This is the last bouquet of the season, picked the day before the first big frost. There are still snapdragons holding on but the dahlias are gone. They have been blooming since July.









We started pulling up the rug first in the dining room. I never realized how heavy these rugs would be. The floors were very nice in the places where they must have had oval rugs and the floor around that, not so good. Then there is this one spot that looks like they dropped something on the floor that splattered, and of course that is right near the doorway from the dining room to the living room.


This is the light that we would like to replace in the dining room. I want a less colonial look. The one I looked at yesterday was black wrought iron, but I don't know if that will be ok with all of the light colors in the room.

Here you can see the colors of the dining room. The bottom really does look less pink than it does here, it is more of a tan color.






And here is the living room. I want to get a 5x8 rug for in front of the chair and the couch and either an ottoman that can double as a coffee table. The blank wall that is next to the front door is where we plan to put a chest of some kind with a TV. I think my dad has something we could use. I still haven't decided between roman shades or drapes. We haven't hung the painting yet. The room has a totally different feel to it. It will be even cozier with a rug. And I am on the lookout for end tables to replace the cheap table with the table cloth over it and the other old table. But I'm already thinking that we can wait to refinish the floors until maybe the spring. Depends on how much it costs.

The garden is starting to look a little messy

This is the time of year when I start to lose interest in weeding. Its actually been that way for quite a while this summer and there are lots of weeds. But I do have really nice flowers too.
The tall phlox are in bloom now. I have 5 or 6 different varieties and they look nice all together in a vase. They aren't the best cut flower. They smell nice but after a day or so they get very messy and drop petals all over the place. I passed one on my walk this morning that had a very light pink flower and light green variegated leaves. Maybe I'll see if I can find one at a perennial sale.

This picture was taken when everything still looked pretty good.
The black-eyed susans really add alot of color and they are still going strong. But the purple coneflowers are looking a little old these days. I don't like to dead head them because the birds like the cone part. This picture does not show the height of the dahlias which are now between 4 and 6 feet high. These red ones are
returning from last year. They are about 8 inches across, huge impressive flowers! Love these.

This two toned pink flower is new this year. The new dahlias I bought this year have taken a long time to bloom and have not had the same flower production as the ones from last year. Also, last year I had an all pink one that I have not seen yet this year.

In this arrangement you can see some other dahlias. The one on the far right has cream petals that are edged in maroon with a yellow center. This plant produces TONS of flowers and it did last year too. The red flower at the bottom left is a dahlia that is smaller and brighter than the big ones. There are some zinnias there. The ones I bought this year were from Stillmans(just so I remember) and they are big and bright. That yellow sunflower is one of a few that actually came up from the many sunflower seeds I planted. These last pictures are asters. They are small, about 2 inches in diameter but they come in different colors and will bloom right until the frost. I have just been cutting them and putting them together in little vases on the window sill.

Meeting Joanne

Here are some pictures of my visit with Joanne. All I can say about this picture of me is, "Oh, so THAT'S what you look like when someone tells you to say 'french fries'!!

This picture was taken inside the gift shop.

This is the school house for the little Storrowton Village.





This is the tavern where we ate. It was hot and a bit muggy outside but the inside was really dark and it was just too nice a day to sit in a dark room. Joanne and I had the outside to ourselves. I think the inside would be perfect on a blustery day, sitting by the fireplace!

A little redecorating project

Just some thoughts on what I am going to do in the living room and dining room. Decisions, decisions.


The wallpaper is almost all gone. The only part that's left is behind the piano that I can't budge. The next big decision is colors. I need to pick a wall color and also a trim color. The dining room has a chair rail that was wall papered above and painted below.





So I am thinking 3 colors. I want to have the same color in the living room and the top wall in the dining room. Then a trim color and another for below the chair rail which I think will also be for the built in cabinets as well.

Right now the floor has a rose/mauve colored wall to wall carpet. This carpet is an animal hair magnet. It will be ripped out for hardwood that is already underneath. The floor has sort of a golden color to it, though I suppose we could have it stained any color. I am thinking we may need to have it professionally refinished, Though I am kind of hoping that just a good washing might be ok.
The other consideration is the couch and chair. They are slipcovered with a flowered fabric that I has some taupe, rose and green colors on an off white background. I washed them, even though it said not to and the chair cover close in the back. Not a problem if its up against a wall. I want to paint sort of a blue green color(think Martha Stewart) but it would not match this furniture. I really like the look of brown and blue. I'm thinking of getting rid of the chair because it is way too big for the space. Lots of decisions...all involving money that I don't have. I do have a Morris Chair that belonged to my grandmother and is at my dad's house. It would need to have new cushions made for it but I would like to add it to this space. I also want to include one of Bill's dad's paintings that is a sunset on the water.
It is my favorite of all of his paintings! In this picture you can see it does have some blue green in it. So that might work.
This is a real project. What a mess!

Cape 2007

Even though this is my garden blog, here are some pictures and highlights of our week at the Cape.

Flower explosion!

July has brought an explosion of color to my garden and I have taken some pictures to keep track.
The lilies started blooming around June30, just before we left for Cape Cod and they were really going when we got back on July 6. I can't believe its already July 18!!



I don't know what this is. It just showed up in the garden
with this big, pretty, bluish flower. Maybe a stray morning glory?

