Tomorrow is the start of a new blogging era for me -- the post-retirement era!  I hope to be a better blogger as I will have more time to blog and more time to take photos of the gardens, the flowers, the orchard, my craft projects, etc., etc.  You get the idea -- I will have more time to do the things I love!  As an introduction to this new era I am posting a photo of the garden gate and arbor that lead into the veggie garden.  The gate was a handmade present from my husband for a long ago birthday.  The arbor was a handmade Valentine present from him just a few years ago.  The lovely pink rose that is rambling over the arbor is Tausendschon, which means Thousand Beauties.  It is a rambler that blooms once, but that blooming period lasts a long time through the spring and into the summer.  The lovely pink flowers bloom in clusters and the rose is thornless.

Yikes! It is now a little less than seven months from the wedding and I have three lace shrugs to knit -- one for each of the bridesmaids and one for the bride. I have only gotten as far as the gauge swatch for the first shrug. I need to get my knitting needles in gear! Each of the girls has picked out a different design for her shrug, but each is being knit in the color Waxwing from TurtleDove Yarns. It is pictured above -- a nice combo of soft buttery yellow and light grey, which are two of the wedding colors. The other color is cobalt blue, which the groom and groomsmen will wear in their ties. I hope to knit the groom a pair of blue socks, if I don't run out of time.

Wedding Flowers

We are only ten months away from Ana Rose and Grant's wedding. So much to do! I have already ordered and received the flower seeds that we will plant in the garden in June. I am planning to devote three of the big veggie garden beds to the cutting flowers for the wedding. The flowers that we will grow from seed include marigolds, zinnias, sunflowers, cosmos, and a few other experiments like chinese forget-me-not, craspedia. Other flowers that I hope to harvest from the yard and roadsides include goldenrod, yellow milkweed, swamp sunflowers, ageratum, plumbago, liatris, and rudbeckia. We are going to order ranunculus, yellow garden roses, and a few others from a wholesale florist online. I will buy yellow mums and glads from the grocery store florist a few days before.
Ana wants simple bouquets wrapped in jute or raffia for her and the bridesmaids. The bulk of the flowers will be used in the cobalt blue bottles and vases in the reception area. I plan to tie some baskets of flowers on the chairs at the ceremony and we will have a few large vases of flowers there as well. Still need to work out the designs for corsages and and boutonnieres.

I am a daffodil!

I took the little quiz and found out that I am a daffodil! This is the description of a person who is a daffodil: "You have a sunny disposition and are normally one of the first to show up for the party. You don't need too much attention from the host once you get there as you are more than capable of making yourself seen and heard." Yep, that sounds like me.
I love that I am a daffodil because I have been trying to turn my orchard into a daffodil field for years. This has involved planting hundreds of daffodil bulbs in large swaths of the orchard each fall. The field had a major set back last year when we underwent the soil remediation project and had to dig up all of the bulbs we could find. Let me tell you that it is much easier to plant the bulbs than it is to dig them up! We undertook this task last summer after the daffodil tops died back. Summer is not a good time to work out in an orchard field! We both looked like mud puppies when we finished each day and I thought we might get a divorce before we finished!
Alas, I am sure that many daffodil bulbs were hauled away with the old soil. Now, I have to start the process all over again this fall.

I am a Daffodil What Flower Are You?

States I have visited

visited 33 states (66%)
Create'>http://douweosinga.com/projects/visited?region=usa">Create your own visited map of The United States

Well, seems that I have confined myself mostly to the more southern climes, with the exception of the northeast. Hope to visit the other states when we make the grand post-retirement trek -- which is still a few years away.

Spring!!

Spring is in full dress mode -- dogwoods are almost finished blooming, but the azaleas are glorious and everything in the veggie garden is growing furiously! The sugar snap peas are loaded with blossoms and the beginnings of tiny pea pods. The lettuce is full and ready to make the leap to bolting. Must eat it fast! The greens are juicy and delicious. Just can't beat the rich abundance of spring veggies before the heat sets in. The first strawberries are just beginning to ripen, with many more in varying sizes down to blossoms. There are tiny pears, peaches, and plums beginning on the fruit trees and clusters of just-set blueberries on the bushes. Ah, spring, you are full of such promise!