When did you last take time to lie back
to watch clouds
and hawks soar?
Copyright © 2017 by Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
Summer in Virginia
16 Sunday Jul 2017
Posted in Albemarle county, dreaming, summer, sustainable lifestyle, Virginia, Zen
Tag Archives: life
timing is everything
29 Monday May 2017
Tags
blueberry, garden, home, life, spring, spring flowers, Virginia, wild birds
Peony season ended yesterday with the last stems going home with market shoppers. Over 700 stems were harvested this year, despite crazy spring temperature swings.
abundant peony harvest 2017
I thought every blueberry flower was frozen during a late March freeze and I fully expected a ruined harvest. Behold, a few weeks ago fruit formed and swelled although I rarely saw a pollinator.
So begins another harvest challenge..wild birds appear to be especially hungry this spring and despite my efforts to foil winged and four-footed marauders, I regularly notice clever catbirds, robins, and one blasted squirrel climbing under the tulle, metallic ribbon, and whirligigs. “Ha!”they say. “On berries we will gorge!”
O’Neil blueberries beginning to ripen
Despite tulle, mylar ribbon, whirligigs, and a fake snake, the wild visitors snack
This image of a resident female American Robin collecting nesting material reminds me to be thankful for my arms, hands and fingers. Robins engineer elaborate nests cemented together with mud…all carried in their mandible.
Now I will share images of what’s blooming here at Swallowtail Cottage this month.
A clever newbie to my garden nectars upside down on the Red Hot Pokers. I think it is an Northern “Baltimore” Oriole or a Rufous-sided Towhee. Can you identify?
Another newbie to my gardens…Apricot Fudge lily…much showier the second season. No scent, and oddly shaped…what do you think?
Ahh, the persnickety Foxtail lily…an underperformer added two seasons ago. Five bulbs were planted. One died this spring and only two others bloomed. Not enough bang for the buck…Does anyone know the secret to growing this beauty?
The patch of rescued iris has tripled in just three years and is awesome early on. Despite my efforts, this patch is now riddled with fungus and I am not sure if I will be forced to remove all of them. Any suggestions?
This mass of flower power is on top of my cattle panel arbor over one raised bed. I am told they are fragrant, yet being on top, they are out of whiff range. As the prolific climber continues its path over the top of the arbor, I will sniff when flowers are within range. This is a Huldine clematis planted two years ago. Second season is impressive, yes? And I read it will bloom twice per season. Yeah!
This is the cluster of flowers from one bulb found in the grocery store (set of three) called a Mediterranean Lily. All three bulbs have produced a sturdy 36″ stem every year for the past three, and these flowers last for weeks when cut. They remind me of a chandelier.
And this is the Fake Snake who scares no birds away from my blueberries…when soaked the package states it will grow to 48″. Despite heavy rains since installed, this Fake only writhes and swells in bizarre places.
Therefore my 2017 hopes of blueberry bounty are dashed…this photo was taken a few years back when times were different. Yes, timing is everything…
Here at Swallowtail Cottage, in zone 7a, the first nesting season is now complete for the Carolina chickadees, Eastern bluebirds, and Northern cardinals. The three-week old cardinal chicks have found my feeders and entertain me with their antics. Sadly, one cardinal chick appears to have wing issues end I think it cannot fly. I shall monitor the situation as it visits the feeders and will contact the Wildlife Sanctuary for advice.
I regularly chase off the Brewer’s Blackbirds, cowbirds, and jays who invade my feeders and terrorize the new resident chicks. Tufted titmice continue their quiet routines, one Ruby-throated hummer visits the feeder frequently, House and Goldfinches continue to annoy me, Carolina Wrens are scarce, Brown Thrashers are beautiful and elegant, the occasional Chipping Sparrow makes an appearance, and my beloved Red bellied woodpeckers astound and delight. I envy their ability to fly, yet rejoice in the fact that I have arms, hands and fingers…
Happy and bountiful spring to your, my followers. I always enjoy hearing from you.
Diane
PS. WordPress just informed me that this is my 200th post. Shall I continue or retire?
Copyright © 2017 by Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
words cross centuries
11 Thursday May 2017
Posted in environment, garden, garden meditation, home, life, Lifestyle, Poetry, spring, sustainable lifestyle
Tags
garden, home, inspiration, life, poetry
“I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden.”
– Abraham Cowley, 1618-1667, English poet
Copyright © 2017 By Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
April brings flowers and…chores!
10 Monday Apr 2017
If you are a homeowner, April not only brings spring flowers, but lots of chores…check out this link below…just click the photo:
Yesterday was the second time I mowed this month…and edged, and weeded. Sadly, it appears that I will be fighting wild violets again this year in the turf…Boo! Although violets (not the edible violas or Johnny Jump Ups) are pretty, they will spread rampantly and kill all turf in its path. I learned the hard way…last season. I am not a fan of turf, yet since I own 3000SF, it must be cared for. Since the use of chemicals is taboo here, one must be extra clever to stay ahead of undesirables that blow in and take root.
