Cone Flowers

My very favorite Garden Flower, all shapes sizes and colors and the butterfly's love them. Additionally the Deer do not love them, a win win in my book.

Summer Fun

Breakfast in teh garden

swinging on a hot summer afternoon or clear starry night

Summer afternoon - two of the best words in the English language

 Family of Yellow shafted Northren Flickers in the tree hole

Broad bean Harvester- 6 of them rolling by

new Adirondack chairs for by the pond and painted  green!

Edna taking it all in before she takes a nap.

In the Garden February 2016

It appears that it is yet another Gray day here in Western New York.  THe days the sun actually shines and shows itself are few and far between.  Never the less nature and we people carry onward. This week we had some very mild days of 50/60 degrees F and now we are back to freezing temps and ice on the pond and in the bird bathes. They say next week that winter will return with sub zero wind chills and lake affect snow . . . . all this spring like weather has just been a tease.

Weekend Best Shots . . .

This was a beautiful fall weather weekend . . . warm sunny days with beautiful cerulean skies.  The Trees here in Western NY are just starting to change colors in some of the hills and valleys.   We did a lot of around the house work most of the weekend.  The boys participated in Xylems I Solved Water Program and won first place for Water Quality which came with a 1000K prize for the Robotic team.  I  made a road trip to nearby Fingerlakes town for a Grape Sundae and Crumb Top Grape pie as requested by the family.  Some Spring Bulb planting and moving perennials around- adding a few things by our new Pond but mostly planting that will wait for the spring time.  Spinach salad, Kale chips, Roasted veggies, fresh green salad and a few last fresh green beans.  So much yumminess this time of year.  Today is another drop dead gorgeous day but most of my work is inside- having a hard time with that.

Natures Art

NATURE is what we see, 

The Hill, the Afternoon-

Squirrel, Eclipse, the Bumble-bee,

Nay-Nature is Heaven.

Nature is what we hear,

The Bobolink, the Sea-

Thunder, the Cricket-

Nay- Nature is Harmony.

Nature is what we know

But have no art to say,

So impotent our wisdom is

To Her simplicity.

_ Emily Dickienson

This is what I saw on an early morning run this past week- captured with my phone so- not great quality but none the less a great masterpiece of Nature.  There is no substitute for time spent in nature -  it anchors us in this world full of rushing and electronics.  It calms us in a way that nothing else can. I just love being outside, in the yard, the garden, the woods! 

Art in the Garden

The garden, historically is the place where 

all the senses are exported.  Not just the

 eye, but the ear - with water, with birds.  

And there is texture, too, in plants you

 long to touch

William Howard Adams

Several years back I painted this canvas to put in the Garden.  I sprayed it with a UV resistant spray to protect it from the elements and I must say it has done very well. It has endured buckets of rain, sunny hot days.   It adds color to the garden on dark days or in between flowering plants.  This year I added the piece of metal the my son was practicing on welding. It is a pretty cool looking piece of Art I think.

 

Tiny Gardens . . ..

Growth takes time. Be patient. and while your waiting pull a weed.

Emilie Barnes

This cement trough my mom gave me a while back- we plant it up each year- somethings surving our rough winters and some do not.  Each year it has new Character, a new path and perhaps a new story.   This year it has several Turtles visiting it. See if you can find them both!

Change . . . is in the air . . . .

Oh how I can feel all the big and more importantly little changes that are lurking out there.  Fall is I am afraid creeping up on us.  Everything always changes with August 1  . . . . These long light shadows are at 6 pm . . . The Cricket song that has taken over for early morning birdsong, the birds that have already left on their long trip  to the south.  Joe Pye Weed and Jewel weed are in their Glory.  The wild parsnip and Queen Annes Lace is fading on the roadsides.  The gardens are filled with Black-eyed Susans and Tomatoes are starting to grace the dinner table. Everything outside  is starting to soak up the sun, to feed upon the earth to prepare the beds and nests for the long winters rest.  Spring and Summer oh they are a fleeting.  Nature brings such joy and color and sound,  it pushes us to explore with all our senses and teaches us about the cycle of life.  The Golden Rod and Nettle lift their flowers to bloom and tower over us.  it is as if all the outside world is getting ready for a great trip.  So don't miss these changes, enjoy and take pleasure in each and everyone of them.  Get outside and soak up the sun, the wind, the sounds that fill the air and all the big and small beauty there is to behold. 

