Wordless Wednesday

Pretty Weedy

Project Green...and W!

Last Project Green :(

& W is for WHAT?

All good things must come to an end. Anna's projects have been really challenging for this blogger girl. I've never been the one to count on for great photos on vacation or at a party....that was always up to my girlfriends. The best thing about blogging is that it's making me capture the moments and think creatively about everyday occurrances. Project Yellow and Mark's Project Looking Through came at a time when I was totally blocked with my writing for blogging. I said to one of my friends when talking about my blog "I got nothin'"...annddd...along came these great photo challenges. Heck...I even found the macro setting on my camera!
Thanks for Mark and Anna for their projects...and thanks to all of the kind folks who have left such lovely comments about the photos I've posted.
Now.....WHAT am I going to post???
One of the blogs I check regularly is Wandering Mind, I like what she writes and I like her thought process. On her blog a few days ago she asked the question,
"What would you do if you didn't have to work?", I'm not sure that's exactly how she posed the question but you get the drift.
So my friends, what would you do? Annnddd...what's the next photo project?
Cuz I'm still blocked....I still got nothin'!

The photo was taken in my herb garden, it's looking through the West of the weather vane and onto the lemon balm plant.

Project Green

132 Window Panes

I just counted. There are 132 individual panes of glass out in the party barn. A lot of the panes are from the orignial windows...they're fogged and not so easy to see through. Some have BB gunshot damage from before my time. For some strange reason I don't want to replace the panes like this one in the photo...I feel like there is a story attatched to this and if I fix it then the story will be lost. So for now, I have a stack of replacement panes and I'll fix the two that just broke in a wind storm...but not this one here....at least not for a while.

Tulip Mania...and more

Hellooooo, my pretty!

I've been playing in the dirt here at this old farm for almost 28 years. The size of the yard has tripled, dumb move on my part I'll admit...I can't keep up.

When my sister was very pregnant with her daughter (who is now in college) we went on a little day-trip to Butchart Gardens in British Columbia. It's one of those places that makes a garden dreamer like me gasp with delight. That day, the place was buzzing with staff gardeners who were merrily puttering in the spring beds. I struck up a conversation with a charming uniformed elderly gardener, he was relaxed and happy...how I hoped to be in my garden some day. I asked him how many gardeners / hours / acres. He had the facts and figures I was looking for. I went home and did the math, according to my calculations my garden would require 40+ hours a week according to the Butchart gardener hours to acreage (or square footage) data. At that time those figures made me feel a whole lot better about the fact that I couldn't keep up with my garden.

Jump ahead 20+ years. The yard is three times the size it was back then. What on earth was I thinking?

Well...I was thinking about how cool it would be to have a fish pond, I've been fish-crazy since I was a little kid and there was an aquarium in the doctor's office. I liked going to the doctor because I could gaze at those fish and dream about having my own someday.

I thought it would be great to have a cutting garden, someplace to go and cut glorious bouquets to bring in the house or share with friends.

I wanted to be like my grandpa and have fresh garden produce, raspberries and strawberries....beans and corn.

What I never factor in... is maintenance. I'm a garden dreamer, I love the whole creative process. I don't factor in the hours it's going to take to keep things cultivated, planted, weeded, watered, pruned, mulched, de-bugged, de-slugged, staked, tied, sprayed, dead-headed...breathe...repeat.

The best thing about garden blogging is that you can take close-ups. The photo in this post is of the most beautiful orange tulip..she's a stunner.

What you can't see is the haze of weeds she's surrounded by, or the pieris japonica that tipped over in the wind because it wasn't staked, we'd had to dig it up and replant it... because a trash tree was growing up through it. You can't see the half/drained pond because the liner is leaking even though we pulled it out last year and couldn't find even a pin-hole in the butyl liner.

All you can see are the beautiful colors of this stunning tulip.

I have to go now...I have to go outside and weed, mulch, prune, plant, transplant, water, fertilize...and if we have time today maybe we'll drain that pond...againnnnn.

Project Green

"You're not the bossy of me!"

Project Green

Weeping Willow Curtains

The large deciduous trees out by the road are starting to leaf out...oh happy day!

My dream is to live on a dead end road, a long gravel driveway ...maybe even a gate, not a snazzy one, snazzy gates invite the curious. I want an old clunky gate that passers-by would essentially ignore. As long as I'm dreaming I'd like that long driveway to have a curve or two so that the house at the end would be hidden behind overgrown trees and native shrubberies.

That's the dream.

Reality is okay too, the trees are leafing out and I get a little bit of privacy behind those long willow branches that sweep the lawn when the wind blows.

Project Green

The old John Deere feed elevator, covered in blackberry brambles....be careful...if those brambles catch you they don't let go.

Happy Birthday Baby Sissy!

Today is my baby sister's birthday. The pic is of her with her daughter at our Christmas party at moms, I've edited it down a bit because I don't know how they feel about having their photos on the ole blog...here they've got their wild west masks on.

They're both amazing women of whom I'm incredibly proud, I feel so blessed to have them in my life.

My baby sis always gets my stupid humor, her laughter is like music to my ears. She'll tell me when I'm right even if I'm thinking I'm not, she'll also tell me when I'm full of crap. She's one of the most generous people I know...if she has what you need she'll loan it out to you, she'll pick you up, drop you off....and tell you when you need to pick yourself up and dust yourself off.

She works hard, plays hard, she's smart, she's funny, she's raised an amazing daughter...and heck... she can ride a horse like nobody's business!

Happy Birthday Sissy!

