Purple Bliss Hodgepodge

It’s time for Wednesday Hodgepodge and Jo has the questions for us to consider.

1. What’s a lesson you’ve learned from a mistake?

Don’t judge a book by it’s cover. I’ve made this mistake more than once. I hope I’m learning more and more to get to know a person before I give them a wrong label in my head. Talking to and getting to know someone is a better approach.

2. Do you salt food while you’re cooking or let diners add their own? What’s a food you think must be salted? Do you like pepper?

I do season food as I’m cooking. Avocado tastes best to me salted. Yes, I do like pepper, too.

3. What was the last gathering you attended and what did you do there?

I’m answering these questions on Sunday. We attended church this morning. On this particular Sunday Greg and I were serving by greeting all those who came through the door for the early service. We have other ‘greeter’ responsibilities during the service. Before Sunday School we switch off with the second service greeters and we are free to attend the adult fellowship hour. During the fellowship hour we learned and discussed one of the attributes of God, Everlasting.

4. Your favorite shade of purple?

I enjoy every shade of purple and every purple flower.

What’s your favorite purple flower?

One of my favorites is purple wisteria. The photos above were taken at the Japanese Gardens in Seattle. Other favorites are lilac, clematis and hydrangeas and of course lavender.

5. Share a favorite spring travel memory.

In April of 2004 we took our daughter on a trip to England and Scotland for her graduation gift. It was a wonderful trip and a favorite to remember. We traveled to sites with history of her literary favorites like Tolkien, Lewis, Austen, Rowling, and we threw in a little Monty Python, too. We stayed in Cheltenham, Sheffield, York, Edinburgh and London venturing out to take in nearby cities and sites.

A field of daffodils on the grounds of Chatsworth House ( Pride and Prejudice Pemberley)

Clip clopping with coconuts at Castle Doune with Monty Python.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

Speaking of purple, we have 3 graduates in our family from the University of Washington, Greg, Katie and Andrew. Primary Purple and gold are the school colors. Little did Katie know in this photo that she’d graduate from the same University as her father and then her husband, too.

Mid September Walk…

Yesterday I was sitting reading blogs and visiting Pom Pom’s Ponderings and she said ” I’ve decided to walk more and do it in the morning before it gets too warm. ” I left a comment about the fact that I should be walking but was sitting and then low and behold, I got up, put on my walking shoes and made it around my circuit before the rains came! I’ve been talking and talking about making exercise more of a daily thing. I was happy to have gotten off my duff and here’s some things that I saw.

Look at all these ducks in this neighbor’s back yard! I’m glad they haven’t chosen my yard for squatting!

Across the path they squat regularly at this home, too.

My route is not long. I read recently that walking just 25 minutes a day will add 14 years to your heart life. Or something like that. My walk around the bend and up the hill and along the busy road and down the steep descent to home takes me about 30 minutes. Of course it take a little longer if I stop and ~~smell the roses~~ take the photos!

On the home stretch I enjoyed this view of “this old house” through a couple of our neighbor’s landscaping.

It really has come a long way these last few years. A new roof and new siding really make a difference. We hired a company to do the roof but Dear did all the siding himself. He’s a keeper! Our house is the oldest house in the neighborhood by many years!

That huge maple behind our house and in another neighbor’s yard will keep us busy this fall raking leaves! We talked to the neighbor about getting an Arborist out to check the tree to see what it’s condition is. We wouldn’t want it coming down on our house or anyone’s house for that matter. Our recent wind storm is what motivated us to ask.

This new hydrangea I planted this year is still pink and getting it’s fallish tint. I’m curious to see if it will come up pink next year or if it will change to blue or purple like our other hydrangea did in our soil.

I’m headed up to get my walking shoes on again and see if I can beat the rain. We are moving right along through September. What’s new in your neck of the woods?

Wondering…

The name I chose for my blog waaaayyyy back in 2007 is The Happy Wonderer.

Wonder:

noun 1. a feeling of surprise mingled with admiration, caused by something beautiful, unexpected, unfamiliar, or inexplicable.

verb 1. desire or be curious to know something. 2. feel admiration and amazement; marvel.

Wonder is something I experience a lot in both the noun form and verb form. I’m happy to be a Wonderer.

Right now I’m wondering how everything will fit together for the upcoming wedding in just 11 day! We are waiting for the good times we’ll have with friends and family around this wonderful event.

Waiting for good meals and time together out on our deck after the wedding when company from hither and yon will linger on.

Soon this view is going to change as we are into another project at this old house to give us a little more privacy when we are on the deck. It won’t be until after the wedding that I’ll be able to share the photos of the latest do it yourself project!

Linking up with ABC Wednesday which was started by Mrs. Nesbitt and carried on by Roger and the ABC team! Thank you.

W is for wonder, wonderer, wondering, wonderful, waiting, and the wedding. Oh I should have showed you the Western boots that will play a huge part in the wedding, too.

