Life at the Lake ~ June Nights

It was a beautiful evening last night! I wandered our yard and took a few photos - I couldn't resist the soft light of magical early summer.

 

Make a Wish

My favorites!

 

Fresh chives

 

Watching four deer in the field...

Sunset behind our field

 

Garden Shed 'Project Redecorate' ~ The Reveal!

...finally!

 

 It took much longer to complete than I originally planned

but I LOVE it!!!!

 Here is a link to the 'Befores'

http://wildwomanjewelry.blogspot.ca/2014/07/day-1-garden-shed-redecorating-project.html 

and here is

'The Reveal'!

 

Here it is! My own little garden retreat fresh again! On the exterior, hubs leveled the whole shed, replaced the screen in the door and added new wide cedar trim around the doorway.  I painted all the trim and the flower box, cleaned up the garden and stuff around the shed and got a colorful zigzag mat for the entrance.

 

The trim is called Coastal Beige and the orangey-yellow is Honey Locust.  All the paint is Behr. I also 'pruned' my collection of rusty garden antiques for a cozy but less cluttered, junky look :).
 

My wrought iron table and chairs got a coat of rust resistant black spray paint.

 

The entire interior of the shed was painted - Coastal Beige on the walls and ceiling, Soothing Spring on the window frames, floor 'tiles' and some of the furniture and Citronella on the rafters and door.  My little table is ready again for writing, journaling, garden planning and daydreaming! The ice cream parlor chairs came from Quebec and received a fresh coat of white spray paint - they are waiting for new wood seats (hubs promised!) and are a sweet perch for guests.

 

A comfy wicker rocker is a peaceful spot for reading, a cup of tea, ukulele playing and snugging with our kitty!

...just for me!

I corralled my collections of birdhouses, watering cans and assorted garden bits on a couple of new shelves in the rafters.  I can see and enjoy them all but they are no longer all over the floor - yay!

I printed and framed a couple of my own photographs with inspirational quotes and placed them on the old medicine chest which also got a coat of white spray paint. Fresh garden flowers finish the vignette.

 

Window Box close-up.





I loved this color so much I painted the window boxes on the garage too!

 I'm so excited! I'm going to play my ukulele here this afternoon!

xo

 

June Garden

 

"It's beautiful the Summer month of June
When all of God's own wildflowers are in bloom
And sun shines brightly most part of the day
And butterflies o'er lush green meadows play.

Light hearted skylark songster of the wing
High o'er the quiet and lonely moorland sing
Above her nest cloaked by the tangled heath
Her charming song so exquisitely sweet.

So mellow the gentle breath of june day breeze
The birds rejoicing on the leafy trees
And dappled trout in pool bed of the stream
Bask in the sun their spotted skins agleam."
-  Francis Duggan, June

 

 

June and early July are my favorite times in my garden.  Everything is nearly bursting with life! This yellow butterfly has been flitting through the flowers all week and seems to be particularly enjoying these blue iris and bright pink chives. (She's also provided hours of entertainment for Ethel who scampers around the lawn trying to catch her!) Look at the beautiful bits of blue and orange near the top of her tail!

 

 

And the BIG news is there are lupins growing along the edge of the field in our back yard.  I've had visions of this field brilliant with lupins since the early 90's when I optimistically planted a few seed in soil as rich and fluffy as wet bricks - oh my innocence! Over the years, I've dug plants from the roadside, lovingly dug deep holes filled with fertilizer for garden center lupins and tossed handful after handful of seed into the grass, always hopeful but to no avail. 

I have to admit, I have no idea where these came from :) ... but I am hopeful once again. 

Can't you just see this field brilliant with lupins?

 

 

There are three pink, five dark purple and one large white off in the distance!

 

 

My poppies are fuzzy ovals ready to open, the roses are covered in deep pink buds, lilies and columbine are in full bloom and this happy window box is gorgeous with bright shades of orange, lime and deep purple-y blue!

 

 

Happy June!

xo

Wild Orange Flower Vines in Our Garden

These gorgeous orange flowering vines are meandering wildly through part of our garden! A bit of research reveals the Wild Bitter Melon is not only beautiful but edible as well.  It pops open to reveal red seeds that are also edible.  I love it's bumpy texture!

Wild Bitter Melon

Wild Bitter Melon

Mexican Flame Vine

 

This beauty is everywhere, falling over the stone wall and completely taking over a tree - it's fabulous!!

