Playing with my food

Yesterday I was outside watering my plants, as I have been obligated to do as we have had NO rain and my poor plants are out there clutching their throats, choking with thirst. They are very dramatic, my plants! hee!

Anywho, I was chatting with our neighbor about this, that and the other...She is a gardener, so we always our respective yards and plants to talk about. Well, turns out she bought herself a raspberry plant many years ago at an AWESOME nursery in a neighboring town called Sweeney's Greenhouse. They grow all their own plants and their prices are ridiculously low. She got the raspberry plant for $2.95. Can't beat that!

In any case, she told me to come over to her yard anytime to pick raspberries! A very nice offer, indeed!

So, I went along with my afternoon and was inside computing, and suddenly there was a knock at my front door!

She had picked a very nice-sized container of raspberries for us! Wasn't that so nice? I of course, immediately washed them and plopped them in that cute bowl, and proceeded to gobble them up! They are so delicious I can't even tell you!

Earlier in the day, I'd gone grocery shopping and bought some cherries. Equally lovely!I plopped these in a pretty ceramic bowl that my Mother-in-Law made! I love the graphic-y black and white with those hues of reds!

Then I put them side by side on the counter:Not only delicious and good for you; they're so pretty to look at, aren't they?

I've also got some pretty hydrangeas in the kitchen to look at, as well:

This last photo has a few of the papyrus tops in there - they have been breaking when the wind gusts, so I've been picking them and putting them in vases around the house! I love those things!

Ok...I'm off to take the doggies and then we are going out fishing!

Have a great holiday weekend!

Another lovely day in MA

MAN! This weather is just delicious. Right now it's 5:15pm and its a perfect 70 degrees out there. Today was one for the history books as far as super-duper nice weather. If I could make weather, this would be what I'd create. Except it would rain for precisely 3 hours every night whilst I sleep. THAT would be perfection. We have not had a drop of rain in FOR-ever, so I'm a slave to my plants currently! Watering the garden every other day and all the pots have to get some water every day. Do you know how many pots we're talking about? Eleven. Plus I have a pot of white wisteria in the drive waiting to go into a client's yard. PLUS I have a flat of ivy left over from a job. So, that's thirteen thingies I'm watering daily.

In the loveliness department, we have many things going on...I cannot take enough pictures of my hydrangeas this year! They are just stunning. Here is Sadie coming to look for me. Heaven forBID that I'm out of her sight for a micro-second!

I just love all of the hues of blue and creamy white together. SO pretty.

Here is a yarrow that planted itself in one of my little flower beds right next to the tomato plant!You may also notice Sadie's fuzzy butt here in the foreground. The dog is OBsessed with me, I tell ya!

Astilbe in full bloom over by the grill:

And, of course, Gigantor the butterfly bush! This thing...I just cannot believe how it just continues growing ever upward and outward! I prune it, and it just retaliates by getting more and more enormous!

Here's a shot of it from earlier in the day.
Isn't the sky so pretty?

That's all for today, my friends! I'm off to order burritos that my husband is picking up for din-din tonight!

Ole!

Lettuce see what we have to eat!

Very bad pun. I know. Sorry.

I picked the last of the lettuces today. I still had six more of them growing in the garden beds by the back door. They are tall and gangly from the heat, as you can see, but will still taste good!

Other foods I've got going are my perennial herbs. Most of them live on the teak bench in the summer, then crowded together on a table inside for sunshine in the winter. This is a clump of chives that I took from a yard I was hired to re-do. They didn't want it, and I have a very hard time throwing away perfectly good plants (Hi! Have you met me? My name is Lisa and I'm a plant addict. I have a serious problem, people!)It's a very happy chive plant and even produces smaller, thinner chives for me all winter when I bring it inside!

Here is my pot with rosemary, sage and thyme. There was also a flat leaf parsely that didn't survive the heat. It lasted through the winter, miraculously, but hasn't produced any leaves since early spring. The sage is looking a bit rough, but I'm hoping it'll maybe bounce back.

The spectacular basil:I know I've put this basil on here a bunch of times, but I've just never had one so big and pretty and lush! It smells fantastic, too, you don't even have to pick a leaf, the aroma of fresh basil just wafts around that little table! Yummm!

The tomato plant is getting even TALLER:I've never had a grape tomato plant perform like this one! I've got a ton of tomatoes growing on there already and there are more and more flowers coming all the time! Yippppeeeeeee!

This is the curly willow that is still growing and leafing out! I bought these at Stop and Shop in MARCH for heaven's sake! Three of them are going strong:

These are the very branches I put in there in March when I planted the lily-of-the-valley and violas in the pot by the back door:Crazy how it's gotten so green!

And last, but not least, I had to take another photo of the hydrangeas in the back. GORgeous!

