Tulip Festival 2021

I've lived in Bellingham since 1987, but this year was the first time I officially went to the tulip festival in Skagit Valley. The fest was cancelled completely last year due to the pandemic. I went with my friend Marisa to RoozenGaarde and it was totally worth it. We stuck to the display gardens and didn't go out into the fields, and the gardens were amazing. Here are some pictures.

The Garden - July 2019

Bachelor Buttons

The flower garden continues to bring new things and the return of my favorites. The Bachelor Button seeds were actually planted last summer and didn't do anything, and then came in like crazy this spring along with the Larkspur. The California Poppies re-seeded themselves and came back in beautifully as well. The Dianthus came in stronger this year, and there are actually 4 different varities/colors in one pot for a extended burst of color. The thing I am most excited about is my first attempt at Gladiolus and they bloomed with one of my favorite colors, the beautiful coral red, and a lavendar/blue one is set to open soon too. As I type this there is a green Hummingbird feeding on the red Crocosmia on the side of my front porch, so much color happening right now!

Dianthus

Penstemon

Gladiolus

Spring Flowers May 2019

Russell Hybrid Lupine

 Long time no see (me). This continues to be a crazy year at work, and I have been working 6 days a week for I think almost two months. It has left me little free time and energy to be posting here, but I have been spending as much time as possible with gardening and starting seeds when I can.

I continue to try new things, some I have success with more than others, but I am becoming a big believer in direct sowing some seeds outdoors because I can't always manage to get seedlings strong enough to handle transplanting.

One of the funniest things that happened this spring is that I got a bunch of volunteer Larkspur that came up in the flower bed in back. The plants that I had started from seed indoor last year didn't do that great in 2018, but they re-seeded themselves and came in better, stronger and taller than all of the ones that I planted last year.

The other plant that didn't do anything when I planted seeds last year were the blue Bachelor Buttons, and several of them came up this year. Mind you, both of these are annuals. Go figure!

Clematis

Russell Hybrid Lupine

Begonia

Looking Forward to Spring!

Savage Chickens

Pickles

Pearls Before Swine 

Well, February was a really rough month to say the least. Here in Whatcom County we had overnight (and quite a few day time) temperatures below freezing for the whole entire month. As I right this there is still snow on the ground around my house and in piles around the county, accumulated from several snow storms from over three weeks ago. I joke that it was like having a Michigan winter all in one month. We also had several very strong wind storms, and the cause of most of this cold is air coming down from the arctic via the Fraser River Valley in British Columbia.

My neighbors lost a 50 foot+ evergreen, and my landlords had half of their 20 foot+ lilac bush split in half. I was so excited in January starting to see things show signs of life for spring, and now I'm wondering if any of the spring bloomers are going to survive this brutal cold.  The other fun was catching a cold at the start of the month that caused me to miss a few days work and total sapped my energy for at least two weeks. Like a lot of folks, I am really, really looking forward to spring and it warming up. I just started my first seeds this afternoon, my hope for the future, Cherry Rose Nasturtiums ☺ 

Cherry Rose Nasturtiums from Floret Flower Farm

The Garden

Lupines

So it's obviously been a while since I posted on the blog, I mostly post on Instagram, it's easier from my phone. I have been over the moon with the garden this spring. Some of the things I planted late in 2016, or early in 2017 really came into their own this year.

The Lupines were planted last spring from seed, but I got started too late in the game for them to bloom at all last year, but I was okay with it knowing that the plants were gaining in size and healthy. They did not disappoint me and I was rewarded for my patience.

The Delphiniums are going gang-busters, growing at least a foot taller than they were last year. The mini Rainbow's End climbing roses have been the most spectacular transformation from last year. I got them as small, what I thought were bush roses, and they barely bloomed in 2017. My friend Marisa is who clued me in to the the fact that they were actually climbing roses, so I got the two trellises in the fall and holy cow, they are just covered in blooms this year. My camera doesn't even begin to capture their glory, they are truly stunning in person.

The story on the rhody is that it came from my landlord's son Andy, and we had no idea what color it was going to bloom until it did. Andy has his own lawncare/landscape business, and at the request of a homeowner, removed this older bush from their yard, and he gave it to my landlord's Susan and Lester to plant on the property line on the side of my house. We were all thrilled when it turned out to be these vivid violet blooms. 

