Down the Garden Path

My garden is looking amazing, though if the 90 degree weather keeps up  it won't for long.  The first of the Gladiolas have bloomed, a soft salmon color.





Day Lilies and regular lilies are also blooming. I have 2 different Day Lilies, an orange and brown type  and a soft  orange orange .  The regular lilies are red.

The Hydrangeas are all turning a lovely blue which means our soil is acid.

The Gerbera Daisies look like sunset, I've never had any this color before.

The Lantana is usually grown as a bush, but I'm growing one of mine as a tree.  Lantana is another of those plants that after I had bought some I discovered that they grow wild here and you just dig them up and move them to your garden.

I lost 2 of my Hibiscus this last winter  but have replaced one of them, they're not particularly cold hardy but nothing else bothers them.

I've Been Working

I've been working, well not really, I don't do that any more, but I have been working on a new desk for me.
I actually wanted a vintage one, but our local antique shop had nothing resembling one and I knew the stores in Savannah would want an arm, a leg and our first born child ---and we only have one--- for any kind of desk.  So I searched online and decided that even if I found one shipping would kill me so I broke down and got one, and a chair, from Walmart.  They didn't have any white ones, which is what I really wanted so I knew I'd have to paint it.
Mac kindly put it together for me and I started painting it, I realized I probably should have sanded it before painting but it was too late for that.  It ended up taking 3 coats.  So before I painted the chair I sanded it and guess what, it took 3 coats too!
The chair had an ugly brown cover on the seat so I recovered that and made a little pillow for my back.
This is what I have been using to sew on and scrapbook on and do everything on---not the most attractive or stable workspace.  Now I need to clean up my area and get to work.

I presently working of a project for Mac for Father's Day, I got him the new treadmill he was needing, but I want to make him something sweet too, hope he likes it.

Older Then Dirt

As if I didn't already feel older then dirt, 15 minutes older than God, a friend sent me a link to a site where I could find out how old I was in days.  It turns old that I am 23, 245 days old, that's 3320 weeks and some odd days.  Now I am depressed!

Confession

I have an absolutely horrible confession to make.  When I was watching the finale of Lost last night we had a really bad thunder storm and it know knocked our satellite out, I was horrified, I was sick, I, I, I called my daughter long distance in Maryland and made her do a play by play until the storm passed and I had the show back on again.
How embarrassing!  I'm not a big t.v. watcher, but Lost is one of the few shows that  I watch on a regular basis.  It wasn't great television, and as a matter of fact I hated the two main characters Jack and Kate, although Jack redeemed himself this season.
I didn't particularly like the ending, having them all be dead was a cop-out, I didn't feel like they really tied the the island and the side-ways story together.  I did like the final scene with Jack where he had begun, on the beach with the dog licking his face.
But I'm still embarrassed I called my daughter.

Faeries

I've always had a fascination with faeries, loved reading stories about them, loved drawings and paintings of them, and absolutely loved the movie Fairy Tale about the Cottingley Fairies-----saw one of the girl's daughter and grandaughter on the Antique Road Show with the fairy pictures and the camera they took them with. 

Most of my life I have never done anything in the way of drawing or painting.

 But a few years ago, inspired by Cicely Mary Barker's beautiful faery pictures I decided to see if I could draw them too.

I used colored pencil and made many copies.  I was thrilled, I could draw.

Following 

up on my interest in faeries a couple of years ago my daughter April gave me a faery house which I put in the garden.  This year I've planted Impatiens in front of it and

 Mac and Miss Kitty gave me a little bear on a swing for Mother's Day and we hung it in the tree behind the house.

Hope someone nice moves in....no alligators need apply.

Garden Musings

Outside of planting a big red Geranium in a pot for the deck by the pool and putting some Sunflowers in another I haven't done much  in the garden lately.  For some reason May has decided that it wants to be July and it has been very hot and humid.  We were supposed to go down the coast to Shellman's Bluff this week, but decided to wait for a break in the weather.  And my poison ivy just won't go away.  I keep coating myself with the ointment the Doctor prescribed and taking my antihistamine and the poison ivy keeps spreading.  The worse patch has dried up but it left behind lots of stepchildren on both legs, and now my husband has a patch and he's never had poison ivy either.  So I've been staying indoors a bit to avoid heat and evil plants.

