Magnolia At The Old House

The tremendous magnolia trees that flank our old house are blooming now.

We were trimming a climbing rose and I noticed this one magnolia bloom hugging a telephone pole very low so I could snap some images without getting on a ladder {the trees are at least thirty-four feet tall}.

These images are taken with my wee little Kodak Easy Share camera.

 The petal bruising reminds me we are all damaged in some way. Some more easily than others.

I am linking with Tracie at Fishtail Cottage for Cottage Flora Thursdays.

grace surrounds us

Olive

~clay pots, a wood bowl, a lighthouse~

A lighthouse birdhouse of sorts.

 

CC and I went to a small estate sale early Friday morning and found the lighthouse.

The four new orchid pots {one dollar each} were from a garage sale later that day. I cannot grow orchids at all :(

The decor books are from the estate sale and the wood bowl is from the consignment store where I sell some items to support this habit I have.

Thrifting habit that is.

The bowl has some paint splatter but no matter I am enamored of it and have watched it in that store for some time and finally bought it for twenty dollars which, for me, is a lot.  Really that is not a bad price. Right?

Look at those beautiful lines on that bowl.

Friday was pretty dismal thrifting wise and Saturday Joe and I took the day off and rested.

The lady that runs the consignment store was appalled that I was not not out garage sale'n and was in her shop collecting my money and shopping instead. I thought that was pretty funny. I suppose it is kind of a backwards compliment as she wants me to find more goodies! She wants "modern" items also. Not vintage. I sold the tackiest lamp you have ever seen last week. I would not dare put a photo of it on this blog. So I buy items I do not like.
How about that?

I am partying here:

Coastal Charm for Thrifty Nifty Tuesdays

A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday

grace surrounds us

Olive

What's Blooming?

Hydrangea

The rusty wheel barrow is always parked here.

 Hammock time anyone?

The rusty wheel barrow, found by Joe on the roadside, is used weekly at the yellow house in the flower garden and yard. We would not like a shiny new one.

I will cut and arrange some hydrangeas very soon for the table and then to dry.

grace surrounds us

Olive

White Flowers

 Dwarf gardenias started blooming this week.

Just in time for Kathleen's 100th post at Faded Charm for White Wednesday.

I had to cut some and put them in a very special vase.

Do you like the fragrance of gardenias?

I do.

I gave this cut glass vase to my daughter's grandmother about twenty something years ago and she recently gave it back to me and it is kept by the kitchen window for fresh flowers.

The flower garden is bursting forth right now.

The sweet bunny has white petunias.
We have a huge hedge of large gardenias about to bloom and have treated that hedge for white flies.

Never under estimate the work in a garden.
We love it though.

I am linking with Kathleen for White Wednesday's 100th event at Faded Charm.

grace surrounds us
Olive 

My Thrifty Urns

I have enriched my collection of urns.

Alabaster, from Italy, found at an estate sale one mile from the yellow house.

It was three dollars. Hard to believe. Yes?

I am unsure where to put it because I got another urn at the same sale.

They had a table full of white urns. I think I behaved because I only bought two!

See what I mean? Both have merits. I might flank the stone fireplace with them.

This large urn was from a recent garage sale. Sorry about the glare in the window.

This is a Pottery Barn pillow cover I bought at the same sale. I bought a lot of items in a huge box for twenty-five dollars so that makes this and the large urn just about a dollar each.

I am partying here.

Coastal Charm for Nifty Thrifty Tuesdays.

A Stroll Thru Life for Table Top Tuesday.

Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

What's Blooming?

I wish I could say Joe and I found fabulous finds at the garage sales today.

We did not.

But the Butterfly bush is showing off.

I prune the Butterfly bush to the ground in February or March and that makes for more blossoms.

This one is now about six feet tall.

We do have one garage sale item from a month ago to show.

We bought this concrete urn for six dollars and put Creeping Jenny and a begonia in it and love how it turned out. Total cost for the whole look is ten dollars.

Petunias are the only annuals we buy because they take our Southern heat very well. 

This is a fifty cent pack in this planter. We buy them tiny and not blooming and get surprised by the color later.

What's blooming in your garden?

grace surrounds us

Olive

TOO MUCH STUFF

This is me in our hammock on Saturday.

Image taken by my dumb phone.

Ikea makes a fabulous hammock by the way.

Land's End flip flops were four dollars at a favorite thrift store and the flowers are leather.

There has been no chilling out or hammock time allowed today.

I moved CC, our daughter, from her dorm apartment back to our old house. It took seven hours. To say we are exhausted is not enough. I noticed that girls bring TOO MUCH STUFF while boy students do not.  

One of her friends helped us load up our Jeep and I took him out to a BBQ lunch. Joe and CC unpacked the Jeep when we got home and I had supper in the slow cooker {love that}.

It is wonderful CC is home for the summer all though she is taking online summer school classes. We are so proud that she has earned an academic scholarship this year.

I realize I have been missing from your blogs {and mine} the past few days but I needed a break and was planting many perennials which brings me much joy. I hope all of you had a lovely Mother's day.

This is an Iceland Poppy I rescued from a big box store for one dollar and even I doubted it would live. It was dry and withered but after watering and twenty four hours in the earth it gave me a bloom.

I do hope to get back to my regularly scheduled irregular posting soon.

I am linking to Coastal Charm for  Nifty Thrifty Tuesday.

grace surrounds us

Olive

His Mama's Hips

Is it Batman?

Nope.

It's Clovis.
He has his mama's hips.

This is my all time favorite image of Clovis.
He sits in the window and longs to go outside and of course we let him outside for a while.

Linking with the magical Debbie of Debbidoos for Lucy's Pet Partay.

grace surrounds us

Olive

Mama Bird

A mama bird feeding her babies a worm {or a grub}.

It is a bit of a challenge for my camera to capture birds but I snapped her as she sneaked into that house.

We have respected her privacy and not looked at the baby birds.

I planted a wildflower garden, up there on the hill, beside that tree last week and I am anxious to see what is popping up. It is supposed to rain tonight which is good because I cannot water the garden because we are at the old house.

Are you fascinated by birds like we are?

grace surrounds us

Olive

~a weekend, a path, a garden~

Our weekend was a whirl of activity. 

 

We had our neighborhood garage sale. It was fabulous fun minus the getting up in the dark. We have wonderful friends and neighbors and would not have a sale if not for them. They are almost more fun than we can stand at six o' clock in the morning. 

 

Joe and I sold almost everything and donated the rest. This image above is our neighbor's brick path where we had the sale. It had to be photographed.

 

Yesterday was our daughter's, CC's, college piano recital. She played beautifully, a peppy song, Hava Nagila. She woke up the audience!

We are back at the old house and I am resting from working in the flower garden and mowing the grass at the yellow house last week. Here are some flowers from our yellow house.

This little pink climbing rose is trailing all over the place.

Stonecrop with it's slight touch of pink.

We love flowers against hard surfaces like the landscape timbers.

What did you do this past weekend?

grace surrounds us

Olive