Sunday Stroll - Flowers for the Party

This morning, I went down to the garden and cut flowers for the vases on the tables at the graduation party. Because my iris are just beginning to bloom, I didn't leave many in the garden but they were very cute on the tables in little Japanese soda bottles. These photos were taken just before I cut the flowers for the party. You may notice that in my notes below which identify the flowers in the photos, there are several iris varieties whose cultivar I do not know. These were gifts from a gardening friend. It has been fun to watch them unfold. For many of them, this is their first year in my garden and each new variety is a surprise and a delight.

1) Orchid and Peach Iris, cultivar Rock Star 2) a little Siberian Iris; cultivar Skywings 3) Blue Dutch Iris 4) yellow iris/brown falls, cultivar not known 5) another Purple Iris

Sunday Stroll Invitation

If you have time this week for a Sunday Stroll, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too. I will be busy with my daughter's graduation party today, so will be checking in late to update the list. See you then!

Look who's strolling:
Margaret at Periodic Pearls
Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm
Joyce at Tall Grass Worship
Me, here at the Quiet Country House
Robbin, at Cedar Chest of Dreams

Garden Journal

"Methinks my own soul must be a bright invisible green."

~ Henry David Thoreau

Last night, Limerick and I built a long raised bed in our old/new garden (which means it used to be a vegetable garden, but has been fallow for several years.) We planted Emerald Artichokes over about the first 24 feet. These are sort of an experiment, because I've never heard of any one growing artichokes in our zone 4b/5 region. The seed company claims that they are hardy here and we love artichokes, so we're giving them a try.

The boys and I planted several hills of pumpkin down the next 24 feet. The garden is about 56 feet long, so that leaves a few feet for something else in the row. As soon as Limerick has another free evening, we will construct the next raised bed.

Today, I added some orange marigolds and lavender petunias to my front porch planter, which had sustained some frost damage in May. I also planted three rosemary plants and a little marigold in an herb bed. I purchased these three rosemary plants today, because those I planted from seed several weeks ago have not germinated, unless you count one tiny sprout which doesn't die, but doesn't grow either. I put a marigold in a little clay pot in an empty space in the butterfly garden, which will eventually be filled in with lupines that are very young and small this year.

I did some watering and some edge-trimming by hand and thoroughly enjoyed my hours in a warm breeze, under a pearl gray sky.

Wednesday - Yellow Cake Memories

When I was growing up, we lived on 13 acres of farmland with several old out-buildings. Growing at the side of the big red barn were old-fashioned German beared Iris, in shades of yellow and purple. The yellow iris were a particular favorite of mine because they smelled like yellow cake. I have been searching for a yellow iris with that fragrance in my nearly 20 years as a gardener. It was a pleasant task, sniffing yellow iris at nurseries, in gardens, and at a local iris farm... but for so many years, I could not find the aroma I recalled from childhood.

Last summer I spotted the yellow iris in the photo above. Imagine my delight when I leaned down to smell it, and the sweet scent of yellow cake baking in the oven greeted me. The cultivar is "Summer Olympics." I cannot claim that it is the same cultivar that grew near the barn, but the color is right and the fragrance just perfect. I purchased the Iris and brought it home to add to my butterfly garden. Today, this lovely blossom opened fully... and of course, I leaned down and took a long deep breath of her perfume.

"There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again."...Elizabeth Lawrence

photo by Aisling: 1) Summer Olympics Iris in the butterfly garden

Tuesday at Home

Today is one of those lovely rare days that I get to spend entirely at home. With no where to hurry off to:

~ I have removed an accumulation of clutter (is "accumulation of clutter" redundant?) from the main living areas so that later in the week I may clean surfaces. You have to be able to get to surfaces to clean them well!

~ I wanted to cover the card table with a bit of fabric for Senryu's Graduation Party this coming Sunday. The fabric I wanted to use wasn't large enough, so I pieced it together with some other fabric and added trim for the corners. It was "Halloween quality" sewing, in my estimation. If you've ever quickly thrown together a Halloween costume from bits and pieces, with little attention to the finer details of sewing such as exquisitely finished edges, then you'll understand my concept of "Halloween quality." Ordinarily, when I sew, I like the underside or inside to be as presentable as the outside. Anyway, this table will be either the gift table or the beverage table at the party on Sunday. It looks better than the dingy, worn-out table top and (somewhat) fits the Asian theme we are using, in honor of Senryu's exchange in Taiwan last school year.

~ I played (again) "What's your made up candy?" with Tanka. Today mine is "June Candy" which tastes like strawberries, fresh sweet air, and sometimes like rain. I also got craft supplies out for him, and he sat on the living room floor and made bookmarks. One is now tucked into the children's fantasy novel, Sea of Trolls, that I am currently reading.

~ I pulled some weeds in the garden. I tend to leave things like pretty yellow oxalis (with it's clover-like leaves) or dandelions, but I pull the invasive weeds that threaten my more delicate perennials.

~ I have laundry going, and dishes soaking in the sink. Tidying up the kitchen is next on my list, and by the time I finish, it will be time to begin making dinner. I think I'll make a light nutritious soup. It's June 3rd, but I'm wearing a sweater on this cool, overcast day, so soup sounds just right.

photos by Aisling, June 3, 2008 1) new table cover 2) new table cover corners 3) detail of print 4) yellow oxalis, a "weed" in the butterfly garden 5) dandelion "going to fluff" near the driveway

Sunday Stroll Invitation

Today is my oldest daughter's high school graduation ceremony. The word "graduation" is bittersweet to me... as something ends and the graduate moves on. The word commencement has a less poignant connotation, as it speaks of beginnings. The garden, like my life, is filled with both beginnings and endings at the same time. The petals are falling away on the last of the late-blooming tulips... just as the first iris are opening to the sun.

"All outward endings bring new and higher inward beginnings." ~ Laura Teresa Marquez

If you have time this week for a Sunday Stroll, please post about about it on your blog and then come back here with a comment and a link to your post. You may use the Sunday Stroll button at the top of this post on your post or side bar if you would like. I will add participant names to this post so other strollers can walk through your garden too. I'll check back often and try to keep the list updated.

Look who's strolling:

Linda at Vulture Peak Muse

Margaret at Periodic Pearls

Me, here at The Quiet Country House

Nan at Letters from a Hill Farm

Sunday Stroll - Beginnings and Endings

1) Black Hero tulip in front garden 2) dark purple iris in bud 3) dark purple iris in blooom 4) Angelique Tulip in late stages of bloom 4) blue flax in Haiku's Rose and Herb garden 5) aquilegia (columbine) 6) last petal on an Angelique Tulip