Delightful Garden Shed

I love this tiny garden outbuilding made from salvaged materials, don't you? The arched gothic windows are fabulous. Happy Memorial Day. via

Covered Open Porch with Balcony Above

I love the lattice work and especially the Chippendale railing. It's still pretty chilly here in New Jersey but outdoor living is just around the corner. Memorial Day seems very early too. via

Playing around with a new camera lens . . .

Leaf study. This tree gets a flower that looks like an orchid.


Pink geranium.


Wild raspberry leaves.


Lamb's ears (again).


Japanese maple.


Milkweed.

I got a new lens for my camera and played around with it last evening. Sorry to be boring you so much lately with my photos. I think I either have to move or buy some flowers since I have photographed everything I can on my property. Guess I will do the latter. The soil should warm up with the nice weather that's coming.

I can't believe it's almost Memorial Day. Time for some hot dogs, hamburgers, and watermelon. Are you celebrating at home or going away? North, south, east, west...home's best!

EWG's 2010 Sunscreen Guide

EWG's 2010 Sunscreen Guide: "EWG’s fourth annual Sunscreen Guide gives low marks to the current crop of sunscreen products, with a few notable exceptions. EWG researchers recommend only 39 – 8 percent – of 500 beach and sport sunscreens for this season.
The reason? A surge in exaggerated SPF claims above 50 and new disclosures about potentially hazardous ingredients, in particular recently developed government data linking vitamin A to accelerated growth of skin tumors and lesions. Learn more."
I found this thanks to my friend Lynn and wouldn't you know the stuff I've been using (Neutrogena) is BAD. We just have to educate ourselves as best we can. Please read everything and be prepared for the sun this summer. Another friend of mine is at the hospital right this very minute with a first-grade blonde son who is having his second surgery this spring for sun-related damage on his head and face.

The Huffington Post first reported this on May 24th. Throw out all your bad sunscreen and get something good before you go out in the sun again.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend armed with one of the 39 good sunscreens on the list.




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Pardon Me! Insects Having a Private Moment.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Longlegs,

I think I captured your insect intimacy without even realizing it until I started processing the photo. Sorry. Next time pick a spot away from my front door so I can't see you.

Thanks, Rosemary

I took this photo of a dragonfly almost a year ago over Memorial Day Weekend 2009.




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Blueberry Cherry Patriotic Pie

Blueberries and Dark Sweet Cherries are still in season so why not bake this pie for Memorial Day? Vanilla ice cream would complete the red, white, and blue flag theme. Just a thought! via

Poppies for Memorial Day

via

In Flander's Field by John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

From an old blog post of mine.

Home Office designed by Katie Holmes

via

I love this room, especially the centered window flanked by bookcases and closed cabinets. The only fault I can find is with the lamp with cord photoshopped out. There really is no place to plug it in, is there? I really doubt it's cordless but if it were, the photo would be perfect.

I have been self isolating since a client tested positive for Covid-19 after a real estate showing. I am fine and all precautions were in place. I will be free to go out in a few more days. Take care and stay home as much as possible. There is so much to do in the spring, there is no time for boredom. Have a great long Memorial Day weekend too. xo

Bunny Mellon Embraced Friendly Weeds

Giant Mullein growing in her poolside gazebo.

Vanity Fair once described Bunny Mellon as the “high priestess of pruning and pleaching” for her devotion to gardening and personal love for pruning. While Bunny had an affinity for picking wildflowers and celebrated vegetable gardens, she loved pretty weeds as well.

Verbascum thapsus, a biennial plant, was once used as an herbal treatment for coughs, congestion, chest colds, bronchitis, and inflammation. For most of the year, the huge, furry leaves flourish under Bunny’s gazebo, stationed next to her display greenhouse. She felt that weeds were friendly, and often added to the beauty of her home, hence why the weed mullein was allowed to sprout between the stones. Its common name may have come from the Celtic term meaning yellow.

Read the entire article at Oak Spring Garden Foundation

Happy Memorial Day. It's cold, dark, and rainy here at my cottage but I don't mind. xo

The above link will lead you to my previous posts commemorating this holiday, celebrated each year on the last Monday in May.

Cake with Flag Icing

I love this cake! The next holiday with a flag theme is Memorial Day in September. That will give you a little over a month to figure out how to do this. The cake stand makes it look like a straw hat decorated like a flag. via

Wonderful Sleeping Porch

You know you love this! Here's wishing each of you a restful Memorial Day Weekend, especially if you have a sleeping porch. via

Great Outside Shower

Outdoor showers are already in full swing in certain areas. Memorial Day weekend heralds the beginning of the summer season. This is a really nice one, isn't it? xo via Enjoy your holiday.

Watch the seasons change

OK. I am really into spring going into summer now that I have finally finished the entire back of my property including cleaning up all the debris from fall and winter. It looks fabulous too. Winter is now just a faint memory! I can't believe next weekend will commemorate Memorial Day. Where did May go? via

I got up way too early this morning when the sun was shining on the tree tops. This is the view from my bathroom window. Enjoy what's left of the weekend. xo

Picnic on the Front Porch

Waiting for the parade to go by! I know it's a catalog photo but it's perfect for this Memorial Day porch picnic with watermelon. I love the painted flag from Pottery Barn.

Irish Cottage with Daffodils

Just lovely. The clumps of daffodils scattered over the lawn are perfect. Have a great Memorial Day Weekend. xo via

Marilyn Monroe photos by Bert Stern sell for $146,500

Associated Press – In this Sept. 9, 1954 file photo, Marilyn Monroe poses over the updraft of a New York subway grate. December 17, 2008 -- NEW YORK CITY A collection of photographs of Marilyn Monroe taken for Vogue magazine the year she died has been auctioned in New York for nearly $150,000. A spokeswoman for Christie's auction house says the 36 photos taken by Bert Stern sold for $146,500 on Tuesday. The pre-sale estimate was $100,000 to $150,000. Christie's says the photos from a 1962 shoot were the last professional images taken of Monroe before she died that year of a drug overdose. They ran in Vogue instead as a memorial. The buyers were anonymous. View 12-photo slideshow here. Bert Stern's best known work is arguably The Last Sitting, a collection of 2,500 photographs taken of Marilyn Monroe over a three day period, six weeks before her death, shot for Vogue. Stern published Marilyn Monroe: The Complete Last Sitting in 1992. In it, he recounted being enchanted by her until a near-intimate encounter after the second day of shooting; he then realized that she was deeply troubled.