.

Seen here are baby clothes hangers and baby shoes dating to the 1920s. On the wall is a photo of my mother fro 1938 as a nursing student, and on my new bookcase, lower left, is a photo of my dad, also from 1938, the year he entered the Navy.

Two views of a small two-shelf table in the foyer. I've painted it in these vintage bright colors to show off the ornate design of the spindles. All sorts of collectibles may be seen above, ranging from a 1960s Avon cologne decanter in the shape of a 2-seater Thunderbird (in the box, and still full of the cologne), to frilly 1950s floral ceramics, and of course, scale model cars...

In this view, a primitive wooden bookcase, dating to the late 1800s, may be seen at the right. I really haven't met a piece of ceramic or glass I don't like!

The TV screen and a livingroom window reflected in the shiny original finish of my 1955 Grundig Majestic Major console radio/record player. The blond-to-ebony graduated finish is still mirror smooth and glossy after almost sixty years. You've got to love the very Cadillac-like V-and-Crest of the Grundig!

A new arrangement in the kitchen features vases and kitchen implements including a ravioli maker from the 1950s, still in its original box, bamboo napkin rings from the 1950s and pewter candlesticks from the turn-of-the-20th century.

Matchbox-sized plastic model cars, above. These were produced by Jo-Han in the early 1970s. Seen above are a Gremlin, Vega, Continental Mark III and a Maverick, all cars that are relatively rarely made in scale models. I had to build them from kits when I was a teenager. Also seen is a small wooden cabinet dating to about 1850, meant for a "chamber pot" and has rails on the sides for towels. I've restored the beautiful walnut finish and created that impressionistic painting for the front of it.

Hanging on a wall for the first time in more than a decade is a vintage oval frame with an arrangement of dried flowers in it. The glass is convex and the frame is a beautiful grained wood with the grain radiating out around the edges as if from the center of the glass. Hoohoo created the flower arrangement in the 1960s. I'd like to open it up and center it again, but she closed up the back so methodically that I don't want to touch it. It's a snapshot in time, and really, what hasn't drooped or sagged in the past 50 years, lol? The large art piece is of my grandmother and a friend of hers getting ready for a swim, based on a photo from 1920 or so.

My grandmother spent the winter of 1962 in Florida and these very fragile sand dollars date to that time. I'm pretty amazed I've been able to keep them intact all of these years. Johnny Lightning matchbox-sized muscle cars include, from left, a '72 Firebird, '71 Challenger, '70 Torino GT and the pink '70 Barracuda 'Cuda at the far right. The bright lime green "King Cuda" convertible is a Hot Wheels model. A few of the books I've designed are at the bottom.

An IKEA bookcase in my kitchen, a gift from my friend Nancy several years ago. What can you see here? Or maybe it would be easier to ask what you don't see, lol. Items date from the mid 1800s to the present day. I mix and match!

Colors, colors, colors! The "Game of India" board game dates to the mid 1920s, and is basically Parchesi I believe. The blue glass vase is a 1940s item, and the painting at the right dates to the late 1800s. The bronze Model T is a coin bank giveaway from the Guilford Savings Bank in the 1960s, and the little ceramic fairy vase is just cute. Little cars include a '57 Chrysler 300 coupe, a late model Mercedes SL600 roadster, a late '50s Citroen DS in gray primer and a red-and-white '59 DeSoto 4-door hardtop. The pink glass vase at the left has flowers painted on it by Hoohoo in the 1930s. The brass candelabra is one of two Hoohoo gave me for my 6th birthday, already a little piano player. It was her hope I'd become Liberace II, lol!

B O N U S   P H O T O :

A small arrangement of dahlias keeps company with Shirley Temple, Joe DiMaggio, Jackie Robinson and the program to Gone With the Wind, 1939.