Be Prepared

Be prepared.  Anybody remember that, it was our Girl Scout motto.   Well, you do what you can.  You get some food and get out the candles.  And then you wait. 

And you watch it rain and rain and rain in 30 degree temps.  I took these pictures right before nightfall Tuesday.  They were my before shots.  I was expecting to get some after shots Wednesday morning that would show how bad it got.  The streets were still warm and only wet so we took a drive.  We thought we would see how things looked before night came.  We saw a few power lines down already.  Trees were hanging on some lines that hadn't fallen.  And then in a vacant lot in an old shopping mall....

...we saw this.

Was I impressed!  There were over 15 utility workers standing by on the ready.

 Rows of sweet utility trucks waiting for our power outages!

 Six...count em....six tree trimming trucks!

We passed more in town already at work.  I have to say thank you IDOT.  You were prepared!  I was so impressed.  So, there weren't any after shots.  The trees surrounding our house were pounded by the wind all night (the wind seemed to beat the ice out of the trees) and then in the morning it wasn't so bad.  

I will link this to:

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Please go and visit her blog for more outdoor shots.

Peach Pickin'

We have some amazing aunts who have a modest little bunch of fruit trees.  This year they had a bountiful crop of peaches and plums and they shared them with us so kindly.

I took the boys and we took as much of the fruit as we could.  It was a lot of fruit!

I made two peach crumb pies, two peach cobblers, three plum cobblers, and thirty half-pints of jam.  I have a confession too, I had never canned.  I know, I am a farm girl.  I grew up around canning, snapping beans, mom and grandmothers putting by lots of food but, I have never had a garden that was any bigger than what we could eat.  Jam is really easy to make.  If you have a large saucepan, canning jars, and a soup pot with tongs your in business.  I only had to go out and buy the canning jars, Sure-Jell, and sugar.  Jam needs lots of sugar.
I am not going to give you my recipe for the jam because it is inside the Sure-Jell box.  If you are going to make jam you will need Sure-Jell.  In the directions you will receive instructions on making cooked jam, jelly, or freezer jam depending on what fruit you are canning.  I made cooked jam.  It really is easy even if you haven't done it before.  It will give you complete instructions listed by the different types of jam/jelly and fruit you will make.

Here is some of the jam.  The labels I found over at Ahrisha's Joyously Living Life.   She did a post on canning and this link will take you there.  But, she found the labels at papercrave.com.  This link will take you directly to the labels and this site includes an entire canning party set of printables-these are free downloads.  

I will link to:

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer

Seasonal Sundays at The Tablescaper 

Perseid Meteor Shower

Image from viezine.com

For the stargazers among you it is an eventful week.  This is the week of the Perseid Meteor Shower.  This meteor shower happens every year at this time.  It has been observed for thousands of years.

Image Martin McKenna from nightskyhunter.com

This is one of the best meteor showers to observe.  At it's peak it may produce 60 meteors per hour.  This year it will peak on the night of August 12th into the morning of the 13th.  For the best viewing look into the northeast sky after midnight.  

Image Jimmy Westlake

I have taken my sons out to observe this several times and it really does put on a show.  

So stay up and catch mother nature's late show.  It only happens once a year.

Wanted to show you my double impatients.  I thought they were going to die in June but they have made a comeback and bloomed like crazy this week.

 

 They are dropping blossoms all over the porch.  They look like mini roses.  So pretty.
Thanks for joining me for White Wednesday and Outdoor Wednesday.


I will link this to:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm.

Outdoor Wednesday at A Southern Daydreamer.

Go and visit these blogs to see what other creative things people are posting.

White Outdoor Wednesday

I have about depleted my vacation photos but, not before I show off some of the handiwork accomplished by the Walt Disney World gardeners.  For starters these lovely white Caladiums in this container.   WD really has gorgeous containers all over all the parks.  This was in Epcot at the France pavillion.

This is my favorite fountain from all of the properties Disney maintains.  It is a terra cotta pot fountain at Downtown Disney.  It flows into the pots and then onto the sidewalk and I believe the drainage is built right into the sidewalk.

At Epcot in Italy they have some beautiful statues like this fountain of Triton.

This angel is also at Italy in Epcot.

Before we left Italy, I peaked inside of a shop and found these beautiful treasures.  They were mask for carnival.  The same thing we celebrate called Mardi Gras.

 As we went through Germany I spotted this.  I believe this might be my favorite statue at Epcot.  Who couldn't admire a knight slaying a dragon?

In Norway my teenage sons spotted Chuck Norris.   Just seeing if you are still awake. 

There was some white water behind our hotel.  

Who couldn't go to Walt Disney World and not see the castle?  It is white.

And here we ended our day with some white fireworks at Epcot.

Just having some fun for the two parties I am joining:

White Wednesday at Faded Charm,

and Outdoor Wednesday  at a Southern Daydreamer. 
Go over and see all the fun bloggers are coming up with.

