“Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life. Many might have failed beneath the bitterness of their trial had they not found a friend.” Charles Spurgeon
(an imperfect nicotiana bloom )
How far from perfect my life and my choices. Somehow, though, I’ve been blessed to receive abundant joy from my sweet family and my most-imperfect life. A lot of that joy has been because of the encouragment from friends to just keep going or even just a listening ear to help me sort things out.
If anyone would have told me 10 years ago just how much inspiration and friendship I’d have acquired from an internet connection, I would have laughed at them. I was one of the nay-sayers about home computers, thinking that they’d bring only unwanted things into people’s homes. This is not to say that we don’t have to be careful, but I want to let all my internet friends know just how much you mean to me! — from all you moms I’ve grown truly close to on homeschool message boards, to you sweet blogger friends who stop by to keep up with me and whose blogs I stop by to keep up with you, to you who send me e-mails, and to the large number of you who keep up informational websites for homeschoolers and gardeners and many other things.
Thanks to all my cyber buddies for walking through my gardens with me and letting me walk through your gardens with you. Thank you for reading listening and letting me in on your worlds. I think we’ve all learned so much. At least I know I have!
“Frienship doubles our joy and divides our grief.”
A garden is kept day by day, chore by chore. If you let it go for too long, it turns to weeds.
I would love to have more time to work each day, but I am so thankful to have a small garden that’s mine to enjoy and to get even a little time in my garden each day. I keep it sort of like I keep my house. Just a little bit of work every day will keep it presentable. Not perfect, but presentable!
I love taking a break and listening to the water bubble down into the goldfish pond.
From one of my resting spots I can see this blue “whirly thing” that I purchased from Witherspoon Rose Culture. It spins prettily in the breeze.
These are three rosemary plants grown from seed. Not too shabby.
I find myself wanting to create things for the garden. This bench is from a piece of treated, curved wood from the bargain bin at Home Depot. I nailed four legs sawed from old cedar posts that were just lying around unused. This was my “energy vent” for today.
I am working on a Japanese garden feel in this bed. This bed has a crepe myrtle and euphorbia and some other things that work with a Japanese garden theme.
This is the upward view from my new bench. I love this spot in the garden.
I potted up a pink geranium that was on the clearance rack at Wal-Mart.
This pale pink flower is just starting to bloom. I have masses of it. It’s an oldie, beginning as a gift from the garden of one of my great aunts who died years ago. The only problem is that I don’t know what it is. Someone said it was phlox, but I have never seen any phlox like this. The blooms are pale pink. It’s very hardy.
On a final, sad gardening note, one of my favorite gardeners and herbalists died last evening. The very talented illustrator, Tasha Tudor. She was 92, and as far as I know was still tending her beautiful garden in her beautiful long dresses, barefoot, right up until the very last. I wish I could have met her in person.
Here’s a link to the obituary and a memory book, a place to make a donation to the Tasha Tudor museum, and a photo gallery.
The kittens are about 7 weeks old now. They were born May 8th/9th. Up until the last few days, their eyes were a deep blue color, but now they are starting to change.
Isn’t this gray kitty just beautiful! My sons seem to like this kitten the best. They call him Socks or Prince. Yesterday, when I took this picture, this kitten was lying on his back, totally stretched out with his front legs stretched out above his head and back legs laying stretched out just the same. He let me pick him up and hold him like this — like a floppy rag doll, and just talk to him and pet him. He’s so sweet!
Isn’t he adorable? And those eyes! The little kitten called Oreo (obviously because of the black on white) still looks a bit weak around the eyes to me. He (she?) is more timid about eating, but is definitely more playful as far as jumping and attacking.
The white kitty — very fluffy like her mother, is very timid and runs and hides when we come out. She will let you hold her, won’t bite or anything, but her first instinct is to run. I could not get her picture because she went and hid.
