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.

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. 

Photopourri: Happy Birthday To Me

Just in time for my 55th birthday, this Japanese Iris bloomed today. I've counted about 55 buds, so I'm thinking of them as my birthday flower this year. My bearded Iris were very few this year, but it seems I can look forward to a bumper year of the Japanese variety.

This mahogany hybrid bearded Iris has taken to supporting itself against one of Pink Gardens' brick chimneys. Such a beautiful variety of Iris, with so many subtle color changes when you see them in person. This was a rainy day, hence the glistening raindrops.

A "plain" variety of bearded Iris, a beautiful solid gold color, next to a Siberian Iris. The bearded Iris flower first, followed by the Siberians and Japanese Irises.

This pale lavender hybrid bearded Iris is next to the vegetable garden, and it was the same rainy day as above. I've also planted Tiger lilies, Hostas, Day lilies, Thistles, Agastaches, Goldenrods, Ferns and Sedums. Morning glories will be flowering by late August or September.

Some of my Siberian Iris in the garden next to my porch. I have several clumps of these perennials all around the yard.

In the condos near Pink Gardens, these Daisies are profusely blooming right now. I love their simple beauty. They always remind me of an oilcloth tablecloth my mother used on the kitchen table when I was a kid.

My Foxgloves are so hearty this year! I have about seven flower stalks, and they're more than an inch wide at the bottom. They're almost 5-feet tall already, even though they're not even fully in bloom yet! Above, the buds on a flowerstalk a few days ago.

My Foxgloves as of today. They're opening from the bottom up and are just about 5 feet tall. Taller than my late mother was (and she would have loved these)!

 

I went to Guilford the other day to buy my dahlias for the season—just the next town over from Madison. I'll do a separate post on my dahlias soon, I bought ten plants this year, but this "classic" view of Guilford caught my attention. This is Guilford's stone gothic Episcopal Church's tower, visible behind the roof of the town's savings bank, itself housed in an 18th century Colonial home. Guilford, Connecticut, my home town, is one of the prettiest New England towns there is. And with its strict historic district, will remain so for decades to come.

Just on the edge of Pink Gardens' property, where our little private road starts, is this fantastic Tulip Poplar tree. There was one of these on my Aunt Hoohoo's property in Leete's Island, and it was her favorite tree. I'm so thrilled to have one so close to me today. I walk past it every day and I can't help but smile thinking of all the times in my childhood she'd lead me to the back of her property, a few acres away from the main house, and show me these yellow and orange flowers, high up on the branches of an ancient sky-high tree, shaped just like Tulips. It was just one of the millions of creative things she did with me, always pointing out the "special" things wherever we were. She could find 'em and I like to think I have that trait today.

A longer view of the Tulip Poplar tree. This one is about half the size of the one I remember at Hoohoo's, so I guess it has a long, long life ahead of it. It really is something to see a tree with flowers all over its canopy that for all the world, look like Tulips.

A baby Robin in its nest on Pink Gardens' property. I didn't notice them as I started pulling some vines down, but one of the neighbors soon told me where they were.

The black-capped night Heron has come back for a second year. It sits in the trees that border the brook/swamp in the backyard, waiting for the perfect dinner. It looks like Grandpa Munster to me! It has red eyes and a long white feather that curls around its head.

One little Canada Goose gosling accompanying its parents for lunch. This was taken in Madison next to Tuxis Pond in the center of town.

Yes, Zsa Zsa has returned. We haven't started sitting outside at happy hour yet, so she hasn't come within "hand" distance yet, but I'm sure she will. There are a few more smaller rabbits this year with her oh-so-casual personality, so I think they must be hers. She almost eats out of our hands.

B T W :
 This site has a list of "celebrities" born on May 27. Quite the motley crew if I do say so myself. I think I'd be scared to invite them all to one dinner, if that was possible, lol.

Photopourri: Temps Ain't All That's Rising

All Rise! Powder Biscuits, Palm Shadows, Planted Pansies

Biscuits Rising—I did some baking this weekend, freeformed baking powder buttermilk biscuits. I've been working on my biscuit process for a few months, and this batch came out really well—very light and fluffy. Besides the usual ingredients—butter, flour, buttermilk, baking powder and soda and a bit of salt—I added freshly ground dill seeds, rosemary leaves, and cayenne pepper. I was going to use these biscuits with baked fish filets, so I topped them with Old Bay, a longtime New England seafood seasoning. Note the term "freeformed." Most biscuit recipes call for all of the biscuits to be made from the "first rolled" dough, saying that any scraps from the circular cuts be, well, scrapped, instead of reformed into biscuits. Apparently they don't rise as much once they're rolled out a second time. I hate to waste anything, so I don't cut them into rounds at all. I just cut them into vague squares and then whatever shapes the outside edges are. They all taste great, and the added unique shapes always seem to look as great on a plate as perfectly symmetrical biscuits. To me, anyway!

