Summertime Saturday Afternoon 2

A taste of things to come.

Still crazy busy but the camera never rests. Here are a few to keep your intrest, more soon to come.

Gardens and the local flower show

This first photo is one I just could not pass up. Can you see why? I went in to town after weeks ago, and their were elephants in front of the bank! Greenwood was having a flower show. I knew their would be one, but I had no idea what it would include. All of the Topiary were created locally and sponsored by local businesses. The camera, of course was sponsored by our local Fuji plant. (Oh so glad they are still here!) It was created by the Burton Center and Fuji associates. The Mama elephant was created by Master Gardeners and Community. Baby was created by Oakland Elementary School and the blanket was created by ACTS Middle school.
The Jeep, another favorite of mine, was created by Master Gardeners and the Flamingo by Laurel Garden Club. There were eleven topiary in all, these were the ones I liked the best. I am not sure how

long they will be around, if you get a chance pop in downtown Greenwood and have a look. While I was taking my photos, I discovered a Bead and Scrapbooking shop! It is called "Two Old Bags and Beads" I will definitely be going back in there.
What is the first thing you can remember about gardens? I have been trying to figure out what my earliest memory is of gardening, I think it would have to be snap dragons. When I was tiny, I remember my Mom telling me their name and I could immediately see why they were called that. I was delighted! In my imagination, they became the heads of magical steeds for the flower fairies. She introduced me to bleeding hearts around the same time. Wow, for some reason the idea that flowers could look enough like something else to be named for it, well that opened up lots of imaginary

possibilities. I don't remember my Mom spending a lot of time gardening, (when would she have the time?) I do remember her enjoying them. She always had something growing.

When I was small, we had a flower garden right in front of the house. Mom had roses and tiger lilies amongst other things. I remember my sister's tiger cat Sherri curled up on the porch railing above the lilies. I thought it was funny that the "tiger" should sleep next to the Tiger lilies. Someday I should do a post about Sherri, he (yes he, long story) was a remarkable cat. He even let us dress him up in doll clothes. My Mom did not believe in boredom. She told me that only people lacking in imagination could ever be bored. Her solution to boredom? Get some work done, that frequently meant pulling weeds. We learned quick how to find ways to avoid boredom on
our own. I don't mind pulling weeds. It is a bit like baking bread. If you just go out and get into it, let your mind do what it wants, you can't stay in a bad mood. My sweet Hubby will attest however that I don't do much weeding. I am a very lazy Gardner, I do what I want, when I want to. My Honey gets stuck doing the rest (more on that later).
My big brother Pete had a small vegetable patch out back when we lived in the center of town. He must have really worked that soil to get anything out of it. His cherry tomatoes still make my mouth water just thinking about it. He grew little green peppers and introduced me to Pear tomatoes (oh my goodness those are good) and lemon cucumbers. The joy of growing your own food. Even back Mom did some canning. We would drive out to Willard Utah and buy fresh produce from the farmers stands by the roadside.
When I was eleven, we moved into a house with a much bigger yard. Dad got into gardening with a passion! He plowed up a big patch, bought a roto tiller and put in a bunch of vegetables. As a kid I did not realize how far ahead of the times he was. This was in the early 70's the environmental movement had a good start and people were starting to pay attention to what they ate.
My Dad was rather conservative, a little bit like Archie Bunker on somethings, but when it came to the garden he would not use any chemical fertilizers or bug sprays. We had a proper compost pit and he worked hard to recycle. I remember him proudly bragging to a friend that even with five people living in the house full time, we put less than half a can of garbage on the curb each week. When we got bugs on the bean plants, we were given old cardboard juice containers with a little oil in the bottom and a
Popsicle stick. We looked on the underside of every leaf, when we found a bug, it went into the oil and Dad dispatched them in the burn barrel (I am not sure about the environmental impact from the burn barrel, I can't remember what all went in there but I think it was mostly paper). When the beans were ripe, they were wonderful. I think they tasted better because we had to work so hard to get them. The house came with several apple and plum trees, a pear tree, an English walnut, four grape vines, currents and a black cap patch (Black caps are huge black berries). Mom put coffee grounds on the roots of the grape vines and Dad made wine from their juice. We made jams, jellies, canned all sorts of vegetables and even fruit leather. Dad built Mom a fruit dryer. She made her own soup mix. We dried things by the bushel. We ate well! I remember more than once getting in trouble because I left

Mom's salt shaker in the garden. We didn't eat much salt but have you ever picked green peppers and tomatoes warm from the garden, put a little salt on them and eaten them right there? Oh my.
I am getting a little ahead of my pictures here. The next two after the flamingo are a Savannah park or "Square" and a Savannah garden, two of the reasons we love to visit there. The Squares are all over town. They are all different and all beautiful. The next two are some of my recent favorite flower photos the first also from Savannah the next from my garden.

When we lived in Britain, we walked in a lot of gardens. When I was pregnant that was our primary form of exercise. I was surrounded by beauty. They British are some of the best gardeners in the world. You can tour large formal gardens in different parts of the country year round. Local gardeners will
occasionally open their gardens for tours to raise funds for charity. I have some lovely memories of Lady Meridith Owen in King Sutton.
When we first moved into the village, my sweet Hubby put a floral border around our lawn. That was exactly what it took to fit in. We quickly became part of the village. One of our neighbors brought us some leeks from his allotment, he had too many. That introduced us to two great things at once. The leeks were fantastic and it wasn't long before we had an allotment too. We had old fashioned fragrant roses in the back yard and flowers climbing the wall.
When the Air Force sent us to New Mexico, we found a house out in the country and preceded to bring gardening with us. We put in a formal garden with shaped bushes, formal paths, lawn, and a circle of lavender that was quite impressive. We planted a

couple hundred trees. We dug a trench from tree to tree and hauled out several rolls of hose for watering. The garden demanded a lot of hours but it was lovely. An oasis. Mother Nature is a little harder out there.

