Sunday is Doggie Day

On your mark. . . get ready. . .



Go!
























And a good time was had by all!  Enjoy your day!

A Little Garden, A Little Wally and LuLu

Frankly, it hasn’t been a good garden year.  I don’t know if it’s me, the plants, the potting soil, something in the air. . . but I’ve never had such a struggle with my flower pots.  Many plants just up and died, leaving empty pots and dampened spirits.  What the heck?  I mean, this just doesn’t happen!  Rich feels sorry for me and twice has come home with an armload of new flowers.  The new plants are doing well so far, knock on my little wooden head.

The wax begonias have thrived from the beginning, however.  This photo was taken in early July, and they’re much bigger now.  Thank goodness I have lots of wax begonias.



Wally again.  The purple petunias behind him died.



The snapdragons are pretty.  Love the two-toned pink.



These two make everything better.



And, of course, there’s always the hydrangeas.  This one is a particularly rich purple/blue combo.



I honestly do try to get good landscape shots, but they come out looking like a jumbled up mess.  I like it lush, and all the trees and bushes limit the camera’s view.  Here’s one of those jumbled up shots of one area along the south side of the house.



My eyes see it much prettier than this in real life.  I find it hard to go inside on my days off.  Here on the Oregon coast it’s rarely too hot to be outside and, consequently the housework, cooking, shopping, crafty stuff all take a back seat to the garden.  Can you believe it’s August already?  Gosh, I’d better hurry up and get outside!  Have a great day!

Butterflies on the Butterfly Bush

I photographed a couple of garden visitors the other day.  This velvety brown beauty is called a Mourning Cloak, or in Britain it’s known as a Camberwell Beauty.  It can live up to a year, so it seems surprising I don’t see more of them. 



Below is the same butterfly in its angel wing pose.



This next one is called a Painted Lady.



So pretty!  Enjoy your day!

Backyard Bath Time

LuLu needed a trip to the backyard beauty parlor.



You can see these flowers blooming behind LuLu in the first photo.  They were volunteers that came along with a shrub which we later removed.  I didn’t know what they were going to grow into when they first popped up around the shrub, but I knew they weren’t  a weed.  Turns out they’re these beautiful Alstromeria.  First time I’ve grown them, and if I’d known how easy they are I’d have planted them long ago.  Rich put a wire cage around them this year, but not until after the dogs had pounced after a ball into the middle of them.  No more of that!



Does this tail make my butt look big?  All fluffed up!



Have a happy day!

Just a Little Peek at What’s Blooming Along the Garden Path

My favorite daylily.



My most petite daylily.



My most abundant daylily.



Yes, there is more than daylilies blooming, but I’ll save that for later.  I hope you’re enjoying your summer as much as I am!  Take care!

Coffee, Tea, or Me?

Coffee?



Tea?



Or me?



Our Wally turned five years old on June 27.  Can you believe how the years have flown by?  He’s still as trim, athletic, and handsome as ever, though in certain lights the white mask which Goldens develop as they age is more apparent.  I’ll never have enough years with our beautiful boy.

Watercolor Garden

I liked certain aspects of this photo, but the detail in it wasn’t good, so I put a watercolor effect on it.





This wraps up what feels like a blogging marathon.  Between here and my stamping blog, Running with Scissors, I spent the better part of a day editing photos and writing blog posts.  Oh, well, it was a rainy Sunday.  I’m sure you’ve had enough of me for a while, but I hope to return soon since I plan to be more current in the future – that is, until I fall behind again.  Which is likely.  You are all so good to me, patient and tolerant of my haphazard ways.  Have a lovely weekend!

Mommy’s Shoes

LuLu gets one. . .




Wally gets the other. . .




Then both get together and make a pair. . .





They’re just so darn cute!  Long ago I taught Wally to fetch my shoes for me.  When he saw how pleased I was when he brought them to me he started bringing them to me at random times.  LuLu learned from Wally.  I don’t have the heart to tell either of them that I don’t need my shoes at that particular time.  I either take them and say “thank you”, or I let them hold them and tell them “thank you for taking such good care of my shoes”.  And they do take good care of them.  They’re long past the chewing up phase.  In fact, it only took one chewing up episode for each of them to know they never wanted to do that again.  They’re so eager to please and devastated to think they’ve inadvertently done something wrong.  I love them so much!

Pink, Orange, and Gold

Hello, friends! There is a lot more going on than my absence of posts would indicate. I’m in the swing of spring and have been busy with the annual planting of the flower pots. There’s not much to share in that regard yet, since the plants are so young, so today I would like to invite you into the garden where the perennial favorites have faithfully returned.

I photograph this azalea every year and I never get tired of it.  It’s a large bush planted on the upper level, but its blooms spill some distance down the garden steps, as well.





The bear will not remain in this spot.  He was purchased on a road trip in Northern California in 1972.  Made of redwood and impervious to rot, he had become overgrown in another patch of garden.  We fished him out but have not yet found him a new home:





How about some gold?





More pink.  Foxgloves this time:





A brilliant orange azalea, surprisingly full of bloom considering how the deer ate it down its first two years in the garden.  I have two of these side by side.  This is just one.  They’re quite small yet, but I can imagine the “wow” factor when they’re full grown:





More gold – Golden Wally:





And golden LuLu:





Please come visit again in a day or two.  I love it when you stop by!

Fuchsias, Fuchsias, and More Fuchsias

Brace yourself because spring has sprung and it’s time to start sharing the flower photos.  It reached 98 degrees here at our Oregon Coast home last Wednesday – too hot to work in the garden, but I couldn’t bear to go inside, so I spent a good part of the day lounging in the cool grass under the cherry tree simply enjoying the garden view and making plans for improvements.  In the morning I went flower shopping and came home with lots to fill the pots, but they’re just babies still, waiting for me to plant and fertilize them this weekend.  Grow, babies, grow!  To get a head start on the color I brought home a few fuchsia baskets.

The first is shown hanging in the shade of the red willow leaf maple in the bed alongside the house.  There’s a transplanted azalea blooming in the foreground.  It’s a little loose and open still after having been split into four pieces during the transplant.



A couple of close ups of its pretty pink blooms, tinged with violet.







This pot is hanging from the cherry tree.







I don’t even have words for how beautiful these are.








Below is the beginning of the backyard beautification.  I’m not sure how far I’ll get with that this year, but I’ll do my best.  Keep in mind it is the dog yard and utility area.  In fact, the windows you see here are part of the deck enclosure which was modified especially for Wally when he was a puppy.  The entire back yard was landscaped just for him, and now, of course, he shares it with LuLu.  It’s safe and clean, completely fenced in.  The basic structure of the landscape is beautiful, but there aren’t enough blooms for my satisfaction.  Stay tuned. . .  For now, I’ve started with the fuchsia baskets.  They’re hung low so they can be watered easily and won’t bang into the windows when the wind blows.  There’s another hanging higher at the head of the stairs.  You can see LuLu there, too, and a few fading blooms of a rhododendron.



See the knot hole in the fence beyond the basket?  Wally and LuLu’s Chocolate Lab friend, Tori, lives over there.  LuLu is always trying to stuff toys through the hole for Tori.




Sorry, no doggie photos today, but there will be plenty of those later.  These sunny days do bring out the camera!  I hope you have a lovely weekend, and for those of you still waiting for spring, take heart – it will come soon!