Lastly, did you notice I wasn't griping about the weather? That's because it's FINALLY normal out! It's 75 and sunny and absolutely perfect in every single way! Wooo HOOOO! Love it so much I was inspired to do a power walk!

Ok...I'm outta here. Going to go do a bit of work on boaty.

Happy Hump Day!

Welcome to August!

So it's a balmy 90 here again today with extreme humidity.

One word. BLECH.

Good news, though, is that the tropical theme is about to depart and we'll return to more normal temperatures and humidity levels tomorrow. A high of 75 sounds downright chilly in comparison!

Let us proceed to the gargantuan plants I have in the garden this summer, shall we?

I finally cut back Mongo the butterfly bush so we can actually WALK through the back yard. Odd concept!I'm sure I'll have to do more cutting, but I'll wait until it's done flowering. I don't want to shock it too much. As it is, I feel TERRIBLE every time I cut off a live branch. I apologize to the plant over and over. Do you think Mongo understands?

Here is one of his pretty blooms:Usually I'm not seeing any color on the butterfly bushes until late July.

I don't even know WHAT to say about this ridiculous specimen:
This is a Montauk daisy bush. Supposed to be about 3 feet by 3 feet. This is about 5 feet by 4 feet and there are no signs of it stopping anytime soon!

Here is an echinacea that is trying to make it amongst the 875 gazillion obedient plants:
Whoever named "obedient" plants that? Was a serious jokester. These are the most unruly, spready, crazy plants I've ever had! As it is, I had to pull out handfuls of these things just to make room for a few annuals and some of the other perennials that were already in this garden bed! Obedient? Ahhh, NO!

Here is the pot I did for my neighbor. It's gotten huge!

And these are the lovely goodies by our back door:



Look at this adorable watering can that my friend, Patty, so generously gave me on Sunday:Is that not the most adorable watering can you've ever seen? I love the scalloped edges and the end where the water comes out is shaped like a flower! OHHHH, I just love this silly thing!

Ok...I must depart. Off to take the doggies for a walk and then down to clean boaty.

Hope you have a lovely Tuesday and if you live in Massachusetts, try not to melt! MAN! This heat!

Did I take a wrong turn somewhere?

Seriously? It's 95 today. And so humid you could cut the air with a knife. This is ridiculous. IT'S JUNE, Mother Nature! JUNE! And we are in MASSACHUSETTS! If I wanted to live in Florida I'd MOVE there. MAN. It's hot. It's just gross and uncomfortable. Florida, would you please come up here and reclaim your weather? Thank you.

In other less grouchy news, last Friday was my husband's Great-Aunt's 96th birthday! She is the sister of my husband's dearly-departed Grandmother. Can you even imagine 96 years on this Earth? That's a lot of years. And she looks absolutely terrific. Maybe like she's 70.

Anyway, for her birthday she wanted to go to this place right on the ocean called Kelly's. I've talked about Kelly's before because they make the world's best lobster roll. It's an iconic place in Massachusetts. It's where my husband wanted to go for his birthday, as well! So, we met up with the Great-Aunt, her daughter, and my husband's mom to have a feast. I brought this as a birthday gift:
Isn't it so pretty?

I inherited that vase. The ribbon is something I've been hanging onto for years. It's from a gift from forever ago! And those pretty hydrangeas are from my back yard. I have a million of them this year! Anyway, the arrangement was a big hit with the birthday girl, so that was great!

And people? It's been hot here. I'm not sure if I've mentioned it recently. But it's been REALLY WARM. Like tropical-ness and heat and humidity. Have I mentioned that I do not prefer this weather? Because I do not. In any way. At all. Ick. Ick. Ick. However? My plants? Are SO very happy. SOOOO big and lush and green and HUGE and about a month early. Even my butterfly bushes are starting to bloom. What will the butterflies do? The bushes are supposed to bloom coinciding with the migration of the butterflies. Man. Mother Nature is so screwed up this year!

Anway, here are some of the pretties I've got going:

I don't know if you can tell, but the flower boxes are getting really big! The papyrus is about 3 feet tall now and looking just great! Very early to be this big!

Here is the perennial grass, the nasturtium and to the left there, a stonecrop that has a zillion blooms on it. It's not supposed to bloom until late August.

Here is that pretty hydrangea on the back side of the house.


Tiger lilies are going crazy, as is the coreopsis. These were given to me by a friend probably 8 years ago. They just keep spreading and spreading!There is also that neat vine-ish thing growing on the fence. I'm sure it's some terrible weed, but I like it!

The tomato plant I put in about a month ago is gigantic now! It's nearly as tall as I am already! It's in the middle here with my very tall, tall phlox:

It's an organic grape tomato plant. Looky!

More from the yard tomorrow.

I'm going to go complain some more about the heat. And humidity. Ick.