Lovely Sedum

I like sedums - most of the time - and my favorite is the rosy-colored one. I picked my start up at a yard sale for twenty-five cents in a styrofoam cup which is why I can't name it. The bees go crazy when it blooms and it multiplies like crazy...it doesn't even need roots to grow! If I can't give it away, I throw it away - as in a trash bag and in the dumpster; because if I don't, I'd be surrounded by this perennial! Here they are in their glory and they go well with Autumn colors.

These pictures were taken in sunnier days - we've had lots of cloudy/rainy days.

Edited September 24, 2012:

Give them a little love and surround them with the green garden fence wire that can often be found at yard sales for pennies or buy them new at WalMart/KMart stores in the spring. I take them apart into four sections around the plant early in the spring. The wire is hidden by mid-summer.

Mosses and Mushrooms

We spent the week end with our '69 friends,' an annual gathering of twelve couples (one couple missing due to missions in Israel), celebrating fortytwo years of marriage. It poured rain on Friday but Saturday and Sunday the weather was delightful - altogether a lovely, lovely week end!

Saturday afternoon the ladies took a meandering walk.

I was fascinated by the mosses and mushrooms on our walk.

Truly, creation is awesome and beautiful!

New Project

Our new headboard.

This is a recent project that's been an on going one and took longer than I intended it to take. It was fun and fairly simple. Until I decide what I want for the mantle, I placed Lime Light flower heads on it. I'm thinking of white plates or mirrors on the wall and going simple with the mantle deco - after all, it's going to be a dust-collector shelf!

Details and credit coming next week!



Outdoor Autumn Display

I moved my handcart-turned-into-display-cart by the fish pond for an autumn display. It also filled an empty spot after pulling out the petunias that were there for the summer. This display is seen from both sides of this flower bed.

Empty cart from the back side.

After

Before - looking out from the dinning room.

After

Close up.

I had the star for several years displayed outdoors but the paint didn't hold up well. I scraped the loose paint off, exposing the rust and leaving a lovely patina for this vignette. I prefer ornamental kale over mums (unless I want more of them) as the kale lasts longer and the color and deeper gets lovelier in the autumn chill. It also can handle light frosts...altogether a lovely decorative plant. I'm pleased with this display!

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Boogieboard Cottage

Week End Musings

I found this really dirty old frame at a yard sale several years ago and stuck it out in the garage. I pulled it out last Friday and cleaned it up (somewhere the 'before' picture got lost). What is it about old wooden frames that is so fascinating? I gave it a GOOD scrub and underneath the filth was this lovely blue. Now, I like blue...just not in my house - but this one will stay! I like it, all the way to its cute, old hanger in the back.

For now, it's in a corner of our bedroom.

The gray suitcases are a yard sale find, paying the enormous amount of a dollar each - I know, life just isn't fair...at least that's the way I feel when I see other people's bargains! :) I love suitcases for their storage - so handy and a neat way to use them!

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We had an awesome Communion last evening at church. Our leadership puts a lot of thought and care to make these times special. The theme last evening was 'He loves me' and was very powerful ...the songs, the message, the breaking of bread and drinking the cup...I left there feeling the power of a common-union and so blessed in my spirit!



Garden Tour in July

DIL M and I cruised through a twilight tour the end of July. It's always interesting to stroll through someone else's gardens and there's something calming about doing it in the 'gloaming hour!'

Stop number one:

This gal is her eighties and takes care of the cutest garden! She does most of the work with some help from family for the bigger projects.

A wonderful stone house with the gardens at its feet.

Lots of statuary, including this gigantic fountain.

The entrance to her gardens surrounded by bee-you-tee-ful blue hydrangeas!

Cute nooks tucked throughout.

A peek between the arborvitae.

And she manages this!

Stop number two:

Fannie is a personal friend of mine - they've got a lovely view of a valley behind their house!

They turned this location in what was a swimming pool into this beautiful sitting area!

Stop number three:

A gardening friend:

By now, it was heading fast towards dark but I love this picture...the gorgeous hydrangea, the stone house, the husbands chatting on the porch and the flag - so picturesque of our country!

Week End Musings

We're doing a study of Genesis in our Sunday School class and being one of the teachers caused me to search the basics of the beginning of mankind again. I've grown up with this moving story but discovered that the bits and pieces tend to get a little foggy between truth and imagination. I want to share with you what I've learned.

The Misconceptions
No where in scripture do we find the fruit was an apple - it was merely a fruit.
Eve (life-giver) was given her name after God cast them out (Gen 3:20) - she was Woman (taken out of man).
The command to not eat of 'the tree of knowledge of good and evil' was given to Adam before Woman was created, giving the responsibility to Adam alone. Yet Adam, standing by Women (Eve), remained silent.

The Garden
It was a beautiful place with perfect harmony between God, Adam And Woman. The Garden had two important trees...the tree of life and the tree of  knowlege of good and evil. They could eat of every tree but the tree of knowlege of good and evil.

The Temptation

• this beautiful, crafty creature isolted and spoke to Eve, not Adam.
• they had no chance to strengthen each other to choose good.
• he cast doubt on God's motive.
• he contradicted God.
• he focused Eve's attention on desirable ends or 'situation ethics.'
• Satan proposed a mixed good as the end, 'You will become like gods, knowing good from evil.'
• he relied on the appeal of the senses.

Death Came

It's important to understand this death was more than an end to life.

