Thursday, April 12, 2018

Gardens, Mail, Mushrooms

Another day trip to Blue Moon Gardens.  Texas highways are in better shape than ours and the wildflowers are gorgeous, lots of Indian Paintbrush and Queen Ann's Lace and Black-eyed Susans and others cover the median and the sides of the highway.  No bluebonnets that we saw, but I'd love to take one of the driving trips to see the wildflowers in Rusk County: 

Peak season is coming up!


We got another Japanese Maple, milkweed plants, a firecracker plant, daylilies, prostrate rosmary, some sedum, more basil, orange mint, lantana.  Some were chosen for their attraction to butterflies and hummingbirds--others, just because I like them.


Our new Orangeola Laceleaf Maple!
Where will it end up.
Right now it is in the middle of our path, 
and I'm having to side-step around it.

 I love Fountain Grass, but "Fireworks" is a new favorite.
I planted this one in a big pot, but now, I'm rethinking that and may move it today.

Having to reconfigure the garden now that the birches (with their wonderful shade) are gone.  Lots more thinking needed and more backaches in the future.

Outgoing Mail

I found the perfect stamp in my stash to go with the excerpt from the poem I used on this envelope.  Mila likes Sylvia Plath, and so do I, but the best known of Plath's poems are pretty dark.  April Aubade has such lovely imagery--I wish Plath had had more of these lighter moments.

 I used this from the stamp sheet on the back

I wanted to use the dinosaur stamps and found a poem about dinosaurs that I thought Max might appreciate--especially the second verse on the back.  When I read the last two lines, I laughed out loud!
back

And an excerpt from a cat poem for Bryce Eleanor and Prim Paws.

"Arabelle is a calico kitten . . .
helping Grandmother tend to her knittin'.
Over and over, 'round and around,
in skeins of bright yarn Arabelle's wound."


Mushroom

Rain predicted for the weekend, so time to get back to the garden!

9 comments:

  1. I think I share your enthusiasm for "Fireworks" - what a fabulously exuberant plant!

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    1. It is exuberant! I only bought two, but am regretting not getting at least one more. Love the shifty colors.

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  2. fancy mushrooms! I will be visiting my sister in Shreveport in June! My other sisters will join us & we are heading to Natchitoches So i will be in your neighborhood

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    1. :) I told my husband the other day, we need a day trip to Natchitoches. Or maybe a weekend at a B & B! Yay for sister trips!

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  3. Both the maple and the fireworks are gorgeous. We have a couple fireworks in our garden but they don’t look as nice as yours. Sadly, I not only have precious little interest in gardening, I have two black thumbs. All the neighbors are busy spiffing up their gardens and it makes me feel guilty but we said we’d do it next year (we need 8 new tires this year).

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    1. I used to be more committed, but as I get older and the summers get hotter, my enthusiasm for gardening has become limited a couple of months in the spring and to plants that mostly take care of themselves. :)

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  4. I love the little girl on the cat postcard and the verse of poetry, and the dinosaurs, too. And the mushrooms, of course. I'm jealous of your trip to Blue Moon Gardens. I told Ricky we should venture over there, too, but we are getting our house leveled, actually one sinking wall lifted up. It's taking more time than anticipated and not done all at once. They come one week, work another job, and return the following week. The guy said ours is the heaviest house he's tried to lift! It's cracking our dry wall and making lots of projects. It's a primary reason we are staying put this year, more or less--no overseas trips. We are opening our house for HOSTS, Highland's Open Studio Tour Sundays on June 10. You ought to come over the river for it. Ricky will be doing blacksmithing demonstrations. Some of my friends will be selling their art here.

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    1. Oh, dear! I can't imagine the inconvenience of having such a huge, old house leveled! I'm putting the Open Studio Tour on my calendar! I'd love a chance to see Ricky doing his blacksmithing and to see the creative efforts of your friends.

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  5. I loved the scrappy girl postcard and that envelope you received.

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Good to hear from you!