this morning in the garden...day lilies and frogs

Our lilies are opening! These look great against the shade of the woods.

Mama frog?

Baby frog. 

We never get tired of gazing at the frogs on their lily pads. I get really sad when I think about leaving the pond behind when we move.  We can make any house pretty and build a patio, that's easy. But duplicating our special pond will not be possible. The South is buggy and no need to attract more bugs to our garden. Sniff sniff. There will be a big body of water to look at every day and that will have to be the substitute. The intimacy and beauty of our private little pond will be so missed!

The front yard lily bed, those are Limelight hydrangeas up the hill preparing to bloom. The rains this summer are keeping every bed fresh and green. Not had to bring out the hose once!

What's blooming in your garden this morning?

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

checking in/making progress

Hi everyone! We have been busy bees over here. The house was placed on the MLS on Tuesday. One couple looked at the house within an hour of it being listed and are coming back for a second look tomorrow. A good sign! Our agent is having a Realtor Open House next Tuesday. 

The gardens are good. A few hosta varieties are flowering. 

The first hydrangeas are opening.

I bet you do this too, allow the plant to tell you who to pick for arrangements. Blooms lying on the ground want to come into the house!

We have had so much rain this summer, the gardens and grass look great but getting the lawn mowed is challenging because our house sits on a hill and the mower (this beast)

 will create big muddy tracks if the ground is too wet. Husband just bought this last year when he started to work from home.  He is in LOVE with it. But it will have to be sold too. Kind of sad but opportunity knocked when we spotted the waterfront lot and here we are, unloading all of out treasured garden tools and machines! 

We have been purging and organizing, something I love to do! Since we don't know the design of our new house yet, choosing what to keep is pretty tricky. My decisions are based on the amount of square footage we will lose (yay!) and the fact that our new smaller home will have an open floor plan which means less walls for large pieces of furniture. I had to make a few decisions that were kind of painful but have not looked back. 

I consider these shots to be very beautiful!

We store the patio furniture here in the winter. We piled this space with all kinds of stuff the other day and now ALL GONE! Will make organizing before the move so much easier.

I actually cannot tell you how much I enjoy looking at this. Sorry for these stupid shots of a storage room but it makes me so happy to see it almost empty! I will completely miss this in the next house. No basements near water. How in the world we will do without a basement I cannot imagine!

1 800 Got Junk helped us tremendously. We created a huge pile in the basement and garage and they took it all within an hour and were very professional and friendly. However, they charge quite a bit. It was worth it to us, we see it as a moving expense that helps in the selling of the house. They then sell and recycle what they can. The charities are wisely picky about what they take and had over a week wait for pick up. I did not feel it was the right time to have a garage sale, too much on my mind. However once the house sells, I am very willing to have an estate sale if the new owners are not interested in our large sectionals, exercise equipment, game tables, etc. 

So on to the new ideas.

I have a general idea of a floor plan of the new house and yard and continue to research. I pretty much go back and forth between organizing this house (our Amish cleaning ladies are helping too, we are keeping the house in perfect tip top shape since it will be compared to newer homes) and then researching new house ideas using Pinterest, Houzz, etc. for inspiration. We had a group of 13 here last weekend for my mothers 80th birthday so we were have been in a rush to get the house back in shape for the listing start date.

Here are a few ideas on my Pinterest boards....who knows what will actually become reality.

Love the color palette and style of the work space. Husband will work from home. We may put the office upstairs with water view.

Love this pergola.

Love the white, wood tones, Dash & Albert rugs and the tub.

Love everything, layout, casual vibe, windows and french doors to porch.

Love this.

Back courtyard shaded. Love the shade of trim and wall color, the batten board siding (is that the right term?) of the next image.

Time is definitely on my side and I am taking advantage so that when we meet with the Design/Build team after we move (will rent in Beaufort while building), I will have my head wrapped around the design, every little part of the design. I still feel I have not figured it out.... at all! So many things to consider in new construction. Our biggest inspiration in the next house is minimum indoor space but enough space for our three kids and guests when they visit and maximum outdoor space/porches and patios.

And finally Andy says hi and why are my parents running around like crazy? His buzz cut is growing out, going to have to cut him again soon.

What are you working on this summer?

Thanks for visiting!

Cindy

this morning in the garden

Another cool night last night with frost on the ground this morning. The Muscari bulbs are popping up everywhere because that is where we have them planted...everywhere!

The Hellebores are still here, lots of glare this morning showing up in the photos.

The Honeysuckle and Clematis arbor is filling in.

The Japanese Maple at this end of the pond is leafing out.

This season has been the best in our twelve years here, daffodils have been up for several weeks!

Foliage of the wood anemone which bloomed last week.

Sweet Woodruff has popped but not flowering yet.

 Andy looking serene, his serious face. An old man at the park asked me why my dog was depressed the other day. Huh? "Why do you say that?" "Well, he is not smiling and looks sad". "I don't think he can continually smile"!

 Brunnera blooms before it reaches its full height.

Celadine poppies are blooming throughout the woods.

We have the hardest time with Dicentra, this one is hardy but we have had many fail over the years here. In southern Ohio where we used to live, they were completely reliable.

 A Dog Toothed Violet in bloom but still closed from the night.

 Daffodils still up in driveway side beds.

 These are some of the only Bluebells we have (foliage in the front of bed in photo below). They do not naturalize in this climate like they did in Southern Ohio, which has been disappointing for us as they are one of our  favorite spring flowers. We had to finally edge the sloped beds on the side and front yards with rocks because we have washouts after heavy rainfalls. We fought it for years but finally succumbed. Everything stays in place now.

 The lonely Yellow Magnolia that we planted last year that the deer severely damaged in the winter. We discovered it too late and burlapped it. It is budding now but less than half the size it was.

Husband clipped the heck out of the Akebia arbor, it will fill in in no time. Mother Robin made a nest on the left and used a piece of plastic you can just barely see on the left.

View of both arbors, creating the "living room" of the patio.

The Yellow Flag Iris coming in, we have it planted at both sides of the pond. Tiered planter waiting for its herbs, that is the only place we can find for it where it receives enough sun and is convenient to easily reach from the kitchen.

Are you working in your garden today? We are awaiting a delivery of mulch and more rocks and a forecast for the next week of warmth and sun!  

I finally finished painting the bookshelves but have not finished purging the books yet, will post later. Took a long time because we decided the white was too stark for the rest of the house and ended up with the mushroom color that is on the walls (even though the white looked so fresh and clean and brought light to the hallway ;o( ). Will post photos later.

Thanks for visiting !

Cindy