Project Both...Final Post

Last post for Mark's Project Looking Through (says pouting blogger).
I was out in the Party Barn looking for something to shoot for Project Looking Through and Project Green...look who decided she wanted to be part of the action. She's only been with us for a couple of months and she's already scared she's going to miss something fun.
Life is a party as far as she is concerned, I thought for sure she would jump through this window. It wouldn't be too hard to do since the glass broke in the last wind storm. The barn door got caught in the wind and slammed against the building, shattering a couple of these panes...ohhh goody...more stuff to fix! (note sarcasm)
Sorry Anna, I know green grass is boring but this ODP (obnoxious dog person) couldn't resist.

Project ...uhhh....BOTH! #3

Last summer I tucked this artificial birdie on an old birdcage that had fallen over in the patio garden, a fun surprise for the little kids that visit. "Birdie" used to be inside the cage but when the wind kept blowing the cage over, I decided to just leave it there and let the vines tumble over it. When I originally placed "Birdie" out there she was quite the looker...brightly colored and eye catching. Now she's fading into the background and looking a little worse for wear...hmm...kinda like somebody else I know...that lady I see every morning in the mirror.

Project ...uhhh....BOTH! #2

Peacock Feathers

This one qualifies for Project Green over at Anna's and maybe kinda sorta qualifies for Mark's Project Looking Through...maybe not. I had a few choices on what to post, couldn't decide...so I asked myself "if the computer crashed what pic would you be the most bummed about not posting?", no question... the feathers.

Project ...uhhh....BOTH! #1

Anna just announced Project Green, I had so much fun with her Project Yellow that I really wanted to participate. One little problem, I'm having fun and being challenged with Mark's Project Looking Through. What's an overachiever to do? Both! In the same shot!!!
Looking THROUGH the reflection of my GREEN glass garden ball you can see the farmer girl photographer and The Party Barn...now...how stinkin' cool is that?

Project Looking Through (Number Three)

Something about this old red door makes me happy.

This shot was taken out in the party barn looking into the back yard, I love how it shows a sliver of flowerbed backed by a CEDRUS deodara and the old silo in the distance.

Project Looking Through (Number Two)

Since I was off grid and unplugged I missed the first couple of days of Project Looking Through. Today I walked around the farm with my camera and had so much fun capturing PLT shots I decided to play catch-up. I'll call her Project Peeking Moo.

Project Looking Through (Number One)

I've been off grid most of the week so I've missed Project Looking Through over at Mark's place. It looks like fun! Another good challenge with the camera. I didn't know about the project when I snapped this on Monday at Benaroya Hall . I went there to see Jann Arden...she played in the Nordstrom Recital Hall, what a fabulous venue.

Jann was incredible, I've wanted to see her in concert for years, what a smart, funny, talented woman.

Daffodils

As fleur as the eye can see

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

My first Gardeners Bloom Day!



Thanks to May Dreams for getting
me out there to snap a photo of what's blooming here on the 15th of the month. Sorry about the spacing of the photos and the text, Blogger tends to move things around willy-nilly....grrrr.




MAGNOLIA x soulangeana
Tulip Tree

EPIMEDIUM x rubrum

'Sulphureum'

HELLEBORUS argutifolius

Corsican Hellebore

HELLEBORUS orientalis

Lenten Rose

BERGENIA crassifolia

TRILLIUM sessile

Toadshade Trillium

TRILLIUM ovatum
Wake Robin

VIOLA

Woodland Violet

ROSEMARY officinalis

MUSCARI

Grape Hyacinth

Plum ?

been here forever tree, not the best fruit

PRIMULA vulgaris
English Primrose

PIERIS japonica

ERISUMUM cheirri

VINCA minor

'Bowles'

VINCA minor

'Wine'

DICENTRA spectabilis

Common Bleeding Heart

VIOLA

Pansies

DAFFODILS, NARCISSUS...too many to keep track of

Post-It Yellow

And you wondered how I found so much yellow here. :)

Yellow-itis...Eight

I'm sorry...I can't stop myself. This whole yellow thing is out of control, I have yellow fever. There are many...and I mean mannnyyyy more yellow photos just waiting to be posted. Who knew? My first yellow post was taken off the farm...the rest were shot right here at This Old Yellow Farm. This might be my last yellow post (she says with an evil grin).


If you enlarge the photo you can see the puppy and The Husband (barely) in the distance.


Nope, didn't plan that one.

Project Yellow....Take Seven

I had my level out today to work on a little project. Dad

used to refer to someone who was a bit quirky as being

"half an apple off plumb". I tend to gravitate toward

folks who are just a bit quirky, they often amuse me

far more than those who always "behave".
Sometimes I want to look past the bubble, often the
picture is really pretty.
Project Yellow has been so much fun for me, I had no
idea how much I would enjoy it.
Thanks to all who left such kind comments,
you bloggers are pretty amazing people.
Cheers

Project Yellow....Take Six

Spring has been slow to arrive, but tomorrow they're telling us that we could see seventy degrees...wahooo! Get out the croquet set, blend some fruity cocktails and fire up the BBQ.
Only one more Project Yellow to go, I have so many photos to choose from ...I can't decide!

Project Yellow.....Take Five

Project Yellow heads out to the Project Barn! It's a yellow-a-rama out there, it's where I can play. It's where we have the Pumpkin Carving Party and where we had the Christmas Wreath Making Party, hey man...any excuse for a party! It's where I arrange flowers, where I keep my garden seeds and make plant tags...where I stash my craft supplies. Vases for flower arranging on those ohhh-so-yellow shelves.

Crafting odds and ends

The seed stash.

Hey, farmgirls get thirsty when they're workin' hard.

Treasures collected over the years that seem to migrate

out to the project barn.

Silly little things that amuse me.

Quirky treasures that friends have given me over the years.

Can you imagine the garage sale we're gonna have when

we finally move off this place.....ayyyyeeeee.