Flower boxes

Seriously these flower boxes I did up for the summer are just spectacular already and it's only JUNE! Generally speaking, they are usually just getting started right now, but our weather has been absolutely amazing since March. This was the first proper spring that I have had since living in Massachusetts for 23 years now. However, the weather recently has been too hot and humid for my liking, however. It's been storming here on and off all day. Ohhh, there's a big rumble of thunder right then! In any case, the plants and flowers have been LOVING this weather and everything is already huge and lovely!

Ok. Onto the subject at hand: FLEURS!!!!!!!

Looky, looky!



Here is a closeup of one of them: They've really filled in nicely.

And, that Kenilworth Ivy? The best thing EVER! Look how big and long they've gotten



And I've got some bonus flowers! Apparently some pink diascia seeds drifted over to the purple nemesia pots! Cute, no?

That's all she wrote for the flower boxes.

Of course, I'm writing this ahead of time to publish on Saturday. I won't be blogging on our trip! I'll be in London Saturday, so I will leave you with a pip-pip and a Cheerio! : )

Post-post-Birthday & Pre-trip news from the home front

I'm sure that you remember my birthday was Sunday. It was great. I am now 45 and very old.

Today is HOT HOT and so humid the air is just thick. It's SO very uncomfortable I've just been sweating my way through the day. I really don't understand how people live in those climates where it's like that all the time. How do you do anything? How do you even stand going outside for even 10 minutes? The dogs are utterly miserable and I just go from our air-conditioned house to my air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned office. Icky. And sticky. No, thanks!

Yesterday was much, MUCH better. It was even sort of cool which felt fantabulous in light of the fact that I had two enormous maintenance jobs for clients that I HAD to get done.

In dog news, Sadie got the staples removed from her belly on Tuesday. This was the last step in the ordeal that was Sadie's tumor and spleen removal. Man, am I glad we can close the book on that chapter.

The other good news? We're salvaging the last part of our trip to Europe! We thought we'd have to cancel altogether, but Sadie healed up so quickly and is back to being the healthy, yet annoying animal that we had before she got sick! So we decided to just cancel the first leg of the trip! SO! Upcited is what I am (as my friend Junie over there at Bye Bye, Pie is wont to say!)!

We leave Friday for London and then will be there until Sunday evening when we fly to SPAIN! Wooo HOOOOOOOOO! After all the drama and stress of everything, this will be a good get-away. We're really looking forward to it. And, if you're thinking about burglarizing the house while we're gone? Don't. We have people here staying with the dogs. I'm sure you're disappointed, as I know you would love to steal this new Le Creuset bowl I bought:Isn't that a pretty color? That's totally my color. I'm attracted to all that is aqua blue. I also bought one of these in red for my Mother-in-Law's house-warming gift. She loves red things.

A couple of days ago I took some photos of some of the goodies growing in my yard...I hadn't had the chance to post them as I am utterly crazy busy getting a billion different projects done. Between the real estate showings and paperwork, the boat, my clients' yards and the this upcoming trip, I have not had one extra second to breathe! The rest of today is dedicated to cleaning the house (it's disgusting!) and then getting myself packed and ready for our trip.

So, without further ado, here be the photos! My tomato plant that has literally tripled in size since I put it in the ground about a week and a half ago!It already has a bloom on there! Yummy organic grape tomatoes to ensue!

The pretty false indigo still blooming!Love this plant!

Astilbe that is going to bloom VERY soon:I'm not really a fan of astilbe, but I was given this plant by a master-gardener friend, so I kept it...It's easily quadrupled in size from last year!

Spiderwort in bloom:Also not a fan of spiderwort, but it's everywhere in the back. It's like a weed for me - I rip out big clumps of it all the time, but it ALWAYS inevitably comes back. At least it's got pretty purple flowers going for it, but that's about ALL it has going for it!

My little shade garden under the butterfly bush is doing quite well now, despite my dog Koty's early efforts to make this into a dug up bed for himself!

And last, but not least, here is that ridiculous bleeding-heart bush still going strong!It's about 6 feet across now.

OK...Tomorrow I'll take some photos of my pretty flower boxes that are filling in ever-so-nicely!

Post-Birthday Post

Did I mention it was my birthday yesterday? It was. It was my 45th birthday.

I am now officially on my way to old.

However, I did it up in style! I wore my adorable blue and white Tommy Bahama skirt and a crisp white linen shirt. I wore my pretty sapphire and diamond earrings that were a gift from my husband a few years ago, and I wore adorable J.Crew flip-flops that are navy ribbon with white polka dots. I was cute.

We went out to eat at a new, very hip eatery in Salem called The Greenland Cafe. Terrible name, if you ask me. But they had good food - on its way to great, but really interesting combinations. We had a few tapas and a lovely watercress salad. It was nice to do something a bit different.

Then, we attended my little Birthday-Sister's party. She is this adorable, cute, little five year-old name Anna that lives across the street from my Father-in-Law's house. The parents emigrated from Ireland and are simply the nicest people ever! Anywho, I have never in my life met anyone that shares my birthday except Anna, so we are birthday sisters now! She's just the cutest! She proudly took me around to show me all the special things she got for her birthday...Lots of fairy-princess things and pink stuff. Same as when I was 5!

After that, we went to a cookout party at one of my husband's highschool friend's house. Really nice people. We stayed out until 11pm. That is equivalent to 4am in middle-aged years! It was really a fun time.

Also? I fixed my neighbor's pot and mine. There was something just a titch off about those planters. I just wasn't satisfied with the way they looked, so I added one more plant to each. I feel much better now! I really have issues with my fleurs! Can you tell? It's ridiculous!

So, here are the finished products:
I am happy with them now.

Here are a few other spots out in the side yard that are looking very nice now, too...I added a few annuals here and there to fill things in:



Here is some of my dianthus that are blooming their little heads off. I planted these 9 years ago!

And another look at these gorgeous Icelandic poppy flowers:The color is so rich and pretty!