Garden Tour 2011

I always think of September as a new start.

The start of a new school year.

The start of better diet & exercise after an ice cream filled summer.

The start of shorter days when the sun goes down sooner than you think.

The garden starts to lose its perky growth.

And the mornings are crisp, hinting at the new season ahead.

"Autumn...The year's last, loveliest smile." - John Howard Bryant

First days of school...

Freshman boy, & 6th grade girl.

2nd grade Googles.

Upperclassman this year...Junior...yikes.

While Trevor's Aunt was visiting this summer,

she looked out into our backyard from the upper deck.

She commented on how my blog pictures didn't do our yard justice.

So here is a little garden tour.

I still don't think the pictures do it justice, but maybe if you imagine 

the birds chirping, the waterfall soothing, 

and morning sun warming your skin...it will help.

 We have 4 varieties of seedless grapes on the split rails.

Those are the bunches you see right off the patio.

The big island in the middle of the yard I call "The Perennial Garden".

"The Round Garden" is behind it to the left

and "The grass garden" is directly behind it obscured by the tree.

"The Rose Garden" is off to the far right out of the picture.

Our small waterfall off the right side of our patio.

The fading summer blooms surrounding the bird feeder

in The Perennial Garden.

The path & arbor in The Perennial Garden. 

Honeysuckle vine, trumpet vine, & climbing roses trail up the arbor.

 A different view.  The sedum (behind chair) is going strong right now, and

I planted Hot Pokers (in front of chair) this spring...I am loving them.

If you walk under the arbor and out a bit, you come to The Round Garden.

This was my new project this spring.

Might do a little tweaking next year, but all in all I really like it.

I ate lunch out here on the benches quite often with my quail friends.

They like it too.

A few steps off to the right brings you to The Grass Garden.

I call it this only because it has many different grass plants.

It is a more naturalized rock garden and does not have colorful blooms.

Just grasses, trees, lavender and some whirling butterfly plants.

This is where the killdeer always lay their eggs.

I'm thinking of planting a few black-eyed susans in here next year though.

The Grass Garden.

And this crazy thing is all from seeds.

I love zinnias.  Just for kicks, I will call this my Zinnia Garden.

So I planted MINIATURE ones with some supposedly

taller nasturtiums and 4 o'clocks.

Well...these zinnias went CRAZY and are almost as tall as me.

They ARE beautiful though, aren't they?  Sigh...

The Rose Garden is along the fence.

I also have one in the front yard.  Sorry, no close-ups this time.

A view of the grapes.

 These are so so sweet.

A view to the left from the upper deck.

 And then out to the right.

And that will complete our Garden Tour 2011.

Lots of work?

Some...but I feel joy every time my hand touches dirt & flower.

And just looking ahead, I think these pumpkin ideas

from Women's Day magazine are simply stupendous!

FUN, right?

This girl.

This is the story of a girl.

This girl loves flowers.

Almost all kinds.

They truly make her heart smile.

This girl can't seem to stop gardening.

It is in her blood.

And so she starts new projects.

She decided to make a formal garden towards the back of her yard.

And now she has two gorgeous river birch trees in the center,

and two benches on either side with which to sit and enjoy them.

She is still trying to figure out what to plant in the remainder of that garden.

But she is excited to figure it out and make it beautiful!

This girl also loves to beautify her home.

She loves sunny warm colors.

Recently she had her walls painted, and oh how she loves them!!

From the entry way you can see her cheerful yellow.

She loves yellow.

It is like the sunshine!!

And in her bedroom she finally found the perfect color.

Rainwashed.

Even this girls hubby loves it.

But this girls favorite color is in her office/piano room.

She loves how it turned out and sometimes just

stands in the doorway looking at it.

Sighing.

And smiling.

It calms, and warms her soul.

She likes a warm soul.

She found this fun little picture at Target,

and knew it would be perfect on her desk.

And it is.

This girl knows that some might think this yellow

too bright.

But she loves how it glows, and pops against the white.

Her aprons are happy against this color as well.

Happy aprons.

This girl collects something else that makes her smile.

Aqua pottery.

Oh, this color gets her too.

She found some scrapbook paper that she really liked,

and lined the back wall of the cabinet with it.

She liked the way it turned out, and it wasn't hard or expensive.