Anyway, my garden blooms on without me.  The Gardenias are heading into full bloom, just ask my runny nose and eyes, 

and the Mimosa tree is in full flower.  I really like Mimosas even though they're very invasive and I have to pull a ton of them up each year.

Shadow Box

The Victorian Trading Company is always sending me catalogs, and I drool over them and then throw them away.  Recently I saw a shadow box in one of their catalogs and decided I'd make my own.  They only wanted $19.95 for theirs, and I probably spent more than that to make mine.  But I enjoyed making it instead of buying it.  Mac is finding me a butterfly to put on it and I need to add a ribbon, but I'm rather pleased.

In the Catbird Seat

To be in the catbird seat is to be in charge, well that's definitely Miss Kitty.  She's had a window perch in the computer room for a couple of years.  But the view is less than thrilling, it overlooks the two air conditioning units, which are usually good for a couple of lounging lizards but not much else.  Mac added a bird feeder but the squirrels took it over and after the first thrill of something furry outside her window she has decided that she doesn't really like the squirrels.  Another problem with this perch is that in the summer it gets a lot of sun and she melts there.

So a couple of weeks ago Mac put another feeder up outside the family room window.  At first he put it low, but the birds were less than appreciative of the cat staring at them, singing in her less than melodic way, while they tried to eat, so they stopped using it.  He had to move it up a bit and that seemed to make all involved happier.

So this has become Kitty's favorite location.  Only problem was that she was wider than the window sill.  Yesterday Mac made her a new perch and I made a cover for it.  She was a little doubtful at first, but we convinced her that the green complimented her eyes, so all is well. 

Fingers Intact, Pillows Made

Though I sewed through my left index finger the first day I sewed, I knew it'd been a while since I'd used my sewing machine, I've gotten a load of pillows done.  Most went into the gold bedroom which needs to be painted desperately and I hate to paint in the summer, particularly upstairs.  But that's the room our daughter uses when she visits and she's coming in July for her birthday so I may have to overcome my reluctance.  

The other pillows are on the couch in the livingroom, but I hate the couch cover and it needs to be replaced, I'm thinking a white slipcover.

The next pillows are for the white bedroom but I need some cording before I can go on.  I've also finished 2 table covers and a curtain topper for the laundry room.  So far I'm really pleased with the material I got from fabric.com, I'll definitely order from them again.

Are You Looking For Me?

Here I was thinking that I was 10 years older than dirt, but it's my next door neighbor's house the Turkey Vultures  are roosting on.

They're also known as Turkey Buzzards.  They come every Spring and generally leave in the Fall heading North to breed.  Unattatched males frequently stay behind, making a mess as single males often do.

Great wing span, they warm themselves up then spend the day riding the thermals and picking up road kill, great sanitation workers.

I love watching them sun themselves when it's not my roof they're using.

Love in the fast Lane or "Don't box me in."

We have several pairs of Eastern Box turtles around and near the house, they sometimes nest in the yard, but I have not seen them this year yet. There is a street in the sub division that they seem to like, for we have seen them there on many occasions, not all good. Some have been injured or killed by cars. So you can imagine our frame of mind when we saw two box turtles ambling across the road on this same street. The larger turtle I'm sure was the female and the smaller one, following closely with a gleam in his eye, had to be the male. They were in the middle of the road and not going across, but right down the middle, I knew the male wasn't thinking, but the lady should of had better sense. So we picked them up and completed our walk, and brought them home, always room for two more turtles. I put them down in the backyard, and discretely backed off, so as to not cramp his style. They kept their heads in for a while, and then the female stuck her head out and headed for the bushes. The male shot his head out looked around and took off, not toward the female, but straight into the lagoon, and did not stop swimming until he reached the other side! So much for love in the fast lane!