I am working on some gardening this morning. More later…
We had a special treat today! I took my second son for his end-of-year testing, which took us very close to North Carolina State University. I checked on line to see if there were any Japanese gardens in Raleigh that we might see and found that the JC Raulston Arboretum at NCSU had a Japanese Garden that was open and free. I knew it would be the perfect treat for us after testing.
The Japanese Garden and Lath House were AMAZING. If you get a chance to go, you should!
I just love this stone lantern. I want a Japanese lantern for my garden so badly. I am on the look-out, but have not found one yet that is just right and the right price (they are expensive), so I’m still looking. I could make one from cement board…
My youngest son was intrigued by the shapes of some of the trees.
I was trying to get a picture of my second son admiring the Japanese crepe myrtle. I did not realize I captured my youngest son saying shhhhhhhhh. He was annoyed with his sister who was talking too loudly for him to “enjoy the plants.”
A picture of me and my only child who inherited my very dark hair.
Princess of the Universe may be a PEST, but they love her and she sort of endears herself to them at times.
I was pleased that my children were so interested in exactly what the plants were. They were surprised to find some plants that we also have at home but just did not realize their Asian origins.
The lath house was gorgeous. Very inspiring and way bigger than I expected once inside.
The shadows thrown from the slats in the lath were really something. The “dance of light and shadows” as my second son would say, was beautiful.
Beautiful bloom.
Three of my sweet children.
This zig-zag wooden bridge is designed to keep out evil spirits.
One last photo in front of the very beautiful pond full of very large goldfish.
Next, it was on to get some lunch and get home.
SCHOOL LESSONS
Yesterday we started something that I plan to do daily through the summer. It is something we might have teatime with on certain days. It is short and sweet and is intended to accomplish a multitude of tasks. It is to:
help my youngest son gain confidence in reading aloud and improving his handwriting.
help my second son (severe dyslexia) with his spelling.
give my daughter an outlet for her very creative side
We sit down with a picture book, so far just using a book full of beautiful pictures of Japanese gardens, or go for a nature walk for inspiration. We then each write a Haiku poem to be glued into our “Japanese journals.”
We are not writing directly into the journal because we want it to have the feel of a scrap book and we want it to be a very pretty finished product. We are also gluing in any ink paintings we feel inclinded to put in.
Here are our poems from yesterday. I’ll let you wonder who did what!
~~
The great tempest sea
roars with glee at being free,
shockingly lovely.
~~
The bright pink flower
reminds me of fantasy.
That’s what makes me glad.
~~
Sunshine and water
blossoms beautiful flower
this cycles our life.
~~
Ancient stone lantern
stands solemn beneath old trees
soft breeze speaks to me.
I think I mentioned about a week ago, a lovely old frame that I found at the thrift store. I paid around $2.49 for it. I knew it would be wonderful painted. And paint it I did.
Then I put some special things in it that I’ve been wanting to display for a long time.
My grandmother – Jewel, my mother’s mother, who died on Thanksgiving Day last year at 90 years old. I miss her so. This photo of her was torn and shedding its finish. I have been working to refinish it on my computer. It’s getting better, but still has a lot of work to go.
This wonderful old picture is my husband’s mother, Geneva Dare (named after Virginia Dare) and her mother, Verda Margaret. My husband’s mother was born in 1918, my grandmother was born in 1917. My sweet husband was born when his mother was in her 40s.
This old christening gown is the one that Geneva wore as an infant. I had a professional portrait done of my oldest son as a newborn. He was wearing this gown with me holding him. Sweet.
This is a rose that has been in a flower press since after Grandma Jewel’s funeral.
This carnation and bunch of dried flowers were also taken from Grandma’s grave.
These women’s lives are over, but their influence remains. I see my mother-in-law in my husband, and sometimes in my children. I think often of my Grandma and all that she endured and believed. These women were safe influences.
I need to be careful of the influences I leave behind.
Lynn
PS – My sweet on-line friend Sandra invited me to participate in a meme. I would love to, but I got tagged for that one awhile back. Thank you for thinking of me, Sandra!!
