Tuesday, October 19, 2010

White Wednesday...and a lovely new magazine.


It seems to me that the world is spinning at a faster pace than I can keep up with...
so when this happens, therapy for me is to take the camera outside
into my place of repose and capture the beauty that is there for the taking.

A week or so ago, I had cut some of the hydrangeas that were blooming
and put them in a picnic basket to dry naturally. This arrangement will be adorning
the top of my kitchen cabinets for the Winter to remind me Summer will
again come and bring it's blooms with it.


As you can see from the pictures, it was still very green here at the time I cut the hydrangeas.
In a very short time, things have changed and Autumn has painted the garden a myriad
of hues, and everyday is even more beautiful than the day before.
The petunias in the urn behind are still hanging in there with their
gorgeous colors from Summer.



I left many on the bush to see if they would change from their white to the lovely sepia
tones that they do sometimes in the Fall.

I think because they have been so late this year, they won't get their chance.
 Snow is expected here next week.
Last Fall we got our first snow the 6th of October! Even the snow is late.
 (thank goodness)




I love hydrangeas in all their different hues and stages on the bush,
and I cut them to see how each stage will dry.

The longer they are on the bush the better they dry.
But sometimes I want just the right color, so I will cut early.
I don't mind if they shrivel and crinkle up a little.
I can still see the beauty they have to offer.

Boy, do I hope people think that way of me when I get that way.LOL!



The roses are STILL blooming beautifully!
 In the middle of October...
LOVE IT!


I took the pictures of this 'Morden Snowbeauty' rose yesterday.
The pureness of the white is so striking in the garden right now,
amidst all the Fall colors.






And what goes better with White Wednesday, than a little white dog???

T.T. Rabbit aka Tiny Tim



Among all the green that is still out here in the garden,
you can catch glimpses of Autumn everywhere.
I took many photos yesterday of the colors, and will be posting them
in my next post.
 I better hurry and post however, because it sounds as if I will
have snow photos to post soon!



If it wasn't for the fact that I am in need of a good rest...
I would be kicking and screaming my way into Winter.
But am I tired!!!
The good kind of tired.


To veiw some beautiful whites,
you will find a link to many sites showing theirs off this Wednesday
at Kathleen's Faded Charm.
***
I am excited to share with you this beautiful magazine
 that the lovely artist Jo-Anne Coletti at
She had asked me if she could do a feature of some of
my style in the garden, home, and studio. 
I was thrilled that she would consider me, since this is a one time magazine on
romantic style that she is creating.
I am so excited to be able to grace it's pages.
Thank you so much Jo-Anne.
I have left a link to her site if you would like to know more about it.
Just the front cover makes me drool.
I can't even imagine what the rest will be like.



Did I already say, 'I am excited'?!!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Fall roses and a note...

The final flush of roses is on in the garden now and
 I thought I would share a few pictures I have been taking of them ...
in the house and in the garden.




This pretty little rose is Colette. A  'Romantica Rose'.
It is an extremely vigorous rose, and does well here in my garden. 



It can be trained as a short climber. One of them grows on the south side of my house.
Below is a view of it now in it's second bloom cycle.



***

I love this rose below, but don't have the name of it right now. I have it written down,
but didn't take the time to find it. It looks a lot like my 'Angel Face' rose, but has
a little more peach in it.


I have it sitting in the kitchen window.
Sure wish you could smell this pretty thing.
It dries beautifully too.





The rose below is 'Morden Blush'. I can't get enough of this rose,
and so I have several bushes in my garden.













The rose below is 'Moxie'.
This rose shows up almost like a neon light in the garden.
I love it's form and scent, and wish I could find another.
My mother gave me this rose, so it is very special to me.







For any of you that have 'Bonica' in your garden, I don't need to tell you 
how special this rose is. 
Perfect in almost every way for us cold Winter gardeners.




She is just covered with blooms right now, and goes into Winter blooming like crazy.





You can look out in December and see the frozen blooms still clinging to it.




***

I wanted to show the sight along the driveway right now.
 We have this little arbor over the iron headboard gate that I have on my sidebar, and
the morning glory is blooming now and looks so pretty. 

Morning Glory are one of those 'granny garden' plants that I love so much.



I had an elderly friend who has long since passed away, and she had them growing
everywhere. I think they are charming in every way.