Space in the garden . . .

To garden, you open your personal space

to admit a few, a great many, or thousands 

of plants which exude charm, pleasure,

 beauty, oxygen, conversation, friendship,

confidence, and other rewards should you

 succeed in meeting their basic needs.  This 

is why people garden.  It can be easy but

 challenging and the rewards are priceless.

~Tom Clothier

Bronze Fennel . . .

Nature will bear the closest inspection. 

 She invites us to lay our eye level with her

 smallest leaf, and take an insect view

 of its plain.

~ Henry David Thoreau

This bronze Fennel Blossom is very fine and intricate, best viewed close up . 

 It is amazing to watch it grow and blossom day by day.  Lacy and delicate are the leaves and popular with the butterflies. 

Friends in the Garden . . . .

Most people don't see the sun,soil,bugs,

seeds, plants, moon, water, clouds, and 

wind the way gardeners do.

~ Jamie Jobb

Although most bugs in the garden are not invited or wanted . . . but they have found home, comfort, food, shelter in my garden. 

Glory of Gardening . . .

The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, 

head in the sun, heart with nature.  To 

nurture a garden is to feed not just on the 

body, but the soul.  

~ Alfred Austin

Grace in the Garden . . . .

I look at how incredibly different these 3 flowers are in size, color, style.  Rose of Sharon the top, Cone flower in the middle and Bronze Fennel all delicate at the bottom.  We as humans share those differences with the plant world.  Some of us are bright and forward some are quiet and delicate, some fit  in the background, some are showy and center stage.   I am a background girl myself.  Where do you fit in the garden of life?

" Everything that slows us down and forces

 patience, everything that sets us back

 into the slow circles of nature is a help.  

Gardening is an instrument of grace" 

  ~ May Sarton

Growing Food . . . .

When we grow our food, we participate

 more fully in nature's cycles and form a 

closer bond with Mother Earth.  Knowing 

how to grow your own food allows for a 

sense of freedom and pride that you can 

feed and provide for yourself, one of the

 most basic necessities.

~Author Unkown

What do you grow for yourself?  We joined a CSA and go to the farm weekly to pick up our share, do pick your own  . . . We also have both tomatoes and green beans planted here at Chestnut Hill. It definitely keeps you closer to your food source and to the growing cycle of life.  The lack of rain or abundance of rain influences what we get on our share.  Cheers!  Head on out to your local farmers market.  

This is a Blog that I enjoy  Six Burner Sue  She is Author to several fantastic cookbooks for vegetables and lives and raises those Veggies on Marthas Vineyard in the great Atlantic!

Peace in the Garden

  I have decided to  try and post pictures from the current garden or meadow with Quotes in August.

       There is peace within a garden

             a peace so deep and calm,

That when the heart is troubled,

it's like a soothing balm.

There's life within a garden,

a life that still goes on,

Filling empty places when older

plants have gone.

There's glory in the garden at every

time of year.

Spring,summer, autumn, winter,

to fill the heart with cheer.

So ever tend your garden, its beauty

to increase.

For in it you'll find solace.  And in it

You'll find peace.

~~Lady Rosamund Langham

Early Summer Blooms

This is a really lovely time of year in the yard, every thing is fresh and green and oh so colorful.  The birds are chirping and singing away everywhere  and the first clutches of baby birds are out and about.   We have had an exceptional amount of rain this year and