The Asiatic lilies have many more blooms than they did last year. It's really hard to get all of them onto one page like this because they are all over the yard. The daylilies are a surprise every day.
Last year I divided alot of them and moved them around a bit. My goal is to extend the bloom throughout the summer.

The snapdragons have really taken off and I get a good sized bouquet every other day or so.

I love the way that butterfly posed for me. There was a black and blue one out there also but it disappeared after I got my camera. The bouquet at the top is what I look forward to all Winter.
The flower to the left that looks like a sunflower is from the new white coneflower plant I bought. I love how it looks. The purple coneflowers I have are prolific. In fact, they need to weeded out to keep them from taking over. I hope that the white and the yellow coneflowers I got this year will multiply as nicely. They are great additions to cut arrangements.

I also love the really dark red hollyhocks along the side of the house. I don't remember whether I planted those last year or if they reseeded. I bought a few 99 cent pink hollyhocks this year so I will be able to tell next year if the black ones come back next year.

Yesterday I went through and pulled out all of the blackeyed Susans that were growing in places where I didn't want them and moved them back along the woods(there are no pictures of this). Also, I am planning to put in an asparagus patch. I bought two plants but I really need about half a dozen more. Bill is already mourning the loss of more grass.

Slow progress

There doesn't seem to be alot of color out in the garden, but things are coming along. This week I bought some asters, cleome and dill plants. Today I planted some tomatoes and peppers in pots that someone gave me. They have been sitting outside for a few days so I don't know if the tomatoes will make it but the peppers should be good.
This little fellow is out near the woods...I think he is about to climb through my prize poison ivy.
I don't know if it is a beaver or a woodchuck or what.
The arbor is blooming...I think there were more flowers last year.
This is the arbor that was completely knocked over on its side last winter. We thought about replacing it but we reinforced it instead. The thorns on some of those big canes would probably cut us to shreads!
I cut this butterfly bush back to about 2 feet at the beginning of the Spring and it is just beginning to form buds.
Zelda sporting her new summer haircut.
Indoor cats are not much help in the garden.
A lone zinnia.

In the beginning, there was blog

Or maybe I should say, in the beginning there was FROG...I stepped out my back door today to water the plants and just as I was about to water this Christmas cactus I noticed toadzilla here.
He spent the day in this plant...seems to be rather comfortable there. I jumped about 10 feet.

I am starting this as sort of a photo journal of my garden. I always wish I could remember when I put down one fertilizer or when a certain plant blooms...this should help. If anyone finds this interesting, that's nice. I happen to like looking at other peoples' pictures.

I bought this plant because I couldn't decide what color to get. I love that its red white and blue. What a great idea. This would be great for one of those houses with the big, wraparound front porches where they buy multiple hanging plants. I don't have that kind of front porch.
This view is of the fence next to the hot tub. On the right is the tub, to the left is the only sunny spot in my yard and that is where I have my garden.





This was a pleasant surprise this morning. I have had these irises for several years and this is the first time I have had more than one flower on them . As you can see, they are pretty spectacular. That poppy plant in the front of them are also new flowers on an old plant. I don't know if this is a plant that I bought or if it has grown from the many poppy seeds I have planted over the years. My mom always told me to grow poppies. I don't know why...I don't remember ever having them when I was a kid...not even at Grandma's house and she had lots of flowers.

The poppies are flourishing.

This is the area of my garden that we like to call "the grave". Two years ago I put down some newspaper and covered it with topsoil and then planted some dahlias. The dahlias were great.
The plants were huge. They produced a ton of big impressive flowers from the middle of July until the frost. I decided that dahlias were a good investment. This years grave is about 3 times the size of the original. At the top of the picture I have planted snapdragons. I buy rocket snapdragons. This year there is one flat from Stillman's, which started out looking very small and dainty. A week later I went to Gove Farm and bought a flat of very healthy looking rocket
snaps. They were all planted in the the second and third week of May.
In the foreground of the grave I have several dahlias. Some are the ones I dug up from last year. I did not mark them, I don't know which colors they are. I did buy some new ones at Russells. The ones I bought this year are in the pink and purple. When I dig them up this year
I will mark the colors. Yesterday, June 2, I spread some Coast of Maine Lobster Compost, just a little on top of everything. I also planted a few glads in the center of things. This is a climbing honeysuckle that I bought a few years ago and it has never looked this good. Every year this vine has started fine but then it gets taken over by powdery mildew. The only thing that I would say about this year is that the flowers don't seem to smell. In the past I could smell the flowers when I woke up in the morning. The window on the right is my bedroom.
Its odd that it doesn't smell.
This is a place where I used to put veggies. Last Fall I decided to put some tried and true plants here. I can see this from the patio, so I wanted some color. There are daylilies on the left toward the back. Behind those are some black-eyed susans that were taking over another part of the garden. In the center are 3 tall phlox plants that were getting pushed out by, uh, black eyed susans. On the right that long plant in the sun is oregano. At one time, oregano took up about 2/3's of this bed and I dug it all out. A little bit survived and now it is really taking over again. You can't really see it in this picture but I have a little wire teepee thing that I have planted nasturtium seeds under. I am hoping for a little color, a little height. I also am thinking of putting a bird house on a pole in this garden with a climbing rose or a clematis, for a little vertical interest. I do have a harvest gold toilet in the basement that I could turn into a planter...now that would be interesting...