I got the Clematis last year from Kent's Garden & Nursery and it really took off, and is going to fill in nicely. Susan and I scattered the poppy seeds around the big evergreen in the back and they are so bright and cheerful. The pink peony I planted last year is blooming right now, and got the Coral Charm peony at Joe's Garden's a month ago and only got one bloom, but I am hoping that it also does better in it's second year.

So there we are, this is pretty much my life now, spending as much time around the flower garden as I can, it's my little oasis, hanging out with the birds, the bees, the flowers and the kitties ♥

Rainbow's End Mini Rose

Foxglove

Rhododendron

Begonia

California Poppies

Clematis

Sarah Berndhart Peony

Coral Charm Peony

Happy Easter 2017

We had a pretty nice day today. It was good for me to have a relaxing day after working hard at home the last week or so, on top of a stressful two weeks at work.

I got two more everbearing strawberries to add to the three I got last summer. They really took a beating this winter, but I'm hoping they rebound.

I also got a Veronica "Georgia Blue" ground cover that I couldn't resist because of the color. I planted it in the corner near one of the rosebushes - we'll see how that works.

I'm so thrilled my Firespray tulips came up successfully - they did not disappoint. I also am really enjoying the Violets that were already here around the house. The colors are all beautiful!

Happy New Year 2017

Kitty Collage

2016 Wrap-Up

December 31st 2016

Boo & Munchkin - January 1st 2017

Catching Up

We had the Around the Corner picnic at Hovander earlier this month and the weather was good. It's been hot lately, but today was cool with crazy wind  - totally blew my plan to keep digging out the new flower bed.

I have Delphiniums and a few roses to plant,  and have more roses and some tulips on order from Zulily. The soil out here is really nice,  but I'm encountering rocks and other stuff that is slowing down the process. Apparently people buried and or burned and buried their garbage in the yard in the good old days. I've found broken glass, chunks of charcoal wood and even a whole brick! So I'm sifting as I go  (Hi Hoe, Hi Hoe).

Here are some pictures from this month.

Yeah. I'm Still Here

So my last post was three months ago, and I just re-read it, and I said something about not posting for a month (at that time) and how I hoped it wouldn't be that long in between again. Obviously I did not meet that goal.

So lots of changes since that last post. I moved out of my brother's old house, where I had lived for almost 18 years. The open house and all of that happened after I left. I'm sure that it sold, but I don't know any of the details. I know that I made a big mistake letting my curiosity get the better of me, and looking at the pictures of the house when it listed. Either my former sister in law, or the horrible real estate agent, made the decision to paint all of the beautiful natural wood cabinets and window trim in the kitchen, that I so loved, and by the way, my brother picked out, WHITE! I wanted to cry and throw up simultaneously when I saw it.

My new home has lots of wood, in fact the entire interior is real wood paneling. "Wood Jerry. Wood". (Channeling a little Seinfeld there). I was able to dig up a few clumps of Day Lilies and my Hydrangea from the house before I left. I am really bumped that I just didn't have the time and energy to dig up the rose bush in the back or the Lilac that I had planted over 10 years ago.

The backyard and some Poor Man's Orchids

 The day lilies transplanted well, and even though I didn't have any expectations for blooms this year, they did, and were beautiful! The hydrangea too. I also was gifted some Crocosmia Lucifer from Jo out of her garden, along with some Astrantia. The Astrantia is blooming right now. I also bought a few more Crocosmia at Kent's across the street and one from Haggen that is blooming right now. I was pretty excited two nights ago, because there was a Humming Bird around the Crocosmia in the evening.


I didn't let the cats out for the entire first month, and they tolerated that a lot better than I thought they might. They have since gone out supervised and done pretty well. I still have things that are not in their final place because I need to figure out some additional shelving in the living room to get stuff up and off the floor. I decided not to give myself some grace time on that, but my goal is to have it together by Christmas because I would like to host the Cookie Party here with the gang if I can swing it.























I still go on Colossal.com all the time, and today there was a post that I highly encourage you to check out if you like Van Gogh. Someone on Reddit that has the user name Melonshade has uploaded digital images of Some of Van Gogh's paintings into Photoshop and then altered them to look like Tilt-Shift photos and they are so cool! Check it out.