 It's amazing learning to garden in this tropical climate - SO different from New Brunswick!

happy sunday :)

A Bit of Gardening, in Spite of the Rain!

 ...well, I've been dashing between the raindrops this week trying to get a few of my planters filled.  It's been raining practically non-stop for over a week!! On the positive side, no sunburns and no extra watering required!  I have a great collection of tin planters I've gathered over the last 10 years or so -- they are dented and kinda rusty in places but I Love their weathered personalities.  My flower color selection this year includes lots of orange and peach, white, green and a pop or two of pink.  I have three or four more tins to plant but these add a much needed bit of color this week. Here are a few shots of the front door and porches, the flower boxes on the garage and my favorite gerbera daisies -- fingers crossed for a ray or two of sunshine SOON!

seeds...

There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle.

-Albert Einstein

summer...

In summer, the song sings itself.

- William Carlos Williams
'

After 15 years...

...of watering, pruning, staking, hoping, tying, winding, training, cutting, dreaming, swearing, caring, reading, praying, raking, sweeping, and finally accepting it would never happen, my wisteria BLOOMED!

What's blooming today?

Early July is my favorite time in the garden~ everything is still fresh, full of fabulous color and simply gorgeous! Enjoy!

*******

~ sweet honeysuckle blooms by Esmerelda's house (she's our garden fairy!)

~pretty pale pink dahlias in the porch window boxes

~ deep pink Asiatic lilies that are at least 15 years old- I transplanted them this spring and thought they may need a year to recover, but, here they are!

~ wild orange daylilies are throughout my garden

~ the snow-on-the-mountain is past blooming, but I love the seed head left behind!

~ old fashioned pale yellow single hollyhocks, the perfect flower for a cottage garden

~ Brown-eyed Susans sew themselves everywhere!

The Garden Path...

A quiet spot in a wee woodsy corner of the garden~

I've neglected almost all my 'normal' online activities for a few weeks now (including my poor blog) and been up to my nose in the garden...have a look!

views of the main garden and shed...I love seeing the lake in the distance!
We had an huge oak tree that had to be cut down a couple of years ago (we counted 122 rings in the trunk!) which left a huge spot in the yard that got full sun~ well of course I couldn't resist and a new garden was born. Most of the plants were moved from several older beds that were all overgrown...lots of them needed to be divided and honestly, I had just walked right on by for more summers than I care to remember. They've established themselves and filled in nicely in just it's second year! And the flower boxes are overflowing~ I love it!

What's blooming today?

Mary Mary quite contrary

How does your garden grow?

With silver bells and cockle shells

And pretty maids all in a row.

*****

It's great to be back in my garden! With the building of our new cottage and plans for changes in the yard, it suffered from much neglect last summer. Overgrown and wildly out of control, I was not that motivated to do anything~ now, with the trucks and equipment pretty much gone, I've been right into it for more than a week. After hours of raking, weeding, cutting, tying up, edging beds, adding compost, moving and rescuing, digging and planting
(and worth every ounce of effort), my garden is beautiful and ready for summer!

A few years ago, I went to an auction in a village close to town~ it was at an old farmhouse on a winding country road. Alongside the barn was a huge patch of solomon's seal that I fell instantly in love with...I started my own patch under the flower boxes on our garage wall. They are blooming today!

Sweet forget-me-nots...enough this year to be considered a 'wave' of little blue and yellow flowers!

My lilacs are about 12 years old and are finally what I'd call a hedge! I remember a beautiful row of lilacs dripping over the fence from our neighbor's yard when I was a child...I'd cut some for a sweet smelling bouquet. This bouquet from my bushes is sitting in the morning sunshine on my kitchen counter. I'll be planting some more along the wall of the new cottage along with an old fashioned hydrangea vine as soon as the bed is dug~ can't wait!

A friend and I visit a beautiful garden early each summer~ it's owner is an amazingly inspiring gardener. She told me about a plant called sweet cicely, with little seedpods that taste like licorice. Last year I got a piece of her huge plant. It survived the winter and has spouted fern like leaves and wee feathery white flowers~ so pretty!

sweet cicely

...and last but not least, bleeding hearts in pink and white~ just gorgeous!

*****

The weekend forecast is sunny and warm so today, I'll be planting some of my flower boxes...heading for the garden shed NOW!

thanks for stopping by...karon