Early morning bliss ~

I woke up this morning just as the sun was rising and the new day was saying a quiet hello. Miss Twiggley was still snoozing at the end of the bed. I thought to myself how fortunate I was to be able to wake up in a room which I truly love.

This master suite was an addition to the old house, it was designed by my husband around my specific desires in what I wanted in a bedroom...french doors leading outside, lots of space for a sitting area and a fire place. He built the cobble stone fire place and the mantle.

Bedroom at dawn, taken from the bed

This is a space I always enjoy coming into, light in the day time and cozy at night. I think Miss Twiggley likes it too as I often find her cuddled up sleeping in here. I hope you you like it also

Now I better get up and get busy...lots to do today.

Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

Looking ahead ~

I went out into the garden today and cut this big bouquet of Statice. It might seem strange to think about winter in the midst of spring but this is when I start collecting flowers to dry for winter bouquets and right now these are at their peak of bloom and at the perfect stage for cutting.

I planted them from a pony pack last year and this week at my local garden center I found a few more to plant...Statice sinuata, Pastel Shades, you can see they come in various hues of purple and pink, mixed in with white buds.

Like all of the Statices, they are very easy to grow and they dry perfectly, with a papery texture, retaining their full color. They are wonderful as fillers in large bouquets but also pretty on their own. 

You can see that a little friend came to help and advise me. Shame on you Miss Twiggley kitties are not supposed to be up here! Silly me, shouldn't I know by now who is the queen of the castle!

Thank you for visiting,

 I hope you have some beauty in your day.

P.S. Miss Twiggley says, "meow".

A surprise ~

This morning when I went into the kitchen I found a big surprise!

The bunnies had come in during the night and set up shop.

They have been working very hard, especially moma bunny with her wheelbarrow full of fancy Easter eggs. Poppa bunny is busy too, but I think he is more interested in the cabbages and carrots!

I hope they stay for a while, it's fun eating breakfast with them...even if they are extremely busy.

And, I might add...Miss Twiggley is being very good, she has only knocked down one egg trying to catch a little lizard outside the window.

A very joyous and happy Easter to you all.

 

This post has been linked to: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/

Fairy tale flowers ~

As much as I love roses, the flowers that really started my interest in gardening were Foxgloves.

I knew nothing about gardening when first saw them growing outside of a very charming, local restaurant and they completely captivated me. My garden today stems from the small space I initially created to grow Foxgloves and other annuals.

Since then, this wonderful plant has become readily available at local gardening centers, but it is still impossible to find the bigger, biennial varieties, those I must grow from seed.

The ones you see here are the shorter, Foxy, which blooms the first year. I planted several dozen of them throughout the garden late last fall and they have just started to bloom

In some areas Foxgloves are perennials and reseed lavishly, here our summers are too hot and they are treated as annuals although when planted in partial shade I have occasionally had them summer over.

For some reason I think of these as, "fairy tale" flowers, there is something so magical about them. They remind me of garden gnomes, sprites, and children's tea parties in a time long ago gone by.

Thank you for visiting, I hope you have a magical day.

 

This post has been linked to: http://www.adelightsomelife.com/

A Celebration ~

You might be wondering why I am standing here with a bottle of champagne.

I am celebrating!!!

After quite a bit of time and an enormous amount of effort I finally finished building this arbor. It is an exact duplicate of the previous one, built by my father, that was here before. 

That one was destroyed by a storm and since all of the arbors in the garden match the only way to replace it was to build one. I thought that I could do it...but it was a challenge.  The most difficult part was cutting all of the angled pieces in the top, or bonnet. I am fortunate to have a compound miter saw. Once that was done I knew I could get it finished.

It is made out of redwood and will eventually fade to a silver color. There is a Climbing Aloha rose planted next to it that was pruned back severely when the arbor was cemented in, by next year it should be covering the top again.

All the while I was working on this I thought of both my father and husband looking down at me and thinking, what on earth is she doing! But then smiling and being very, very proud knowing I could get it done all along.

So this is a toast to both of them and all that they taught me.

à votre santé Daddy and Raleigh...I did it!

I would also like to thank two other people who loaned me tools and gave me the benefit of their expertise on this project, my son-in-law Ward and my friend Larry.

Thank you for visiting, have a great day.

 

This post has been linked to: http://frenchcountrycottage.blogspot.com/ and http://www.everydayhomeblog.com/