• it's a terrible distortion of divine order.
• it involves a warping of human personality and a twisting of relationships.
• it alienates us from God.

Effects of Death

• the sudden flush of shame as they recognized their nakedness.
• their flight from God
• Adam's refusal to accept responsibilty
• judgement on the earth for man's sake
• most of all, we see death in the anger of Cain, whose bitterness led him to murder his own brother.

The Recovery of Hope

•  God seeks out the sinning pair
• He clothes the naked pair
• God promoses an Offspring of the woman who would destroy the serpent

Yes, Paradise is lost! How well we know, for you and I recognize the taste of that fruit in our mouth's every day. But - we will eat of the tree of life again...read Revelation 22:2!

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Though the rains are past, there are still many people who are in clean up from Tropical Lee. The weather predictions for the upcoming week promises lots of sunshine and cooler weather...yea!  

Rainy Days

What do you do on rainy days? We're in our fourth day and ten or more inches of continuous rain with still more to come. We're faring well here, though for the first time, we have water in our basement in the seven years we live here. It's only a trickle compared to what others are or will be facing in the flooding that's happening. We are blessed!

This is a good time to concentrate on unfinished and new projects. In spite of the dampness, I've been painting and it's slowly drying. I've been putting a movie or two away as well. After the summer rush, it is nice to relax and cozy in the house! Here are a few project pictures...

A shelf being transformed.

A small table.

My 'secret' project that's taking MUCH longer than I planned!

And last, a picture of my new best painting friend - a paint stiring tool.

I knew these were on the market, but my 'paint-stir-er' was Hubs. I asked him to stir up a long-standing gallon of primer and he was fed up with trying to get the job done - so he bought this lovely, time-saving tool at HD for around three bucks. It's wonderful! All one needs is a drill and, presto!, it's done! It's easy peasy to clean as well - merely  rinse with water...just be sure to do it right away!

Week End Musings

We reached another milestone in our family...our first grandchild celebrated his sixteenth birthday last week. My, my...how is this possible?! Seems like yesterday...

Happy birthday, Andre, wishing you a wonderful 16th year!

(please be cautious behind the wheel)! :)

We traveled to Antrim, Ohio, to spend Labor Day week end with our daughter and family. I did an overnight stay with my sister in Holmes County, an hours drive north, Friday evening and to attend the annual Haiti Auction. Them temps were in the nineties and it was WARM with crowds of people and lots of yummy foods! This auction generally yields several hundred thousand dollars with everything donated.

We drove through rain all the way home, slowed down by an accident that detained us for an hour and a half. Its been raining since, with more coming. Flooding is predicted - I wish we could share our rain with Texas!

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From the pulpit -

The greatest frontier we face is ourselves.

Fear keeps us from what we are capable of.

To become extraordinary is to see how big God is - God in us.

Focusing on man is our greatest enemy but focusing on God is our victory!

New Wheels

Hubs and I decided with the high price of gasoline, to garage his pickup (unless needed for hauling big items), buy another car for me and use our other car for him.

I really liked 'my' Taurus! I liked her silver color. With its sun roof and sporty-looking fin in the back, I felt like a teenager youngster driving it! :) This car was my wheels for eight years and I'm gonna miss her!

We found an excellent, excellent bargain on line and got a Fusion. This one is tan - plain tan! :) But a bargains, a bargain, and really, I'm beyond looks I hope! She rides nice and purrs like a contented kitty. She does have features the Taurus doesn't so it's a good trade off!

But she looks like a 'baby-boomer' wheels! (sigh!) 

And at sixty-three years old, that's where I'm at! :) Isn't it time to leave 'youngster' things behind and go beyond the 'sporty look?' In spite of the bargain, Hubs, THE bargain hunter, did say the choice was up to me - bless his heart!

Sweet Autumn

Though autumn is a lovely season with its cooler temperatures, colorful foliage, orange pumpkins and a smell in the air that says it's here, it is not my not my first favorite season - it's my third favorite. Sweet Autumn is a clematis - a prolific one and smells ab-so-lute-ly out-of-this-world! It has a small, one and a half inch, four petal white flower with seed heads that are fascinating and it grows up to twenty feet tall. Bees absolutely love this - they're so busy collecting the pollen, one can walk under it without being afraid of getting stung and their 'busy buzz' can easily be heard. Cardinals love the seed in the winter and a snowfall on it makes an interesting vignette. It eventually blooms itself to death but don't worry...it reseeds in all kinds of places!

Sweet Autumn has been in my 'must have' plant list for many, many years. My first slip came from my mother who got it from a friend - I'm sad I don't remember who. Though its babies can be a tad pesky, it's still one I don't want to be without.

Just don't let it climb on a live tree - it will probably kill it. On this picture, it's climbing/hiding the dead side of an arborvitae and is a perfect climbing place.

Sweet Autumn needs to be cut back late winter/early spring twelve to eighteen inches to get rid of the old growth and to keep it under control. It's a fast growing plant! This is a good time to transplant it if it needs to be moved.

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On another matter:

I will be cutting THESE back next week and there were requests to have starts. Contact me VIA this post or face book if you'd like a start. There's plenty to go around! Locals can give me a phone call.

We came through the the hurricane without any damage and were blessed to have electricity all the time - many around us were without anywhere from several hours to several days. Approximately five inches of rain fell in ten hours.

...happy gardening!

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