Jill's Garden

A couple of weeks ago I was fortunate enough to be able to spend a few days with my fantastic sister-in-law, Jill, and her family. Jill is married to my husband's brother - and together they have 3 awesome sons - otherwise known as my awesome nephews!  Jill and her family live in a beautiful part of the country, right between Boulder and Estes Park, CO.  Every year, thousands of people travel from all over the country to experience the scenic summer drive up Highway 36.  Cool mountain breezes, fabulous scenery and the incredible sights of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Jill's and her family are lucky to call this place home!

The view from their deck is amazing.  Across the road, I discovered a brilliant batch of wild poppies.

The colors are SO brilliant ... I just couldn't get enough of them!

Anyway ...

Jill and I share a love of gardening and while I was there, she shared hers with me.  She's been working on her "sanctuary" for a number of years - adding little bits and pieces along the way.  I enjoyed our visit in her garden, tucked under the pine and spruce trees, up the moss rock steps and just behind her garden gate.

We sat in our chairs with a hot cup of coffee, enjoying the morning breezes and good conversation.  Although we don't see each other as often as we would like, we are like sisters - and can always pick up where we left off - without hesitation or a missed beat.

Many thanks, Jill - for your time, your inspiration, your laughter and your always positive outlook on life.  Your joy is always in my heart.

Here's to Jill's Garden of Life :)

Blue Skies and Sunshine ...

The rain has come and gone, and after all the destruction - it was minor, really, but seemed devastating at the time - the glory of the garden is in full swing again.  The flowers - and the veggies - smiled upon all of the water and gave us another full crop of zucchini, green beans, onions, carrots and green peppers.  Dinner last night was full of flavor and freshness! Fettucini with julienned zucchini, carrots, yellow peppers, basil and tomatoes

all from our garden!

Desert was provided by my daughter, who loves to get into the kitchen ... but only when it involves BAKING.  Her specialty of the evening - made-from-scratch-cupcakes with a delicious chocolate ganache frosting, topped with fresh strawberry slices.  OH SO GOOD!

A walk across the property revealed new flowers that were undiscovered until now.  The beautiful vibrant colors make me smile.

I've taken to carrying my big Nikon D80 with me for my morning walks.

I never know what I'll discover - so best to be prepared.  While my skills as a photographer are not the best, I still enjoy capturing "moments" that may never be seen again.

I share with you some of my early morning findings ... hope you enjoy them too!

Wishing you a day filled with all

the brilliant colors of your life!

Be Careful What You Wish For ...

So a little over a month now with virtually no rain.  Sitting on the patio a couple of nights ago, we had an everso slight few minutes of "mist".  We looked up into the sky and said "Oh, if only it would just open up and rain for a good long time!" .... Well, it certainly did last night!

We awoke this morning after a full night of thunder and lighting and buckets of water falling from the sky!  Came downstairs to find that we needed those buckets in the living room since the water was drizzling through the ceiling onto my leather couch and hardwood floors.  "Quick everyone! Grab towels! Start mopping! Run to the garage and grab some empty plastic bins!" ... So I took garage duty.  Ran through the rain and into the garage.  "YIKES!! Somebody help!  There's water pouring into the garage from the side walls and the floor is flooding! We need to move everything off the floor - and QUICK!"

It's about 330p now and the rain is still falling, but not so heavily, thank goodness.  The yard and the flower beds and the driveway have been flooded.  My poor cannas and gladiolus have been pummeled by the rain and the garage is soaking wet.  Thankfully, the water has stopped dripping from the ceiling, but I'm leaving the plastic bins scattered around the living room just in case!  The weather report said we'd had over EIGHT INCHES of rain by noon today!

I think we should start drawing up the plans for an Ark!

view from the kitchen window at 1030am

my poor cannas :(

The front flower bed along the driveway - all washed away :(

I spent so much time on this, planting multiple varieties of

cosmos, zinnias, bells of ireland and delphiniums

from seed!  They were all just about 6" tall.

Gone now.

