Monday, May 31, 2010

Remembering

"We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs.
He most lives
Who thinks most---feels the noblest---
acts the best."

Philip James Bailey
English poet 1816-1902

Thank you to those who have acted the best---
those who have served us.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

A Commision

Gardenias for the good Doctor and his wife---
 waiting to be picked up.

Friday, May 28, 2010

The joy of gardening...

is having a bouquet for every room:


Asters and hydrangeas in the living/dining room,


a mass of hydrangeas on the kitchen table,

gardenias by the birder's bedside,


a tiny arrangement of daisies and lavender for the golfer,
and roses with my current stack of books.

Friday, May 21, 2010

Wednesday, May 12, 2010

What if...


(Yesterday at 5 pm)

(Today at 5pm)

...you had only one day?

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Seeing


Do you know this flower? {smile} I'm smiling because if you live in Georgia I know you have seen it many times. It knows no social constraints—I've seen it languishing along Broad Street in the dirt as well as in a pristine Summerville perennial border. It's name is Spiderwort (Tradescantia) and some consider it a weed...and some don't. It's all in your perspective.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Early Morning Light

"It's a nice house,"
 the strange girl said.
 "I like it like that---
so tall and white,
with the tree shadows on it."
 Nan,
The Wind Boy
by Ethel  Cook Eliot

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Happy Mother's Day

The Mother's Day corsage: a red rose if your Mother is living and a white one if she has passed. I paired my rose bud (I didn't have a rose in full bloom in my rose bed) with rosemary for remembrance and tied it all together with a beautiful pin my Mother gave me at Christmas.

Thursday, May 6, 2010

In Bloom...

on Rae's Creek as afternoon melted into twilight:

Foxglove

'New Dawn' roses
more roses in the rose bed..don't know any names
and honeysuckle.

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Mint Juleps and Ice Tea

Every self respecting Southern household has a patch of mint multiplying throughout their garden beds. And although all the labels and various growers recommend growing in pots because of its tendency to spread, I have never seen mint in a pot. Every Southerner I know just lets it run rampant. But for the past several years I have been unsuccessful in growing any decent mint. Every spring, several peat pots of mint are mixed in with my purchases from the local nursery (my first mistake). Although, these pots of mint literally seem like mere shadows and shades of the mint of my childhood, I dutifully and hopefully set them out in the garden. The leaves are small, thin, and wispy where my remembered mint was thick, large-leaved and sturdy, able to withstand---even thrive in, the hardships of a Georgia summer.

This year will be different. I have learned the mint luxuriating in my memories is Kentucky Colonel. It can be bought at some nurseries, but really is best gotten from a friend. A few weeks ago, I heard of one (a friend) who had Kentucky Colonel growing in her garden and so, when invited to a luncheon in her home I quickly accepted. As I arrived, I spied a bunch in a vase alongside the buffet. Afterward when leaving, I quickly snatched the leaves and rushed home to put the stems in water to root. Two weeks later I'm almost ready to plant...

Kentucky Colonel is as I remembered---very sturdy with thick leaves and beautifully...minty. It is a spearmint (versus a peppermint) bearing the name Mentha spicata 'Kentucky Colonel'.