A Purple Dahlia

This is the area right outside my patio door. I can see it from the living room and is an area that I change around quite often. Right now we're having a purple-flower-bunny-roller coaster theme.

I am totally in love with my purple dahlia. This was a Mother's Day present to myself (I'm quite the gift giver when I'm the recipient).

My solar jar light that my sister from Oregon sent me last year. She's also a good gift giver.

Here's where the roller coaster theme comes in. It is an image that I found on Google, printed on to card stock and slipped into my canning jar. It reminds me of the Dick and Jane books. See Jane scream. Scream, Jane, scream!

A wicker basket of violas. Or are these just mini pansies?

They didn't have a stick in them, but I have always called them violas.

I love the barn in the reflection of the glass in this photo. It's a pretty barn from afar, up close, not so much.

OK, run off to some blogs that have something exciting to talk about today. I'm a little light on words. Skedaddle!



Linking with The Vintage Farmhouse's Creative Things Thursday and Fishtail Cottage's Cottage Garden Party

       

Summer 2012 Front Porch

The staining of the deck is done. The staining of my arms and legs is done. I can paint all day in a formal ball gown, but put stain on my paintbrush and all of the sudden I'm a drippy girl.

But enough about the back deck, which I'll show you some other day, today is all about the front porch.

Even standing half way between the house and the road you can barely see anything on the porch, so not sure why I bother. OK, I do it for myself and the pizza delivery guy. He appreciates a nice porch with a touch of vintage decor.

I have two Kimberly Queen Ferns flanking my front door. There's something so classic and Southern about this. Is Ohio not in the South?

Kimberly Queen Ferns are more upright that your typical Boston Fern, which is perfect for this area where you don't want fern fronds poking at your legs when you're trying to get in the door.

If the pizza guy gets hungry while waiting for me to answer the door, he can grab a sandwich out of the picnic basket.

I'm displaying my croquet set on the porch this year. Did you know that croquet was in the Olympics? For only one year - 1900. And only two countries competed in it - France and Belgium. I'm thinking, that just maybe, croquet may be a dying sport!

I used my little chippy table this year instead of the matchy matchy side table that I bought with these rockers.

And added some of my Walmart lavender on top.

These are the pillows I covered with ticking fabric last year. They've been upgraded to the front of the house now.

I told you about the Mommy bird who decided to build a nest in my pansies HERE. I was waiting for the kids to go off to college, so I could put better plants in the planter (better = not dead), but they aren't budging. Can you see Junior's head sticking up in the middle pot?

I don't have any worms for you, so quit looking at me with those pitiful eyes!

If you want to see what my porch will look like when the birds get the heck out of here, I used my extraordinary artistic skills to give you a glimpse.

(the rare gigantic red daisies)

For some more of past porch decor you can check out these posts:

Winter 2011 Front Porch HERE

Fall 2011 Front Porch HERE

Fall 2010 Front Porch HERE



       

Memorial Day Traditions

While I'm out on my back deck attempting to re-stain it in 95 degree heat, I'm going to replay one of my very favorite posts from last year.

As a kid we would do the cemetery circuit around Memorial Day.


We would start out by decorating one of my sister's graves. She died at a very young age, years before I was born, and is buried in the family plot in my hometown. At the time, the family plot was only occupied by this one small grave, but with time moving on this plot is quickly filling up.


We would start by giving the headstone a cleaning if needed, pulling up any weeds, evening up the edges of the planting bed, loosening up the dirt and then planting an arrangement of drought tolerant annuals.


Geraniums were a staple. Really, to this day I think of cemeteries when I see geraniums. Marigolds and dusty miller were other favorites. You had to stick with plants that didn't need a lot of attention and could stand the blazing summer sun.


Last on the agenda was watering the plants. I loved this part. I would take the bucket and skip down to the pump. My Mom didn't fancy me skipping in a cemetery, but as soon as I was out of her eyesight I was skipping along, bucket swinging, pigtails flying.


