Decorating inside

We never have a Christmas tree. In years past, we didn't have enough room for one. We also don't believe in cutting down trees for seasonal decoration. So I put up an artificial garland and hang ornaments on it.

This keeps the ornaments out of reach of the cats.  It looks almost snowy outside but it is just rain.          

I love these bird ornaments - they echoe the view just outside the window beyond where a birdfeeder hangs.

I add a little bling with a metallic garland and glittery clip-on birds.  I tried LED lights this year to conserve on electricity but I hate their blue color. It clashes with my yellow-orange sconces on the wall above. Next year I will try to find amber lights.

Here is my mantle. Last year I covered it with magnolia tips, but the summer really did a number on the magnolia trees so there wasn't much to cut. Instead I put up some gold angels and draped them with gold material I have had for years. I thought it needed a spot of color, so added the poinsettia and ribbon.

Christmas decorations

Even though I am married to a man who does Christmas lighting, we do not light up the outside of our house for the holidays. I like to keep my decorations simple and natural.

This is the extent of my outdoor decorating this year. The door swags are made from material cut on our property. We do this at Blue Moon Gardens for our Luminations celebration in early December. We give a free swag to everyone who comes to the event. These are leftovers.

 Luckily, the weather has been rainy and cool so the greenery has continued to look good without any work on my part.

The wreath was made by my sister Ann. I have matching over-the-door swag but I didn't get around to putting it put this year.

A couple of years ago Ann made wreaths for everyone in the family. They are all gorgeous.

The colors match my inside decor quite well so sometimes I hang it inside.

Welcome - come in

Now for a tour of the inside of our very fine house. Come up the front steps to the porch.

We want to screen it in, but that will be a chore for the future. 

I looked and looked for furniture for the porch this year but couldn't find anything I really liked that would fit the space. I really want teak because I love the warm look and durability. 

Walk in the front door and you are immediately in the great room. To the left is the southern exposure - that wall is mostly windows, letting in beautiful natural light and lovely views of the woods. 

Straight ahead in the hallway is a vignette my friend Amy Bott created. She has a re-design business named SpaceLift http://www.spaceliftinteriors.com/spaceliftinteriors/Welcome.html. When I moved in she helped arrange the furniture and hang art. 

The living room. Notice we have no window coverings. Not necessary in the country. The fireplace has a heat exchanger that vents outside air into the firebox and blows hot air out into the room. It is very efficient, unlike conventional fireplaces and heats the whole upstairs in the winter. The spot to the left of the fireplace was intended for firewood, but houses our TV which pulls out on a rotating tray.

To the left of the front door, adjacent to the kitchen is the dining room. My business partner Sharon gave me this fabulous country dining table that seats 10. The chairs are from a local Amish furniture store (as are the rocking chairs in the living room). It is wonderful to have the room to entertain a crowd. This weekend we are hosting our local friends Christmas dinner and having serving 19. We will set up a folding table in front of the desk for the overflow.

Since I have this nice, comfortable space to work I no longer use my little studio building. I am considering turning it into a real craft studio when I take up basket weaving (no kidding, I really want to learn to weave baskets).

Our house, is a very, very, very fine house

Yes, our house is very fine indeed. We worked on the design for several years before we started building. The house is situated in the woods, on a hill. James wanted a basement, so the house is built into the hillside. Follow the driveway for about 1/3 mile before you reach the house.

This photo was taken last winter. The rest of the year you can't really see the house for the trees.
The walkway is crushed granite with long, shallow steps up the hill to the front porch.

The exterior of the house is rough cedar. It still has that beautiful orangy cedar color; hasn't faded to gray yet except on the south side where it is exposed to the sun.

We are circling the house clockwise. This is the southern exposure with a large rock patio, fireplace and waterfalls. The solid color wall is the basement, which James calls the "rumpus room". It has a pool table and very soon, a bar.

On the back of the house is the bedroom and bathroom west walls.

