Beautiful Entrance

This door surround is stunning. I love looking at architectural details and wish I could see more. Have a great weekend. xo via

Sheep Admiring the Poppies

I guess you know why I liked this photo, right? via

Happy Bunny with Vegetables

What a wonderful garden and a pet rabbit too! via

Lacecap Hydrangea and a Poppy Pod

I took this photo late in the evening last night before putting the house to bed. My lacecap hydrangea is covered in beautiful blossoms after a dubious beginning. As you can see from the burned leaf edges, it suffered twice from killing frosts in March. This woody shrub blooms on last years growth so I didn't cut anything back and I am glad I didn't. I shall cut it back quite severely after the blooms die off this year and give it plenty of time to put out new growth for next year's flowers.

I will harvest this seed pod soon to encourage more blooms on my poppies. I already have quite a few for planting in the fall or early spring. These flowers are giving me great pleasure every time I look out any of my rear windows. They are responding to my nurturing too.

Antique House Random Photos

You all know I love a good painted floor and this round rag rug is no exception.

Same room showing the decorative painting on the woodwork.

Is there no balm in Gilead?

Custom Adirondack chair reflecting the owner's love of dogs and a life well lived raising and training them. I do love seeing old houses that were never "modernized" in an attempt to keep up with trends. I listened carefully to the comments from the public about the things they would do and I hated all of their suggestions but said nothing. I took customers but stayed behind after they left to take my time and will go back again next week for the broker open house. xo

Borzoi Father's Day

If dogs celebrated Father's Day, this would be a happy day in this Borzoi household. They are also knows as Russian Wolfhounds. It's a wonderful family portrait, isn't it? via And a great article about this breed here.

Rogue Poppy and Raindrops

We had a nice overnight rain and I have a rogue poppy with an all yellow center. I'm not complaining but I was a little surprised since all the other centers are black. We shall see if blonds have more fun.

My Lady's Mantle was very happy this morning after capturing so many raindrops from the overnight showers. It is drought tolerant but was looking a little puny as it always does after showing off so in the spring. It is prized more for its leaves than for its flowers. Have a great weekend. xo

Happy Friday

Yesterday afternoon in my poppy patch.

Here is the same flower showing the beautiful black center in portrait mode. I'll try to find something else to post today besides poppies! See you later. xo

Illustrated Quote by Khalil Gibran

I love to go outside in the morning in my bare feet to look at what happened overnight in my garden. Windy days are a favorite too as long as they aren't the dangerous kind. via

Another favorite quote of mine along these lines is:
“The best fertilizer for a piece of land is the footprints of its owner.”

Lyndon B. Johnson

I can honestly say that my footprints are on nearly every inch of my land.

Coreopsis grandiflora 'SunKiss'

This clump of coreopsis or tickseed survived its first winter because it was planted in the ground. I lost several that were planted in outdoor containers. I transplanted it from the front to the back very early in the spring and it has taken off.

Here is a wider view of my 4 poppies that bloomed yesterday and there were no additional blooms this morning.

I have tons of buds and am looking forward to seeing them open. I have done some research about the seeds I planted and have learned I did everything wrong. I had already transplanted daffodils and covered the newly dug patch with wood chips before I got the idea to plant my poppy seeds. It was a very laborious process pulling away the wood chips with a chopstick and dropping in a pinch of the tiny seeds and covering them up. I repeated this process over and over to cover the entire area. Now mind you, the daffodils were going to emerge first leaving the seeds under the foliage of the bulbs. You are supposed to plant the seeds and barely cover with almost no soil so they can get sunlight in order to germinate. They also need cold for germination and I did that part correctly. Was this beginner's luck or is there more than one way to plant these annual seeds that will reseed and keep coming back? I can't imagine doing it any other way and I didn't thin them either. I will let some of the pods go to seeds and save them for next year. xo