First Blooms

I am enjoying the beautiful weather outside on my front porch. Reading e-mails and paying bills. The touch of the wind on my skin is so refreshing. I wish it stays this way. Surrounded by our big trees and old shrubs, the smell of the newly mowed grass is so uplifting. Indulgence! 

She is the first one to bloom in my yard. In a couple of days this rose shrub will be flooded with bright pinks. I was expecting an old rose but it's still asleep. 

Our mermaid tears are also blooming gracefully by the driveway. 

Last week, we went flower shopping. It was so much fun. We are still looking for more flowers so we are going back to the nursery or Lowe's next week. For now, we are still busy potting them. 

We got new ones for this year. Bought them from Home Depot, Lowe's, and WalMart. 

This bright purples is called, "African Daisy". Stunning! 

This matrix red lily is called, "Asiatic Lily". I wonder where in Asia. So dainty! Her bloom lasted for 3 days. Cool!

Because of the success of my pink Hibiscus last year, I bought another one and this time it's colored orange. I fell in love with it too. My old hibiscus survived the winter because I kept it inside the house. Now it's back outside.... growing new leaves and hopefully soon buds. 

On the other end of my front porch stands some new peonies. They were lovely last year too. 

Mr. D planted a variety of flowers near my craft room window so that I can see them. I got electric blue sage, lavender, verbena, and celosia. I told him they look crowded but he insisted it's fine. I hope I'm wrong. 

After all the flowers are potted and settled, we are going to work on our vegetable garden. Hopefully, my herb seed bed will be successful this year. 

Enjoy the sun everyone!

Nature's Success!!!

Ask me what I had for brunch? I'm pigging on anything that's for sure even vegetables.

 

This is what I had. A serving of baby spinach and fresh strawberries topped with Ranch dressing. My favorite home made salad! Just don't ask me what I paired it with. As you can see the strawberries are kinda tiny. 

They were just picked from my potted plant. Amazing that everyday, I get to pick some for my salad. It has been weeks since we started harvesting our vegetable garden. And we have been boiling them in pots or frying them battered. 

Aside from the strawberries we got squash, green and yellow bell peppers, jalapeno pepper, huge tomatoes, and cucumber (not included in photos). And we have been making healthy dishes from them. Last week, when I was in the produce section of Wal-Mart, I noticed that the price of a paired squash and cucumber is $2.50. Wow! And here we are taking advantage mother nature's bliss. 

Travis is still eagerly waiting for his watermelons to produce. He and Tim have been working hard on the small garden. We take turns on watering them. My turn is at night. 

I harvested my herbs already and realized that I don't know how to prepare them for drying or packing. I used them on dishes and I still have some in the fridge. I noticed that it does not do well when planted on small pots because it becomes overcrowded. I learned my lesson. I need a huge herb seed box next time. Travis promised me one for next season. 

It's not complete without the flowers in the front and back porches, right?

From top to bottom: purple and yellow lantanas, pink hibiscus, red and purple verbenas, tickled pink, yellow and white moss rose, variety of purslane, pink petunias, and another red verbenas. I love them all and so are the humming birds and bees. We still have other flowers, like Travis' purple summer sky and my hardy orchid. Aren't they all beautiful? The lantanas are placed in our front yard. I hope they will scatter their blooms. The pink hibiscus is potted because I want to keep it for good. That way I can hide her from autumn and winter. The lovely verbenas are hanged in the front porch. But I still have some that are potted and placed at the back porch so that I can see them from the kitchen window. Tickled pink is my favorite! She is not that big of a plant but she blooms proudly and I saw a humming bird yesterday feeding from it's nectar. The moss roses are grandma's favorites. I call them cute roses. We have a variety of colors potted together in long pots. They are gracing the front porch too. Another family of moss rose is the purslane, even a staff from Wal-Mart doesn't recognize the difference. Their leaves are the same but the petals are different. Purslane is single-petaled while moss rose is petaled like a rose. I prefer the purslane because when the sun's rays kissed them, they bloom in a variety of colors.... like they are dancing! The pink petunias has the biggest pot but it blooms shyly. 

This is a heirloom flower plant. It was passed on by grandma's great grandmothers. Whew! She was so anxious when the seeds were sedentary for weeks after Travis planted them. I took over the watering because she got worried. Then after another week, I saw the first peek of a leaf. And now they are growing fast. Soon we will see their beautiful purple flowers. It's called "weeping tears" by grandma's ancestors. But in the dictionary it's called "magic flowers". Quite ironic! It was cried by it's owner because it was not growing; then magically they just come out from the soil.

I am no expert on growing, I just love the mystery of the soil. Earth gives back when you take care of it. 

Happy gardening everyone!!! 

Flowers Around Me

Because I love tidiness on everything I walk into or touch on, I wanted my home and yard clean and smelling fresh. So every weekend, I clean the house while Travis cleans the yard. Chores are scheduled so that it won't be strenuous for both of us. After all, it's a weekend! Because of spring, we added some yard work for Travis' garden and my porch. But for now, I will be showing you some of the flowers that are blooming in our yard and porch. I am so glad that the storm that just passed didn't ruin them at all.