Shadows Rising—Enjoying a few hours of sun outside on my porch, my potted palm is getting used to the stronger spring sunlight. This palm seems to have done better this winter inside than it did last summer outside, so I'm not sure it's going to "live" outside this summer at all. I think from now on I may just put it out a few hours a day.

Spring Flowers Rising—Pansies have made their spring appearance in front of our Post Office for 2012. This little square seems to be seasonally planted with spring pansies, summer impatiens and autumn chrysanthemums and pumpkins. There's a nice large clock on this corner, so if you look up you can tell what time it is, and if you look down you can tell what season it is, lol.

Rust, Roses, Rice Crispies & Relatives

Polaroid SX70 photograph of my 1964 Thunderbird, just before it was restored in 1980. Rust had ravaged the lower bodysides, with the exception of the removable fender skirts. They were never taken off the car, but were most likely made from aluminum which doesn't rust. If they were steel, like the body, they would have rusted out also. The 'Bird was in the shop for about six months and came back looking brand new. The color was called Diamond Blue—almost white. The interior was a medium blue pleated vinyl that shone in the sun.

This is an almost ten year old photograph, back in the film days and cheap processing at the local drug store. The flash bulbs were very "hot" and the fast processing always produced really oversaturated colors and deep shadows. Although I miss the medium of film, for historical purposes especially, I find I have much more control of my images with digital cameras now. I suppose if I had ever learned how to develop my own film, I would have enjoyed that more, but once a photo is developed, there's not much you can do to it to "fix" it.

A real Ford Family—My aunt Hoohoo in the family's 1952 Ford F-100 pickup, and one of their Ford sedans in the background,a plain-Jane '52 Mainline. If you could have seen more of the driveway, there would also have been a beat up '51 Country Squire wagon, a '36 Ford Phaeton slowly turning back into the soil, and her gorgeous '58 Thunderbird. This truck was bought in the late '50s from a local guy nicknamed The Rebel. He owned a body shop in town and that's a custom gold and white paint job. Notice the "wide whites" and full chrome wheel covers, a pretty flashy touch for a Fifties pickup.

Another shot of my great uncle Art's store, this time in color. I'm surprised at the number of items that are still being sold today. Of course the boxes and logos are different now, but the brand names remain. Art was pretty "modern" having a large TV in his little store! Even though the store was about 10 steps from the house, it had an intercom system so Art could communicate to the people in the house without leaving the store. I thought that was neat. You just pushed a button and spoke into what looked like a radio and someone in the house would answer. I have audiotapes of "little me" talking to my grandmother through the intercom—they're reel-to-reel tapes!

 

The Sanborn family, circa 1930, Leete's Island, CT. Five year old Hoohoo on the left, twelve year old Veronica, my mother, in the back and my grandmother and grandfather. I think I may have posted this image before, but I found a better print of it this weekend and rescanned it.

Photopourri—Art, Playbill, Dust, and More, lol

Waiting for Time

My latest pieces hanging out waiting for me to find time to finish them. One of my recently refurbished "Not Wrapped Too Tightly" footstools keeps them company.

No Dull Days

Novelty postcard from his area of town, Leete's Island (Leete Island on the card), dated October 1917, was sent to my grandfather by his cousin. My grandfather was at an Army training camp getting ready to leave for France to fight in the first World War. Ink initials on the girls' skirts and a scribbled name on the man's socks, probably were an inside joke between the cousins.

Barn Finds?

1949 Mercury and 1940 Ford coupe sitting around reminiscing about the good old days! Cobwebs enjoy their current days in the sun.

On Broadway in 1977

Almost 35 years ago, I saw The King and I on Broadway with my parents. My mother always loved Yul Brynner, and this musical, and it was a dream come true for her to see him perform in it live on the Great White Way.

Same Day Service, ca 1920!

An envelope containing some of my grandmother's negatives show just how "modern" the early 20th century was. Before the current digital age, "same day" service was still being touted at Photomats, CVSs and other photographic developing centers. For a sampling of her photographic portraits that were developed from negatives most likely processed by this pharmacy, click here.