This was one of those old fashioned hand pumps that took forever and a day of pumping before water would pour out. It took almost my entire body weight pushing on that lever to move the handle. After maybe five to ten pumps (at the point that I thought my arms would explode) the water would start. Inevitably I would get my tennis shoes wet, because once the water started coming out of the pump, it would gush out with an impressive force. Being a kid, I never minded though. It was almost refreshing to walk back to the gravesites in wet sneakers.


Next up was my Dad's Father's grave a couple towns over. Same procedure, different cemetery. There were a couple people who I didn't know, but who we were remotely related to, buried close by and we would pay our respects.


Then it was off to Pennsylvania to decorate my Mom's family graves and again, a handful of people I was somehow related to, but not sure how.


We would walk around the graveyard and my Mom would point out different people that she had known or was related to. Occasionally, we would stop at one of those graves and, if there were no flowers planted, we would take one of our extras (because we always brought extra flowers) and plant it so that they were taken care of for Memorial Day. I think in these instances my Mom knew that there would be no one else coming along to pretty up their gravesites.


Occasionally we would have lunch in the cemetery. Bologna and ketchup sandwiches. Maybe peanut butter and jelly. I can remember spreading a blanket, getting the picnic basket out of the station wagon and having a relaxing lunch under the tree. And let me tell you there is nothing more relaxing than the quiet and solitude of a cemetery.


Things have changed a little. My cousins in Pennsylvania primarily take care of the graves over there now.

A few years ago, I tried to take my Mom over to my Grandfather's grave a few towns over and believe it or not neither one of us could remember where it was. And I'm not talking about the grave, I'm talking about the town! At this point she had dementia fairly badly and I don't know what my excuse was, but we never made it to the town. We finally gave up and returned home with the geraniums in the back seat.


My Mom died last year, so I decided to plant perennials up at the family cemetery since it is a good 2 1/2 hour drive from my house. It's not quite the same thing as our old routine, but it gets the job done and the graves still look like they have been cared for. I think my Mom would like the simplicity of it all.


So, I will not be driving up there this weekend, but I will make the trip up there later in the summer. At that time I will just add some more mulch, water my sneakers a little and check on the perennials.


I was feeling a little guilty this year that I was not doing a cemetery tour. But you know what? All the photos in this post are from a cemetery I visited this week. I don't know a sole there, but it's a great old cemetery in Columbus that has some fantastic monuments. I went there to take some photos (they actually have a photo contest, so it didn't feel too weird to walk around there with a camera).

So I guess I did do a cemetery tour this year, just not in the traditional sense.


So what are you doing for Memorial Day weekend this year? Any plans for visiting the cemetery?



       

Birdbath or Planter?

I love my birdbath. It was my Grandma's. Well, at least the bottom was.

When I was a kid, my brother and I smashed into the birdbath in an epic sledding accident and the top was broken in two. I was able to find an almost identical replacement top at a pottery store in Zanesville, Ohio a few years ago though, so we were back in the bird bathing business.

BTW, my birdbath was last seen in a Halloween post HERE when I decided to use it as a fancy jack-o-lantern holder.

See, birdbaths aren't just for birds!

I was getting a little tired of the endless cycle of filling my birdbath up, watching the birds splash around in it, the water turning fifty shades of grey green, me washing the disgusting gunk out of it (worms, poop, slime) and starting the whole process over again. I just couldn't commit to it this year.

So I decided to make it a planter.

Nothing permanent. The plants are growing in a tray normally used for the bottom of a huge clay pot and is just placed in the birdbath.

I thought it was a lazy woman's fix for my birdbath dilemma.

In the planter I used Angelina Sedum,

Red Carpet Sedum (it's a Sedum parade today)

and the ever popular Hens and Chicks.

Sorry birds, you'll have to fly twenty feet to the left and swim in the pond. This pool is closed for the summer!

Speaking of pools, when we opened the hot tub this year (flash back to the 80's), we found a family of frogs had taken up residence there. Sort of gross. It's going to take a lot of spa chemicals to make me want to get in that water this year.

Do you have any swimming plans this weekend? Do they include any amphibians?



Linking with Saturday Night Special.

   

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