Springtime around the house

 I took such a nice stroll around the  house tonight,  taking in all the springtime beauty that is in abundance right now.

The hydrangea are starting to flower.  Sweet apple green flowers with indecision as to which color they want to be.  Perhaps pink or perhaps blue or maybe even a soft shade of purple.  I never know what to expect, just grateful for their return each year.

 A new addition to my favorite pot of flowers and rosemary is this sweet little garden stake .  It was a gift from Carolyn.  I love it!

 I am going to have to harvest some of the Asian spinach and swiss chard growing in this old iron sofa.  Every plant is happy here and it shows.

 I have wanted to grow some echinacea for years now.  I listened to a lady speak of how to make an herbal tincture from the flowers when we visited the Biltmore Estate.   I may just have to try it.

 I really love adding the herbs to my flower beds.   Creeping thyme spills over the edges of pots and planters so sweetly.

 I am not sure how the tomato plant will do here but I am hoping for a nice juicy tomato in the next month or so.

 I never grow tired of the looking at the lake,  only tired of the lake weeds that must be dealt with.   However, I hear the croaking of a few alligators.   Love is in the air around the lake so we may just wait a little bit until we don't hear them as much.

 Aren't the little bean blossoms sweet and even sweeter will be the tender fresh beans for dinner.    A little french lavender growing along side them.   Isn't it pretty?

 Not one of my favorite smelling plants, society garlic, was planted around the garden in hopes of keeping the deer away.  It has worked thus far. 

 Sometimes they are white and sometimes purple, the iris have a mind of their own too.

 I love the return of salvia mixed with stevia...and speaking of stevia.....

 If stevia grows up among the strawberries......

 Will they be super sweet?

 How about among the peas?   Nothing better than fresh peas from the garden.   I was late this year so I hope that they do well.

 These bean were volunteer from last years crop.   When you cook them they turn green.   They are some of the best I have ever eaten.

 This pot grew up volunteer as well.    Just a happy little accident!

 Cucumbers are blossoming.

 A row of green beans and lavender .

 And although I know I need to cut it back, I love this plant that has spilled over the path to the lake.

 This amarilla came from the woods.   I have no idea how it got there unless a squirrel carried the bulb  off.  I decided to bring it closer to the house.  

 Who couldn't be thankful for all this beauty?

With a grateful heart, for eyes to see!

Friendship...as sweet as any fragrance from the garden.

 If you have been blogging for very long, more than likely you have placed  Aiken House and Gardens as one of your favorite garden blogs to visit.   With her welcoming photographs, since 2008, Carolyn Aiken has been setting a perfect cup of tea for her readers,  inviting us into her beautiful home and gardens.  Each visit to her blog, is met with fresh flowers so beautiful you can almost smell them.    Her gardens have graced several magazines with 10 enchanting acres that have had the tender care of this very lovely, humble and talented lady.   With her own two hands and most certainly the help of her loving husband they have created what was first breathed into Eden itself.   

 I recently had the privilege of meeting Carolyn for an afternoon visit at the Barn in Lake Alfred and then off to Lavender and Lace for wonderful lunch and tea.    Lucky for me, her family chose Florida to be their vacation destination this year with the need to see green after the long winter on her Prince Edward Island, where springtime comes a bit slow. From what she told me, PEI did not want her to leave, almost capturing the taxi cab driver in the snow laden drive the morning they were ready to leave for the airport.

 I use to get nervous when I would go meet fellow bloggers for  the first time.  I now find that this rarely happens.  After spending time reading of their lives and hobbies, their pictures usually reveal their spirit and with that there is just something so natural and easy about the visit.   It's like spending time with a dear old friend.  No matter how much distance may separate you, the meeting is like picking up  where you left off.   

With Carolyn it was so and I felt as though I was certainly meeting with a dear old friend.

