Romantic Peonies..............

Peonies are plentiful in this garden and I am taking full advantage of it. 

I love arranging vase after vase of these gorgeous blooms.
To me they are the epitome of romance.

I have been cutting them everyday and enjoying their beauty not only in the garden
but in the house as well.
I sold several to a local florist again this year and still have several on the bush,
so I am sure I am not finished taking photos of them yet.

I hope you don't mind if I share a few more in a following post.
We had a downpour this afternoon,
so I hope I still have some in the morning : 0
I love this time in the garden like no other time of the season.
What a glorious romantic flower the peony is!

the garden this week---deep thinking and digging deep

Don't you love it when you have something to keep your hands busy but still

are able to get lost in thought?

Gardening is that for me.

This past week has been the first 'real' steady work week for me in the yard.
I am very behind and yet the garden has been so patient.

It seems that when I am digging and getting my hands deep into the earth that that's when my 

best problem-solving gets done.

So many things in my life right now are taking precedence over the garden and I have missed

the time spent in deep thought. 

I remember when I was a little girl I would get frustrated with the noise and clatter and lack of 

privacy that goes with being a member of a family with six children.

I was the middle child. 

I always craved a space that was all mine but knew a room of 

my own was out of the question.

The little farm we lived on had a grove of trees that grew at the furthest corner

of our property and I would go there to think and be alone sometimes.

Now, lest you think that I would escape to my little corner in the woods
to get out of doing my chores you would be mistaken.
I was very serious about doing what I needed to do

and have a mother who can vouch for me.

I loved this place of solitude and was sad when my little corner was sold 

to another landowner nearby.

I think I still miss it to this day,

 but I shouldn't because I have this little place of respite now.

 I have some things on my mind that need serious thought and this week and every minute 

before it spent in the garden has given me opportunity to do that.

I am so thankful for it! 

When I am out here alone in beauty I can do some compartmentalizing,

prioritizing and planning what is important to take care of first.
I find myself thinking about the things that need changing in my life like
 several character flaws that have crept into my personality since
'those' hormonal changes that come with a certain age
have happened over the last 8 years or so.
Like over-sharing, or the need to make myself 'more' because I feel like less.
Forgetting important things, or
 getting perturbed by things that never bothered me before.
Just call me Miss Cranky Pants!
I did finally go on natural hormone replacement and have been so surprised
at how much better I feel about myself and how little pain I am in now.
Talk about over-sharing huh? : 0!

So many of my thoughts as I work are on my sweet sister as she prepares for
life without her husband who has brain cancer.
I have time to think about him and some of the good times we have all
had as a family.
Time to pray for his children who will miss their dad so much.

I think it's good to do some deep thinking on how to improve myself and 

my relationship with others.
I think this has been my year to really take stock and 

do better and think better and be better.

I have always heard it said that gardening is good for the soul.
It has been so for me since I planted it.

Now let's just hope all this thinking and digging gets the job done!

A lovely new magazine!

Inspiration Vintage

Melinda from Alabaster Rose Lifestyle has launched a new magazine. 

I was happy to be included as a contributor in this beautiful publication.

Melinda is hosting a wonderful giveaway to launch her premier issue. If you would like to 

read more about her magazine and to enter her giveaway you can click here.

To order your own copy of Inspiration Vintage click here.

Thanks so much Melinda for including me in your beautiful new magazine!!!

lilacs, linens and lily-of-the-valley

The lilacs have almost finished their lovely spring show.
The blooms are still out, but looking a little more aged every day.
The Primrose lilac is still blooming and one of the late lilacs is just starting
so when you walk out into the garden, the air is still filled with their fragrance.
There is no other scent that transports me through time like the lilac.
I know this must be so with many of you. I think this is why I love this time
in the garden the most. I'm five years old again and my sister and I
are playing in my grandmother's garden.
~beautiful memories~

This particular lilac is called Glory and paired with a couple of stems of 

a soft pink one.

Not a great picture but it shows how huge the clusters are on it.

 

 In the photo below is Beauty of Moscow.

I love, love, love my lily of the valley, and especially the scent of them.

When they bloom, 

I fill every room with a little bunch of them.

When my daughter and her children were here, I had huge bouquets of lilacs in the house

and almost the minute my daughter walked in the house, her eyes and nose 

started running and she was sneezing.

So out went the lilacs onto the front patio! 

 I had so much fun with the grandchildren while they were here.

It was wonderful to catch up with my daughter and see baby Jace again.

Only my second time since he was born :(

He is now a year old and 

WOW!!! had I forgotten how much they get into at that age.

But...

 it will be in the blink of an eye and he will be the age 

of his seventeen year old brother before I know it.

I just figured out while writing this that I will be 74 when he turns the age 

of my oldest grandchild (his brother).

Crazy!!!