Cheap and easy...this girl loves that.

She finds that it is getting harder to find Aqua pottery,

but at least she has some cherished pieces.

And she loves that it all started with the shell bowl given to her for her wedding,

by her sweet mother.

This girl is lucky.

She has some amazing friends.

She enjoys every second she gets to spend with them.

They gave her the best birthday gifts, all having to do with 

gardening, chocolate and birds.

She loves that they know her so well.

She loves her friends not pictured too, 

the ones who stopped by unexpectedly

to drop a gift by, and all those who

wished her well with cards or a Facebook shout out.

She is overjoyed by her friendships, and knows she is blessed.

This girl just turned 39.

She isn't sure what to think of that.

She knows she can't eat as many cupcakes as she would like.

And she hates that she has had to deal with adult acne!

But at last she found something that helped her,

and wants to share with anyone who might need it, that this stuff really works!

She is thankful for Clinique!

And her friendies.

And cupcakes. 

This girl loves to play tennis.

She is passionate about it.

She wants to improve all the time, so she takes lessons and is on a USTA team.

Her team worked so hard all year to prepare for competition.

They all played so well, and got 1st place!

Now they get to practice some more and head to Portland for Sectionals in August.

She thinks they have a chance, and she is so excited for the challenge!

She wants to play her best.

This team has some of the greatest people she knows on it.

Every single one of them is awesome.

And not just at tennis.

This girl loves to play doubles with all these girls.

And she loves going to lunch with them on Fridays.

And she loves to get their advice on everything from tennis to family.

She loves going shopping with them.

They make her laugh, and smile and feel good.

She adores these girls.

After the tournaments were over,

 this girl and her family got to take a mini vacation.

They went to Silverwood Theme park.

Her four kids and husband could not wait to get on the rides.

She was curious to know if she would still love the dangerous ones

like she did when she was a teen-ager.

This girls youngest daughter loves Garfield and Odie.

This Odie came bounding toward her with arms outstretched

and engulfed her with his big soft arms.

She giggled with pleasure.

This girl is married to a man who likes action.  And she has found

that her oldest children tend to follow in his footsteps.

After going on her first upside down, backwards spinning ride,

this girl discovered the truth.

She is not that teen-aged daredevil she once was.

And she has made peace with it.

But she laughed and was amazed as these 3 went on the craziest, scariest

rides out there.

The Tilt-A-Whirl.

Just enough action for this girl.  She rode it 3 times and found

that her youngest daughters enjoyed it just as much.

In fact her youngest wanted to go alone,

and rejoiced in calling herself brave.

This girl is also a Garfield fan and has been since

she first discovered him and perfected drawing him on her

Pee-Chees in grade school.

So this 39 year old girl was not embarrassed to want a picture with him.

She wonders, how can anyone not love Garfield?

After returning home from Silverwood,

this girl decided to eat lunch on her back porch.

The weather had been so cool, but it was finally a beautiful, warm sunny day.

As she finished her lunch, her breath caught as she saw the birds.

This girl loves quail.  They are her favorite.

She thinks maybe it is that connection to family that they share.

Quails mate for life.  They watch over and tend to their little families.

How many times has she stopped her car to let them pass?

And there they were.

A couple.

Washing in her birdbath.

Basically, it made her day.

She loves it when things like that make her day.

Remember that youngest daughter?

Well, this girl is discovering how sensitive and sweet this little one is.

She reminds her of herself.

This girl remembers as a younger girl crying when her sister or brother got in trouble.

This girl remembers crying when one of them got hurt.

This girl cannot read the news because the wickedness hurts her soul and she cries.

She doesn't like to cry.

She thinks it might be because it is against her very nature to be wicked.

She does not understand it in any way.

And she does not like it when people hurt.

For any reason.

This young daughter recently got out of bed,

 coming to this girl and her husband.

Sobbing.

She could not go to sleep.

She was conflicted inside and it was causing her much pain.

This girl heard her sweet daughter tell the story through much sobbing

about how she had been playing with a roly poly earier that day.

She had dropped it.

And was sure she had killed it.

It didn't move.

She felt so bad and so guilty, because as she explained through her sobs,

she is an animal lover.  And she killed an animal.

As this girl listened and comforted, she thought.

here is one sensitive sweet girl.

