Hyacinths part three

Jan. 28

Feb 19

Today

My purple hyacinth turned out to be pink

The scent fills the whole room...

The Nester has some interesting posts on thrifting:

• How to Cure Thrift Store Shopping, I Hate to Pass Up a Great Deal-itis Disease Syndrome 
• Your Thoughts on Thrifting-itis 
• Final thoughts on Thrifting
  

Lately I've been witnessing a subtle change in many of the decor blogs from acquiring more to doing more with less.

Interesting, don't you think?

What is an English Garden?

While there is certainly such a thing as a formal English garden, when most people hear that term they think of lush curvy beds overflowing with fragrant flowers and dotted with evergreens and shrubs, winding paths, big shade trees, and benches tucked here and there.   To me an English garden looks like someone went out and threw a huge bunch of seeds in the air and let them grow where they may.

The very best part of an English garden?  When you pack in lots of plants there is less room for weeds. 

Why garden?

Why not?

There are many reasons to garden.  Some people do it for the food they produce and others do it for flowers.  I do it because it is simply who I am.  Poking around in the dirt soil is something I've done since I was old enough to crawl about the backyard.



My Mom, being the ultimate con artist,  had me believing at about age two that pulling weeds was the bestest fun ever.  Guess what?  She was right!  I still love to weed and in Idaho that could be is a full time job.  We have more weeds per square inch than anywhere in the entire country.

One of the best reasons for gardening is what it teaches us about patience.  Put a seed in the ground, water it,  keep it safe from creepy crawlies, and soon you will see a little sprout emerge.  In a few weeks you'll have a little bit of plant and in a few more weeks, or even months, you'll have a vase full of blooms or a luscious plate of fresh tomatoes.  This is the complete antithesis of the 30 second sound bite text messaging world we inhabit.  Something doesn't do well?  Oh well - there's always next year.

Oriental Lilies, Liatris, miniature roses

Anyone can garden.  And I mean anyone!  I cringe whenever someone says, "I have a black thumb."  There is no such thing.  Do you really think that every thing I stick in the ground grows and thrives?  That would be nice if it were true, but the reality is many seeds don't germinate, an occasional bout of blossom end rot strikes, or something weird strikes a tree branch causing it to rot and die. 

With the advent of the internet learning about gardening seemed to become easier but often as not caused more confusion than help.   Have a wart on a branch and don't know what it is?  Pretty hard to find it on the internet unless you have honed your search skills.  A few good books are still the best way to learn to garden.

My all time favorite for disease identification is still the Ortho Home Gardener's Problem Solver.  Once you find your problem you can hop on the web and do more research. 

For your indoor plants the Ortho Guide to Houseplants should do the trick.

And for inspiration you can't beat Tasha Tudor

I may have to start dressing like Tasha when I garden

Some linky love and the hyacinths three weeks later...

January 28th

Today...

helloooooooo flowers...

Maybe I should run a lottery on when the flowers will open.

Not sure what a hyacinth looks like?  See some here

New addition to the blogroll:

Allow me to introduce Faded Charm which is full of shabby chic charm.  I still can't figure out how other people's tarnished silver looks really cool and mine just looks, well, tarnished. 

A new book, an update on my "Christmas tree", and the art of keeping your mouth shut...

This year we didn't put up our Christmas tree and I can report there have been no long-lasting negative ramifications to our mental health. Actually, the first of January rolled around and I was pretty happy not to have to put the tree and decorations away.

A friend of ours was so disturbed by our lack of a tree she gifted us with a dwarf Alberta spruce with appropriate decorations. I've since removed the decorations and that cute little spruce is growing up a storm.

 Check out all the new growth

Our Christmas cactus bloomed heavily this spring in the late fall and just a few days ago it put out one lovely perfect bloom...

That's pollen dusted on it's petals...

And the book?

I went a bit crazy at Amazon last week and ordered three new books.  Absolutely outrageous for cheap thrifty little moi, but since we have met and exceeded all our Dave Ramsey goals I figured it was ok.   The Spiritual Art of Being Organized arrived today. I won't offer a yay or nay until I've finished reading it (which will probably be later today.) 

How About Keeping Our Mouths Shut?? (which is almost impossible for me)

Another book I ordered is "The Way We're Working Isn't Working", which I've mentioned before.  It was a library book and I was quite impressed.  I gave it to my husband to read (a workaholic) and managed to keep my mouth shut (we women talk way too much) the entire time he was reading it. 

I never questioned him (a miracle) or worse said, "See - I've been telling you that stuff for years" (waaaaay not good!)   After reading the book for about a week I witnessed him closing down his office at a somewhat normal time and actually sitting in the living room reading a book.  Hmmmmmmmmm.  Still, I said nothing.  About two weeks after that he started quoting stuff from the book.  Whoooooooooeeeee!  Still, I said nothing.

