Nature at Her Finest

In an effort to embrace all that autumn has to offer I went down to my children's rental house where I snitched a few blossoms from their waning hydrangea bushes.  These are huge old hydrangeas that have been there for many years, so unlike my new tiny bushes they still have some blossoms on them.

Some even retain bits of their original color, though they have lost their bright blue hues in favor of shades ranging from pale purple to dark amethyst.  I thought these blossoms would be the perfect compliment to my little blue and white squirrel that sits atop my old pine dough box.

The other blossoms I picked are wearing shades of green and burgundy, and lend themselves well to the dining room and a silver squirrel nutcracker that resides on my mahogany tea cart.

Though flowers such as roses, lilacs, morning glories, and peonies bring me great joy, I think that the hydrangea has to be one of those flowers that rewards us the most for so little care.  Their long blooming season, beautiful colors, and the ability to be dried make them one of nature's great feats.  They really are a wonderful example of mother nature at her finest!

Thanks to everyone who commented on my last post.  A little sunshine, a new attitude, hot tea, and some chocolate always help bring me out of a cold weather funk!

Feeling Blue

Today it finally hit me that I have an empty nest.  As I gathered up laundry and began cleaning my house, I realized that I didn't have as many towels and sheets to clean, and that the hall bathroom sink and shower were dry as a bone from lack of use since our son moved out a week ago.

For the first time in almost 25 years, it was just me in the house, that no one besides the dogs needed tending to today, and I have to admit that I broke down in tears.  I know this is the way life is supposed to work, but dang it, nobody really prepares you for that last little birdie to leave the nest.

I decided that instead of feeling sorry for myself, I would do what all momma birds must do when they find themselves alone in the nest, so I set about cleaning, rearranging, and embracing this next phase of my life.  And I brought in a bunch of pretty hydrangea blossoms that my dear neighbor said I could have and plunked them into a lovely mason jar that once belonged to my grandmother.  

I know it will take time for me to adjust to my youngest having flown the coop, but I managed to do that with our oldest, so I know it's possible.  And even though he, and our daughter, are both not far away, today it felt as though they were continents away.  I also know that if I still had little babies to tend to that I wouldn't be launching into a whole new career, so there is always a silver lining to be found, even when you wonder where the last 25 years have gone!

On Thursday, Mr. Tide and I will celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary, and for the first time since a year and a few months after we got married, we will be celebrating in a house built for 2 again.  Change is good for the soul I think, even if it comes with a few tears and feeling a little blue every now and again!

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments and emails about my new venture...at least I can't say I'm bored now that my kids are grown and living on their own, eh?!  

Enjoy your week, the weather is near perfection here!

French Flowers

Is there anything more wonderful than stumbling out of your hotel room to wander the Saturday markets on the streets of Strasbourg?!

Well I suppose it would be better if you could do it every Saturday, instead of once every 5 years or so.

These pictures are pretty much straight out of the camera except for lightening a few of them, but none of them have had their hue and saturation levels altered.

The closest I normally get to something like this is when I visit Whole Foods every few weeks and wander around their beautiful flower department.

Which isn't really quite the same as having vendors meticulously displaying their wares on a sunny Saturday morning in northern France.

Creating beautiful vignettes that make you want to buy one of everything, or if you don't have a place to put one of everything, snapping a bunch of photos so that you can drink it all in even after you return home.

There are fresh cut stems you can arrange yourself, or dainty little bouquets to take home and enjoy...or maybe give to a friend.

I would like to be the friend who receives a gift of french flowers.

Perhaps a fall bouquet with russet leaves and some flower I don't know the name of.

Or a little zinc container filled with a single rose, hydrangea, and berries.

It doesn't really matter which ones you select since they are all so lovely and elegantly displayed.

Even pansies look a little more special at the flower market.  

Do you have a flower market like this in your town?  If so, please make up the guest bed for me and leave a light on...I might never leave!

What Do Ya Think About That

Today has been spent outside working on the yard.

Since my father died almost 4 years ago, we've been helping to take care of 3 houses and 3 yards.  The task has been split mostly between my sister "M" and her family and us, and let's just say that when you are taking care of that much land, things tend to get neglected somewhere.  Last summer my sister did all of the mowing at the other properties, including the farm which has 20 acres, and she is the most weary of all of us when it comes to doing weekly lawn maintenance.

This summer, we've been way behind on getting flowers planted and our front porch and back patio ready to go for the season.  We've had bigger fish to fry with getting my parent's house on the market and trying to tackle the grape vine that had taken over one section of our yard.

Grapevine is some very nasty stuff my friends, and we really needed to tackle removing it because it was killing everything in its path, including the trees!  So we yanked and pulled and ripped it from the poor little trees that were barely hanging on with their branches reaching straight up in an effort to escape the clasp of the vines.  You could almost hear them breath a sigh of relief as we removed the suffocating vines from their branches.  Once the vines were gone we could set about over seeding that part of the yard...just in time for the drought, our timing is always impeccable when it comes to this sort of thing!

This weekend we should be at the farm mowing and also tending to the yard up at my parent's house, but the big tractor is broke 'd broke, so that meant we could focus on our yard and our house for the entire weekend!  The mower part will arrive on Monday from a dealership about 2 hours north of us.  We were going to drive up to pick it up, but with the price of gas, the $12 shipping fee sounded just fine to us, so we'll have to wait until Monday to get the mower deck fixed.

This morning, Mr. Tide and I lingered in bed for about a half hour, and then reality set in and we got going on everything that needed to be done around here.

When we go about doing yard work, I have my priorities and he has his, and most of the time they mesh up pretty well.  Today's chores included weeding, watering, potting, digging, and beautifying the porch and patio.  By now, we usually have all of my favorite garden items out and about, but this year they have been tucked in the dark recesses of the garage waiting patiently.