I wish I had gotten a video sooner of Fluffy grabbing her kittens and literally pinning them down in a sweet hug while she licked their little faces and ears. I am going to try diligently to get a video of her doing that, but time is fleeting. She’s not doing it quite as frequently. Still, I did get this little clip of her today.
~~
Writing Prompts
It’s amazing what inspiration a child will take from something new to work with. I picked up a stack of composition books on clearance at Wal-Mart. Fifty cents each, brightly colored, with a picture of an old-fashioned candy on the front of each one.
“What are these for?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I said.
“Could I use one?” she asked.
“Yes.”
Moments later she was a police officer doing a serious interview. Me! I was getting interviewed. What did I do, I wonder.
The questions were disturbing.
What do you like better, children or babies?
Do you have a job?
Would you rather be married to Tom Hanks or Daddy.
Hosted by Sweet Annee, today is the day to tour gardens everywhere! On each blog you should find a clickable link to help fund mammograms and early breast cancer detection. My clickable link is in my right sidebar.
Welcome to my garden! June is a time for weeding, more foliage sprouting out everywhere, and bright flowers. Shall we go?
First I want to show you where I start my day out. The goldfish pond. There’s a quick video to show you how clear the pond is this year. It’s small, but so is the yard!
After feeding the fish, it is on to look at some plants that are in bloom…
daylilies…
astilbe…
roses
gardenias.
In fact, the birdbath that sits right under a bough of fragrant gardenia blooms is a favorite of many insects. The wasps land on the inside edge just to get a tiny sip.
My favorite birdbath–above, one of my mosaic creations.
Actually, this ladle found at a thrift store and hung on the gate is a place that little birds like to land and drink. Another favorite thing of mine.
Our Japanese studies have really got me interested in bonsai and all things oriental again. It’s a refreshing change addition to the cottage gardens.
And remember the bed that was so overgrown it was dangerous? Well, it’s been all cleaned up just for the tour, and sort of because even I can only take so much.
The euphorbia – below – was pretty, but who needs 1000 of them? A dozen will do.
One can now see my husband’s beautiful pruning work on the trees. Did I mention that he spent several years in Japan?
My garden is small. You enter through an arbor and exit through an arbor.
I can assure you, though, that a lot can be packed into a tiny space.
Coming out from under this arbor, I noticed a little egg in the mulch.
I wonder. What is the story?
There’s a new plant in the old Victorian-style planter.
Well, that’s about it. Remember to visit the site that funds mammograms. See the pink Click Every Day link in the right side bar. Thank you, Deena, for hosting this sweet garden tour!
I have to show you the newest piece of dollhous furniture we’ve made. The last time I was at Goodwill, I found a wooden box with a lid that closed with hinges, only the hinges were broken. For 99 cents, I knew it would make a perfect bed.
With a hot glue gun and a collection of buttons, there’s a nice rail to go around the mattress. The mattress, by the way, was stitched up on the old Singer from scraps from a thrifted bedspread.
The headboard is a square coaster from the thrift store. Pretty! And I think the dolls like their new bed.
I do think they need some new pillows though. Who do you think will be making pillows tomorrow?
I am the mother of four delightful children: a 23-year-old son, a 20-year-old son, a 17-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly 13-year-old daughter. I share an apartment home with my 17-year-old son and 13-year-old daughter. My little home on the internet is called Rose Cottage because of my love for gardening, roses, and all things romantic and Victorian. Welcome.
I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I do medical transcription from home. My hobbies include making sweet little dolls from clay who are named and have their own stories to tell. I also make old-fashioned brooches. These are for sale in my Etsy shop.
For 13 years continuously, I homeschooled some or all of our four children, but the time came that our homeschool had to be closed. It was the end of a beautiful chapter in my life. I will always be a strong supporter of homeschooling and I will continue to review books and maintain my homeschool website, The Healthy Homeschool.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
William Henry Channing
1810-1884
What You Do
Sow a thought, reap an action.
Sow an action, reap a habit.
Sow a habit, reap a character.
Sow a character, reap a destiny.
for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
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