Rosebud Azaleas

I wanted to show you my sweet Rosebud Azaleas and give you an update about what’s going on around this old house. If you are here for the giveaway you will need to scroll down a few posts.

This variety of Azalea is my very favorite.

I finally cleaned out this area of the front planter that rounds the corner of the house and planted a hydrangea in the space. Time will tell if the blooms will stay purple.

My cement block plantings are mostly doing real well. The wild rabbits that roam around here have eaten all the pansy blooms, though.

Things are going well with my extraction recovery. I never really experienced any pain to speak of which is nice. I’ll be getting the stitches out on Wednesday if they haven’t dissolved on their own. I’m still on a relatively soft diet so I don’t hurt the area that is healing. Although I still have a few days of antibiotics left I am off the Ibuprofen. Thank you for your kind thoughts. My de-fluffing progress was hindered by being on medication and being off my regular meal regiment but I’m happy to report things are still going well.

Happy Victoria Day weekend to our friends in Canada!

Outside Again…

It has been ages since I joined in on A Southern Daydreamer’s Outside Wednesday Meme but low and behold I was finally able to spend some time outside yesterday. The sun was shining and the temps got up over 40 degrees. I had a good time walking about the yard and noticing what was budding or blooming.

The first thing I noticed was that my shrubs next to my Hellebore (Lenten Rose) were growing over it.

I headed to the garage to get my nifty trimmers and set out to free the top of the Hellebore from the shrub next to it.

This is always the first sign that Spring is coming in my yard. I love how gentle and humble this pretty plant is.

After I freed and enjoyed my Lenten Rose I moved over to the Camelia Bushes to take a photo of the buds on them.

Hydrangeas are shooting out their buds, too.

I’m really excited about these buds which are only two of many on my lilac bush. Last year I only had one bloom so it looks as if I’ll have more than one bloom this year.

Have you been able to be outside this week or are you still covered in a blanket of snow? I suppose if snow is your general landscape in the winter you know how to go out and about in it and enjoy it to the fullest, too. Looking forward to see if I can catch up with some old bloggy friends that I haven’t visited for a while. What’s new in your outdoors?

Flowers in Mosaics With Blue?

It’s a stretch but I think there is some blue in the mosaic of my Hydrangea so please click over to Mary at Little Red House for Mosaic Monday and Sally at Smiling Sally for Blue Monday. But wait, I’m also linking to Today’s Thrifty Treasures hosted by Rhoda at Southern Hospitality. Don’t I sound like one of those awful commercials that are selling super duper Magic Cloths or something?

My little potted Hydrangea that I planted a few years ago is really showing well this year. I think I got a total of 5 blooms last year. My friend Beth gave me this Hydrangea a few years back for my birthday and it was pink. When I re-planted it here in this spot it bloomed purple and blue.

On a river trail walk with my sister we did a lot of stopping to take pictures. These are some of the wild flowers we found growing. I’m calling them wild because they seemed to grow on their own with no help from any human being. LOL with that definition all the flowers in my yard are wild. Thank goodness the Master Gardener keeps them alive.

Now for my Thrifty Treasure. I bought this Villeroy and Boch pitcher at Goodwill for $5.95. I decided to bring the outdoors in and use this pitcher as a vase for my hydrangeas. It also will qualify for Blue Monday with it’s blue motif.

This week I’m getting ready for an onslaught of visitors from Southern California. The first group arrives next Monday with overlapping guests arriving the following week. At one point during those two weeks we’ll have 9 out of state visitors together. Half will be staying with my sister who lives a couple minutes from me and half will be at my house. Whoohoo time to partay! I will probably be a random blogger during this time.

Dear and I are saving our big trips for the Fall. In September our daughter Katie and I are traveling to Parris Island via Savannah to attend her boyfriend’s graduation from Marine Boot Camp. In October Dear and I are headed to Dallas to visit my brother, SIL, and little Hope. Do you have any travel plans?

Thanks for visiting and have a great week!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Tablescape Thursday ~ Rose Colored Garden

When I’m at my home in Washington I usually change the tablecloth on our only dining table every couple weeks. Because our stay here is winding down and we have no more big events I took out a couple leaves from the table and found a shorter tablecloth. Having my new inspiration for Tablescape Thursday it was time to search high and low for what to add to the tablecloth.

I started with the hydrangea in one of my depression glass containers and candlesticks.

Some fun layering of plates. The smaller salad/dessert plate is Royal Swan, Blossomtime, Staffordshire, England. The larger floral edged plate is Nikko tableware.

The tea cups and saucers are Churchill. The gold tassel napkin rings were Target Christmas clearance. The tablecloth and napkins are from Goodwill.

For more Tablescapes please visit Susan at Between Naps on the Porch!

Photobucket is holding all my photos that I stored on their site from 2007-2015 hostage replacing them with ugly grey and black boxes and asking for a large ransom to retrieve them. It is a slow process to go through all my posts deleting the ugly boxes.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Tag Archives: Hydrangea