Gardening

Last weekend feels very far away today… Over the weekend, I split my time between working in the yard and working in the office… The yard work felt more productive and satisfying than my time spent in the office. The yard was mowed and I spent quite a bit of time working in the flower beds, getting them organized for the year.

Flowering Dogwood

And I planted our little memorial Tomato Patch, in honor of our passed away tomato eating dogs – Rocco, Coco and Chipper. Some of you may remember my posting about Chipper’s love for tomatoes and how much we enjoyed his last months last fall as he would wander through the tomato vines, grazing as he went…

One fringe benefit of my rooting about in the flower beds and edges of the yard is I find all sorts of orphan plants, shrubs and trees. Seedlings from our mature plants. Sally is always terrified that I will scurry about and plant the little things in places that will mess up the Master Plan for the yard. For me, it’s actually more about the excitement of the find. Let’s see what I found.

orphan boxwood

A small boxwood under the yews…

 

orphan kousa dogwood

A young Kousa Dogwood growing in the old dog run…

 

boxwood?

Another boxwood? I’m not sure. I’ll let it grow and see what it turns in to…

 

A variegated lilly of the valley (bottom center) I rescued form beneath the spreading branches of a shrub in the front yard, along with another small flowering plant from my Mom’s garden back in upstate New York. (She’ll know exactly what it is.)

On Sunday, I moved the last of the European Ginger from one end of the yard to the other… Sounds productive, doesn’t it? By the time I get that done, it was beginning to drizzle. It felt so good, I stayed out and put in the tomato garden.

I added several eggplants, too. Mmmmm. Please excuse the mess. I haven’t gotten to edging things.

By days end, I really could have taken a good long soak in one of these tubs made by Bath in Wood Maine


Or maybe this one?

Cote Sud,February/March 2012, photo, Bernard Touillon; designer, Francois Champsaur

Everyone have a great week!

Cheers,

 

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For interior design services, contact Wilson Kelsey Design can be contacted here.

 

Moss Gardens

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Yesterday morning I spent some time poking around under the trees and in the flower beds, looking for more signs of spring. I began noticing the moss growing between the rocks of our front walk…

…and in the shady nooks and crannies of the flower beds. You see, along with a water feature, in the back of my mind, I’ve always been a yearning for a moss garden somewhere in our yard.

I began looking at these large pieces of granite, left over from when we did our addition a number of years ago…

 

Then I got to thinking about the dog run behind the house. It’s relatively shady and now that both Chipper and Coco are gone, we could reclaim the run and turn it into a moss garden. I know it would take some time to mature, but wouldn’t it be a relaxing place to sit in the morning or at the end of the day?

Just look at these images!

I’m feeling inspired!  Are you?

Cheers,

Enjoying Life

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The other day I was straightening up, putting away some gardening twine. It’s funny how one thing leads to another in your mind.

Garden Twine

The gardening twine led me to think of the serendipitous tomato plants that John planted this summer.

As it turned out, perhaps  they weren’t planted serendipitously,  just for our use – lovely fresh tomatoes, a great tomato sauce to make and put away for the cold winter months. Those tomato plants led to a wonderful raison d’être for our elderly Labrador – and we all know that Labradors LIVE for food! It was as if those tomato plants gave our Chipper a reason to live.

As they grew he loved their smell – a sense that seemed strong, even in his old age. As they ripened, he loved to walk through their midst, taking in the scent and stalking the one ripe one that was waiting for him to bite.

John and I had decided together that if he wanted one, he could have one. At his age (almost 16 at that time of summer) he deserved whatever he wanted. We had plenty of what we needed.

Summer tomatoes

Summer tomatoes, cropped from a Michael J. Lee Photo

Chipper gave us love, and memories, and the pleasure of the moment.

That is what I think of today – the gift of savoring the moment – all of life’s little tiny blessings. It is not about how much we can acquire, but how much we can do, and think, and . . . .savor the beauty in the world.

When John and I sat in the late afternoon and watched our lovely dog, who had given us 16 years of total devotion, we knew that we were savoring each moment. That this moment would not be like the one tomorrow, and that next summer there would not be a moment like this available to us.

Here he is when younger, with his sister, Coco. They were so often lying side by side.

In one of my slides at the Antiquarian Book Fair talk last week, there was a lovely black and white dog in the beautiful professional photo. I said, “Of course, I think a dog always helps.” There was a murmur of pleasure in the crowd. I was talking about the beauty of the room, and how to decorate. I think a dog always helps.

As my mind continued to wander, prompted by the gardening twine, and thoughts of savoring the moment, I also thought about this, our blog. I think of this blog as our essays on life. Our essays on our thoughts. It reminded me of two books I can recommend to you. They are not new books. I often think I won’t read a book until it is at least 10 years old. Then it may have proven its value.

So, I’ll recommend 2 old books for you. I don’t think they’ve lost one spec of value, no matter how old they might be. They are both collections of essays by thinking people. The twine reminded me of “String Too Short To Be Saved”, by Donald Hall, with his New England recollections.

The other is, “Letters of E.B. White”, by E. B. White, which can be reread and enjoyed forever.

One of the quotes I collected for my aforementioned talk, was

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon, and by moonlight”. -by Canadian writer Robertson Davies, as quoted in Books Make a Home, by Damian Thompson.

My feelings about architecture are echoed by his excellent comparison of a book to architecture. Well done. Thank you for that insight.

I hope you enjoy “Our Thoughts on Design” blog every week, which are actually our thoughts about life.