Wild flowers are everywhere in Texas especially by the highway. The sight of them eases the tension for drivers and gives a smile on the passengers especially me. Weeks ago we passed by Denison Dam to show our house guests from Georgia the beauty of it. Unluckily, because of the strong wind we can not stay long so I was able to take only this photo.

 They are so lovely in purple colors... There were also pink, red... and of course, the pride of Texas, blue bonnets! Sorry I wasn't able to take any photo of them. But they are lovelier than any photos from the magazines. 

At home, we have our own wildflowers too. And they are centuries old!

Our very own honeysuckle. I never thought they will bloom like this. And the smell!!!... such fragrance. Travis is now trying to make some scent out of their juices for candles. I hope he can because I love their smell. 

On our driveway you can see these mermaid's tears flowers. I have no idea why it's named so sad. But they are really pretty too (didn't see any fin!). Too bad we have no neighbors to adore them. 

 I guess you remember when I showed you the first bloom of spring in our yard. And yes, it didn't fail me. Our wild rose bush kept on flourishing. And I really love her delicate pinkish color. Didn't you notice that I am actually surrounded by pink flowers? I guess Grandpa Sherman knew I was coming to live here. Thanks to him. 

I wish I would be able to grow my new potted flowers too. They were carefully selected so that they can attract more butterflies and give more radiance in my small world. 

The tickled pink was the first one that caught my eye because it looks so cute and small but the flowers can be amazing. Of course, who will forget Hibiscus? Not me! I love tropical flowers so much! Grandma chose these red verbena. She said they attract butterflies. They will be on the pots for a few more weeks so that they can adapt my nurturing. 

My flowers are not complete without the snapdragons. Aren't they outstanding? Too bad I can't find other colors. I need to go back to Home Depot to make sure there are more coming. I so love the yellow one. 

To further beautify the old front porch, we got some hanging plants or flowers. Another verbena for the butterflies. And an exotic Impatient flowers too.

Who says you don't need a flower in your work room? What better choice than an orchid. So I got a hardy orchid. A purple one! To vanquish my lapsed of boredom I guess. 

Uh uh! I still need more snapdragons and the Texas yellow rose. Wish me luck! 

You don't need fancy potted flowers to start with. There are a lot of flowers around us  for free that are an exotic beauty to behold (just make sure the cops are not around). 

Sniff the flowers everyone!

 

In the Garden

Last week was my toxic days. I was busy being a homemaker and busy finding a road for my career in nursing. What I learned is that you can never do both. Toxic it was! I learned my lesson. I'm glad Travis dragged me away from the turmoil. So lucky to have him in my life. 

We then ventured to Dallas again for the weekend. And it was refreshing for me. We don't mind being on the road for hours because we get to talk more and we get to help each other. Travis is the driver and I am the guide. Before we travel, I make sure everything is packed "minimally";  "road maps" are available; and motels or hotels are booked and paid. I love traveling light... be it in land, sea or air. Also, map is essential especially on road trips. Thanks to Google for that! I enjoy looking for road signs with Travis as we drive along. Sometimes, we do miss a turn... but it's like making real life decisions. We make mistakes, we argue about it, then we learn from it. There will always be some bumps on the roads. But you will always find your right way. Of course, you need to have a place to stay even for a night or two. Actually, staying in a hotel is really romantic. You have all the time for yourselves. 

I learned about Dallas Arboretum from the March issue of Southern Living magazine. Not only are the flowers flirting with me but the experiences of what the park could offer brought us there. It was a beautiful sunny day. 

One of the flowers that I took notice are the snapdragons. The variety of colors that it offers made it outstanding. I love the pink ones! We took 300 photos of flowers alone but I can't show them all here. Sorry. There were a mixture of scents and colors everywhere. I didn't even mind the heat of the sun. Thanks to sunblocks. The beauty everywhere is exhilarating! 

 I love this Poet's garden. It made me think of Edgar Allan Poe and William Shakespeare. Simply passionate and full of love. So English by the way... especially the roses on the walls. 

They also have Fairy Tale Castles for children and "feeling like children". I love the little mermaid castle because of her awesome chair. The little girls around us knew their princesses. So cute! Below is a rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk... not sure if those vines are beans. 

This is a photo of the various "trial flowers" that they have. So glad we were not allergic to pollens. There were lots of flowers. I love to buy them but not for sale. I believe they will have an open house on May.

The park has lots of water fountains but I like the one in the photo best because it has a lone duck swimming around it. Travis and I threw four coins for our wishes. One of my wishes didn't come true apparently. Sigh! 

Travis likes this pond  among all the other attractions the park showcased. He stayed here for 30 min taking pictures of the fish. This is one of his passion and dream project. 

The Texas yellow roses... the flower that I look forward to growing and tending very soon.... I love it's exquisiteness and perfection. Just like my dear Texas!