Showing posts with label bells. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bells. Show all posts

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Oh, What a Beautiful Morning . . .

Another reason we live in Seattle! I suspect the reason we tell everyone it rains all the time here is so they won't move here ~ and, make the traffic worse than it is!

But today . . . oh, so utterly gorgeous! The sky is robins egg blue and not a cloud in the sky. The sun casts deep, dark shadows across the lawn. The air is soft and clean. The leaves sparkle as they move in the breeze. This day has all my favourite things ~ the sun is shining, the birds are chirping, someone is mowing a lawn, a couple of dogs are barking, parents are walking their babies up the street under my window, you can just hear the wind chimes like very quiet, small bells and a group of kids are laughing and playing next door.

Talk about Everyday Grateful! This is one for the list.

As I was walking in the garden this morning and feeling the sun on my face, I am reminded of why I think of the garden as a lovely scented room. And, as we all know, the thing that makes a room is the accessories. In this garden, I love the dozens of pots filled with bulbs just beginning to open; their full heavy heads nodding in the breeze. There are pots of perennials; pots of annuals. Amazing pots. Plain vanilla pots. All working together to create a personal space of comfort and beauty.

As I've mentioned before, if I buy something, I look first at salvage and used. I've been very fortunate to find fantastic things for pennies on the dollar. I gravitate towards an eclectic mix that has an acquired look. The strength of the "acquired look" is it is visually interesting and benefits for the occasional addition to spice up the whole. It isn't necessary to go out and spend hundreds of dollars getting all matchy-matchy pots. Add a single "star" every year or so and the result will be more interesting.

Don't forget to add your found objects that can be used as garden art. This garden has a wonderful metal heron in a bright green glazed pot, a bamboo ladder leaning up against the wall and a black metal pergola with a floor of salvage cement tile from Singapore covered with moss, add your own acquired items to personalize your garden.

Parts of the garden are still sleeping. The mulch covering the beds is warming in the sun. The perennial peonies are just poking their soft red leaves out of the ground. The new leaves on the roses are soft, furled and a deep oxblood colour. Things are beginning to stir.

 

 Spring really is just around the corner.

Day 3 Everyday Grateful ~ Seattle in the spring.

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Baby Bunnies Redux


One of my dearest friends, Zenith McManigal, AIA, is not only a architectural boy genius but also the funniest man alive. So, I sent him the link to the tale of the bunnies in my back yard and got this:

In a message dated 3/14/2012 6:23:48 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, Zen writes:

Cute!! Dear! You have such a Northwest Trek over there! All we have are raccoons & stupid coyotes that make us fear for the safety of our little Toy Fox Terrier Tula (Finley the border collie is big enough to fend for herself, as is Ramses).

Z

From Heidi ~ Sent: Wed, Mar 14, 2012 6:35 pm:

Hi Dear ~
Well, I did have a moments fright when I thought they were baby rats! Not that I would have done anything other than what I did but I did shudder. Northwest Trek, indeed. Last summer, I saw a couple (that's two, mind you) coyotes walking side-by-side bold as brass up the street chatting about life in the suburbs. Not a care in the world.
Did you like all the moss and black slime covering my pots, bench, and limestone in my photos? I like to think it's atmospheric and not a filthy disgusting mess. Which reminds me of the old Dennis the Menace cartoon. Dennis' parents on either side of the restaurant table with Dennis in the middle looking out of the panel. The caption ~ "I don't call it romantic. I call it dark." One person's atmospheric is another's filthy disgusting mess. Go figure.
H

From Zen ~ 3/14/2012 7:04:51 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time:

I prefer to think of it as having a rich yet bohemian-like earthiness........much like the patina on the bronze bells of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, or the rich sediment at the bottom of a bottle of Chateau Lafite Rothschild.....I'm thinking a '61........

Z