Day Two Hundred Ninety Nine 2013

I was thinking how out of place these blue and purple and pink hydrangea blooms looked in late October, the month of orange and red and yellow. I couldn’t believe they were still blooming at all. I wish I had cut the blooms and brought them into the house to enjoy.

Because this is what they looked like the next day after our first hard freeze of the season. How sad is that? I guess the only great thing about a hard freeze is that all the mosquitoes are officially dead and gone. Until next year, hydrangeas. [And skeeters]

Day Two Hundred Forty One 2013

My accidental pumpkin patch. I didn’t throw out any old pumpkins this year, so I don’t know where this vine is coming from. It made its appearance a little too late in the year to be sprouting anything good, so I’ll keep my expectations low and maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised by October.

Day One Hundred Thirty Three 2013

Keep your face always toward the sunshine - and shadows will fall behind you.
~Walt Whitman

Day One Hundred Seven 2013

Faith is a knowledge within the heart, beyond the reach of proof.
~Khalil Gibran

Day Three Hundred Thirty Four 2012

While raking leaves today, I uncovered this very confused grape hyacinth blooming in the dirt. Another one was sprouting close by it. What’s up with that?

Day Two Hundred Thirty Three 2012

I’m so excited (and apparently it doesn’t take much to excite me). The pumpkin vine growing wild just off my deck in the back yard has been blooming for weeks, and now it has produced one little pumpkin. I toss out withered pumpkins in this spot every year, and sometimes the seeds sprout and grow, but rarely do they produce any fruit. So I’m excited and hopeful that it will grow up before the birds or bugs discover it. Maybe I’ll have a homegrown jack o’ lantern this Halloween.

Day Two Hundred Nineteen 2012

"There shall be eternal summer in the grateful heart."
~Celia Thaxter

Day One Hundred Seventy Two 2012

"Summer is a promissory note signed in June,
its long days spent and gone before you know it,
and due to be repaid next January."
- Hal Borland

Day Twenty One 2012

We've had such a mild winter so far here in middle Tennessee (and winter is only 4 weeks old) that the hyacinths and buttercups are sprouting everywhere in our yard. I say this is a case of Mother Nature fooling Mother Nature. I want to shout at them to go back inside; it's not your time yet. I'm afraid they'll all be goners if we ever get back down to subfreezing temps again in the weeks to come. I would miss their colors come spring time.

 "In a way Winter is the real Spring - the time when the inner things happen, the resurgence of nature."
- Edna O'Brien 

Day One Hundred Fifteen 2011

My Easter Lily bloomed today. This was a gift to us from grand daughter Shelby's 4th grade class for hosting their Easter egg hunt last week. It has four fat buds, and two of them popped wide open this morning. So beautiful. Made my Monday.

Day One Hundred Thirteen 2011

A time to plant. Neil and I were planting fools all day today. I haven't potted flowers in a couple of years. Forgot that it's hard work, but kind of fun, too. Neil planted all sorts of things--hostas and ferns and some flowers all around the yard. He even moved a huge flowering bush from one end of the yard to the other to fill in the hole where a dead cypress tree once stood. Needless to say, we are pooped! It's always worth the effort, though.

Wishing Christians everywhere a very happy Easter!

Day Sixty Seven 2011

I like the fancy curls on our Pampas grass. It's starting to get all fluffy again since spring is around the corner.