Tag Archives: plants

Springtime yard !!

I love spring time. I love all the pretty flowers, the trees coming back to life and the promise of a lovely new season.

I took a lot of pictures this past couple of weeks and thought I would share them with you today !!!

the top one is our stunning whisteria. It grows more each year and we love it !!! It is an out growth of a now gone really old whisteria bush/ tree that was here when we moved  here, but eventually died off over the last few years. No idea how old it is, but we are lucky to have this big off shoot in the place the old was was located, a baby one started, several in fact. My husband braided them together and they are growing into a lovely small tree/ bush like the parent was. I will show it later in the post.

This rose was a huge rose, but over the heat of a bad summer the bush almost died , this is when we rented out the house to our kids. I was not there to baby it and it did come back, but as a much smaller bush. By that I mean, smaller leaves and smaller flowers. Still the same stunning color I fell in love with, but so small now !!

 

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this iris bed was planted well before we bought the house back in 2002.  . We decided it is time, after they bloom, so break it up and plant a few more things, as it got a bit overgrown and we noticed a section in the center never came back. IMG_0091

the mocking birds have been extremely active this year and I have captured some amazing pictures of them this week !!

 

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here is a bigger shot of the whisteria on the fence

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our Oklahoma red bud in full bloom a couple of weeks ago.

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shots of the yard from the top of our new 17 foot ladder. I had my hubby take them as you will get me up on that tall ladder !!!

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I love how he got the roof and the front yard and our picket. You can see I still have a couple of repaired panels to paint on the inside !! DSCN5474 DSCN5473

My husbands old truck, Mater, the kids named it that as it  used to be rusty, sits in what we call the back lot until he can get the time to do the repair he needs. The kids swing set is next to him but needs some major shoring up. The back lot is very overgrown and needs a mow badly !!

the side of the yard, between the picket and six foot, is stuff we need to get rid of, and some stuff we are going to do something with, branches, old wood, and some neat old chain link gates and a metal bench there are plans to use. We have a lot to do in t his yard. Note the three spindles as you walk into the back lot. Got them free, not sure what we are going to do with them at his point !! DSCN5469

a shot of the iris bed we are goign to thin out.  There are more iris under the big wisteria vine on the fence, they are yellow and do not bloom much so we want to move them to a better location as well. This shot was taken before they started to bloom a few weeks ago !!

 

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some of our potted plants. Many are gifts that I have had a few years, some are new plants we just potted !!

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I took this Easter weekend. Two of our grandaughters  were checking out the whisteria and I got  some cute shots of them before they caught me and started posing !!

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our flowerbed in front of the back lot !!This was taken when we planted it a couple of weeks ago. I will take an update this week, they have all grown already !!

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Well, time to get moving !!

I just wanted to s hare some of my spring pictures here !!

Thanks so much for stopping by !!

Stephie

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Back porch clean up.

Our back porch was a mess, so bad I forgot to even take pictures, but this was from a few weeks ago and you can see the mess we had going on !! IMG_0544

My husband started by extending the flagstone extension to the patio and putting the grill on the other sides improving our sight lines from the house !! Instead of seeing a big black cover on the grill, now I can see the yard from the family room

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We had a big table on the porch that had four old blue folding chairs around it, we put them away and made two small seating areas instead !! IT was nice to get it all cleaned up and pretty again !!

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table spool from work , benches from a yard sale cheap !!

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DSCN8190cute wire teapot and cups all around the porch !

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a coffee pot too !!

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it is a pleasure to spend time on our back porch now, we still want to get some nicer furniture for it, but for now, it is nice and neat and clean !!

Thanks for stopping by !!

Stephie

 

Spring is here, and so is work !!!

Our wonderful yard is finally blooming and growing and I am thrilled, but it means the work is growing too !!

Here are some shots I took around the back  yard today !!

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Our old compost bin, we have not used it for a while and now an iris has made its home in it !! We will have to transplant it to another place !!!

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a tipsy shot, but I wanted to show the pretty tree behind and to the side of of  it, and the the baby tree in the corner, it grew wild years ago and we just trimmed it up, but so far, just letting it grow !!

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standing in that corner looking out

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some more shots from what we call the back lot, called that because when we bought the house 12 years ago, this part of the property was hidden by a then six foot privicy fence. My husband took it apart and made it a picket and took out the gate. We have plans for that back lot, but not sure exactly what at this point !! We have discussed many options over the years, but a garden for sure, and someday maybe a pool, but for now, a wooden play set for the grand kids our daughter gave us when they bought thier house, they did not want it for hte new house !! We have that cute little play house too, but the swing set with the little play house will be wonderful !!

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You can see our well behind the house, have not decided after 12 years how to use it to our advantge, lol. Need to hook a pump to it for watering the yards… some day !!!!