A peek of the gazebo through the arbor


I'm not catching on to Blogger's new way of loading pictures, so this picture of my 'Morden Blush'
rose should have been below the pictures of the bouquets of it above.

Just a view of it on the bush.






The picture above and the one below, are of the roses growing along the driveway now.


Finally Fall is coming to the garden, although it is still very green,
some of the trees are starting to color up a bit.
I am madly cutting things back, and getting the garden ready for it's
long Winter nap.
Now is when I wish I could hire someone to help me.
But, boy do I need the exercise, so I will go it alone for another year.
You can see that the pruners are missing from my little bucket
tied to my tree. I wonder where the heck I've laid them down now.



I had a lot of questions about the horses near my little getaway, and thought I would answer
you here. Yes I do ride, but haven't for quite awhile. I think it has to do a lot with
wondering how I could take care of Landon, if I fell off and broke something, LOL!

My husband goes up about every other day to check the amount of grass
in which ever pasture they are on at the time. It is time for them to go on the hillside now,
because the grass is plentiful there now, and for some reason
 they love the dry grass that grows there.
The water is plentiful, because of the creek and the natural springs that are there.
We have seven horses total and love 'em.
In the late Fall, we bring them to the home place and stable them here. 
Then they sulk all Winter, until they can be on their forty acres, 
pretending to be wild ponies again. 
Thank you for all of the wonderful messages you left me about the shack
(okay, I'll change it's name)
 I cherish them, and the friendships we have forged  here.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

A trip to the shack in the woods...


I thought today I would show some pictures of my little haven in the mountains.


Whenever I go up to Fishcreek
 (our forty acres about seventeen miles up a canyon),
 I am usually welcomed by one of our horses.

This is Molly.



Below is the view out the door of the shack.

This has got to be my favorite place in the entire world.
It is so close to home, and yet it seems like you are in the middle of nowhere.
Actually...you ARE in the middle of nowhere!






Oh looky here...Bella would like a little camera time as well!!!
She's standing right behind the little shack, about four foot away from the rear wall.
I think she was sneaking up on me.

Which reminds me of a funny story.
A few years ago, I came up to spend the night here ALONE,
and I have to be honest....
sometimes I'm not very brave.
Well I spent the evening hiking around the property and then
came in to settle down for the night. I didn't hear anything outside
because I was watching a movie, when the next thing I know, there was a figure out the door.
It scared me to death and I was afraid to even move.
Because the light was on inside, I couldn't
 make out the figure, so I turned the light
out so that whoever was there couldn't see me as easily
.(like, where was I going to go if they decided to come in)LOL! 

And there in full glass door
 (crazy I know), in the middle of nowhere to have a full glass door with no curtain))
was a horse staring at me!!!
I think he was enjoying the movie too.

I now have a curtain!



The horses have a well worn path down this fence because
 we have the property on both sides of the road,
and we pasture the
 naughty horses on one side and the not so naughty horses on the other.
(not really)
But we do separate them for various reasons.











So now brace yourself! This is not pretty!

We will get to the pretty part in a minute.
Yep...this is it.
 Hopefully later this Fall, the shack won't be this ugly on the outside.
I'm planning on giving it a little face lift.

I would like it's outside to match it's inside.
 Guess what color I want to paint it?
WHITE
of course!

On the inside it has a different feel.
I love coming up here and just sitting and reading my stash of Country Home magazines
that I keep up here. Lots of issues dating back over ten or so years.
Sometimes I take a long nap.
Sometimes I do both.

Now I'm going to shut up for awhile and just show a lot of pictures.









The little shack has a lot of mirrors.
I love reflections.







The green chippy bed my husband found at the landfill almost a dozen years ago.











So that is my little shack in the woods this year.
 I posted about it last year too,
but wanted to do another post about how it looked this Summer.

 I think it is funny that my husband and sometimes my son-in-laws
stay in here from time to time. 
I wonder if they feel a little uncomfortable around all the foof?
So far they haven't complained.

I guess they could always sleep outside with the horses!





Here is a view to the other side of the road.
As you can see it is getting quite dry here this time of year.
The grass in the bottom is getting scarce so 
we will be putting the horses on the hillside until snow flies.



And now Bella wants to say...


THE END.