Will you still need me, will you still feed me...

Picture this – a 64 year-old male out water skiing for his birthday, an impromptu get-together and a relaxing fire.  That’s what dreams are made of, folks.  Hubs announced on Sunday that he would really like to ski on his birthday, a fete that hasn’t been accomplished in a while, to make sure he still could.  A couple of text messages later and the deal is done, Monday, 5:30 p.m.

 

Hubs is in pretty good shape.  He’s a hard worker and always has a project or two going that keeps him moving and fit.  I was not nervous about water skiing, plenty of men do at his age…but, I could tell he was a little apprehensive, because he hadn’t been skiing in a couple years, that he might embarrass himself.  Our nephew came out with his 11 year-old son, dusted off the skis that have been in the barn for a few years, and off they went.  This would be the boy’s first try at skiing, and although quite a gifted athlete, I could tell he was apprehensive as well.

 

Success was whooped and hollered as the boat returned to the pier.  All three had a great spin, the boy was thrilled that he could call himself a skier, as was hubs.  The nephew’s wife had arrived, and sat with me in the yard swing, catching up as more of their kids and friends arrived and were taken out in the boat for a try at skiing.  

We had a great evening and not a typical Monday.  We love this family and look forward to the day they will be moving to the lake themselves and the love, fun and activity they bring with them.  Hubs was beaming, he was so happy to have the yard and the lake filled with their young, happy voices and kept going back to the kitchen to scrounge more crackers, more chips, more cheese, left over pizza and grapes.  We moved to the deck and the fire pit and had awesome conversation, stale crackers and Pringles (are they even potato?).  I sat back and enjoyed watching him enjoy his birthday, no cake, no steak, but, with the exception of wishing his kids and grandkids were here, he could not have hoped for a better evening.  Yes, we will still love you, when you’re 64. 

Just one take, just one song...

Like most of you, I cherish the long weekends when my kids and grandkids can visit.  While one couple is way on over in the Pacific Northwest, the two daughters and their families are close enough to visit fairly regularly.  It’s easier for us to visit them, I’ve said this before…we travel light.  They do not.  But, we have room and we have the lake, so they visit as often as they can.

This weekend at the lake was gorgeous.  I am glad they were here for it – even though we found out on Friday that our central air conditioning unit would need to be replaced, on Tuesday, after the weekend.  Well, that was a bummer and a surprise.  Expecting a very warm and humid weekend, not having the air conditioning made things a bit uncomfortable.  We endured.  Found almost all the screens and within minutes had fans in windows and lived like cavemen.

 

My oldest of the two girls, who is my middle child, scheduled a photo shoot for her family while here.  The photographer happens to be an old friend and while she doesn’t specialize in big family shoots since she is a maternity/newborn specialist, she agreed to shoot my daughter’s family along with their newborn.  Well, shoot, since sister is also in town, yeah, why not throw her family in there, too, and what the heck, GiGi and PaPa.

It was chaotic and warm in this little house as we all readied ourselves for the photography session.  We left on time, got to the location on time and had a great session.  The children were wonderfully photogenic and sweet, the lighting was pretty and soft.  Hubs and I decided, and the girls agreed, we didn’t want to do a “family” shoot since our son and daughter-in-law weren’t here, but we did want a shot or two with the grands.

 

My husband has long collected antique phonographs, you know, with the horns and cranks.  The grandkids love to have him play a record so they can do their jumpy, twirling dance and giggle.  I thought it would be fun to set up that scene in the field we were meeting in for the session.

 

We were rewarded with the talented photographer, the beautiful light and everyone in a great mood.  We needed just one silly shot of GiGi and PaPa and the grands and their parents, dancing in a field of weeds at sunset.  I mean, seriously, who doesn’t?  Facebook has changed things, that is for sure, but do me a favor and take pictures, have photos done every once in a while.  You won’t regret it.

Thank you Amanda, for your patience and your talent.  

My moon garden, Part 2.

