The Monthly Bloom

The back yard:

    

Big Picture (the herb garden):

Our newest addition- Yarrow!

Big Picture (new bed to the left of the patio)- transplanted hawthorns and rosemary, closer to the kitchen door, and apple blossom yarrow I haven't been able to get out of my head since seeing it at a neighbors last spring:

Sweet Pea:

Crazy Garlic! We were confused when this first popped up in the midst of our tulips and daffodils, both positive that neither of us planted it there. Then I remembered the buckets of bulbs we dug up from the yard the year before. Oops, don't know how the garlic bulbs got mixed up in there:

The front yard:

Another random onion bulb:

The front perennial garden:

Now blooming- purple cone flower:

                                       

The sadly neglected vegetable garden:

I'll be honest, keeping up with the monthly bloom is a lot of work, which is my excuse for always posting it a little bit late. Every month I'm still so surprised by our yard. I'm always thinking there's no way we'll have as much, if anything, blooming in the yard the next month. And look how faithful it is, even if it's a little bit messy or neglected.

Next up: the monthly bloom does some flower arranging!

at work and play

Last weekend is the first free weekend we've had since the beginning of March! We love hosting and having visitors, and traveling to visit family and friends, but we relish our free weekends, which are so few and far between. A little R&R sounds nice, but that's not for us on our free weekends. We work, ALL DAY LONG, usually stopping for some unhealthy lunch- which we deserve, and where we can go covered in dirt or paint, and sweat. Last Saturday we even headed back out after dinner, working until dark. Here's some of what we did, and that's only the back yard! It might appear that we got to do a lot of fun planting, but really it was mostly weeding and mulching. We were both having trouble walking the next day. Really, who knew weeding is such a good workout?

Lu on the other hand got a lot of R&R. She's not adjusted to the weather yet and loves fresh wet mulch!

I did take a break to make some lemon mint tea, since trimming the bountiful mint was on the list. I don't usually even like iced tea, but all this mint and lemon- so refreshing!

Lu also found a good spot to relax next to the air vent- so worn out after lounging outside in the heat!

I've promised Laurence some work days now after all his help outside. Next on the list, and really almost finished, the booth in our kitchen nook!

Micanopy's Canopies

In April I got to visit Grandmother down south and accompany my mom on the two day road trip back to Tennessee. We took our time and decided to stop late one afternoon in Micanopy, FL. Ever since I can remember I've heard references to Micanopy and Cross Creek. It's a recurring topic for my mom, grandmother, and aunt, sitting around a kitchen table, somewhere. With eager eyes and animated hands, this old Florida is spoken of with reverence, longing, and an appreciation that must result from something soul-resonating. Cross Creek, "crackers," the orange groves, the cookery, Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, the ice cream shop, etc. I've listened to and appreciated their enthusiasm but never been able to fully enter into the transient world they seem so obsessed with. Maybe it's an age thing, maybe I had to see it for myself, but that afternoon the soft light and live oaks draped in spanish moss whispered a knowing welcome to my soul. Maybe it's in our blood. I sure love the women in my family and that this bonding experience in nature is so much more appropriate than a debutante ball, a first roasted chicken, or new home ever could be. 

So, as I approach thirty this year (wow!), having now visited Cross Creek and the home of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, I feel I've made a significant step into adulthood. And, after reading her book, Cross Creek, I know I'll find myself one of the women the next time we're at Grandmother's kitchen table and the conversation inevitably leads to Micanopy. 

I didn't have my camera with me but had fun playing with the settings on our point and shoot. My mom and I took a nice walk around what's now an overgrown orange grove and enjoyed the trail around this picturesque playground, adjacent to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' home.

on the summer reading list:

"Who owns Cross Creek? The red-birds, I think, more than I, for they will have their nests even in the face of delinquent mortgages... It seems to me that the earth may be borrowed, but not bought. It may be used, but not owned. It gives itself in response to love and tending, offers its seasonal flowering and fruiting. But we are tenants and not possessors, lovers and not masters. Cross Creek belongs to the wind and the rain, to the sun and the seasons, to the cosmic secrecy of seed, and beyond all, to time..."

- Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Cross Creek