I dream that my gardens and turf look like this, yet alas.
My neighbor’s field is awash with wild violets and the explosion of seeds manages to permeate my stand of thick cypress trees and attempts to conquer my tidy gardens. Last year I resorted to drastic steps. Did this fix the problem? One stroll into the turf last week, showed a healthy stand of the dastardly plants…all abloom and happy. Oh how lawn care products lie!
Three years ago, I nicknamed my house “the needy box.” This month marks sixteen years here (where does the time go??) and always, always, there is something to do. Can one actually divorce one’s home? IF so, I want one…a divorce.
IF I continue to stay, most of my major improvements since 2001 will need a redo beginning in six years. I admit, I am not ready, willing, nor is my pocketbook. “I ain’t in love,” as some country song wails. With real estate currently a seller’s market, I regularly fantasize about moving, even catch myself steering the car into new parts of the county…looking for eureka! Yet the dilemma remains…where to? Little real estate remains affordable in the US (under 300K), and regional taxes or health care deficits can take a bite out of the relocation dream.
When I shop for converted warehouses around the country, they are there. But who wants to live in the snow belt? If the warehouses here in my area are ever converted, they will become, as most other real estate here, half-million dollar abodes.
So for now, I remain on my little half-acre, not far from town, where birds, flowers, quiet, and sunshine are regulars. Deep in my soul, I wish for continued inspiration and stamina. Today, the growing season begins again…in central Virginia, zone 7a.
Let it be gentle.
A rare daffodil in my gardens…Thalia
This is Honeymoon, a fringed tulip which customers fight over at market
And this is a newbie to my gardens…Akebono, a Japanese double tulip. I had high hopes for this beauty, yet the stems don’t seem to support the peony-like blooms.
So I am off to open closets, vacuum velvet and linen draperies, wash cabinets, and polish silver whilst thinking of Cinderella when she “…wakes to find sunshine bright and all the meadows white…”
What does spring look like in your part of the world?
Copyright © 2017 By Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
this week’s reading challenge…
16 Thursday Mar 2017
Ok dear followers. I have a reading list for you…simply type these three words into my search bar in the left hand column…ready? Type the thing about and press GO. Voila, numerous posts will appear and when you reach the bottom of each page, click “older posts” as there are about a dozen posts in this series.
Older posts are long-lost in this world of immediate and short attention spans…yet they still hold much fodder. Good fodder, not the kind that is chewed up and spat out. One can ponder these things…
Are you ready? This is the perfect reading assignment, especially if your weather continues to be a beast in your part of the world. Simply type the three words, click GO and gently scroll down (and click “older posts” when you reach the bottom.) Soon a rhythm will glide your finger and eyes…
I put a lot of effort into these the thing about posts and think that they need revisiting by readers, both old and new. Good as Silver & Gold, like friends.
So please, go find a sunny window, settle in, read and please comment. After all it is still winter in the US, and being a couch potato is fully permitted as long as we feed the brain, dream a bit, and sip warm beverages.
I await your comments. There will be a quiz next Thursday. 😉 Cheers, Diane
Posted on a sunny, cold winter day in central Virginia 2017.
February dreaming…
13 Monday Feb 2017
Take a few moments with your second cup of Monday morning beverage and dream of how a week or a lifetime would look/feel like here…
What do you like most about this slice of Italy? Would you have the patience to take on such a project?
As I ponder yet another house project here at Swallowtail Cottage, a visual pause permits contemplation and inspiration.
Happy February…I see signs of life in the gardens, and the wild birds continue to keep me company…77F here yesterday…much too warm. I also need to find out who is spying on me at night with their drone…I thought a plane was about to crash, then noticed the lights were hovering just above my privacy fence!
Posted February 2017
kitty love
08 Wednesday Feb 2017
Posted in cat, dormant season, old haunts, Past Loves, winter
Have you ever had a cat touch it’s nose to your pencil as you write?
To gently push and force the page adjoining
Rattle ever so gently
In order to push aside, then rub her head on a corner
Stepping around in a tactful way
To lie down just aside the binding
Jolting as if to pounce
From your page it flies
Only to walk up your leg and
Chew on your eraser.
November 1972
Miss Kitty ~ my muse for eleven years
Copyright © 2017 by Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
August garden
18 Thursday Aug 2016
Tags
Albemarle County, Central Virginia, garden, home, life, lifestyle, plants, summer, Virginia
There is one word that describes the month of August in central Virginia… steamy. Not unlike steam room cloying temperatures and humidity with dew points in the 70’s.