A moon garden is not necessarily only white plants.  Mine is, primarily, because that’s what I envisioned. I like how white plants seem to absorb the light of the day and then glow, particularly at the “golden hour” of sunset, but also at night, under a bright moon.   Night blooming plants can also be considered relatively standard for a moon garden.  I have not gotten that far to include night bloomers specifically in my space, but may down the road. 

Our woods serve as a buffer between our home and an increasingly busy road, no longer “country” but not a thoroughfare. It’s not a huge space, even though I make it sound as if it is ~ it’s less than an acre of woods.  The area where the moon garden lies is not isolated, not too far off the main path of the bridge going nowhere, visible in part, but almost secretive, mysterious even.  I do want it to be inviting, but also a surprise.  For me, I know it’s there, for someone else, they would have to discover it. 

I have plans for my moon garden, still in the early stages.  I am debating stepping stones to provide a suggested route to the bench that is placed there.  I want just a hint of a path, just a tease.  I have trees to take out and more limbs to remove and I am coaxing a tree bent by the winter’s snow to continue to bend, to provide a backdrop and give structure for a tiny climbing hydrangea I have moved to the base.  I would love there to be water but don’t see how that will be added without more maintenance than I care to do, but you never know.  

My senses are stirred in the moon garden, which is also a goal.  Sight, as I try to make a small, cohesive and inviting area.  Sound, as nature brings a chorus ~ bees, birds, breeze in the branches, and a gentle, tinkling wind chime.  Touch, as the cool concrete that invites a visitor to sit is softened by the carpet of leaves, pine needles and earth, and of course, smell, as the plants and trees release their fragrance.  Add a cup of coffee in the morning or a glass of wine in the evening and the moon garden completes the senses with taste.

It’s a meditative place, a calming place ~ it wants you to stay for a moment.  A moon garden, or any garden really, should want from you, as you may want from it.  It should want your attention, your appreciation and it will take your stress, lift your spirit, calm your spirit.  A garden invites you, yes, but it also expects you and waits for you.   

My moon garden.

The Moon Garden 1

I have had a few questions on my moon garden so this post will get into the planning a bit more deeply, which is post 1 out of 2! Yikes!

First, a bit of background information.  When wedding celebrations for our nephew and his wife were underway, more than 20 years ago, a family friend of the bride hosted a ladies luncheon.  It was lovely, and just a nice, sweet way for some of her closest friends, who were bridesmaids, and family, to take a bit of time with her before her life changed forever.  I actually hosted a similar luncheon for another nephew’s bride a few years later as it made such an impact on me as such a sweet event.  The hostess had a lovely well-appointed home, and lovely gardens.  There was a gazebo and to one side she introduced me to the idea of a moon garden, explaining that all the plants were predominately white, or light, silvery, airy.  It was small and beautiful, peaceful.

I began a bit of research and discovered that I likely did not have the right conditions for a moon garden as I have so much shade.  The lakeside is not as shady, but, we leave that pretty open for play! I put the idea of a moon garden aside, who was I kidding? I knew nothing about plants and gardening anyway. 

A few years ago, the idea came back to the surface.  I know more about plants and gardening now, and the internet makes it pretty easy to research and find plants that will work with the conditions I have.  I lost a big tree or two in the woods and light filters in a differently than it did years ago.  Besides, the moon garden doesn’t have to be all plants and flowers but statuary and sculpture, ornaments.  I already had the sculpture, my son-in-law’s art project, which is a partial replication of Venus de Milo without arms, whom I call Esmerelda.   I had a tree stump that makes a nice base for her and relocated her there last year.   

 

Being somewhat a clod, I thought “Oh, white plants and a sculpture” and I’d be done.  However, after reading a bit,  I wanted to be more deliberate in my choices and in preparing the area. As I began to think about the garden differently I expanded the small circular area in the woods that had become Esmerelda’s home.   I like her there, she is a little surprise as you walk down the path and over the bridge.  The storm in February brought down many limbs, the light opened up a bit more after the utility company cleared some of the easement and topped a few trees.  It almost seems like the space picked itself.