Moonlight Garden

I attempted to create a moonlight garden.  But all of the white plants I planted kept dying, so I really just created a garden in the moonlight.  

 The area is really quite shady so the woodland plants work best in this location.

Moonlight gardens have been around for centuries.  The Chinese planted moonlight gardens for meditation.  

The moonlight garden is created to take advantage of the other senses that are heightened in the darkness; such as,  your sense of touch, smell, and hearing.   They often include a water feature such as a fountain.  

My little garden just has the reflection of a full moon in the bird bath.   Petunias would be excellent in a moonlight garden.  I planted them but, I don't think they were getting enough sun in my shady spot.  I also planted, lamb's ears,  a hosta, ferns, dusty miller, an impatient,  and moon vine.   The moon vine blooms only at night.  It has large white flowers that have a nice fragrance.  They are like a nighttime morning glory.  When mine bloom I will get more pics.

Here comes the moon.  If I stay out a little longer it will be right over my garden.  The moon was so bright on this night.  When your eyes adjusted, you could see dappled moonlight on the lawn.  I remember nights like this when I was a kid. 

It was cool out and there was a light breeze, very magical.  When is the last time you went outside and enjoyed the full moon?

I will link to Faded Charm's White Wednesday.

Also A Southern Daydreamer's Outdoor Wednesday.
Please go over to these sites and check out all the great ideas.

 

The Lawn in VOGUE

I was sitting in the hair salon waiting for my youngest son to get his hair cut and I picked up the latest copy of VOGUE.  A rare moment, relaxing, enjoying high fashion.  The ads are as intriguing as the photo spreads.  Ah, finally I get to the opening photo spread, before his hair is cut.  And, what fabulously chic couture.  The cut of that suit, the shoes, the lawn.......   Do I need to get my reading glasses out?  (Something I only to resort to on a life or death basis.)  Is that grass tall?   Do I see a weed?   Oh, *gasp* is that a bare patch of dirt under the swing?   I was so entranced with the condition of the lawn I quit looking at the clothes!  

The photo feature is in the July 2010 VOGUE.  It is titled "Magnificent Obsession."
All photos above are from a photo series photographed by Peter Lindbergh.  The series cast Ewan McGregor and Natalia Vodianova in a c. 1957 domestic drama.  If you want to see the original photos click here.  So, my interest is in the lawn.  Is it being depicted as c. 1957 or is this the lawn that will be in vogue?  With the "green" movement; green is everywhere, even in lawn care.  Groups like safelawns.org  are spreading knowledge about the danger of pesticides and synthetic chemicals in lawn care products.  What is different about this lawn in VOGUE?  Taller grass, around 2 1/2-3 1/2 inches is considered the healthy length.  Taller grass helps develop a better root system this in turn helps the grass survive drought, tolerate insect damage, and fend off disease better.  The allowance of some weeds.  This is just a personal preference.  Bare patches, well kids will be kids and dirt happens. The reason this all hit home with me; as I sat there with the VOGUE held out at that angle that allowed my 40-ish eyes to focus on which weed they had growing in their lawn, was that I had been editing my lawn photos!

Unedited lawn

Edited lawn

One area of the lawn that I photographed last week that actually needed no editing.  Now, I have a good excuse for my wayward yard it had a track hoe sitting on top of it two years ago and the lawn and I are still traumatized. 

So, which lawn do you have?  Is it photograph ready or do you edit?;)

Just a fun post for Outdoor Wednesday at Susan's site, A Southern Daydreamer.  Go over to check out all the lovely outdoor photos.

* Not to trivialize the work of safelawns.org at all.  A site well worth visiting and one that did have me thinking about the best way to reestablish my lawn.

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My Summer Whites

Today's whites are outside of the house.  This is my chippy white planters on the porch.
(This is a re-post from 2010.)

 I love the texture on them.  They were new about eight years ago.  

They are getting worn, but I just don't mind their shabby appearance.

 I  planted some white flowers in them for summer.

I also have a white front door.

 I made this wreath you can view that post here.  We picked the shells up on a vacation to the beach.

 Here is the front of the house before I planted the white flowers.  Just a little humble cottage style home.  

And, last I will show you my adirondak chair I just painted white.  

I will show you one more thing.  Susan; over at Between Naps on the Porch, has shown all of her tablescapers a time in the evening when you can take a photo and capture this blue twilight sky.  Here is my shot of the blue hour you can view more of these photos and learn more about the blue hour here.  

What I wanted to show you is how that blue hue in the sky reflects on everything white in the garden at twilight.  This table was completely white.

I looked outside last night and saw my newly painted adirondak glowing with this purple/blue and I grabbed my camera and it worked.  I got the blue sky reflecting off of it.  So, everything white in your yard at the right time of twilight will glow blue.  Just a revelation I had.  Has anyone else ever noticed this; or better, captured photos of it?

I will link this to the Summer Blog Party.  This entry goes to:

Summer Decks and Porches at Savvy Southern Style.