Christmas tree as memorabilia cache?

It's a snowy evening. Christmas was two weeks ago. I should take down the Christmas decorations.

 

But like most of you, I hate doing this. Really, it was hard enough to get all the trimmings up. I think I spent the better part of two weeks to get this accomplished and I'm beginning to suspect it may take me that long to put it all away.

I like looking at all the "stuff" on the tree. I treat my tree just as much as a memory box as I do an ornament holder. I have lots of things on there that I like. Here's an old pair of baby stockings made in the late 1800's that a grandparent wore as an infant.

I found these in a box of old family stuff hidden away in a closet where no one ever saw them. So I put them on the tree each Christmas. I've attached a tag to them citing their provenance so my kids won't wonder "where those came from."

I also use keepsakes from important events as ornaments. These are from Sweet Son and Darling Daughter-in-law's wedding 11 years ago. The bird's nest with eggs were on each table, and the bubbles were in a tulle-wrapped bottle with an angel motif.

I also like to remember my awesome brother who died just before Christmas two years ago. I have his photo in a tiny Christmas frame and I like to look at it.  

There are lots of regular ornaments too, some whimsical, a lot shiny, and just plain pretty. The seashell reminds me of all the Mexican beach vacations we've taken over the years.

 I seem to have a thing for flamingos too. Here's a miniature of the big lighted one that lives on my back porch.

 

I also like to pick up these glass ornaments that are so breakable but so pretty. Here's one of them.

Okay, enough reminiscing. Time to put it all away and be surprised next year when I unpack it all over again! Oh, before it started snowing today I did take down the outdoor lights and reindeer and lighted willow twigs and the wreath and the rope light encircling the porch post...gosh I think I'm too tired and will postpone all this till tomorrow.

 

Flowering haystacks?

Try to imagine these blue flowers sticking out all over from this haystack. Wouldn't that be odd? I just watched Red Riding Hood which is a movie that got really bad reviews but the cinematography looked pretty so I watched it. One of the first scenes showed these funny conical haystacks jammed all together in a field. What I couldn't get past were all the blue flowers sticking out of the hay. Really? I've seen a lot of haystacks but granted mostly going by at 70 mph but I still think I might have noticed if they grew blue flowers.


I could hardly concentrate on the movie (good thing) worrying about this and I even watched the deleted scenes and got an even better view of the haystack flowers. Now that I think about it it would be nice if these were real and not part of a fairy tale movie. I'd slow down to at least 55 mph to look at those.


And imagine how Claude Monet's famous painting could be a lot more colorful.

Happy New Year

I'm not taking my Christmas decorations down yet. The Magi haven't arrived. The Stock Show hasn't even started. In Denver we get a free pass for leaving our lights up through the Stock Show but probably even I won't wait that long. Last year my daughter never got around to taking her tree down at all. Merry Maids dusted it occasionally. These trees will stay up all year and I'll just remove the golden magpie and his gold-dusted nest and call it Summer in the Rockies. Happy New Year!

First week of summer

After the initial flush of spring weeding and planting now suddenly it's summer when I sit back and enjoy the results. If weeds are popping up I'm ignoring them. Besides, I'm tired when I come home from work. I can manage to pop the top off a cold beer but that's about it.

I'm fond of Black and Blue salvia and managed to find several plants at Lowe's this year that weren't dead yet. I can achieve that myself as the summer wears on.

My tiny terrace is packed with lots of pots, bird baths and all sorts of junk. I enjoy it all. I don't have a theme with the colors or the plants, but I like a pop of bright orange here and there.

Oh, and peach and pink. That rose is Zepherine Drouhin. Hibiscus courtesy of the grocery store.

Back in the day I wouldn't have dreamed of putting orange flowers in my garden but I have no such qualms now. I guess if there's a color theme scattered M&M's would be it.


The lower yard is mostly green. I love the lawn, but I no longer love mowing it. A guy does it nowadays.

Another one of my adorable grandchildren sailing a boat in Grammy's miniscule pond while I sit back and enjoy the first week of summer.

Forgetfulness

I never can remember the name of this rose (I also can't remember to post to my blog). So I've renamed it Shell Pink. Shell Pink is just a regular rose which this year thinks its a tree rose. I rather like that. Any tree rose I've intentionally tried to grow has always died so now I'm pretending that this was on purpose. It smells heavenly.

In the back yard this is as good as it gets for the rambler rose, Paul's Himalayan Musk, which is growing up a pine tree. Not so magnificent but a pretty good show for a rose that's about as big as a half-dollar. I've managed to cram back into the pine branches the wayward canes that slap the lawn-mowing guy across the face. I know he'll appreciate it.

Here's one of my darling grandchildren. He's a month shy of being 4 years old. Of the five of them he was the only one who wanted to help Grammy pull weeds at the back of his house to plant a pumpkin patch. Though he really doesn't look too happy about it here. I was probably hogging the hoe.

His oldest brother (age 8) agreed to water the pumpkin hills every day. Hope he doesn't suffer from forgetfulness like Grammy does.

Amur may be "no more"

Remember how disappointed I was the last few years because my Amur Maple wouldn't turn red in the fall? Well, it did this year. Glorious, huh? I was certainly pleased over my late bloomer. And it only took four years.
Even the fallen leaves in the birdbath below the tree were beautiful.

We had 16 inches of snow fall over a couple of days in late October but the tree held up.

But last week we had another snowstorm, only 10 inches this time. But it was a much wetter snow and most of it came in the night while I was asleep and not out there knocking snow off the maple's branches.

