A Perfect Day To Take A Break

Time to take a break from whatever you are doing.   At least it’s time for me to take a break.  Hope you can join me 

 It is a beautiful day here in North Carolina, perfect for sitting  on our front porch.  So I just made a pot of tea to take outside and I picked some zinnias.  Did I show you how big the zinnias are in my garden?

 The plant is almost 3 feet in diameter and it is part of the garden right beside our back door.  Every time I leave or come home I am greeted by all this color.  I am thrilled to have flowers blooming because the deer eat almost everything else!

 Just in case you weren’t able to join me I have a book to read.  I love books by Maeve Binchey.  She writes a good story and I love how she develops the characters.  I’m always looking for suggestions of books to read, so if you have a suggestion please leave me a comment.  I am also reading The Power of a Half Hour by Tommy Barnett, which  is also a good book  about how  how valuable only half an hour can be.

Did I tell you about the great bargain I got in wicker furniture? I spray painted it black and put it on our deck.

 It looks nice but it’s not waterproof so has to be covered when it rains and it’s constantly covered with pine needles that keep falling. I don’t have anywhere else to put it so I’ll probably end up putting it on Craig’s List.  If you live in the Charlotte area and could pick it up, you can have it all  for $45.

 Well I hope that you are enjoying your day.  I really need to get back to work now.  Hope you’ll come back and visit again soon.
Rhondi xo

Pink Lemonade and Pink Saturday

Every Saturday for at least 6 years Beverly at How Sweet The Sound has hosted Pink Saturday.and I decided to join in today.  I have been enjoying  the flowers in my garden, and these pink zinnias inspired me to get out my acrylic tubes of paint.

So I looked through my rose colored glasses and started this painting.    It would be logical that I would want to paint zinnias, but I felt inspired to paint some imaginary flowers that are sort of  like peonies.  I’m very much the amateur, having fun playing with colors and PINK is definitely a fun one to play with.

The zinnias also inspired me to make a quick picture using the Waterlogue app, which is so much fun.  Perhaps one day I will be able to paint this myself.

I have an idea…let’s go visit Beverly and see what other pink things are posted for Pink Saturday.    We can pretend we are together visiting the other bloggers while we sip some pink lemonade!

                                                                                  Rhondi xo

Pink Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday.  It’s not actually Saturday yet here, but it’s already Saturday in some parts of the world!!

Beverly at How Sweet The Sound hosts a Pink Saturday party every week.   I think she started it over 6 years ago.  Since I have some pink blooming in my garden I thought it would be fun to snap some pictures for you  and join in today.

These aren’t from my garden.  They were a gift for my birthday.  Our peonies are already finished blooming here in North Carolina.   I love the fragrance of them!

These are growing right outside our kitchen door.  They are a kind of campanula (I think).

We dug up a whole bed full of old shrubs on the other side of our kitchen door and I planted it with perennials.  These pretty little zinnias help fill in the spaces until the perennials have a chance to mature.

One of my favorite old standbys, pink geraniums.  They remind me of my mother.  She loved to do watercolor paintings of  geraniums and always had large pots of pink or coral ones in the summer.

This rosebush grows at the end of our driveway and wants to climb all over the mailbox, so I am constantly cutting it back.

That’s all the pink that is blooming in the garden on this June day.

  I have one more pink flower to show you.  It’s in a painting which I did recently.  I’ve just begun to experiment a little bit with acrylic paints.  It’s not very good but I like the colors!   So that’s my contribution to Pink Saturday.  Thank you to Beverly for hosting it.  I hope you’ll stop by and say hello if you’ve never met her before and maybe visit a few of the other bloggers who have pink things to show you.

 I have been so inconsistent with my blogging.  I wonder if anyone will even read this today…

Rhondi xo

A Walk in the Garden

It is a beautiful day here, so I grabbed my phone and took some photos of our garden. The quality isn't quite as good as with my normal camera, but come for a walk with me anyhow. Everything is a beautiful color of green right now.

 I love the color of the Siberian Iris.  I wish they lasted a little longer!

