allsorts

More blue

I'm still craving that perfect shade of deep, cool blue, and I've discovered that it's especially beautiful in the garden! These photos from among my flickr favorites. The first two are by Susie.

I wouldn't mind spending the morning puttering in this seaside cottage garden... 

Maybe find a place to sit and watch the birds (suncoil)...

Or stroll by a clever border edging of bottles (pandorea)...

Then follow a path and listen to a fountain (Leah H)...

And finally, sit awhile and enjoy the flowers (Cheryl Pedemonti).

Now wouldn't that make for a pleasant day?

Cheers,

Jenny

Blue Monday

Ahhhhh... blue. Not my mood, the color!

With our afternoon temperatures reaching 104° I can't help but crave lovely cool things, like these shade-loving hydrangea blossoms in the deepest coolest blues I've ever seen. These lured me in at Central Market and insisted on coming home with me (along with some phloxy friends). Our soil here is so alkaline that even if I could successfully grow them in the Texas heat, they would be pink instead of this amazing shade of ultramarine.

I had a hunch they would look great in the enamel pitcher I got last week at (where else) Ikea. The pitchers are wonderfully made, come in three sizes and look absolutely fantastic everywhere I put them.

The sun even cooperated so I could snap some pics in this corner of the dining room. Gosh, look at all the other things from Ikea in that photo!

And I've finally decided to get serious about learning how to take better images with my camera. I think that my frustration with camera issues is the main reason I haven't been blogging as much as I used to. I have ideas for posts all the time, but don't follow through because I don't like the photos. So I'm very happy to be finally addressing that.

Hope you have a truly wonderful week!

Cheers,

Jenny

Gates and gardens

I am so happy to show you (with permisson) these gorgeous images of garden gates in Carmel, California, by photographer Linda Yvonne. Check out her Carmel photoset here. She also has prints available.

While you're enjoying the tour, perhaps I'll babble on a bit...

I hope everyone had themselves a wonderful Mother's Day! Our weekend was a bit of a whirlwind. Saturday we did our usual weekly marketing extravaganza, then we zipped down to the farmer's market and crammed the back of the Explorer with flats and flats of bedding plants. Amazingly the guys tucked all those seedlings into their beds by dinnertime!

Sunday we were off early, to La Madeline for brekkies, then onward to Ikea! (what, isn't that every mother's dream destination? It is most certainly mine) I experienced excellent Mother's Day karma by finding this in the discounted section. Only the tiniest little boo boo where you'd never see it, and already assembled! Woot!

A quick trip back to the house to get a vehicle big enough to hold it, then a mad scramble to regroup for a visit with Ro's mom and the rest of the clan.

We topped off the day with a tasty supper of grilled tilapia while watching Amalie, then I had a nice long chat with Katy (who had spent the day setting up her thesis exhibit!).

They took the greatest care of me, I am a very lucky mom.

I hope you enjoyed this little peek into the gardens of Carmel!

Cheers,

Jenny

More May flowers

Wow again! We're up to ninety posters! I think after today I'll stop adding names to the sidebar since it is the 4th after all. Already feeling the energy that comes with rising to a challenge. Exactly what I was hoping for.

More flower pics, sorry but I'm on a roll so these are the ones taken on my first Arboretum trip this Spring. I swear I won't make you sit through any more of this for a while. Several commenters asked about my camera. It is this...

...a Nikon D40x and I highly recommend it. 10.2 megapixels and lots of bells and whistles. I also have a better quality lens for it and use that sometimes, too, but the one that comes with it is plenty fine. Of course as you can probably guess... I do a bit more tweaking in Photoshop, but I have to keep some secrets to myself ya know. Anyway if you're wanting to learn more about Photoshop, you can watch some very helpful video tutorials at Lynda.com, an amazing number of which are free.

So... on to more flowers!

Obviously I am very fond of getting up close and personal with my subject. The first and last blossoms were just a few among thousands on the most amazing magnolia tree I've ever seen. I could have climbed up into it and stayed forever. By the time we went back in less than a week, all the blossoms were gone. Sad. I felt extremely fortunate to have seen it and captured such a fleeting memory with my camera.

Cheers,

Jenny