GARDEN GROWTH

Happy Monday! Are you enjoying the Olympics? I LOVE them and enjoy watching almost all of the sports. I especially have loved the men and women's volleyball.  I'm looking forward to the diving, especially the synchronized diving.  

I thought I would do a little "time lapsed photography" today and show the garden from the same spot (when  I could find a picture taken from the same spot) throughout the spring/summer.  The first picture is from February. 

Here's March...

In March we planted grass seed and edged the gardens. 

April

The Bearded Iris were pretty in April, but I need to update my collection. The ones I have are over 20 years old. There are so much prettier ones out there now.

 Late April the pretty blue Salvia blooms.  I think it's called Blue Moon.

 May

 The impatience are starting to decline :(

 June

I've replaced the impatience with my begonias that were in pots.

 I don't know about that tall lilly. The flower is so pretty, but I really don't need something that tall! I wish it was about the size of the Stargazer lilly.

July

July has been a bit of a disappointment.  After losing all of the impatience, I'm not at all happy with the begonias that I replaced them with.  They are not producing the flowers that they usually do when I have them in pots.  But I must say, the caladiums are all you could ask for!  A real bright spot in the garden, and they do well in the heat and drought.  

I don't know what I'm going to do if I can't grow impatience! Every time I look at the garden now I think about how much color there would be if they were still in the garden.  I have not talked to anyone that has had the same problems with their impatience that I had.  I'm wondering if the watering for the new grass seed we planted in the early spring  was too much for them.  

I hope you are having a wonderful Monday.  Thanks for stopping by!

OUTDOOR WEDNESDAY

How has your day been?  Work is crazy, but I'm loving it! I got new lights for my saltwater aquarium and it makes everything beautiful! They suffered a lot this summer because of renovations at the school. The construction crew had all the air off and we were hitting  temperatures of 106! I lost ALL  of the corals and at least 5 fish.  I'm so happy to be back, and am happy to report that they have turned the air back on. Now I can really baby them, get the water parameters just right, and start replacing the animals we lost.  I've been floating ice bags in the water to bring the temperature down.  It's worked beautifully! I'm so exhausted when I get home that all I do is sit in my lazyboy and watch tv.  Then I do everything in my power to stay up until 9:00 -  haven't made it yet, maybe tonight will be the night!

The first photo is of a plant in the south called Hearts a Bustin'.  In fall the little green balls will open to expose bright orange seeds surrounded by pink.  They are really cool.  They grow in the shade.  My Stargazer Lillies were very pretty this year. Usually the deer get them, but this year I used a deer spray and NOTHING was eaten in my garden! I can't wait to plant tulips!

I hope you are having a wonderful Wednesday. I'm participating in Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer, hope you'll pop over to see the other participants.  Thanks for stopping by!

MOSAIC MONDAY

Just a quick pop in.  I'm pooped!  They remodeled my school and today was my first day back.  At the end of last school year we had to box EVERYTHING up.  What a chore.  But it's even worse to have to come back and undo it all!  Our desks were here and there.  Boxes everywhere.   Dust everywhere!  We're hoping to have our computers hooked up tomorrow.  Yeah!

I'm sharing a mosaic from today in the garden.  It's thundering out there now so I ran out and got a picture of the sky and a few plants.  Not much going on in my garden now.  I'm already thinking of Spring, 2013!

My feet hurt, my back hurts, my legs hurt and my tennis elbow hurts! Geez, I'm old!  Thanks for stopping by. I'm participating in Mosaic Monday at Little Red House.

GOING, GOING, GONE

That's it, the end of my summer.  Monday I return to work. .  My bff  and I went to Lake Wedowee for the night. She and her husband have a humongous camper that is permanently set up at the lake.   I think my most favorite thing in the world to do is swim in the lake. The lake pictures are from this morning when it was cloudy and misty. They look black and white, but aren't.  It's very isolated, you feel totally alone. The pictures are of the area we swim in.  It's very deep - 30-60 feet. I have the uncanny ability to tread water for hours and hours.  I never use a float or noodle (though I'm respectful of the danger of water and always have one nearby). When your head is at lake level you really feel primordal almost.  Looking out across the lake, your feet dangling in the deep green water.  I can't help but think about every B horror movie that happens at a lake.  It's always some pristine, beautiful, perfect spot. And then pirranas attack, or some unknown-till-now dinosaur fish, or 90 ft alligator, or...well, you know.  

