Gardening, Gardening and More Gardening-I Love It!

 So I spent alot of the day gardening and I loved playing in the dirt!  Something in the Spring always makes me feel wonderful and rejuvenated playing in the dirt.  I also went down to Gold Hill, NC, which is about 5-10 minutes from my house.  It is a historic town and it was beautiful there yesterday!  Dogwoods, flowering cherry trees, daffodils, azaelas and redbud trees are blooming everywhere.  It is just a symphony of color and awakening in the woods and people's homes.

Here is a little glimpse of Gold Hill:

This was the bouquet I bought from Gold Hill Flower Co.  I like to purchase some things from small business'.

I was stanidng at Gold Hill Flower Co and looking up the street in this photo.

This house is gorgeous in itself but the huge white dogwood tree is absolutely beautiful!! 

This is painted on the side of the old Texaco Station where Gold Hill Flower Co has their stand.  It is cut off (don't know why) but it is lovely!

Some of the things I planted 3 new roses, 1 daylily, 1 dahlia, 25 Gladiolus bulbs, 1 rosemary, 1 basil yesterday.  I cleaned the flower beds first.  After I was done I watered everything really well.  We are already in a drought.  We had a very dry winter and Spring so far.  

Chives are blooming from last year.

New Daylily-I think it is called Lipstick and Lies.  The picture looked beautiful!

The next 3 photos are of my new roses-Lady of Shalott, Gentle Gardener and Eglantyne.  These are all David Austin roses.

Rosemary

Basil

Riley was out for part of the time and he supervised.  He loves the outdoors until he gets too hot and then he wants in!

The "Boss"

This white azaela is blooming at Romano's Italian Restaurant in Rockwell.

This container arrangement I bought Friday at work.  I placed it by the garage.  It is mostly begonias, which I love!

The other night when I went to pick up my dinner at Romano's in Rockwell, I was a little early.  I pulled into a parking place and there is just a "wall" of holly berries.  I had the window down and I heard many cardinals coming to take the berries and also rest in the bushes.  They sounded so lovely.

This is a small portion of my yellow Lady Banks Rose.  It is loaded with buds just waiting to open up!  I planted this rose last year and it has tripled in size from when I bought it.  It will look beautiful when it blooms.

I hope where ever you live, it is beautiful, sunny and warm.  I hope you are getting Spring or atleast glimpses of it!  

Sherri

Spring Has Sprung Here in NC!!

Hi Everyone!  Well the film of green pollen has arrived and that means Spring is here.  What a mess on my black car.  I put the car in the garage when I'm home but it is out in the open at work.  Today I thought they clean off the parking lot with a blower and it was dust on my car but then I saw that light green color and new immediately it was pollen.  Some of the leaves on the trees are out already here and some of my plants are just popping up out of the ground!

My flowers are really starting to wake up and the camellia I planted back in the beginning of February is blooming!!

Lady Banks rose has a ton of new shoots and leaves coming along nicely.

My new camellia blooming nicely.

Wild purple violets are blooming all throught my lawn.  I love these little flowers.

 I have noticed that the sunrises and sunsets have been beautiful also lately.

This beautiful sunrise/clouds just were so beautiful.

This sunset the other day was so pink and then turned a bright orange.  So much fun to watch it move from one color to another so quickly.

I am so glad and happy to say I am finally done painting all the walls in the main part of the house and the 3 small halls to the bedrooms and the garage!  Everything was painted with the SW color of Sea Salt.  I had the Benjamin Moore store mix it for me, I just like their paint better.  

This was the very last area, the dining area that I painted.

This is the short hall to the laundry closet on the left, the coat closet straight ahead and to the right the door to the garage.

This is the short hall to the 2 guest rooms (1 is my craft/office room).

Last but not least is Mr. Riley!  We spent a lovely part of the afternoon on my patio enjoying the sun and soaking up some much needed Vitamin D.  The sky was definitely Carolina Blue, it was 84 degrees, no wind or breeze and just lovely!

I hope that Spring has sprung in your neck of the woods too or is atleast thinking about it.  Enjoy!!

Until next time!

Sherri

Welcome March-One Step Closer to Spring!!

 Well March is now here and we are one step closer to Spring!!  I can feel and smell it in the air when I go outside.  Riley was really jumping around the yard wanting to chase all the robins that have been in our yard lately.  I love hearing the birds singing again, the dandelions coming out (they feed the bees, so I leave them alone), I even saw a violet blooming in the yard yesterday.  

I had to go to the post office yesterday to mail a watercolor painting I did for a client and the gazebo in the center of town looked so nice.  The skies were blue, the sun was out and the camellias that were blooming there were so pretty!  Here are some photos of that:

Maple buds getting ready to burst out with leaves!

This camellia bush was just loaded with flowers and buds.  So pretty!

I love that this gazebo is in the center of town.  