When we finally landed here in the woods, Mother Nature is a little easier to please. Almost too easy. I never thought we would be cutting down volunteer trees because there were too many. This photo shows some of our lovely berries. We only get a handful ripe a time, but that is about right. We had some with ice cream last night. The lovely butterfly posed for me on our walk the other day. They love my lavender plants.

We are a long ways from old, but we are getting to
point where we want gardens that we can enjoy without all the work. Just mowing the current configuration takes several hard hours. We have started looking for ideas that require less maintenance. Maybe more brick paths, flowers and bushes, less lawn. I know we will keep part of it wild, we both love it that way.
The rock garden out front is a good start. The yellow flowers in the penultimate photo are Forsythia.
Last but not least, my current favorite photo, a gladiola next to the base of my house. The photo is beautiful and if you look closely at the background, you can compare the original brick to more recent replacements. The house was originally built up on brick pillars. Later on someone went back and filled in around the pillars. We are situated on good red clay. The bricks were more than likely made on the
site as the house was built.
I suppose I should close for now, I have a cozy cat on my lap and she wants to be petted. By the way, most of this Post was written out with longhand using a bamboo fun tablet by Wacom.

Have a great weekend.

Kat

In the woods and back at home

I had so many wonderful photos from that last trip to the Smokies, I just had to share. The first seven photos were taken on a lovely trail on the Doughton Park Trail system. We were there on a weekday and pretty much had the trail to ourselves.
As far as I am concerned that trail was just about perfect. There was some up and some down. Short stretches of strenuous walking mixed with easy strolls. The weather was also perfect. At one point when we were on our way back out, it started to sprinkle. We could hear it on the canopy of trees but only felt a drop or two. The trail winds around the hillside. In some places it is quite narrow then it widens out and
goes through trees and wildflowers. Pure peace!

















There are wild berries blooming all over the place. It is also a bear sanctuary. Do you think there is a connection? We did not see any bears on this trail, but I bet they know where the berries are. I particularly like this photograph with the Berry blossoms in the foreground.

















We did not see any bears on this trail, but evidently, the trees are hungry. See this one is eating the bottom sign. I have not photoshoped this picture, but you can bet I will. You can almost see the face already, it only needs a little help.

















Isn't this the most amazing mushroom you have ever seen? There were three of these grouped together. this one is at least two feet across! The second is probably about eighteen inches and the third much smaller. It looks like a pile of some sort of dough.
Can't you just see a whole flock of fairies perched on this?























Another pretty wild flower. I will have to ask my friend Lynn what this one is called. (She is brilliant!) These grown in clumps together and they remind me a little bit of some my Mom had growing in her garden.

















Another great view, these are the reward for climbing. The air is cool and crisp, just a light breeze. We stopped right here for a while. It feels a little like being in church.

















Here is an historic moment with our trusty Toyota Corolla. She reached 100,000 miles on this trip and she still looks great (runs great too). That is of course my favorite chauffeur, also known as my Sweet Hubby. We knew she was getting close to the big number so we were watching. He glanced down at just the right moment and pulled over for me to take the photos.

















When we got back home we were greeted by a lovely smell. The Magnolia is blooming. As usual these blossoms are huge.

















This little gem was going across the road in front of us when we went out for a walk the other day. Isn't he pretty? I think he looks a bit like a "Gummy" snake, you know made from the same stuff as "Gummy Bears" (I love the little German ones made by Haribo). This little guy is only about a foot and a half long.

















Another one of the rewards that go with living here. This is a stuffed crust pepperoni pizza with extra cheese. It was made completely from scratch by my Sweet Hubby. It was even better than it looks!

















I went out to take photos of my tiger lilies while they were at their best and spotted a visitor in my lavender (isn't the lavender doing great too)? I will have to harvest some soon. If I cut the flowers now and bring them in to dry, the plant will produce more before the summer is over. It drys easily and is the smell lingers nicely. I make old fashioned lavender wands to put in our dresser drawers and with the linens. It smells nice and discourages moths. I will have to post a photo and some instructions.

















One of the tiger lilies. They are also close to perfect this year. I have a great crop. My Mom grew these in her garden when we were young too.

What is Black & White and Lazy all over? Spontaneous the cat. She has such an expressive face.

And, last but not least, the star of the show! This fine specimen was crossing the road. He is a snapping turtle. He is also huge! Big enough that even the eighteen wheelers were slowing down and driving carefully around him. Usually my Sweet Hubby will stop and remove turtles from the road to keep them from being run over( he carries heavy duty paper towels in the car just for this). However, we were warned not to try it with this guy, he has a very long and agile neck. Did you get a look at those claws! We left well enough alone. Kind of him to pose so nicely for me though.

That is the end for this week. See you soon. Kat

Charleston flowers in the fall

We went to Charleston again this weekend. It was wonderful as usual. Apparently they had major rains and flooding downtown on Friday. By the time we got there Saturday afternoon, it was business as usual. The sky was rather dramatic and the lighting was great.
The first picture shows the old with the new. There are plenty of lovely old neighborhoods that have not been changed for the last two hundred years and I love to walk through them. This is one of my favorite pictures today because it shows, the new is right behind the old.

The rest of today's photos show just how nice the weather still is down there. It was a little chilly in the morning, but look at the lovely flowers. These photos were all yesterday and today.
I couldn't resist the little black kitty. It is almost Halloween. Enjoy,
Kat