beauty queens

Our youngest grand daughter and two nieces love playing dress up in some of the vintage clothes I've collected over the years....for just this purpose.

HER GARDEN

Shelton surprised me by removing the "b" from the word herb on this arch.  It now says "HER GARDEN".  Ahhhhhhh  What a guy~!  You may have to enlarge it to read the letters.  I thought I better get a photo befor the kiwi vine covers it.  By the way I ate my first kiwi from this vine this morning.  They are very small but taste like the larger variety we get in the grocery.

Chidren playing under the watchful eye of my grand daughter Tori

Tori, when did you get so tall??

I found my shadow

What is this gate anyway~!?

Let's eat

Cutiest thing in our yard

I feel a siesta comin' my way

Who doesn't love hydrangeas?

Tea in the garden

Shelton surprised me on my birthday several years ago with this awesome little Alice and Wonderland tea set. Tori, Tina and I have had some of our favorite tea parties out of these little cups.

Iris

Thanks to Mona (my sister married to my brother Tim) who gave me lots of different iris bulbs last year.  They were so beautiful all spring. 

Tired feet

Thanks again Susan

The three amigos~!

Thought we sent a memo to everyone to wear ice blue and shades of white....don't know what happened to the rest of you~!   Don't 'cha just love a man in a Florida hat~!~!?????  That's my man~!  This is also my friend and neighbor Leslie who was a huge help the day of the tour.  She showed up one afternoon while I was working and straightened my "leaning" angels at the front steps.  I think she was afraid she'd dirve by one afternoon and they would have fallen completely over~!   thanks Leslie, any help is appreciated~!

Thanks Susan for another great shot

Our computer crashed Tuesday morning taking with it the photos from our garden tour.  What would I do without great friends sharing their photos.  We had back up for all but the last week's shots.  Learning to work a new computer...ugh.  I will say it has many short cuts as soon as I learn my way around it.

New life...

My niece Hope and her big brother Nathan helped us watch these from eggs to flight~!  Simply amazing

Reflection in a silver bird bath

Thanks Carl,  I love love love this shot~!   My youngest brother can do amazing things with a camera in his hand~!

Shelton's favorite shot of a tropicana rose

The stems on this one can be as long as 24" and often are.  It's a definate show stopper when in full bloom which is often.

The flood on May 6th, 2010

  

Many of you asked if we had flooding.  Not in the sense that many people in Tennessee did.  What we had was run off from surrounding areas.  This shows the water receeding.  It had been about 6" higher.  What you're seeing is our mulch about to say "good bye".  We were amazed at how little actual damage was done to the plants and trees.  Even while we watched it floating down the hidden tunnel in the side of our yard, we kept thanking God that our family was safe and our home was not under water.  (8" of water in the basement does not compare to water actually destroying your family albums)

Highlight of the Garden Tour

This is my youngest grand daughter Tina.  She's 10 and was the belle of the tour.  Thanks for all your help Tina~!  It would not have been near so much fun without you~!   I love you, I love you, and I love you some more~!

I'm tellin' ya the truth.....Life really is good~!

Back yard

Double Knock Out Roses

If you were on the tour this weekend, I know you had to wonder if we really had roses.  I'll post more photos later.

Gateway to the garden

This was a screen that Shelton converted to an awesome gate to the side entrance of our garden.  LOVE IT~!

Reading under the roses

Recently we celebrated the upcoming wedding of my niece Krysten and her fiance Kyle.  My brother Carl took some wonderful photos of our family as well as my yard.

The Thinking Bench

My youngest brother Carl made this bench for me then promised to make me no more when I told him I painted it purple.  He now loves it almost as much as me....well let's correct that and say he still loves me. 

Cherub fountain on top of underground tunnel.

Shelton and I almost gave up gardening moving this heavy fountain into the yard.  It was so hard we decided to leave it alone until next summer.  He's making plans to get the water running to it this spring.

Tomato Garden

We called it our tomato garden because that was almost all we grew.  Don't you love the purple steaks Shelton painted for me.  Love that man~! 
I had several left over fabrics and sewed them all together to make the cushions for this lounge.  The birds don't seem to care about the love I put into them if you know what I mean.  The banana tree in the back ground was a gift from my neighbor Ray.  Since it's hardy here in Columbia... one less plant to dig up in the fall.  yea~!~!

Mom's Roses

My Mom has always had the greenest thumb with her roses.  I was thrilled she entrusted me to care for some of them.   They smell so....like a rose and bloom all summer.  Both Mom and I would love to know the name of them. The silver bird feeder we made from an old gas lamp stand and a 2 tier cake/snack server.  Whatever keeps the birds happy~!

Black Hollyhocks

I found these as seed but they didn't return the next year.  I need to plant them again this year as they were a show stopper behind my Mom's roses.

Side of garage

This is a shot of the side of a detached garage that is too small even for my small car.  Just how small were the cars in the 40's?   See the small gate to the right...?  it's gone~!  I'll take a shot of the new gate and post it later.  The yellow cannas have moved with me several times.  They bloom profusely all summer.

Candles outside

I love love love candle light at night, especially out doors.  I found this old light fixture and asked my son Rick to attach it to a pole so I could slide it where an umbrella should be.  Notice the old bricks piled up to the left that we dug from the yard.  I was told they came from the old Monsanto plant here in Columbia.  The original owner of my home worked there so it's quite possible.  This shot also shows pre-landscaping days....though we had started by forming a topiary from the overgrown boxwood.  I'm so glad the original owner had planted them probably 50 years ago.  I hope he wouldn't mind what I've done.

Angel Trumpets

 

My sister Mona (don't tell her she's my sister-in-law...she doesn't know) got me hooked on these awesome plants.  We didn't know then that they will overwinter in Columbia and Murfreesboro where she lives.  They die back, but bloom profusely by the fall.  One she's saved in a gigantic pot for years is as tall as her roof line.  It blooms much earlier because it stays in the garage all winter.  Lucky plant.  She would throw trimmings into her compost pile and the next spring they would have rooted.  Lucky me~!

Blanket of snow and ice January 2010

Shelton took this photo last weekend when we broke a ten year record for snow and ice here in Tennessee. I wanted to put booties on her little toes. This reminds me of my grand daughter Victoria, very little distracts her when she's reading.