We grilled filet mignon on the Cowboy Grill (that's what we call it, her husband made it. He is a cowboy deep inside:)). We also grilled some vidalia onions, yum!  She had dug up some potatoes and picked some corn from her garden and we had them, too.  What a meal.  There was a scupernong (or maybe a muscadine) vine growing that actually had some fruit on it.  I've never seen fruited vine because the fruit is usually at the top of a tree. I thought that was cool.  After dinner I stitched on a crazy quilt square while she scrapbooked, and of course we talked...and talked...and talked... 

They built a wonderful screened in porch.  But what I love is the screen door.  Don't you remember that sound from your youth? The squeak and slam of the screen door is a wonderful memory for me. 

SUMMERTIME

Sweet summer-time.  When it gets hot and sticky, I always start reminiscing about "back then"...

 The HUGE industrial fan left over from a building site that Daddy brought home and installed in our attic (which is where my bedroom was). When we turned the fan on my little white curtains stood straight out and I would lay across my bed and relish the breeze. Listening to the AM radio at night as I lay in bed (I Wanna Hold Your Hand). We swam daily at John A. White swimming pool, I remember a boy dancing down the length of the high-dive to "Satisfaction". I thought he was so cool (he died of a drug-overdose, so sad).  Popping tar bubbles with my toes. Meeting the neighborhood kids under the street lamp after dark. Catching fireflies. Stepping on snails (uhey-gooeys we called them) and having to use fingernail polish remover to get the gunk off. Drinking our Friday night Coca-Cola from the cold bottle (hearing the swoosh when you popped the little clamped lid off, and checking the bottom of the bottle to see whose bottle was processed the farthest away, since we lived in Atlanta, the birthplace of Coke, it was a big deal to have a bottle from another bottling plant). No air conditioning back then, so the sounds of summer were the crickets and cicadas.  We'd sit on the screened in front porch and churn ice cream....oh, yum!  Just plain ol' vanilla that  I'd add chocolate syrup to. We'd camp in late August at Myrtle Beach, SC. Oh the fun we had! When we returned home it was time to think about school again.  School began after Labor Day.  My grandmother always bought me new dresses.  I remember the excitement of going into her bedroom and seeing a big white box on her bed. She'd lift the lid and there were the prettiest dresses, all separated by the thinnest tissue paper. Then we'd get our paper and notebooks and pencils and fountain pens.  Why did we ever move away from fountain pens?  They were so fun to write with, and I swear my penmanship was so much neater!

Such lovely memories. I hope you are having some of your own summer memories.  Thanks for stopping by!

A SECRET PLACE

 There is a secret place I know of.  Perfect for a picnic. Shady, quiet, deep and dark.  You  pass this little lake on the way. It eventually feeds into the big lake where my little spot is located.

 See, it's waiting for someone to come and enjoy it's serene beauty.

 Look how pretty the reflections look.

 Interesting roots to ponder.

 So pretty and quiet.

Dappled sunlight. Just right for a nap.

 Oh! Isn't he sweet, waiting there for me.  My Dad.  I asked him to stop on our little excursion so I could take these pictures.  

I hope you've enjoyed seeing my little secret place.  It's a beautiful place to spend a quiet hour or two on a hot summer day. Thanks for stopping by!

MY CRAZY QUILT PROGRESS

I have another crazy quilt square to share.  I think this is one of my favorites.  Unfortunately, I just can't get a very good picture of these. 

I completed this square during the time DH and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and took a train from Atlanta to New Orleans.  I found a little train button to commemorate the trip.  

 A pretty piece of trim decorated with straight stitch and beads.

I was very happy with all of the stitching and beads and buttons on this piece.

 I love this piece of lace.  

 I like scrunching a ribbon and sprinkling beads 

 

It's gardening and swimming and tennis time now, not much stitching going on. But I do drag it all out and do a bit before my attention gets called away again.  Hopefully I'll get this done this winter.  I think I still have one that is at the bead and button stage, and one that hasn't had anything done.

No rain and the temps are close to 100. I've had the joyful access to a private swimming pool for the last ten days, but it all came to an end yesterday. I'm really going to miss that relaxing time in the pool! I hope you are having a great Monday.  Thanks for stopping by!

IN THE GARDEN

We actually had a little rain last night! I woke up to thunder and pitter-patter...how exciting!  It's hot and muggy but the garden seems to be thriving.  I need more lillies.  They do so well in my shady garden.
Day lillies not so much. They don't bloom as heavily, the yellows do seem to do a little better.  I really love the white Caladium with the pink veins.  I bought 3, and two are huge and beautiful. The other one stayed small, almost stunted looking.  I dug it up and put it in a pot so I could place it somewhere with more sun and it is doing a lot better.  Crazy how you can have so many different micro climates and soil compositions in one little garden!

 I hope you are having a great Saturday! Thanks for stopping by.