Blog neglect

I have been away, could you tell? I made sure to write several posts in advance and schedule them to post so I wouldn't look completely gone, but you may have noticed they were heavy on the photos and not so much the projects. It also meant I couldn't visit you back when you left me lovely comments.
I have been here:

A panorama shot from both sides meeting in the corner at the same mountains.

I have also been here:

And I'm headed back. But I have several more things to share with you! Like some of the fantastic wildlife I've seen and all the wildflowers and a fantastic plant nursery.

Happy birthday to me! Coupon code for you!

Yep, today is my birthday and I'm giving you a present - of course it is a tad silly, but that is very like me.

So have a piece of cake...

(source)

Before I remembered my original 1980's Rainbow Brite cake pan was in the lost land of storage where I just don't know if I can find it, I was totally going to have the cake I had when I was a little girl. I like this one too, though!


And get ready to do something crazy...

(source)

Mosaic Monday - lace

After I'd gathered all my photos and gotten the collages made I realized I used the same photo in both - I must really like that one!

It amazes me that this weed is just as beautiful from the "wrong" side as it is the "right."



Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

Flowers in space

I recently discovered the "space textures" on picnik - they are soooo much fun! I hope they keep them.

Mosaic Monday - growing wild

I had a single plant of this in the corner of my garden one year and it stayed like that for several years. In the past couple of years, however, it has exploded and moved all over said garden. Pretty, but not what I wanted. This fence:

 ...was bare in front and boring! I started moving plant starts until I ended up with this gorgeous wall of yellow! Weirdly, since moving them they have started mutating - originally they were plain yellow petals with a brown center but now some have red, some are doubling (or tripling or quadrupling?).

They also attracted this...moth? Anyone know what it is?

 Be sure to visit Little Red House to see all the beautiful mosaics!

Sure signs it is summer

 You know what that means, right? First of all, I spend my after dinner time in the grape arbor drinking tea and reading. This photo is already out of date - I've finished that book and the next in the series.

Summer also means that I interrupt my reading and tea time to wander around and take gratuitous photos of dried up grass. I don't know why, I just love it.

Also Queen Anne's Lace - tons of photos of this weed on my computer! Oh but it is so pretty. And it was so well used at the Barn House sale last year!

The moon came out to play. :)

Thank you summer for your warm evenings and long hours - please don't leave me yet!

The frog vase (not that kind of frog)

I got a birthday gift early in the form of this glass vase with a built in floral frog.

The frog portion can be removed but sits nicely on a ledge just inside the top of the decorative edge of the vase.

Floral frogs work fantastically for spacing out your flowers and making your arrangements look professional even if you don't have enough flowers or any skill. And who doesn't like a product like that? I used it below to make just five flowers look like a whole bouquet's worth.

Also seen here:

Love it!

The Dragon Cloud

 To say I have an overactive imagination is...completely correct. As a result I never go anywhere without my camera because I'm always seeing shapes in the clouds.

Thing is, I've taken to sitting in my arbor, reading my book and drinking tea and eating a piece of chocolate on most evenings. It is fantastic. The other night I spotted a "dragon" in the sky across the field with a flopped ear, little flapping wings and a curved tail. More of a whimsical dragon than - I was just going to say realistic. I've clearly broken from reality for good! I meant more than what most movies portray a "realistic" dragon to look like.

It even seems to have a distinct face and is puffing out little clouds of "smoke."

Which I completely screw up using Paint but hey...

As the sun set and what looked like the wing tips highlighted it was looking even more dragon like.

I suppose there are worse things I could do than spend my evenings watching cloud shapes, reading books, sipping tea and eating chocolate.

The herbs and the bees

We'll blame it on the books because they can't argue back and also, well, it IS their fault.

It started with the Brother Cadfael series by Ellis Peters, which are also a series of movies my friend and I used to get from the library. They are about Brother Cadfael (duh) and his apothecary job and how he solves crime with his knowledge of flora and also because he seems to be more observant and sensible than almost everyone else (how many times did I want to strangle Brother Jerome? But I digress.)

In any case I became interested in growing my own herbs to make fantastical things. So far the most fantastical thing I've made is baked chicken, but it was really good chicken! Even my attempts at potpourri are always foiled by me not remembering to harvest things when they are supposed to be. One of these days I might get my act together.

My herb garden.

In everything I read they always tell you to watch out when planting mint because it spreads so quickly. My mint did spread but remains in a manageable sized patch. My oregano however? Taking. over. my. entire. property. I have more oregano than ten people could use up in as many years; it's insane.

About 1/1000000000000000000 of the oregano I currently have:

Herbs bloom like most plants and in fact have gorgeous flowers!

Sage:

Thyme:

Spearmint:

Oregano!

The honeybees are having a field day.

I was suddenly remembering a post from last year where I decided to fill my bedroom with bouquets - it made the room smell amazing!

A trio of flowers that came up volunteer in my corn garden. (Also the head of some elephant garlic I had last year. It doesn't smell, I just think it's pretty)

Putting some of my oregano blossoms to good use.

I go to bed with this fantastic, fresh, green smell. How do I know what green smells like? I don't know, that's just how I can describe it. I love it and you should give it a try!