I love the oblong shaped windows up high in the bathroom, and over the front door on the opposite side. On the west side, the small window on the far end of the oblong is red glass. It makes beautiful reflections on the walls in the afternoon.

The north side of the house is my favorite view because you can see all the varying roof lines and clere story windows, but it is the back entrance of the house and where all the junk piles up so I don't have a decent picture.
Next time I will tour you through the interior.

Japanese maples

After years of living in a small house (less than 600 sq ft) I have a rule: no collections. Now that I have loads more space, this rule is slipping, but I hope to keep it in check. One thing I have started collecting is Japanese maples. They really like our bright, shady patio.

The collection started with this beautiful Waterfall maple James brought home years ago. It lived in a pot on our front porch for several years. The dogs kept running into it, breaking off limbs. Finally, it found a permanent home on the wall of our back patio where it has thrived. In the fall of 2009 it had glorious color.

 This summer I was diligent with my watering until October, when I let the poor thing get too dry. The leaves shrivelled up and eventually fell off. This is what it looks like now.

Pretty sad, isn't it? If I do get any fall color this year, it will be very sparse.

In this corner of my patio is two more Japanese maples. The tall one is Butterfly with gorgeous variegated leaves of white and green. My business partner Sharon talked me into this one. She purchased one last year and it did wonderfully for her, even in a location that received afternoon sun. So I got one this spring and have been very impressed with its hardiness. The leaves burned on the edges during this awful summer, but it held all its leaves. I look forward to seeing it if will have fall color.

In front of the Butterfly maple is a dwarf Japanese maple named Sikes' Pygmy. It had a lovely, perfectly round shape when I purchased it. Our cows got out one day and decided to nibble on it. They pulled off one large branch on one side, then spit it out. The dwarf tree is now lopsided so I push it up against the wall to disguise the gap.

Next I will get a red-leaved Japanese maple, maybe a cascading, threadleaf variety.

I'm Back!

It has been ages since I have posted. The summer totally got me down and I couldn't think of much to talk about. But it has finally cooled off and we got rain!

Everything appreciated the moisture, even though the weather service says we need 15 more inches before they lift the burn ban in our area.
This morning as I was pouring my first cup of coffee, I glanced out the kitchen window to see this gorgeous sight. The Datura (aka Jimson weed or moon flower) loved the rain and burst into bloom.

The flowers close during the day then open at night. I caught them just as they were ready to close up.

Bees were busily buzzing into all the blooms, filling up with nectar while they could. They have been hunger this summer; with the heat and drought many flowers just quit blooming to conserve energy.
I hope the abundance of datura flowers signals a permanent change in the weather and the beginning of a better gardening season. I am ready to garden again.

Whine, whine, water, whine

I hate to be a whiner, but this summer taxes my resolve. It is blasted hot every single day and no rain. Okay, that's off my chest, now I can move on. Since I spend a lot of my days watering, I thought I would pass along my expert opinion on the best ways to water.

 Here is my business partner Sharon at the nursery watering. You see we use a heavy duty, kink-free hose. I have decided there is no truly kink-free hose. We roll ours up every day after use so they all eventually kink up. We have water wands to you can direct the water into one little pot if needed, and a water breaker on the end so when you direct that water into that little pot it doesn't blow all the soil out. There are quick-connects on the hose end so you can detach the hoses in a flash. They work great as long as you remember to push them on fully before letting go. Kendel at work is always forgetting this step. The hose blows off the quick-connect and sprays water like a fountain, usually drenching him. Not too bad these days; the drench feels good. I have this same set-up at home: good hose, quick-connects, water wand with breaker. It irritates me to water without the necessary gear.

This is what I use on my smaller beds: a spot sprinkler. They come with various patterns of holes on the top for a different water spray: round, square, etc. With a lot of water pressure they can cover an area about 15 feet around.

James got this sprinkler and when I first saw it I thought it was really stupid. You dial in the water pattern you need. It actually works really well for a number of different situations. I use it a lot now.