 I picked three peonies to have inside.  They are so full and beautiful and smell lovely.

I hope that you have something blooming where you are too!
Thanks for stopping by!

Rhondi

Happy New Year 2013

Happy New Year 2013 dear friends.  I hope that you got to spend some time with your family and friends over the holiday.

In the last 3 weeks we have only been home 4 days!  I love my home.  I love to be at home.  I love to putter around my home.  That's what I am doing today.

We arrived home  last night after a 17 hour drive from Texas but I was anxious to get my house back to normal, so I've already got all the Christmas decorations down and boxed up, ready to go up in the attic until next year.  Every year I try to weed out some of it and I managed to eleiminate one big plastic bin.

Whenever we are away, the first this I do the next morning is make a cup of tea, and stand outside on our deck just to look at the woods.  This morning I was greeted by 3 deer chomping away on the azalea bushes.  They looked up at me as if to say, "Oh you're home.  Can we still finish our meal before we leave?"

As I stood there enjoying my tea and the mild weather for a few minutes, I noticed that the hellebores ( Lenten Roses) were blooming in  a sheltered part of the garden, so I picked one sprig to bring inside.  This is one of the things I love about living in Charlotte: flowers blooming outside in the winter!

The camellia bush was in full bloom too so I picked two of them also.  They are such a lovely shade of dark pink.

I haven't had a chance to think about goals for this year yet.  I have a few ideas about things I'd like to get done around the house.  I'm not a New Years resolution  person but I do like to make a few goals each year.

How about you?  What plans do you have for the coming year?
Rhondi xo

Fall Flowers

What is your opinion of fake flowers? I'm not a big fan, but sometimes when there are no flowers in my garden I have this bouquet of fake daisies on the table.

But this time of year I have beautiful daisy type mums and a yellow helianthus in my garden so I can have real flowers!  From a distance they look almost identical.

But up close...

...you can tell they are real because you can see part of a little ant hiding behind one of the yellow petals!  When I shook the flowers lots of ants fell off but I guess this one was extra strong.

One of the nicest places to put fresh flowers is on the kitchen windowsill.  Then as I am scrubbing pots and pans or peeling potatoes I have something pretty to look at.   I have these blue bottles,which I've had forever, but you could use anything. It will cheer you up!

When you have fresh flowers in your house it's like having sunshine inside.    I am lucky today because the sun is shining outside too!

Try bringing some sunshine inside today!

Rhondi xo

Tulips Again

Remember the tulips I showed you last week?  Well I just had to show you how they opened up... the blossoms are about the size of a bread and butter plate!

Aren't they beautiful?

Rhondi xo

A Bouquet Of Sunshine

A bouquet of sunshine from my garden, just to say I'm thinking about you today and missing you! 

Rhondi xo

Come For A Walk In The Woods

Every morning, Mr Rose Colored Glasses and I go for a walk and part of our walk takes us through the woods.  For the last week or so one section of the path has been bordered by these beautiful yellow daisy like flowers.  I''ve wanted to show you but I as you may know, I dropped my camera and broke it a few weeks ago.  I'm go glad that I got another camera in time to show you  these flowers before they finish blooming.

They line both sides of the path and are about 3 feet tall.  

Aren't they a lovely color of yellow?

 It's such a delight to walk here every morning and enjoy the beauty.  I'm glad you were able to join us on our walk today!  Have a great weekend.

Rhondi xo

A Summer Bouquet

I love being able to pick flowers from my garden.

There is something very satisfying about walking around the garden, scissors in hand and snipping a few things here and there.

Then choosing a favorite vase and arranging them in it.

The knockout roses, phlox and salvia are  blooming in profusion right now.

Last year I didn't have any blooms on the phlox thanks to the deer.

 The deer still visit, but this year I've sprayed all the flowers that bloom, with something called Deer Off and it has done a good job of keeping the deer from munching on all the blossoms.

Red white and blue flowers in a white vase with a pair of yellow birds sitting in front. I love it!

By the way, I finished the book I mentioned last time.  It was a good read and I'd definitely recommend it.

Rhondi xo