The front pasture where we play bocce ball.

Looks like we're starting a lake!

The front driveway.  Looks like I'll be doing some

shoveling AND mowing this weekend!

One of my French flower buckets sitting on the back patio.  Just a little rain, ya' think?

I just can't resist!

I just couldn't resist another quick post ...

The garden beds are almost blooming faster than I can take pictures ... and that goes for the vegetable garden as well!  So before it gets incredibly hot, I want to be sure that we remember how lovely it all was in May and early June...

the red cannas are bursting with blooms ... i must have at least 50

of these plants scattered around the property!

there's a huge wall of oleanders covering one of the fences!

it must be about 15 feet long and they stand at these that tall as well.

(my husband hates these - i don't know why)

The outside of the vegetable garden where I've mixed

a little of this and a little of that.

I love the New Guinea Impatients.  Their colors are so vibrant!

The Daylillies are going crazy!  They won't last long,

but I'll surely enjoy them while they're here.

Cannas, Impatients, Gladiolas, Cosmos and Roses

These will be smaller Cannas - don't know what color yet -

but can't wait to find out!  It's feels like Christmas Eve and

wondering what's inside the packages under the tree!

We have 4 apple trees, 1 pear tree and 3 peach trees!

The pears and peaches are having a little trouble ...

but the apples are doing great!!

Inside the vegetable garden.

Multiple varieties of lettuce and onions on the right ... carrots on the left. The lettuce is just about finished for the season (it's just getting too hot),

but everything else is going gang-busters!

The cantaloupe we planted from seed just two weeks ago!!

A few of the gazillions of tomatoes that will be ready soon!

I'd better get the pots ready for making spaghetti sauce...

I can use some of the herbs from my garden, too.

The broccoli is just starting to form.

Hope we can get a taste before the bugs eat it all!

And the squash and zucchini ...

holy cow, we have SO MUCH of this it's almost ridiculous.

I mean seriously, how much squash can 4 people

eat in a single day?

So there you have it ... our garden

is flourishing and we're loving every minute of it!

Hope you enjoyed the tour :)

The Net vs The Garden

When we moved to "the country" we had a lot of expectations. Mostly about slowing things down.  The pace of our lives had just become overwhelming - too many appointments, too many cars on the road, too many phone calls, too many obligations to people other than those that are most important to our family.  And so we made a choice to move to a place where life is a little slower, a place where we can relax a little more and enjoy the simple pleasures - but a place where we can still enjoy the excitement of the city when we need "a fix" ... just an hour and a half to destination population over 6million (last I heard).

However, along with that slower pace of living comes .... SLOWER INTERNET!!!  Arrrrgggg!!  We had forgotten about that little issue.  And the momentary horror of being told initially "I'm sorry ma'am, but we only offer DIAL-UP in your area" .... WHAAATTT!!  DIAL UP??  Are you kidding me?  (some of you may not be even old enough to remember dial-up internet ... let's just say, you might as well handwrite a letter and put it in the mailbox.  It's about that slow!)

After much research and many phone calls, we finally found internet access.  At a whopping 1.5mbps - WOW - blazing fast, huh?  But, we adapted, because after all, we did want a slower lifestyle.  Then this week, an unexpected gift!  A phone call from ATT to tell us that they could UPGRADE our internet service and could now offer us "SUPER FAST" connections of up to ... ready for this? ... 3.0mbps ... !!  Holy Cow - now we're up to almost half of what we had in our previous life!

But we didn't move here to be on the internet all day long.  We moved here to enjoy nature and family and friends ... and the simple things we had been taking for granted during the past 30 years of our marriage.

And so, today, I bring to you ... at "lighting speed" from East Texas ... my newest discovery in the garden :)

One of my favorites, the gladiola.  A bright beautiful shade of fuschia in the front ... and a brilliant orange-red in the back! Both an unexpected gift in this morning's garden tour.

Enjoy ... and remember to slow down - when you can ...

try to notice the little things ...they can make such a difference in your day!