At the end of last week I mentioned I wanted to re-read parts of the book but it was due back Monday.  Veeeerrry nonchalantly he said, "Maybe you should get us our own copy from Amazon."  Still, I said nothing.  Aren't you proud of me?

It's out in paperback now...

Growing bulbs indoors...

is super easy.

While picking up a few things at the hardware store I came upon some bulbs that were on sale for $2.00 per package.  Some of them had 6 bulbs, some 8, and the tulips had 12 bulbs.

There were packages of  purple and white hyacinths which I dearly love for their wonderful fragrance. The bulbs were large and already sprouted, so I grabbed a few packages. 

I rooted around (no pun intended) and found a nice low clay pot.  After putting a bunch of broken clay pieces in the bottom for drainage, I added a bit of soil and stuck in the bulbs.  After covering the top with bark the pot was watered and placed by the window.  When I'm bored I can always sit and watch the hyacinth grow.

Hyacinths come in many beautiful colors

My pot will have a mixture of white and purple

 
Hyacinths and other bulbs can even be grown in water.  My grandma used to put them in a beautiful low bowl surrounded by rocks with just a bit of water.  They also make cute little bulb vases.

 In just a few weeks I'll have a beautiful blooming pot of fragrant hyacinth for about $1.50.  The bulbs I didn't use for the pot will go outside. 

Do you eat breakfast?

During my single years breakfast was usually a bottle of Tab (are you old enough to remember Tab?  I still miss it!)  Not a great way to start the day. 

Now my husband and I always sit down to a nice breakfast.  I  like a lot of variety of things to eat for breakfast, so I have learned to cut down on the size of the portions and we never eat things like muffins or sweet rolls. The closest we get to a big sugar fix is to occasionally have homemade jam or jelly on our toast.

 Today was a fairly typical breakfast - two slices of cantaloupe, 1/2 container (4 oz each) of lite blueberry yogurt, one soft-boiled egg served in an egg cup, cracked wheat sour dough toast.

I love eating soft-boiled eggs in an egg cup.  I used to have some really ugly wooden egg cups that I finally threw away, which meant that I had to find new ones.  Since I am cheap  thrifty  the number one priority was cost.  Number two was they had to be nice - please, no plastic.  Trying to find egg cups is hard enough without all those mandates.

Last month while perusing the mark-down stuff on the end-cap of Ross, I spied a box of four white egg cups. Wow - those are not bad looking.  It was the only box there and when I flipped it over the mark-down price was $2.99.  Well, ok then!  I can do that...

The little silver spoons are demitasse spoons my great-grandma brought over from the old country. Perfect size for egg spoons.

A really fun place to visit is a site called Jennifer Causey's Simply Breakfast.   Jennifer is a professional photographer who also maintains the blog Simply Photos (there's a link on her sidebar.)  You lovers of all things French may want to add her photographic journey of all things Paris to your Christmas list.   I stole borrowed a few picture and I'm hoping she won't mind. 

Head over and check out her blog, her shop (fabulous prints for sale), her books, and her wedding portfolio. 

Other photos by Jennifer...

 I'll be doing a bit of housework this morning since it's raining again.  Yesterday I managed to get all the extra Siberian Iris planted in the wildflower/grass field (we call it the "gully") and finished cleaning the cutting garden.  Next year, in addition to bearded iris blooming in the "gully", there will also be hundreds of Siberian Iris.

The "Gully" late spring

 Have a nice day...

And...don't forget to vote tomorrow!

If you need a reminder of why, take a look at this wonderful photo journey of women's suffrage:

The Right to Vote is the Obligation to Vote

Autumn in North Idaho

Great autumn color depends on moisture.  We had lots of rain this year and together with my constant watering, it has produced one of the most beautiful autumns I can remember.

I headed out with my camera between the raindrops and took a stroll on the property.

(as always - you can click on picture to enlarge to really, really huge so you won't miss any weeds or other ugly stuff :-)  Ok - so I just took my own advice after publishing this post and enlarged the pictures.  Waaaay cool!)

Even the red twig dogwood in the backyard produced some fun color...

A young Radiant crab apple framed by the gate

Amur Maple peeking over the top of some lilacs...

The Amur Maple hedge from the other side...

Amur Maple leaves...

Two of the young Mountain Ashes dressed up for fall...

One of the young maples "strutting it's stuff"

Wow!  Just look at that Cherry tree.  It's right outside our bedroom window making for a very nice view...

Some Cherry leaves...

Lots of color in the front to greet visitors...

Common purple asters...

Peeking into the back yard through the bushes...

Amazing color...

 

Time for a French Press coffee (made with fresh ground caramel flavored  beans), a biscotti, and a peek at Victoria's special edition magazine that just came in the mail.  Then off to church...

  

Does life get any better than this?