Setbacks

We flew to North Carolina for a conference at 6 a.m. Sunday, May 19. Around four that afternoon I got a text from one of my sisters saying we'd better have someone check on our house because a big storm had gone through town. Sure enough, our house was badly damaged by hail. Ruined roof and guttering, broken window, battered deck and lawn furniture. All discouraging and time-consuming, but covered by our homeowners insurance, thankfully.

But the hardest to take is how the storm erased all the hours of work we'd put into getting the yard in shape. After spending 8 hours last week weeding, planting, transplanting, pruning, and mulching with this result:

We came home to find trees stripped of their leaves and our plants shredded like salad. Only on the east side of the house did the plants go unscathed.

Our friends took a photo of these hailstones that did the damage.

I'm very grateful our favorite green ceramic pot wasn't broken and the flower cart my dad built for us is undamaged. But we'll be starting from scratch on our flower pots and plantings. Discouraging, yet in light of what the folks in Oklahoma are dealing with right now, we feel very fortunate.

One wonderful ray of hope: I feared our nesting doves had perished in the storm. Or even if they'd survived, that the eggs would be scrambled. As soon as we got home I ran to check on the nest. It was intact and Mama Dove was sitting there! There must still be eggs!

The hanging plant where the nest rests is too high for me to peek into, but as soon as Mama left the nest, I ran for my camera and held it high to take a photo and see if it revealed unbroken eggs. Imagine my joy when THIS is what the camera revealed!

Mama and babies are doing fine, and we are filled with hope.

Mid-way to hatching

Mid-May, and we're about a week away from a blessed event at our house. This lovely turtle dove laid a pair of eggs in our hanging begonia pot on the front porch and she's been sitting patiently ever since. 

She does let me water the edges of the plant occasionally, but keeps a close eye from a perch on the garage roof.

Starting a shade garden

We've never had so much shade in a yard before! It's very nice and we want to take full advantage of it by starting a shade garden beneath the deck. This space is the view from Ken's art studio, so we want color and variety without blocking the view into the back yard.

There were some vines and bushes already here. We've moved things around a bit, but are grateful for the bounty already planted all around the house. This morning, mid-May, we planted a variety of bulbs and corms and pips––lilies of the valley, caladiums, ferns, hostas.

We left a spot for hellebores, a new shade plant we want to try. They are beautiful shade lovers, and just the right height for this space in front of the windows.

The view from a living room window. I know this will be a favorite spot to sit in the cool of evening.

We are excited about all the wildlife we have in the city and bought a bird feeder on Mother's Day to see if we can attract some finches and other birds. Within a few hours of hanging the feeder, we had our first visitors!

We discovered several hostas growing along the side of the house and moved a couple of them to the corner of the shade garden. I've always wanted to try hostas and have never gotten the chance.

What happens when you DON'T have a cat

Amazing all the wildlife that comes around––even in the city––when you don't have a cat guarding your house! We left our kitty at the old house (what Ken has started calling "the old country") knowing she wouldn't be happy as a city cat. We've been blessed with all kinds of wildlife to watch, including a pair of turtledoves that have a nest in a hanging plant on our front porch. Oh, how I love the male's cooing mating call! Such a pretty, yet mournful sound––the reason they are also called mourning doves.

 

And this little fellow is a regular visitor (perhaps because of the daily peanut a certain someone––not me––leaves for him every morning?) We have geese, too, that often visit the park behind our house. All in all, it almost feels more like we live in the country here, in the middle of the city, than it did in "the old country!"

A happy surprise

 We have a lilac bush! I've loved the scent of lilacs since I was a child, and to discover this pretty bush growing in our front garden is a wonderful surprise. Kind of a reward for waiting SO long for spring to finally arrive!

Starting out

Just beginning to see what we have to work with in the yard at our new place. Mostly pleasant surprises so far. A beautiful Bradford pear tree, lots of rose bushes, peonies (my favorite flower!), and a clematis much bigger than the one we planted last year and had to leave behind.

 This is one of the projects I'm most excited about...making a shade garden underneath the deck.

We've already moved a clematis (successfully, we think!) to climb the deck poles, and are waiting for a couple of things to bloom so we can figure out what they are and where we want them. We're hoping to plant a variety of hellebores and other shade-loving plants here.

Settling in

We are happily settling in to our new home and as spring unfolds, we are delighted to see the wonderful flowers and shrubs that were here waiting for us. The former owners were gardeners too and have left behind some beautiful plants for us to enjoy and nurture. First to unfurl its gorgeous blooms, above, is a Japanese Magnolia (which some call a Tulip Tree).

The last bloom

January 29, 2013––This plucky begonia bloom has been on our window sill since before Christmas and is still blooming strong. It's the only remaining bloom of last summer's flowers. And it's likely the last bloom we will enjoy from this small-town prairie garden. Life is taking us on a new adventure and to a new home closer to our children, grandchildren, and extended family. For the first time since we were newlyweds living in New York, we'll be experiencing city life again. But still in Kansas, and of course, we'll plant flowers and maybe even a few prairie grasses in our new place.

We'll leave these gardens to a new family and trust that they'll receive as much joy as we have from watching a prairie garden grow. The new owners have already given us permission to come back in the spring and take a few snips and starts from this Kansas Prairie Garden. We'll keep you posted as we are uprooted and transplanted. Hopefully we will keep blooming where God is planting us for this next leg of the wonderful journey that is life!

From our house to yours . . .

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Celebrating the Reason for the season.

"For unto us a child is born . . ."

First snow––in two years!

December 19 and FINALLY we get a real snow (not the powdered sugar dusting that had to pass for snow last year.)

December strawberries?

Well, maybe not strawberries, but strawberry plants for sure. These little troopers have been thriving all summer and autumn long and even now, early in December have new growth, and even one little bloom (that didn't survive the chilly night.)

We've put away all the flowerpots except the sedums, which seem to like staying out in their pots all winter before a new growth spurt in the spring.

Foggy morn

A beautiful fog hovered over the yard early this last morning in November. It quickly burned off as the sun came up, but it was quite a sight for a few minutes, especially with a full moon still high in the sky.

Winter sunsets

We don't like these shorter days one bit, but one consolation is the amazing sunsets we get to see––usually from the supper table. This was the stunning view from our back deck on November 18, 2012.

Mexican Hen-and-Chicks

My friend Terry shared this pretty little Mexican Hen-and-Chicks plant with us. I planted it mid-November alongside our "American" Hen-and-Chicks and hope it does as well as they've done in this little corner of the entryway garden. They're protected from the cold north wind here, so maybe that's the secret?

Fading fast

 The 10th of November and it's looking pretty bare without the flower pots. The wind is doing a number on the last of the leaves and we're bracing for cold weather that's coming next week. I don't love winter, but there is certainly a sort of beauty in the death of everything green. And always hope for the spring that will be here before we know it.

Bringing the outdoors in

It's November 9 and our warm days are coming to an end so we've started putting the flowerpots away and bringing anything inside that is still blooming.

There are still geraniums and begonias blooming on the front porch, so they'll stay out for a couple more days until the next freeze. But today we brought the cyclamen in and planted all the mums in the "compost pile" behind the shed. We've learned that a lot of what we put out there as "trash" ends up coming back, giving us new plants for next spring.