After walking the property of the Shabby Old House and finding her blog, I am sure that my first comment to her back in 2008   must have read, "  The Shabby Old House needs your touch Carolyn!" Most certainly I have dreamed of having gardens around my home like hers.  So for years I have studied her home and gardens and dreamed of the day when the inside of our house would be complete and the landscape outside would start.  Each dreaming experience on Carolyn's blog would also add to my pleasure the experience of getting to know the loving caretaker of Aiken Gardens.  

 As we spoke of her garden's her face lit up with her anxious anticipation of returning to a glorious display of spring daffodils around her property on PEI, it made me realize what a connection gardeners and plant lovers all have.  Whether it be glorious acres of splendor, a very small garden patch,  or even fresh cut flowers in a vase, the beauty stirs us with the ability to stir others as well.   Nature moves us deep within to smiles on discovery of plants bursting forth with buds and blossoms.    It's as though they remind us to bloom where we are planted and leave a sweet fragrance behind and encourage others along the way.  Each of us have a seed inside with the ability to bring forth beauty.  It's God's gift to us all.  

Our purpose is to plant and  share as much beauty in this lifetime as we can and for those of us who blog we know that the encouraging comments of others is the precious water poured over our seed. Encouragement is as necessary as the seed!

So to you my sweet friend Carolyn.  I just want you to know....

You have certainly shared beauty and been the kind words of encouragement to me and so many others.  Meeting you was such a pleasure and  I think of a quote I saw written on a garden stake that read,

 "If friends were flowers,   I'd pick you."
Consider yourself picked my friend!
God Bless you and your family as you return to your beautiful Aiken House and Gardens.

If you want to read more about Carolyn's garden's, her story is currently in this month's issue of Romantic Homes. 

It all begins with a SPROUT

Spring has sprung and if you are like me you are cleaning off your porch and hoping to create that perfect little bit of outdoor heaven.  Where do you go for ideas?

 I go to my favorite Secret Garden which is Sprout

located in the outside garden area of Relic a wonderful boutique in Tampa. 

 I never come away empty handed or uninspired and always with a smile because of the friends that I have made here.

 When I saw this piece I think my heart skipped a beat.

Is this not beautiful?

 This row of creatively placed flowers had me thinking Sweet Home Alabama!

 Such vibrant colors have me rethinking some old iron in my yard.

 And if you are not so brave this classic set of black iron is perfect too.

 But nothing makes my heart sing quite like the white iron.  It's like lace mixed with flowers to me.

 What a fun lawn bird.  I remember one year a friend's yard got flocked for their 40th birthday with pink flamingos.  Wouldn't these be fabulous?

 I'm loving the red iron too.

 This is probably the only armadillo that I want in my yard.   I wonder if he would scare off the critter that has been digging up my flowerbeds.

 Did you enjoy your visit as much as I did today?

Just wait until you see my friend Amy's touch on the inside of Relic where her talent and the girls of Relic join in to create an amazing shopping experience you just don't want to miss.

But that will have to be for another post but here is just a little teaser until then.

Happy Spring everybody!

Getting Ready for Pilgrimage

 It's been called, " The prettiest little town in the South," and at Pilgrimage time each year in Eufaula, AL one could never argue that fact.   The Shabby Old House got a fresh coat of paint and some new flowers for the pots.

 Each evening hubby had to scrub off layers of paint from his hands and feet.  Yes, I did say feet.  lol

 And because of scheduling conflicts for so many years in a row we had to once again pass on a chance to paint our door the color of the rockers.   All homes in the historical district must have an approval before any changes get made.  Perhaps next year we will make it before the approval committee.

 But until then these are the only changes we can make and I must say I loved how the color livened up our front porch,

 to welcome our out of town guests for the 47th Annual Pilgrimage.

 I love this time of year.   I get to dress up!

This is the Petry-Honan house on Cherry St where I have volunteered for the last two years.

I hope that if you ever get the chance that you will come for a visit.

We just may open our home for the Christmas tour of homes.  That is,  if I can get the Shabby Old House ready in time.