picture of the week

The Harvesters

Lancaster County, Pa

...blessedness!

ox

lovely lavender

love, love, love lavender!

mid-summer, i dead-headed the lavender and tied them into a cluster.

in the process,

i discovered the dried seed heads kept their wonderful scent,

so i rolled the cluster between my hands to knock off the lavender,

getting  approximately a third cup off this small cluster.

 i poured it into a recycled glass candle, 

and placed a small glass container with a candle inside of that. 

it not only looks lovely,

it smells fantastic!

guess what i'll be doing next summer?!

...blessedness!

ox

hydrangeas, continued

I bought this hydrangea years ago at a nursery 'yard sale.' It looked pitiful but I knew under my 'tender, loving care,' it would look much better the next year. :)

By the time we moved here six years ago, I was able to get five plants out of the two I had bought. But like Pippy Longstocking, they just grew and grew! Several years ago DIL M graciously took them off my hands and, WOW!, were they ever gaw-gee-ious!

I almost, AL-MOST, took 'em back! :) And that's one of the funny things about these kind of
hydrangeas...they are blue or pink according to the type of soil they're planted in...alkaline (sweet) gives pink flowers - acid gives blue flowers. So one shrub can be pink/blue or any thing in between. If you want pink flowers, treat 'em with lime in the spring - if you want blue, treat 'em with aluminum sulfate. Son L had some that were a fabulous deep, deep purple...he moved them, and sure enough, they turned a different color.

They make beautifully dried plants that can be clipped and taken inside. Wait to harvest as close as you can before the first frost and position 'em where you want them. I usually de-bug them before I place them in the house to get rid of the spiders that hide inside the bloom.

This kind of hydrangea does not get trimmed back at all because they produce buds for the following years bloom. I wait until the end of May to trim the dead stuff off  - by then, one can see what is growing and what is not.

I L.O.V.E. me my Lime Lights! They certainly live up to their description, plus! They grow fast, bloom like mad and are a conversation piece. This year they really suffered from the hot, dry summer and look like this...

...instead of this.

(last summer's bloom)

Aren't the gorgeous? I kid you not...there were 8x12" single cluster bloom after bloom! After the first killing frost I merely snap the blooms off  and put 'em on the burn pile - the shrub looks much cleaner that way. They can also be used in outdoor decorations.

Last year I used them this way for Christmas at the front door...

I placed a four-foot garden trellis in a pot, filled the trellis up inside with the dried lime light flower heads, twined a fifty light strand of lights around it and poked rose hips here and there, then twined a woody vine around the bottom. It really was lovely! The birds thought so to as they kept eating the hips. :)

...happy gardening!

ox

week end musings

we had a quiet week end...

but after three week ends of  travel and two more to come -

it was wonderful to laze around home!

autumn is at its best right now -

brilliant colors, a full moon, rustling leaves, cool nights and just-right-temperature days!

the burning bush shrub belongs to our neighbours -

the stone pile is to complete a gap in the stone wall -

(hopefully before the snow flies!)

the wooden column was built by hubs to replace the tree -

the light on top of it will get a post of its own...

stay close, there is a give-away coming on that!

i was unable to post last week due to picture woes

and something to do with my 'cookies'...

no, no...not eating cookies - puter cookies! :)

sheer frustration!

and last but not least...

a new blog!

our DIL M has a food blog where she shares her delicious recipes -

meet TheKitchenCookie!

****************************

- from the pulpit -

Do you get what you pray for?

we are to ask, seek, knock...
but many times
we get a stone instead of bread,
 a serpent instead of a fish,
a scorpion instead of an egg.
many, many times,
it's the stone,
the serpent,
the scorpion,
that brings to us the very thing we asked for!

We ask for restored relationships,
then God sends a seemingly impossible situation.
We ask for patience,
and God gives us enormously trying events.
We ask for more faith,
and our faith is tried to the utmost!

You get the picture -
our character is built on hard stuff,
not the easy fluff that is empty and useless!


...blessedness!

ox

picture of the week

Footprints

Ocean City, Md.



...blessedness!

ox

hydrangeas

There's lots and lots of kinds of hydrangeas - I have only six different kinds. They keep coming up with new ones...some that I would love to have! The more recent ones bloom on old and new wood and are touted as being able to handle the sun. But my opinion is that they do better protected from afternoon sun (just sayin! :) Some can be trimmed back all the way to the ground, others not. Some defy all my theories and experience and still bloom or don't bloom! :)

The hydrangea I'm posting today came from a rental property and got transplanted here. It has a loosely, clustered white flower that begins with chartreuse colored buds, opening into white and goes back to chartreuse again. It blooms all summer long and makes gorgeous bouquets. It also dries beautifully...simply place them where you want them and they'll last til the next season. They are brittle and if bumped, make a mess. The only info I found on them is they're named as a Grandiflora. This picture shows several colors of the flower.

They're very easy care plants with very little maintenance. I used to let them up for 'winter interest' but several years ago I cut them back in the fall and like that a lot better....if left uncut, the flower heads break off and fly around the yard all winter. Leaving them uncut til after frost, they'll turn brown and make lovely, lovely window box/flowerpot fillers for Christmas/winter. I've already cut mine back and thus avoided the mooshy leaf mess left behind after frost. 