August skies over Swallowtail Cottage
This year does not disappoint. Any Virginia gardener knows this month requires resolve and fortitude and multiple trips to the shower. If Mother Nature holds back quenching storms, this gardener must rise before dawn to drag hoses around for blooming plants, inviting nectaring insects and butterflies to have sweet tastes. Newly added plant material must be monitored for even moisture, if they are to survive and put down healthy root systems.
Despite these character-building conditions, I want to share with you the beauties that dot my landscape this month…
The Chinese Lycoris squamigera, more commonly known as Naked Ladies, are plentiful around here (zone 7a) as summer beauties yet are extremely persnickety. They send up tall, flat leaves in the spring that die off, then tall spikes appear this month. With multiple flowers on plain or naked stalks reaching 36″ tall, they are quite the show stopper. They never need staking, yet when I transplant them to other garden areas, many never bloom. Go figure…
Formosa lilies are native to Formosa and grow easily in my gardens where they readily self sow… the original seed came from Tufton, a property once owned by Thomas Jefferson.
The Formosa seed pods during winter, with actual seeds removed. Stunning, yes?
This Honeybells fragrant hosta and nine sisters were gifted to me last year. Now blooming and 48″ high, the steamy August garden is blessed with visual cool and fragrance. PS: generous applications of spent coffee grounds around the base of early leaves completely stopped the onslaught of slugs…a Whole Foods Barista was happy to give me their dregs any time that I asked.
A close up of this dreamy hosta Honeybells. Too bad the biting ants like the flowers too or I would cut stems for the house and market.
The only phlox I grow here at Swallowtail Cottage, Davidii stands tall and does not succumb to any mildew. Incredible.
Another gift from Kate. The Celadon poppy blooms early spring and again this month. I am told this poppy is invasive, yet tucked back in the rear garden, I invite a bit of delicate color and naughty.
THIS is a thug. Rudbeckia triloba…I do not remember ever planting it, yet this year a huge area of the butterfly garden is filled with these 6′ tall bloomers! I took many bunches to market and will stuff the rest in the burn barrel, as they have needles along the stems and are as rough as a cob. OUT!!!
Autumn Joy sedum attracts flutterbyes by the dozen and is an easy-care perennial. A classic in any garden. This was on the property when I bought it in 2001, and I have shared many clumps with neighbors.
Ahhh, my summer delight. The Natchez crape myrtle. One double trunk grows in the front lawn, and a five-trunked specimen thrives on the west side of the house. These beauties provide dreamy shade during summer months, have refreshing blooms where honey bees bury themselves, and in fall, leaves change to a brilliant hue. Did I mention the peeling bark during August? This shed reminds me all is well with much visual interest.
The shedding bark layer curls and twists, revealing the baby smooth leather-like under bark. I often find myself stroking the trunks as the sensation is like no other.
I laugh every year when this silly PJM rhododendron blooms in August…All of its companions bloom in the spring, when they should, but here, no. I really do not like pink of any kind in the garden, yet planted PJM’s years ago for their winter bronze leaf color.
Let me introduce you to a new variety… Black Diamond crape myrtle, added to my front garden this summer. Notice the wonderful deep leaf hue and pleasant color of the flowers…this plant blooms multiple times per year and the plant tag promises a mature height at 12′. I look forward to many years with this new variety…
And Babe, the topic of my last post, survives despite its weird appendage in front of its right leg. After emailing photos to the Wildlife Center, they too are stumped and suggest that as long as Babe is eating well, to leave it in the wild. Although Babe continues to molt and look rather pathetic with its shabby coat, I eagerly wait to see what sex it is…can anyone guess?
This plaque, found in a shop at Tryon Palace, reminds me that the garden teaches forever.
Twice per week this time of year I run errands and make deliveries very early, then confess to enjoying short afternoon naps in the air conditioning. Heat is hypnotic. Reclined on the loveseat, dozing between paragraphs of a Baldacci novel, I later rise and do indoor chores. Then around 7PM I dress for insects and head out weekly to mow and perspire. Soon. Soon. Very soon, there will be lower dew points and garden clean up, as the blooming show will be mostly over until next spring. And this gardener will sigh a large exhale.
Thanks for reading along. Your comments are always enjoyed.
Copyright © 2016 by Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
gardening is all about change
30 Monday May 2016
Posted in Albemarle county, blueberries, environment, garden, home, landscape design, life, sustainable lifestyle, Virginia
Tags
Albemarle County, Central Virginia, garden, home, landscape design, letting go, life, lifestyle, nature, Virginia, virginia countryside
and hanging on and letting go…
As I flailed around during May, reeling from Mother Nature’s multiple challenges while wringing my hands as beloved plants took hit after hit, I reminded myself: #1 I have no control over Mother Nature, #2 all things are temporary, #3 a gardener must be resilient.
