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Hi, everyone!
I apologize for not getting this posted sooner...
The Dogwood Azalea Festival in Charleston, Missouri was a great success...
Beautiful weekend, lots of sweet little faces....
It wore me flat out!
I am still recovering...;^)
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The dogwoods were beautiful...
I saw this written on The Old Moss Woman's Secret Garden page on Facebook,
and thought it was delightful!
♥
"If a white Dogwood tree
could talk I think it would have a quiet voice, almost a whisper.
A pink one
would whisper, too, but like Marilyn Monroe.
Cherry blossoms just giggle like
loons - who wouldn't, dressed in mini pink petticoats?"
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It was still a little early for most of the azalea varieties...
All in all a lovely weekend, though!
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I was also surprised and happy to see that Daddy's narcissuses had bloomed
at my son Mark's house this week...(I will bring some here this fall).
Daddy loved bringing them in by the huge armloads,
and continued bringing them to me here in Sikeston as long as he was able...
♥
Right before the farm in Bloomfield sold,
I spent a long day digging and digging these ancient
well, okay ~ at least "heirloom" ~ bulbs from one of his fields, at the top of a
rolling hill where a farmhouse once stood...
So very, very long ago that Daddy didn't even remember
a house being there when he was a child in the 1920s...
It was there in the 1800s, most likely.
But every spring, huge drifts of these little paperwhite narcissi appear,
more and more every year. Even if the field was mowed later in the spring/
early summer, the leaves always had time to gather nutrients
and die back first, so the flowers were unaffected and just kept multiplying!
I always think about a farm wife of that time whenever I see daffodils or other spring bulbs
blooming where no homestead is still standing...maybe newly married,
planting "pass-along" flowers and bulbs...
Perhaps given to her by her mother or a friend...(a "Flower Friend"...
someone you don't know really well who shares her flowers with you, anyway!)...
Almost certainly not spending money on such things...
Isn't it great how bulbs like this can continue indefinitely?
I know these aren't the original bulbs from a hundred or more years ago ~
(I wonder how long a single bulb lives and flowers, though?)
~ but they are the "daughters"; a direct connection ~ which I think is amazing!
(Some even went to live with my dear friend Elaine in New York...
isn't that fun? I wonder what the original "planter" would think?)
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Since I wasn't being very productive "art-wise" this week
I went around the yard and took a few photos...;^)
I so love Solomon's Seal! It's another perennial that just keeps multiplying.
So graceful!
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Here again is Grandma Launius's "mystery" shrub that she called Spice Bush...
I finally found out last spring that it is actually Clove Currant,
but it does have a wonderful spicy fragrance!
♥
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Lots and lots of blooms on the strawberries...and even a few tiny berries!
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Oh, here is something cool!
Did you know Lemon Balm self-seeds?...
I didn't!
Very prolifically, too! The ground between the raised herb beds is covered
with tiny Lemon Balm babies...if you were close, I would share with all of you!
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I couldn't wait any longer...
I had to take a couple of the Fairy Houses out to the herb bed that I plan
to make into a "village" (long enough for pictures, anyway)
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and place them around, seeing where I still need to "landscape"...;^)
Still a lot to do (like make some more houses!) ~ but it will be fun...
Stay tuned!
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That leafy mound in the second raised bed is my original Lemon Balm...
the area between the beds is where all the little ones are...
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Catmint!
Leo, Cyrus and Tallulah love this stuff fresh...I just crush the leaves a little
and they have a good ol' time rolling it into the rug...
Not sure if my regular Catnip is going to come up this year or not...
I think the Chocolate Mint may have choked it out last year...:^(
(You have to watch out for that mint, chocolate or not!)
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Mr. B got me this cute little mini rose for the Fairy Garden...
"Denver's Dream"....
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My poor little tortoise!
I always leave the statuary out as winter here doesn't usually affect it adversely,
but now this poor little turtle has a boo-boo.
I told myself I wasn't going to paint any more concrete as I like the way it ages
naturally and gets mossy, but I'll have to make an exception...
I have an idea for this fellow, anyway!
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Yesterday on my way to school to pick up grandson Nick,
I stopped by our old neighborhood....
There is a huge vacant lot at the end of the street where a little house used to be...
kind of the "town version" of the area where the narcissi grow at the farm...
Later it will be mowed, but for now, it has reverted to a little nature preserve...
It is evident where Mrs. Howell, the lady who lived there for many years,
had planted her bulbs and perennials...
The first thing I saw were the violets everywhere...
The regular rich purple ones as well as the blue and white "Confederate" ones...
How I used to love picking those for Grandma Collier,
bringing her big bunches..."bouquets"...as many as I could fit in my hands!
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In several places over the lot, there were beds of hyacinths...
the "old-fashioned" kind ~ with looser, more "weeping" bell-shaped flowers...
The purple color of these was almost irridescent!
Lots of bees, too, which I was glad to see...
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Drifts of Sweet Williams...
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I SO wanted to climb on this swing!
I thought better of it, though, since Nick was expecting me.
Oh, I almost forgot!!
Jonathan once more indulged me and drew a name for the little Fairy Shoes...
and it is Denise!
Her delightful blog is "Shortybear's Place" and you can find it here ~ :^)
Thank you all for ALL your sweet comments...I love, love, love them...♥
They keep me going. :^)
Have a wonderful weekend!!
Love,
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