Stars and Stripes and Color Explosions

Design - "Liberty"

Designer - Lizzie Kate

FAbric - 32 count Light Mocha Belfast linen

Fibers -  GAST & WDW - 2 strands over 2 threads

Started - 9 July 2015

Completed - 10 July 2015

I changed GAST "Oatmeal" to WDW "Whitewash", and also added the red and white star button.  This freebie can be found on Lizzie Kate's website.

It's Tuesday so let's join the Garden Party and Maple Hill Blog Hop and share what is blooming. 

The Morning Glories have exploded. 

And the Verbena is still going strong.

I am really pleased with how the Mudroom Flowerbed looks in early July.

Salvia guaranitica "Black and Blue" is over five feet tall.

The Bog Sage is even tall still!

In a couple of weeks this Lily will bloom. 

Right now it functions nicely as a hummingbird perch.

I often have 2 or 3 hummingbirds working away and fighting with one another over 'possession' of these plants.

I am growing a Passion Flower vine on the front porch, and it is blooming! 

My Begonias provide a pop of 'hot' color.

And here's another glass art mushroom to add to my collection.

Art in the Garden

As you can see, I've started another patriotic stitch.  I like to work on this theme throughout the month of July.  Chris of Tot Hill Farm Stitches generously gifted me with this chart. 

For this Tuesday's Garden Party, I thought I'd show off some of my garden art.

I decided on a less cluttered look this year. 

So I set out a few blue mushrooms.

Here are a couple more.

Here's my giant grasshopper.

I have several fused glass art items including this set of three flowers. 

I love this cascade of dragonflies.

And while I do not generally care to have bugs in my garden, glass bugs are an exception to the rule.

I bought the long blue glass sun-catcher at Saltram's gift shop near Plymouth, Devon, England.  The blues remind me of the sky and sea there. 

I have lots of volunteer Verbena bonariensis in the flowerbeds.

The hummingbirds enjoy it.

And so do the Swallowtail butterflies.

I think I've got a new plant color combo - yellow and lavender!

I'll end today's post with a pretty sunset.

The Fruits of My Gardening Labors

I worked on the La-D-Da alphabet - I'm up to "Q" and "R". I am loving this green variegated floss.
Not much stitching as of late because I've been gardening.  

It's Tuesday so I'm going to share my efforts with the Tuesday Garden Party over at An Oregon Cottage.

Today we'll take a look at the Front Porch.

I counted and I have exactly 150 pots set out there.

This is a view the Long Side. I hope the goat on the back left doesn't eat anything!  

I have a small decorative birdbath that the cats use, and birds do too.  I've placed turtles and frogs near it on the floor.  I hope the cats don't notice the small bunny in front of the gray pot on the right! 

And on the wall.

The dragonfly is another motif I like.

Look at all my dragonfly plant stakes and a beat up tea-light holder.

More dragonflies and a fused glass bug.

  

Plants and bugs.

I have two old picnic benches from the 1960's.  

They make great rustic plant stands.

Watering cans are another item I tend to amass.

(The wire fencing is to stop the deer from walking up from the flowerbeds and eating anything and everything on the porch.)

And ladybugs too. This is by David Adamson.

The red glass lady bug is also by David Adamson, the black bug with red spots is one I brought back from Paris. 

This tile is by Red Step Studio.  She has a website and an Etsy shop too.  

Ladybug plant stakes and a bee skep watering can.

Here's the Short End of the Front Porch.

Note the large green grasshopper guarding the front door.

Lots of watering cans too.

It houses my hostas and ferns.

And more David Adamson bugs - he displays at the 9th Street Gallery in Newport, OR.

And I have a small collection of glass mushrooms too!

 I hope you've enjoyed the tour of the Front Porch.  Next week we'll take a look at the Back Patio.

One year ago today Mom and I spent Memorial Day in Trafalgar Square. 

End of August Gardening Thoughts

I wonder what they thought in San Francisco when they searched my suitcase and found a bird house...

...and five, yep five watering cans.

Do you have a better idea now why I dreaded packing up?

Long time readers of this blog know that I adore watering cans and have quite the collection.  Now the collection has grown by five.  Three of them are Haws Watering Cans.  Their website calls them the "finest watering cans used throughout the world since 1886".  I bought the copper and the cream one at the Tanton Park Flower Show.  They were a steal - £10 for the cream and £15 for the copper one.  They'd be $85 or more here.

I am still getting adjusted to having missed most of summer here in Oregon.

I came back to find out mudroom flowerbed was an explosion of color. The Black and Blue salvia dominates the bed.

I am also really pleased with my Black-eyed Susan (Thunbergia) vine.  

One little $1.79 plant has become a mass of color.

My sister's morning glories are at their peak too.

Each morning the hummingbirds flit about madly - hard at work among the blossoms. 

This is also the time of year that Cone Flowers (echinacea) come into their own.

I even have some Asters going about their business.  A true sign of the fast-approaching autumn. 

I like verbena bonariensis for two reasons.  It has a habit of self-seeding in unexpected places, and the goldfinches perch on it and eat its seeds.