My love of the earth and passion for most things beautiful and fragrant, began decades ago. Before the age of seven I remember lying under the tall patch of blooming Persian lilacs at our Long Island home, content never to move again.
in 2014 the hummers enjoyed sips from the pineapple sage…
At age eighteen, I left home for college, and was away from lush gardens. I quickly learned that a sunny park across from my dorm could fill my need for green. As a BFA graduate, my first job took me to Portland, Oregon where I was mesmerized by the artful Japanese Gardens and the historic Portland Rose Gardens. I could have stayed there forever.
the narrow gravel path is embraced by tightly shorn boxwood hedges.
Alas, years later, with roaming days behind me, I found myself working on Capitol Hill. Whenever possible during lunch hour, I strolled the magnificent grounds of Congress designed by Frederick Olmstead, and frequently lunched on the edge of the marble fountains outside the Supreme Court. Those were the days.
Heirloom Tiger Lily provides nectar for this Swallowtail
In 2000 I departed the urbane, and put down roots at my first country house. The abode turns out to be a needy box, yet the half-acre provided me with a tabula rasa. No more containers on the postage stamp balcony.
Fruits of my labor…homegrown blueberries…as the pan’s contents bubbled, the color deepened
Once the mistakes of former owners were obliterated, my gardening intuition prevailed, as it does today, sixteen years later. Following numerous consults with garden experts, I quickly surmised that my intuition was the light to follow. Recently, as I glanced at my archived plant tags, I removed 50% of my original purchases. Either the plant tags lied and specimens quickly outgrew their place, or plants failed to thrive without frequent spraying. As a master gardener who is intolerant of needy plants, garden edits are becoming an annual ritual.
March garden edits included a stump grinder. The rug junipers became a garden thug in many areas, yet hand removal was impossible. Thanks to my arborist and his great tools…
Hours in the garden provide solitude amongst the songs of wild birds, handsome toads, and the occasional reptile. When the sun rises above the cypress trees, I step indoors and enjoy views out every window. The passage of time in my gardens is what sustains me. The beauty of thriving plants inspire me. Ten thousand photographs later, I attempt to share moments of bliss.
This handsome creature posed for me in the very hot sun for ten minutes! I adore moments like this when nature provides fleeting glimpses of my garden residents.
Every garden reflects the gardener, and often inspires on well after the person who tends it; or for that brief moment in time, a place comes alive in this time, and perhaps lives on in memory.
exhilarating moments
Planting and working the soil teaches us that there is hope despite adversity, that during the most difficult times, all things are temporary, and as in life, a gardener must learn to accept change, hang on to every fleeting moment when perfection finds its way, and to let go with grace.
a telling proverb
Copyright © 2016 by Diane LaSauce All Rights Reserved
the May that floats
22 Sunday May 2016
Posted in environment, farmer's market, garden, home garden, Lifestyle, season, spring, spring garden, sustainable lifestyle, Virginia
Tags
Albemarle County, Central Virginia, garden, life, nature, spring, Virginia
Normally, May is one of my favorite months as a gardener. Normally, the gardens burst with color, texture, and fragrance. Normally, May is a time for celebration and a time to bid farewell to the cold of winter. To date friends, 2016 weather continues chafe the best of my patience and optimism. Is it time to throw in the towel?
First, late killing April frosts affected many precious plants. Early tender perennials became steamed lettuce mush. Can you imagine?
Relentless May rains saturate even the best soils, threatening bulb rot and setting the stage for massive fungal issues in coming weeks. Harvesting six-hundred stems of heirloom peonies while dodging rainfall is, at a bare minimum, unpleasant for both me and my flowers. So much for garden delight. Rain days at the farmers market greatly reduce revenue, as only the hardy shoppers appear, and they typically are not in the mood for delicate stems. So much for my May cash crop. Currently, my flower fridge is overflowing and another few hundred stems beg to be harvested. Do you feel my pain?
Typically, June brings relentless heat and humidity to my Virginia gardens, seasoned with biting midges, ticks, and mosquitoes…for months. May is normally the time before June’s wickedness — inviting blissful strolls, the discovery of transcending scents, and the ability to see the fruits of my labor. Ha! At least my automobile is not floating down some side street, as Texans endure the spring from hell.
Ok, enough misery.
Is it time for the “For Sale” sign? Or shall I persevere? My inner voice whispered many times recently, “if it ain’t fun, don’t do it.” Well, I ain’t havin any fun as a gardener so far this year. Yet I am not ready for a condo. Been there, done that.
Do I publish this or press delete?
How about some comments from my followers?
From a drenched blogger/gardener in central VA.
Is it time to hang it up?