Several before/after pictures of a fall cleanup.

This summer was so warm and dry even these were gasping for water. As you can see, the leaves turned brown and ugly and I was happy to cut them back! I put the stems on a pile at the 'back forty' and will burn them when they've dried up a bit. These take too long to compost   unless they're run through a chopper of some kind.

(to be continued)

...happy gardening!

ox

week end musings

we spent the week end in Ocean City, Md., at a beach retreat marriage seminar...

beautiful, beautiful week end -

both weather wise and the teaching!

from our room we saw the sunrise over the water... 

looking to our left, our nights looked like this...

really beautiful!

the retreat was hosted by a local church,

and fifty couples attended...

one hundred individual lives were given scriptural tools to apply to ourselves

that should/will make a difference in our marriage...

but we need to pick up the tools!

the theme of the week end...

- Building a Legacy -

- our hosts -

Titus and Barbie Kauffman

our teachers

- Ben and Marci Dodd -

they did a wonderful work!
at our tables was all the chocolates we wanted to eat

all. week.end. long!

i luv me my chocolates!

**********************

the Elijah House teaching was presented
 in a very-easy-to-understand-real-life way...
simply inspirational!

they spoke of...
The Basics
Walking Through the Healing Process
Communication Formula

good stuff!
good week end!

...blessedness!

ox

picture of the week

Morning Mist

Lancaster County, Pa

...blessedness!

ox

summer retrospection

- garden tours -

- built a long dreamed of stone wall -

- gave our house a name -

- family vacation -

- sis-ta week -

- our local fire company celebrated 100 years -

- painted -

- my first tea -

- gardening -

- met a new gardening friend -

precious memories!

...blessedness!

ox

fall cleanup

It's been a while...but here I am again! Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, so I spent six hours cleaning up, transplanting and eliminating a few plants. Happy sigh and aching muscles! :) If anyone is interested in deep purple day lilies and blazing star bulbs, give me a shout out.  I'm posting a few pictures of my work and will post more on this subject later.

Before

After

Finished!

Remember this?

After six to eight inches of rain it has recovered wonderfully!

My lovely lime lights suffered from the dry heat

 and look like this...

instead of like this.

(picture from last summer)

I'll let the sedum stand until frost kills them then possibly use the flower heads to decorate for outdoor Christmas decor. I used to let them up all winter but discovered I like the beds better without.

...happy gardening!

ox

PS...I found a skeleton of a mole today -

wonder if the chewing gum did him in? 

week end musings

our church had a retreat in central Pa from friday evening until sunday noon.

 this was our view from the back deck.

the leaves were really lovely, though not at their peak.

**********************

Encountering Jesus

In the realities of life,

and in the middle of hard things,

Jesus whispers...

'Sh-h-h, I'm here to deliver you.'

Giving up my alabaster box,

Am I willing to break the seal?

Give up my dreams?

To love genuinely is costly -

and to risk criticism and scorn...

to be misunderstood.

Worship

We are created to worship.

Worship is a connection to God.

To worship the Creator rather than the created.

This was our teaching in a nutshell -

a lot to think about and apply to my life!

...blessedness!

ox

picture of the week

The Flower Girl

Fleur Gardens

...blessedness!

ox

curtains...

thanks for your comments,

both here and on face book.

more yays than nays for this one...
(though i was leaning toward this one, i needed opinions)

my mind is spining with ideas!

you all know what a 'ghost lamp shade is?'

i found one at the GW this morning and am eager to put my stamp on it...

she was an 'ugly duckling' that i hope will turn into a swan -

more on her and the bedroom later!

...blessedness!

ox

opinions, please!

i'm thinking of making changes in our bedroom,

using things i already have.

the window on the left is the new...

(taken on a cloudy day)

the window on the right is the old.

(taken on a sunny day)

help me out...give an opinion!

...blessedness!

ox

yumminess and a second breakfast!

 i discovered yumminess in devonshire cream on top of jam on toasted bread.

i'm sure any bread will do but it's especially good on Ezekiel 4:9 bread.

now Ezekiel 4:9 bread makes wonderful toast and french toast topped with cinnamon and agave nectar -

but a sandwich? nah...not so much!

it's tooo dry but it is full of healthy goodness!

and yes, if you read Ezekiel 4:9 in the Bible,

it gives the ingredients of the sprouted grains that are used for this bread.

most health food store carry it...

i buy mine by the case (6 loaves) and get a percentage off that amounts to one loaf almost free.

anyhoo, back to the yumminess.

sometimes i have a second breakfast.

now let me be clear....

my first was a fruit smoothie...WITHOUT sugar!...which justifies the second one.

HA!

i got my fourteen year old toaster out that i bought in Canada

and is as much a faithful toaster now as then,
the naturally sweetened jam and devonshire cream sweetened with sugar.

you can see there wasn't much of the cream left,
and only four pieces of bread left in the bag...
what's a woman to do?!
yep - i polished.it.all.off!

yumminess, indeed!

especially when eaten in front of the computer reading other blogs! :)

...blessedness!

ox