Then again this youngest daughter approached her, a few days later.

She asked this girl why there was a pile of new kitchen supplies laying there on the floor.

This girl explained to her children that a family had lost everything they owned in

a fire that took their house.  And it also killed their 16 year old daughter.

We were going to help them.

The young daughter looked at this girl and was speechless.

She left the room.

10 minutes later, her daughter returned with red eyes and shaking sobs.

This girl took her into her arms and again comforted her.

She knew instantly that this daughter was thinking of her own 16 year old sister.

Without words, this girl knew her daughter's heart.

So tender.

So innocent.

So sweet.

The story of this girl goes on and on.

She wonders and looks forward to what each day brings.

Will it be joyful?

Sad?

Filled with teaching moments?

Or carnival rides?

Whatever it brings, she counts herself lucky to be blessed by

flowers, happy colors, friends, cupcakes, tennis, family.

It's all good.

The last picks.

Just harvested pumpkins!

We grew some beauties!

Cutting the last vines of the season.

Tasty fall treat.

Dog kisses.

The sunset out our front door.

G. Hummingbird.

When I was a little girl, my grandparents lived in New York.

I grew up in Washington state.

Every few years we would pile into the red VW bus and make the trip.

What brave parents I had, driving 4 noisy kids across the country.

But it was always worth the crazy drive.

From the time I was little, I can remember my Grandpa slipping me money.

While my siblings all got a five dollar bill, my Grandpa would sneak me a twenty.

I'm not sure what he liked about me, but it's safe to say I was his favorite.

I know my siblings were aware, but to their credit, they never got mad at me for it.

Grandpa served in World War II.

Whatever he saw and did there took its toll, and we always knew him to be a bit "crazy".

And yet, he wasn't.

He was also gentle, sweet, loving and hilarious.

He could make you laugh till you cried.

One day as we were all sitting around chatting outside,

we were interrupted by the hum of wings.  

Hummingbirds!  Taking little sips of red liquid from the feeder.

We rarely saw hummingbirds back in Washington, so it was a real treat.

That is the day "crazy" Grandpa turned into "Grandpa Hummingbird".

Because he got us kids giggling as he flapped his wings, and pretended to sip red liquid from the feeder.

As I grew older, Grandpa would call me often from New York.

Each time he called, the conversation went something like this...

"Is this Shelli?  Well, hello Shelli, this is a boy from down the street.  I think you 

are so beautiful, I really want to go out with you.  Will you go out with me?

Maybe we could go rollerskating.  Would you like to go rollerskating with me?"

And each time I would laugh and tell him I would love to rollerskate with him.

Then he would laugh and tell me it was really Grandpa Hummingbird.

As if I didn't know.

When I was 19, and away at college, my mom called to let me know

that Grandpa had passed away.

I was sure I hadn't heard her right, but I can still remember that punch in the gut.

I quietly went outside, sat against my roommate's old car tire, and balled my eyes out.

Did you know my Grandpa loved flowers?

He loved to garden.

The whole time I knew him, I was never interested in flowers.

Funny that it is one of my passions now.

Many years after he was gone, my mom gave me 2 wrinkled 

packets of flower seeds and a note that she had tucked away from my Grandpa.

They are Zinnia seeds.  One of my favorites.

And in his handwriting is my name written on each packet.

The note says, "Dear Debby (my mom),  Just came back from the nursery.  

New seeds.  I get a big kick looking at seeds.  These are for Shelli, NOT for you Debby!  HA!"

Now..I get a kick out of that note.

And the fact that he bought Zinnia seeds for me when I was an uninterested teen.
 

A few years ago my Grandma gave me a leather bound book, and a small jewelry box.

Inside the book are clippings of Grandpa's tennis tournaments he played

as a young man in Buffalo, New York.

And in the jewelry box are several gold charms that he won playing tennis.

I do treasure these.

I love hummingbirds.  I always have.

I have been lucky enough to see at least one every year that I have had a garden.

This year, the plants I put in to attract them had matured.

AND I tried a hummingbird feeder.

I love that I saw more hummingbirds this year than any other!

My kids laugh at my excitement when I see one...but they get it.

They never got to meet Grandpa, but they know the stories.

They know why hummingbirds make me happy.
And now so do you.