As I thought about plants I realized I had many white flowering plants already so it wouldn’t be a huge investment to get pretty well underway.  I had quite a few green and white hosta that could be split, I ordered a stunning neon bright lemon yellow hosta, purchased a white azalea locally as well as a silver leafed brunnera called Jack Frost, and a white bleeding heart.  I divided and moved white astilbe, white hellebores, transplanted white daffodils and lily of the valley. I have the start to a pretty decent moon garden! More information and pictures next week! I’m excited to share it with you!    

You have yours, and I have mine.

Along with writing a bit about life around our lake, I will be including stories surrounding our upcoming remodel ~ partly because I think it will hold some entertainment and partly so there is a record of it, a timeline. For posterity or what have you.

This weather has not been getting any friendlier.  This may be a late spring, a wet spring, a just ugly spring.  Quite frankly, I am not even sure we can call it spring, except for the fact the trees have leafed out.  I can no longer see into my neighbor’s driveway across the way…which is a detriment to nosey neighboring, hi dee ho.

 

I did go up into the woods last week and identified five or six dogwood trees that I didn’t realize were still there.  They are tall, leafed out only at the top, having been shaded for too long by other scrub trees.  I hope to clear around them a bit and encourage their development going forward.  A couple of them even had a few blossoms!  I literally pushed over two dead dogwood trees about the same height so I guess that’s a start to clearing, right?  But, it’s the maples and some scraggly branches of existing pine trees that are causing some of the blocking of room and sun…a bit much for me to take care of alone, but, I’ll work towards it! We actually need to have a tree service out to do some trimming and removing of trees before the construction begins so I might have a few “add ons” before that time comes.

So, regarding the construction.  Hubs is going to be doing a lot of the work himself, with the help of a family friend who happens to also be in the trade.  We actually had our first pow-wow with him and laid out a schedule of sorts.  It made me tingle, seriously, as I know that we really are getting to a start phase! Hubs mentioned he had begun an estimate of materials and I began to look through some websites for gas fireplace information.  Our eyes have met more than once with a dismissed “Are we crazy?” look as we go back to our research and reading, drawing and measuring. 

 

Here's what I have learned.  If we had done this when we were in our 40s and 50s, we would have struggled with decisions and direction, disagreed over silly things like door handles or paint colors.   Having gone through the county-property-tax-revamping-from-hell years, we would have almost priced ourselves out of our home by adding too many square feet to be taxed at too high of a rate.  In some ways, having that screwed up for about 8 years prevented us from biting off more than we should chew, especially during the ultra lean years of 2008-2014.  Lumber business, husband’s livelihood, you must realize, was deeply affected by the housing fiasco, and so was our bank balance.

  

A recent conversation we had over the above mentioned gas fireplace is stacked stone above the mantel, to the ceiling, or not.  I came armed with more than 20 pictures from the internet on my iPad, hoping for meaningful thought and consideration from both our points of view.  He looked at two options, responded with a gruff “No” and moved on.  I was left somewhat unsatisfied, to be honest.  I realized then that we are not going to have long drawn out conversations on design like we may have had in previous decades, when we were more dreamers than doers.   This will work in my favor, I decided and I may need to rethink the whole conversation thing in general as overrated.  What I don’t ask doesn’t get answered and I have to answer for myself.

 

While hubs is busy counting how many 2X4 studs we need, which we don’t discuss, I can go about choosing paint, and finishes and fireplace material without so much as a “tell me what you think about…” Yeah, this is going to work out just fine.   

A quick change of plans.

Lake life in the spring can be rather frustrating.  One day it’s beautiful, warm and sunny…anxious to get the boats in the water, the planting done, sprucing up the outdoor furniture and landscaping so that when the really warm days arrive there isn’t a lot of maintenance to do.  It’s a busy time.  Could even be considered fun on some days.

Then there are the other days of mid-spring…the 40 degree days.  The gloomy days, the days when you fear you planted too early and the boats just sit, rocking against the pier or on their trailer, waiting for a spin around the lake.  When you worry that there’s going to be frost, or at the very least, that the rain will drown your new plants.