Uh-oh. This can't be good. Not sure it will survive this but at least it finally turned red before it ends up dead.

LBBs

One of the leaders on birding field trips I used to go on would mark down any birds that he couldn't get a good glimpse of as LBBs -- Little Brown Birds. I have my fair share of little brown birds in my backyard at the feeders and at the bird bath.

Look at us, we're just little brown birds.
Not me! Check out this red breast.
That's not bad, but we'd rather have some REAL color, like that guy in the yellow and black.

Or even that noisy blue fellow. But no, we're destined to be just little brown birds. At least there are lots of us.
But even a crowd is no match for a squirrel who wants our dinner.
Call in the big guns!
And their brothers.

You all do what you need to do, this little brown bird needs a drink. And peace and quiet to enjoy the garden. Even if we are little brown birds.
With thanks to the house finches, goldfinches, bluejays, and magpies. And no thanks to the squirrel.

Fairies and such

When my Adorable Granddaughter and her friends play, they make fairy gardens out in the flower beds and under the bushes. Well, grandma likes fairies too so I thought I'd give her the ingredients for a fairy garden for her next visit to my house. I gathered together all these tiny implements and added them to a few items that I've collected from garage sales, including the mixing bowl I put the sand in.

I added a gnome. And there's a hoe, little shovels and rakes, and a watering can. At this point I wanted to play in it, too.

Adorable Granddaughter has her ideas about what a fairy garden should look like. First you take all that stuff out and add flowers.


And a lizard with a watering hole, and can't forget the fairy doll.


All done! But oops, there's no room for the little house. Which worked out nicely, since she took it home with her to use in her own fairy gardens.


Since Adorable Granddaughter's visit, I haven't noticed any fairies around but I did see a mermaid.

Things I ignore....

There are parts of my garden I never pay any attention to. I might give them a glance now and then and think, "I ought to do something about that" but I never actually do. This first tangled mess is off to the side of my front porch. The ground slopes away here and nothing I like ever grows successfully in this spot. So the volunteer morning glories have taken over, backed by the obnoxious 4 o'clocks. The morning glories are not Heavenly Blue so I despise them. I'm not sure what those tall spikes are in back but I do remember planting a Mock Orange here once. Surely that's not it, my nose would know.

Then there's a bed of Snow in Summer, or is it Snow on the Mountain? I'm never sure till I look it up, but I don't really care either. It's also called Bishop's Weed. Which fits in perfectly with the theme, since that's Yellow Archangel in the back. One of those plants you wish you'd never laid eyes on one time and thought it might be a good idea. It's not. At least both these culprits are confined in this bed and any seedlings that escape promptly get mowed. In keeping with the religious theme this is also the final resting place for a succession of gerbils, pet rabbits, and cats over the years. I guess this is actually the burial bed - no wonder I ignore it.

Okay, this is a little embarrassing and I swear I'm going to cut this volunteer hollyhock down soon. It's starting to swat at my car as I drive into the garage.

I could pretend this corner looks pretty good at times, but that wouldn't be true. There seem to be volunteer bushes growing here, though the huge pussywillow in the back was planned. I have to admit I never thought that stick of a plant would get so big. I used to plant tomatoes in a couple of wooden barrels that you can barely see but I kept forgetting to water them so I quit.

Here's my biggest disappointment of the year and much as I'd like to ignore them they're front and center and I see them every day. My gauras - Whirling Butterfly. Remember how pretty they were a couple of years ago? Age hasn't improved them and nary a bloom in sight this summer or last. They'll be history in the fall.

In the back yard I have this 12 foot square that used to be a sandbox for Dear Son. He's 30 years old now. Nature has taken over. She apparently thought that Russian Olives would look nice here and also a huge weed that gets about 6 feet tall and has sticky burrs and woe to anyone who brushes up against them. I felt really bad for this phone company guy who had to get his ladder in there the other day. Well, I didn't know he was coming, did I? Hope he didn't trip over a rotted wooden post with a martin house on top that I know fell over in there a couple of years ago.

One day last spring The Dubious Gardener sent over a tree man to trim some limbs and while he was at it "tear that ivy off the house". I might have been more upset about that except I accidentally tore part of it down last year and then the rest of it started falling down. I hardly ever walk around to this side of the house and when I did the other day I was surprised to see Virginia Creeper taking over. It's not ivy and I'll soon be yanking it off the overhead phone lines but I might ignore that too. Wonder if the phone company man can?

Not bad....

...it's only been a little over a month since my last post. Which means I missed July. But I have a good excuse. It's summer in Colorado which means the relatives come visiting, and I got a double whammy with relatives from both sides of the family. It was lots of fun and only slightly hectic.
It's a good thing it rained so much or my garden might have felt neglected. This is my new favorite garden ornament, an Everlasting Allium. Pretty cool, huh?

The canna lilies that I bought at Home Depot are blooming their heads off. I have three in the little pond and these two in a corner. Everytime a bloom fades there's another one waiting in the wings. I'm thrilled.

Here's a closeup of the red one. Those emerging buds look a lot like birds-of-paradise, don't they? I love this carmine-red color.

I found this yellow jug at a garage sale on my way to work last Friday. (I'm always late on Fridays). I thought $5 was a decent price for it.

I think the Nicotiana Sylvestris looks like candles in the dusk. Or maybe like clusters of candelabras. I'm really fond of these towering flowers. I don't have as many as I used to because my little maple tree is getting bigger and shading more of the front bed. But these few really make me happy.