Gardenias and Lillies

Ummm, smells so good.




One of three gardenia bushes. Actually we had four but one almost died with the cold Florida winter we had. We cut it back to almost nothing and leaves are popping out all over the place. It lives.



Yellow lilies are blooming now, pink ones already flowered and are gone. Grass doesn't seem to want to grow under the shade of our Sycamore Tree, so we have sand (Florida dirt).


Lily stretching for the sun from under the shade of the Sycamore Tree.

Hydrangeas

My favorite plant is the hydrangea and I have never had any success with them in the Florida heat and strong sun. Three years ago I planted one in the shade of our sycamore tree in our backyard. When we brought it home from Lowe's it had beautiful blue blooms all over. I loving cared for it but within weeks it started to look very sad. Our cat had had a litter of kittens in our yard and they seemed to really like that particular plant. The played under its large leaves, jumped on top of them, and even tasted them on occassion. Soon nothing was left but the stems sticking up from the ground. The following year the plant came back and I was happy. There wasn't a litter of kittens this time so everything would be fine. The luscious green leaves grew but never a flower. I waited all summer long but no blooms. I couldn't understand why. One day I noticed that our dog was peeing on it. It didn't kill the plant but it never flowered. A few months later our dog passed away. This year I was so excited when the plants' leaves filled out again and I started to notice flowers beginning to bloom. The beautiful blue flowers are starting to pop out all over and I am finally able to enjoy my favorite plant. We planted a second one under the shade of the sycamore and I am enjoying both plants.

Sleepless Nights

I couldn't sleep last night so I decided to make some jewelry. I figured I make a pair of earrings or two...just until I got tired. Well it turned out I made five pairs of earrings, three necklaces, and one pendant. When I finally went to bed at 3:00 A.M. I still wasn't tired but I forced myself. I will be posting these items to Etsy and Artfire today.

Window Boxes

I found this book at 'Tuesday Morning' and had to buy it for my daughter, who lives in an adorable home in Gadsden, Alabama. Her home was built in the 1920's and has window boxes in the front and side of her house. Though she has never been good with (indoor) plants, she has put her hand to outside gardening and has had some success. She now has a vegetable garden in her yard and has experimented with different flowers in the window boxes. As I glanced through the pages of this book I realized she can pull inspiration from it for her boxes. I am also hoping that she will use her experience helping me with my little house when we finally move there.





The yellow house is my daughter's house before she moved into it. The blue house is the house we bought and hope to be moving into within the next year.