in the garden today...

quote for today:  "Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul..." ~Emily Dickinson

for years and years, i've wanted to have a certain kind of garden.  i've dreamed and i've wished, i've plotted and schemed.

i spent a lot of time following the gardening of the fantastic Vanessa Valencia and wishing i could have gardens like her, not to mention her magical growing skills. 

with all the changes for me over the last year or two, i found myself really wanting to dive into the garden.  last autumn i wasn't able to do much clean up before the cold arrived and i just couldn't get out there.

so as things warmed up, my desire to be in the garden grew and grew.

i finally understand what VeeVala means when she talks about wanting to run to the garden the moment she wakes to see what has grown overnight.  😁

i have cleaned, weeded, moved, swept, moved again, repotted, planted, potted, dug, mulched, over and over for the last two months.  and i'm still not finished setting it up.

on every trip to the garden center, i've searched for the flowers i love the most.  snapdragons, zinnias, hollyhocks, foxglove, larkspur, and more.  i even managed to find a poppy and get it planted.  i hope it will come back and bloom next spring.

i added salvia for the hummingbirds, and i love watching them dip down between the plant and the feeders that i have out.  they are such amazingly beautiful creatures.

 

it's really just a start, getting a few plants in place.  i know they'll grow, self-seed and spread and that makes me very happy.  i'm still having to go in and dig out blackberry vines every couple of weeks.

i planted the hollyhocks along the fence since they grow so tall.  i've planted sunflowers there as well and really hope they'll grow.  i love sunflowers, they are such happy flowers.

and over in the veg bed, i have 8 san marzano tomato plants, rows of basil seeds in (plus a couple of plants from the farmers mkt).  i planted celery again this year, green and red bell pepper plants, a couple rows of carrots and a row of onions and radishes.  

i'm putting cucumbers in a big pot this year and still need to plant my pole beans and more onions.  

tomorrow i'm hoping to head off to the farmers market, as i believe peaches are in mmmmm... and i'm seriously craving fresh peaches.  plus, i need flowers for the planters in the front of the house.

just a little peak in my garden today.  it is a tiny little space, and i still dream of one day having a huge space to grow all kinds of things.  but for now, i will make the best of what i have and love every little bit of it.

are you growing anything?  do you have a garden space?  i'd love to hear/see about it.

until next time...

take care, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

not the same...

 

so much has changed for me over the past year, it is hard to know where to start to explain.  in fact, most who know me irl say i'm not the same person they knew before.  

i know it's true.  i am definitely not the same person i was.  i'm so much happier now and the real change is that i finally like myself.  no, that's not completely accurate.  i love myself.  i can see my own value, now.  it is such a change from how i used to view myself and life in general.

i'm going to share how this happened, but not today.  that post will take some time to really think how to word it and will probably be edited several times.  😉

one thing that has changed is that i'm embracing the fun.  i mean, really, really embracing it.  i've a collection now of funny sunglasses (pink flamingos, anyone?), tiaras and crowns, and bunny ears and all kinds of things.

i spend my time doing the things that light up my heart and soul and make me smile.  things like blowing bubbles in the garden...

making little bouquets for the house from the flowers growing in my garden...

popcicles on a hot summer day...

and remember my "seasons" tree?  i've set it up for spring/summer, and hope to add a few more flowers and maybe some scrap fabric garlands over the summer.

 

actually, looking at it now, this is a bit of an older photo.  it is really loaded down since i took this one, i think.  i'll post another photo soon.

this is just a sampling of the things that are bringing me joy and how i'm finding my fun now.  i've been getting out into the world more, joining in with groups and volunteering for helping out with things in the neighborhood.  (i KNOW, who even AM I? 😁😂)

i'll be back in a few days (if not sooner) with one of the things i've been doing that has brought me a huge amount of fun and joy and satisfaction.

hope you're having a lovely weekend.

see you soon, 

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~

a little bit of where i've been...

hi my lovelies, 

yes, it is me.  i am alive and well and finally making my way back to blogland.

  

i really did mean what i said at the beginning of this year, about how i wanted to be here often and share what was happening.  

and that want never left, but i found myself dreading to open the laptop and connect to the internet.  

instead, i found myself drawn to the art table, to the kitchen where i worked on developing my baking and cooking from scratch skills.  i was drawn to the windows to watch the amazing amount of snow that we had this past winter, or even out into the snow to take walks or photos.

i was drawn to turning my bedroom, the cove as i call it, into a sanctuary that i love to spend time in, awake or asleep.  so much so, it has inspired me to do the same to the rest of the house.

i was drawn to a beginner's sewing class in the lovely mountain town of Asheville where i met wonderfully fantastic women, learned how to use a sewing machine, figure out how to measure myself for a pattern and how to create a pattern.  it was fabulous!!  it even snowed while i was there and i was able to take a walk in the snow in downtown Asheville.  

i was drawn to a local to home stitching group where i have met some lovely women and am expanding my abilities and my social skills.  

i even fully embraced my latest birthday!  when i ordered my cake the sweet lady asked who it was for and i said it was for me.  she looked at me and started grinning.  i told her the older i get the more i'm regressing to childhood wants and wishes.  she loved my cake so much she said she would order one for her birthday this year.  (i actually added the sprinkles myself.  it was quite plain on top, which was fine, but when i was looking at it i remembered i had purchased a packet of unicorn sprinkles in the same colors the cake was decorated in several months ago.)

and the other thing i've been, well - not so much drawn to, but have been helping with - my new nephew.

look at that face.  isn't that the sweetest face?  he's had a hard time learning when and where potty time is, so i go down about midday during the week and let him and his older brother out to have what i call puppers potty patrol.  

he's learning and doing much better now.  and i hope my patrol will come to an end in the next couple of weeks.  he's much larger now than that picture shows.  

while his older brother is calm and quiet, this one is a wild man and is quite the talker.  if it wasn't for all the barking, i'd have brought him home with me from the first.  then i think about all the fur, and the poop walks, etc.  nope.  i'll just get my pet fix from visits with the nephews. :-)

well, that is just a little bit of where i've been and why i haven't been here.  i know i said it before, but i really am coming back on the regular now.  i do have so much to share.  

alrighty.  it's late, and i need to get to bed.

see you soon!

love & kisses & magical wishes...

~*~