Black rubber soaker hoses like the one above are very efficient. We turn the water down low so the hose just drips, not sprays. You can leave it on for hours to get a good soak. We use them at the nursery to water our trees during the night. Unfortunately, we are having to water a lot of trees this summer because of the drought. (Oops, sorry, I just thought I was through with the whine).

My favorite way to water - with an automated system. It comes on by itself, never needs moving around, no hose dragging. It does need tweeking though. We re-set our timer every few months and check the system regularly to make sure it is all working correctly. In fact, I am off to do that now. Last week we found several pop-up heads that had been covered by San Augustine grass that could no longer pop up. Made them very ineffective.

Tomato trials

The votes are in on the tomato trials. We had buckets of tomatoes this year, even with the grueling heat - 26 days (and counting) over 100 degrees. And still I have tomatoes ripening, though none are flowering or setting new fruit.

I took this photo last week of some of the different colored tomatoes from our garden. The green tomato (that was one tomato) is Aunt Ruby's German green. Really good for fried tomatoes and not bad for eating fresh, with a tangy flavor. The orange tomato is really yellow(the photo color is off) one of my favorites, Lemon Boy. It produced really well this year with large, juicy, very flavorful mild tomatoes.

The best tomato for us this year was Park's Whopper, recommended by a customer. It always had 3 to 6 very large, red tomatoes at a time. It won all our taste tests with our friends. I will definitely grow a couple of these each year.

New Herb Garden update

In April I blogged about building a new garden in back of the house, close to the kitchen where I could grow herbs. I used a no-dig, layered soil method. Most of my plants are doing very well.
I planted a flowers for the butterflies and hummingbirds and a few bamboo muhly grass for structure.

Some of the drought-loving plants like Gaillardia, Indian Blanket, did not like sitting on top of the cardboard, as it holds too much water. Much like a sponge I suppose. It has not disintegrated yet, after over two months. I am happy to report the herbs are doing fine. Yesterday I made lemon verbena syrup for iced tea and had rosemary and lemon thyme for a shrimp dish I was trying. I will post those recipes next time.

The African Blue Basil covers a space about 3 feet square. It is not as colorful as the plants at Blue Moon Gardens, which are growing in full, blazing sun, but it is still a lovely plant.

This fall I will replace the basils with salad greens. I used to grow them in the large pots in front of the house, but since they are filled with evergreens now, I don't have that space, but there will be plenty of room in the herb garden. I plan to expand the garden this fall after it cools off. The new space will be shadier so fewer herbs will grow there.

Lemon Verbena, the perfect summer herb

Lemon verbena, while not a particularly attractive plant, has such wonderful flavor and aroma it is an essential herb in my garden. The taste of lemon verbena sends me back to my childhood, sucking on lemon drops, a candy I found very grown-up and elegant (I thought the same of butter mints).

I love to throw a few sprigs into my sun tea as it steeps. When I am having company I make a flavored syrup for sweetening iced tea (I prefer mine unsweetened, but the inclusion of lemon verbena adds a sharp, sweet flavor).

Ah, 2 of my favorite flavors of summer, lemon verbena (in the canning jar after making syrup) and sweet cherry tomatoes. This is 2 days of harvest on one Sweet Million tomato plant. It is the only tomato in the garden that is still blooming and setting fruit.

Lemon Verbena Simple Syrup

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

4 (6-inch) sprigs lemon verbena

Bring the water and sugar to a boiling and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat, add lemon verbena and let steep until cool. Strain through a seive or coffee filter. Keep refrigerated.

This is good in hot or cold tea, over vanilla ice cream or to make a Lemon Drop cocktail.

One of my friends over for dinner the other night was thrilled about the simple syrup. She said her grandmother made many different types of flavored simple syrup. I will have to try some of her grandmother's recipes. 