Our week this week has been of the frustrating days, the 40 degree, wet, windy, downright cold days of mid-spring.  A reminder that we are not in control, that nature has a voice and right now, it’s saying, “Not until I feel like it”.

But, this week, although frustratingly un-springy, was still a great week as our 5^th grandchild arrived, healthy, beautiful and ten days early.  He’s gorgeous and we couldn’t be more pleased.  I came home after five days away and found the replacement “faux” rock for our winter storm damage, dogwoods in bloom and Mildred and Mildred II still happy in their new homes.  Although his arrival and my drop-everything-and-go trip did delay further work in the moon garden, the weather wouldn't have allowed more anyway.   Other azaleas have bloomed and I am hoping the Mildreds will show some color this year, but I know they have been traumatized.  I have two little azaleas from last year that are looking pretty rocky, too ~ I am tending to them with much love and manure

The eagles are still around and appear to have accepted our lake as a home, building a nest and having some babies somewhere in a two-mile zone from us.  I see them fly over now and again, high and circling, looking for a fish or duck.  The remains are often tossed in our yard and are quite a surprise, let me tell you, when happened upon.  As I have mentioned before, a bit of a crime scene, but kind of a thrill.

  

We are coming into our favorite time of year at the lake, time when family visits more and keeps our lakefront home buzzing with activity.  There’s still a lot of preparation to do, but, we are ready for 2016 celebrations, bonfires, cookouts, swimming and boating and all that it brings.  Notice I did not say fishing, as we just aren’t those people, but, yes, that could happen, too! 

Of myrtle, maples and Mildred.

Myrtle.  How do I love thee? Not at all, actually, myrtle, not at all.  I spent much of the last week yanking myrtle ground cover out of my way, out of my rake, out of my plantings.  I am so over myrtle.

 

Maples.  We know I love the maple tree.   The lovely maple will provide shade and homes for birds, bugs and beetles.  The “soft” maple that prolifically populates my woods is basically a weed.  When I am not pulling out myrtle, I am pulling out little maple trees, sometimes little oak trees.  I did quite a bit in the area of the moon garden over the weekend and have piles of maple tree saplings from trying to make a clearing for Esmerelda and her white blooms.  More on that next week, but, the moon garden is shaping up.
    

But, Mildred, ah, Mildred, the beautiful hot pink azalea with blossoms almost as big as my hand.  I got braver than brave on Thursday and determined that I could move Mildred on my own.  I equipped myself with the plastic wheelbarrow, 3 shovels and 2 trowels and went to work.  I first had to roll a short section of a railroad tie out of the way, dug in and around to clear roots.  Stood in the flower bed to lift her out.  She fell divided in two large clumps into the wheelbarrow, and there was a heartbeat of panic. Then, a realization -  I have two! Two Mildreds!

The first section, once released from the flower bed seemed to spread open her arms and grow in girth.  Huge.  This thing is huge! I wrestled her into a pre-dug hole by the new shed and prayed I had loosened enough soil to accommodate her expansive drip line and far reaching roots.  Fertilizer, water, dirt, repeat … I hope she makes it.  Say it with me “I hope she makes it”!

The second surprise section took a moment to place.  Where should she go? I decided on a place out from our bedroom window and dug.  This is when some of my most frustrating myrtle removal happened.  This side yard has been largely ignored for years, so much so in fact that our contractor friend, when talking our remodeling plans, said about this area of the yard “There’s nothing to look at over there”.  Ouch.  So, the side yard has made it onto the list, and it is a huge project, filled with nonsensical plants and miles of myrtle.  I need to make this area worth looking at.

 

It’s been five days for Mildred and Mildred II and they still look good.  I will know a lot more after a few weeks and even going in to next spring about their adaptation to their new locations.  I am worried about Mildred II; I’ve tried a couple things there and have not had much success as it seems the soil is great for myrtle but not so much for other things!