While we were out weeding, a few of our neighbors came walking down the road.  We live on a private lane with only 5 houses, so these neighbors live just up the road a bit, though we really all consider ourselves part of the same neighborhood...without the actual "hood" part!

As they were coming down the road Mr. Tide decided he needed something from the garage aka the he%# hole!  I looked at him and said, "really?!, did you HAVE to open the door right then?!"  He knows the rules...the door stays closed, because what people can't see, can't hurt them! ;-)

Our garage is our dirty little secret, the kind that only your closest friends can know about.  When we moved here, we left behind a 5 bedroom home with an oversized 2 car garage that had attic space over the entire garage.  We even installed a door in our bedroom for easy access to our attic, so our garage was always neat and clean (relatively speaking) and we parked both our cars in there.

Ahh, those were the days my friends, when scorching heat, rain, sleet, and snow didn't phase us, because we rested comfortably in the knowledge that our cars were safe and comfy in their little garage.

This house on the other hand has NO attic and 3 bedrooms, are you getting the picture?  Sure we got rid of a lot of stuff when we moved, but not quite enough, so our garage has become the black hole where everything that doesn't fit inside ends up being smashed, jammed, and dumped into it!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm not OCD and need my paint cans to all face the same way or anything like that, and our recent cleaning spree did put a bit of a dent into the mess that is the garage, but we are talking major undertaking, so a dent "ain't" gonna cut it if you know what I mean!

So why worry about a few neighbors seeing our "dirty" laundry so to speak?!  Well these weren't just any neighbors.  Oh they are really nice people, and I'm guessing they could really care less, but they just happen to be the people in the neighborhood that have gorgeous homes and immaculate yards...and I'm betting garage floors that you can eat off of...yikes!  One of them even owns a local nursery, so maybe their lawn implements are all neatly lined up and color coded...I don't know, but I do know that that garage door of ours came down in a mighty big hurry...get my drift?!

Mr. Tide found all of this quite amusing, except for the dirty look I threw his way when he opened the door at a most inopportune time, according to moi!  He looked at me and said, "this is real life," and then asked, "are you not ready for real life?"...and I had to stop a moment and take that comment in to my heat seared brain.

I wondered if the Osprey and Eagles get freaked out when a neighbor bird flies over and sees that their nest is a complete mess?!  Or how about the spiders, do they talk about another spider's web if it's not perfectly symmetrical?  The truth is, we are all imperfect, whether it be a garage or whatever, but that's what makes us perfect!

Oh, and I love this quote!  "No one is perfect, that's why pencils have erasers!"

Below is my new anthem...and I'm betting this is how some of my neighbors would think about us if they could only see inside our garage!! ;-)

Scouting Shots and Petal Pushers

I hope you all enjoyed Kim from Savvy Southern Style's guest post yesterday!  Thank you again Kim for having such a great sense of style and for being such a wonderful friend and blog buddy!

And thank you all for your nice emails and comments about my health!  I'm sorry to hear that so many of you have suffered the pain caused by kidney stones, but the advice you've given me, and knowing others out there can relate is very comforting!

On Friday, I took it easy all morning long and by the afternoon I was feeling well enough to go to a photo shoot I had scheduled for late in the afternoon.  This was a magazine scouting shoot of an amazing home that I had written about a few years ago for a regional magazine.  I wish I could show you this house, but let me just say that not only is the house spectacular, but the owners are some of the nicest people on the planet!  

I had a great time taking photos and chatting with one of the owners, Anna, about everything from organic gardening to design and decor...and you know how I love talking about those topics!   Anna has a great sense of style, and she's very knowledgeable about so many things.  And she even gave me some fresh organic lettuce from her beautiful garden to bring home...thank you Anna for the wonderful conversation and for the yummy leaf lettuce!

After I was done shooting the interior, I headed outside to take some shots of the exterior and the beautiful landscaping!  Along the front portion of their home is a flower bed filled with hydrangeas.  I love hydrangeas and how they change color depending on the pH level of the soil they are planted in...they can range from pale pink, to lavender, to electric blue, all within the same plant sometimes.

It's funny, before I left for the shoot I had commented on my friend Connie's blog, Hartwood Roses, about her beautiful pale pink hydrangeas and then here I was face to face with these beauties so I had to snap a few pictures to share with all of you!

I'm always smitten by flowers and how delicate and beautiful they are.   I also love how much they can change the appearance of an exterior and make it so much more inviting!  Mr. Tide and I have been doing some landscaping ourselves lately and even the addition of just a few flowering plants can dramatically improve the look of almost any home.

And you have to love a plant like the hydrangea that gives you such a show and asks so little in return.  They really are fairly carefree!  And I have to admit that any flower that can adapt to it's environment, can change color and still be beautiful is a plant I can admire.

After my photo shoot, Mr. Tide and I went to a small resort town nearby to grab something to eat.  Due to some adrenal and thyroid issues I've had over the last few years I'm very good about eating healthy and almost exclusively organic.  But tonight we were both really tired and actually went through a drive-thru!  Once again we were reminded why we NEVER eat fast food...yuck!

I took my camera along with me like I do when I go anywhere, but tonight I just wanted to walk along the waterfront and enjoy the scenery instead of documenting it!  We did meet another avid amateur photographer, and I even gave him a few blog addresses to check out, so we may have another blog convert!

Thank you again for all of your wonderful support and kind words these past few days and everyday!  I may not get to reply to each and every comment, but please know that I do read and enjoy them all and they mean the world to me!  And as a way to say thank you to all of you for always being there, check back soon when I'll have another little something to give away to 2 lucky winners!  

Enjoy your weekend!