I have been keeping myself busy with work, painting the kitchen and knitting.  I even got the energy to clean up my crafting table!  It needed it so badly for the last few months.  Now I might actually be able to work there-LOL!!  I am painting the kitchen the same color as the living room-SW Sea Salt (I had Benjamin Moore mix it though, I just like their paint better).  I will be painting the dining area the same color.  All 3 rooms just are open into each other.  After I get the actual rooms done, I will paint the 3 entryways to bedrooms and the garage.  I am so glad I painted the rooms this color.  It makes it so much more homey and inviting.  

I did a little more decorating on the kitchen island.  I bought these faux tulips from Amazon and put them in a blue Atlas canning jar.  They look and feel so real.  I already had the bunny.  I love this time of year!

I painted a red headed woodpecker for a high school friend of mine in GA.  She hired me to paint another one for her sister who lives in NJ.  I painted, sprayed it with UV protectant and mailed it to her yesterday.  I hope she loves it as much as my high school friend!

Can't forget to give a garden updated even though not much is going on out there.  The roses are starting to get leaves on them.  The Lady Banks rose bush on the trellis by my front porch has green leaves coming out already!  It should be beautiful this year.  I see some daylilies starting to send up leaves too.  The Helebore (Lenten Rose) that had one bud and flower on it is nowing blooming really nicely.  So good to see the garden waking back up!

Well that's all I have for now.  So remember even though Winter is still here, get outside and look at your gardens and see Springtime wonders!

Sherri

February Will Be Leaving Us in a few Days!

 Well February is on it's way out and March will be coming in.  I wonder if it will come in like a Lion or a Lamb as the old saying goes!  

Things have been really busy, working alot.  I only seem to be able to get on here once a month.  I hope that with my decrease in days at work (I asked for only 3 days a week and still have the weekends off) that I will have more time to do things I like to do.  I do like work, but it is alot sometimes.  I did get to do 4 days of arrangement making for the floral department for Valentine's Day!!  Here are some of the arrangements I made:

They were all alot of fun to make and every one of them sold!

Josh, the Floral Manager told us (there were 4 of us helping out for Valentine's Day in different roles) that we could take anything in the Floral Department for a thank you from him for all our hard work.  He had one of the one most beautiful roses and I asked if I could have them.  It was 1 1/2 doz of these roses and I was able to make 3 arrangements out of them when I got home.  Here they are:

There was a beautiful sunrise one of the mornings in early February that I would love to paint (watercolor) sometime.

Just absolutely gorgeous the colors were!!

My double amaryllis opened and it was beautiful!  There were 2 stalks and so many buds on them.  They opened and died and then it sent a 2' stalk out and it is getting ready to open again.  Just beautiful!  I got it from Longwood Gardens.

My ruffled pansies are still going strong outside in a planter on the front porch.  I always have regular pansies but I've never seen the ruffled ones.  I got these at Pike's Nursery.  So beautiful.

The camellia I bought when I bought the pansies is still blooming and there are many, many buds on it to bloom as soon as it gets a little warmer, which is this week.  Wednesday it is supposed to be 70!!

This is my Helebore (Lenten Rose) blooming in my garden.  I used to have Helebore in Mint Hill when I lived there.  I always love them because they are one of the earliest flowers to bloom.  This one hasn't let me down!

This is a rose I bought at work and made an arrangement from the dozen.  I just love the coloring!!

I bought some things for Easter for the house at work and I also set all my bunnies out.  I don't decorate for St. Patrick's Day, so Easter is the next holiday.  I love my dining room table arrangement!

This is my Easter decorating on my Dining Room table.  I bought a new Linen look table runner at Hobby Lobby also.

I bought this cute pink gingham mug.  Like I really needed another mug!  I just couldn't pass it up for the pre-Easter and Easter season.  I bought this and a cute little pink plate with a bunny on it at work.

I also bought at Hobby Lobby a picture for the wall between the living room and kitchen (I have an open concept home).  I loved it the moment I saw it.  I love the trees and in the distance there are sheep.  We used to raise sheep on our farm in NJ.  It just spoke to me to buy it LOL!!

Well thanks for coming on this journey with me!  I have been knitting some and I have a watercolor commissioned piece to paint.  I am also planning on where I'm going to put the 3 roses I ordered and some other plants.  There will be a change in the garden behind my house.  It will be much better for roses (the full sun) than veggies.  I ordered a raised bed with legs for some veggies, which I will put back by the tree that hangs over my property.  In the future I would like to have about 4 raised beds with legs back there.  Kind of a veggie haven and some herbs.  I would also like to plant a tree or two back there.  The sun sometimes is so intense, just a little too much!

I am still painting my rooms in the main part of the house.  I was working so much and exhausted I stopped after I painted the living room.  I definitely will be working on the kitchen soon.  Then maybe my bedroom and master bath.  Eventually I would like to have the whole house painted.  I can only do a little at a time though due to time and this body isn't as young as it used to be LOL!!

Well everyone have a wonderful month and hopefully I'll get on here more and you can see what I've been up to!

Sherri