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My husband built that neat corner bench from wood he ripped down, just to do it, maybe seven years ago. He hates it and wants to take it apart and start over. I want him to repair it and paint it white, we will see who gets their way, lol !!! I love it, we have to secure it to the shed, it can flop over if we have bad winds, but so far in that postiion it has been okay !!

 

 

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Yes I did, I bought flamingos, only ten bucks for two, our youngest son told me I paid ten dollars too much for them, lol !! I had some vintage ones, but they are gone now , I love them

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We have to repot a special plant. When our infant grandson passed away my husbands work gave us this plant, that was around eight years ago. We have put him in bigger pots several times and now it is time again. He is the Russell plant, named for our precious  little Grandson who was born sick and only was with us nine months, so time for Russell to get a bigger pot  !!

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more babies for me and my friend Laurie to plant or pot tomorrow, Some are hers but most are mine, money well spent to make our yard look festive and to have fresh herbs and veggies !! We picked out some seeds today too, fun times shopping !!

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blueberry bushes !!!!

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after loading it all in the trunk of my fairly new Passet, I looked at Laurie and said, you do realize I have a big, nice truck sitting at home we could have taken, we both just laughed !!! And yes, I loaded all those bags of soil in the trunk and she and I loaded them all on the bottom of the cart !! On sale for 2 bucks a bag, herbs and veggies on sale for two bucks each as well !! Wished there was more selection, pretty awful, NO pony packs, wanted sweet alysim and snapdragons, and petunias, only had them in the singles, so I picked up some dianthus, some  of these are spelled wrong and I am fullly aware, lol, but anyway, picked up some lavender and dianthus for the boy and girl flower bed.

So, very exciting, I am off to work in the yards, my hubby is going to mow as he lost the overtime this week to seniority, but we need to get stuff done, so that is fine !! We want our yards pretty and now we have some time to work on them after all !!

Well, off to work, will share pictures when I am done, the rest Laurie and I will do tomorrow !!

forgot to share our pretty iris blooms , our honeysuckle and a few last shots of the yard, you can see my late moms car hidden behind the barn, I have to either let it go or fix it soon. but for now it is on gravel behind the barn safe and sound !!

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thanks for stopping by, off to plant Russell in a bigger pot !!!

Stephie

Our cute house

I have been blogging a bit about our house on my beading page and figured since it will be an ongoing thing I should dedicate a blog just to our house. It will be fun to post pictures of before and after as we complete repairs and projects and I can share ideas and get ideas while we are at it !!

Here is our cute vintage cottage, this was taken last year, ignore the trash, I did not see that when I took it and did not retake after it was picked up !!

This house is 90 years old and needs a lot of work on the exterior , mainly the picket, that is falling down and paint on the outside and a new porch floor. It is a solid , very good house, but is ready for a lot of work as you can see in the pictures. We will be adding a lot more purple to the accents on the house, the wheels, some of rails, the pretty molding accrosss the front and the little medalian squards where the big wood brackets are along with the brackets

 

 

 

 

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We plan to paint that yellow shed purple and have a local artist do some pretty sunflowers facing the alley and hanging plants facing the house so when we look out we do not just see a shed, but pretty baskets of hanging plants , but ones we do not have to take care of.

I saw one painted at a mall, so this is what I am talking about , something like this !!!!

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Here is our beautiful back yard, unfortunately after a year of a big dog living in that yard the past year while our daughter and her family rented the house, the yard needs some care, but this is it last year about this time ,

In this first back yard picture, the middle rose appears to be lost now. It seems completely dead. The two on either side appear to have survived, but that lovely orange one is gone. I am so sad. This winter and last summer were brutal and the kids did the best they could, but they both work full time. I am here during the day to hand water and being gone two years took a toll on the yards. We are back to stay and will bring them back to thier glory again !! I will also be adding yard art again, my cowboy is still here, but I have a boy and girl that go in this garden I will be putting back in the next week !! I am so excited to get started on the yards again !!!

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the gate is gone to the back part of the yard, you can see where there is a board over it, but it is completely gone now, opening the two yards to each other !! Not sure what the other junk is, but it is just fence now and an opening where the gate used to be !! THe iris are still there and looking good, should be getting buds in the next few weeks and blooming next month sometime. IMG_8934

back porch, but no grill, that moved with our daughter and her family to thier new home, a house we bought while they were living here , we just traded houses two weeks ago and we are both so excited !! They are going to buy the other house from us soon, and we are back in the home we love and missed !!! IMG_8933

My beloved tree in the center of the back yard, I love this tree so much, it is just beautiful. A big old pecan !!! IMG_8936

Here are  our surviving roses from last year, some from the front yard, some from the back,  all taken last year, so I cannot wait for this year !!!

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the ones we lost , so sad !!!!

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So, we are so excited to be home, and are ready to get out there and plant more roses and herbs and flowers both in pots, and in flower beds.

Over time I will share past pictures of the back yard from years ago and show as we get it fixed up along with the hosue projects.

Thanks so much for stopping by, it will be fun to share this journey with you !!

Stephie