Home to the Inferno

As I mentioned in my last post, the temperatures here in Texas are hellish and our drought worsens. Driving down the country roads here reveals hundred-year-old trees dying from the stress. I work outside a lot at my job so I have been particularly... I search for words here... well, sweaty and prickly. Some would call it bitchy. I spend as much time as possible out of the sun when not at work. Luckily, I tolerate the shade and 80 degrees well. So the front porch or back patio (in the early morning and evening) become outdoor respites.

The sound of the waterfall and the sight of the koi languidly swimming in the water refreshes my spirits.


The water lilies open in the afternoon, looking like they are floating on the water. Unfortunately, they close up late in the afternoon so are not visible in the evenings. We will try some night-blooming varieties next year so we can enjoy them during the times we are most often out here.

Actually looks cool and refreshing, doesn't it?

This Koi pond is actually more of a stream. It it is 3.5 to 4 deep to keep the fish out of reach of predators, which we have many of here in the country. We haven't lost any koi yet.

A dozen Koi (maybe one or two goldfish) swim around in the stream. We got them as babies two years ago and they have grown to be about 12 inches long. There are solid gold ones, a couple of white ones, one that is white with a gold head, and a few mottled with black, white and gold. No, I have not named them, but we are trying to get them to come to the surface and feed from our hands. So far, they only come within six inches before skittering away. So the training continues.

Grand Teton National Park

The scenery of Grand Teton National Park is not as varied as Yellowstone, but it is equally magnificent. We took a bus tour with our Texas Nursery and Landscaping Assoc. group through the park. They are a really fun group to travel with. Our tour guide Jessie was knowledgeable, and a poet when speaking of his adopted home of Wyoming.

That's Jessie on the right and James and I in the middle. I took this as a jump-in shot (which I find fun).
Jessie knew some cool places to show us and had great stories to go with the locations. Here is one of the buildings that was original to the land before it was purchased (secretly) by the government to make it a National Park. This piece is still private property and can be sold on the open market, but with covenants in the title that it cannot be commercially developed.

Just down the road is another old building, a rustic little church. Not much to look at, but check out the view behind the altar.

I still wish I had taken my better camera, but I didn't want to have to carry it. Luckily, my tiny little Canon Elph takes great photos. I just have trouble with tricky exposures like this.

The weather was perfectly beautiful for our tour. The cerulean blue of the sky makes a lovely canvas for the dramatic cloud formations and the reflection in Jenny Lake.

Notice we were wearing long pants but no jackets on this day. The days did not get hotter than the upper 70s the entire time we were on vacation.  I post this two weeks after we returned to Texas where the temperature has not been below 100 during the day. My brain fried. It has taken me this long to acclimate again and get my thoughts out of sluggish mode.

Yellowstone

When my sister heard we were visiting Yellowstone, she told me she thinks Yellowstone is the most beautiful National Park in America. I was so captivated by Yosemite a few years ago, I couldn't believe Yellowstone could outdo it for scenery; but she was right. Yellowstone is gorgeous and diverse.

They called this the grand canyon of Yellowstone. James commented that it wasn't Grand Canyon-like to him; I pointed out a canyon just needs to be deep, not rocky. This valley spread for miles with emerald green grass, dark green fir trees and yellow and red rocks.

I was trying to capture all the different colors in this landscape. The mustard yellow of the bacteria in this pool contrasts with the bright blue of the sky and water with the deep green of the grass in between, the brilliant white of the snow-covered mountain in the background. This photo does not do it justice.

Yosemite may have tall waterfalls, but they can't compare to the power of these falls.

This photo was shot from above, my first view of the falls. The splash from the water rushing over the falls rose hundreds of feet in the air. Can you see the rainbow created in the sunlight?

Down the road aways was the view of the falls from below. See the little platform on the right side just above the head of the falls? That is where we were standing when I took the first photo.

I can now say that Yellowstone is the most beautiful, and interesting National Park I have seen,and I have visited many National Parks, most west of the Mississippi.