Valentines Day is the best.

 It’s all about love and the color red.

Any day that involves the giving of chocolate can’t be anything but great. 

 Last but not least, there are flowers~ especially roses.

  Need I say more? 

~ If I had a single flower for every time I think about you,I could walk forever in my garden. ~Claudia Ghandi

 Visit Work of the Poet for Ruby Tuesday 

he loves me not.

Have you ever played this game? 

It is said to be of French origin and go back to Victorian times.  Women would pick the petals off a daisy to find out if their suitor really cared for them or not. 

The words said pulling off the last petal were the words to believe. 

I think it’s accuracy is obviously questionable since you could just keep picking daisies and pulling out their petals until you get the answer you want.  Then all you have left is a bunch of bald daisies AND the uncertainty of love. Because really… what does a flower know about about these things? 

 I say it’s a waste of  perfectly good daisies.  Take them home and put them in a vase and smile because he probably does love you. 

~All summer she scattered the daisy leaves; They only mocked her as they fell. She said: “The daisy but deceives; ‘He loves me not,’ ‘he loves me will,’ One story no two daisies tell.” Ah foolish heart, which waits and grieves Under the daisy’s mocking spell.~- Helen Hunt Jackson (Helen Hunt) ~  The Sign of the Daisy

Visit Lisa’s chaos for more macros
 

of spring and summer,

warm weather and crystal clear days,

the scent of flowers in the air. 

It will arrive…

…eventually.

I hope.

~In my garden there is a large place for sentiment.  My garden of flowers
is also my garden of thoughts and dreams.  The thoughts grow as freely
as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful.
-   Abram L. Urban

 I would like to tell you about a blog named Foxgloves fabric and folly  you should visit.  She has a great post about covering terracotta pots with moss.  Click here to visit Heidi there and see these great pots she made and how to do it yourself. 

Visit Beverly at How Sweet the Sound to enjoy Pink Saturday

Visit Scenic Sunday too and see all the beautiful scenery around the world.

 One day, a few years back, while my son, Cam and my nephew, Michael were painting our neighbor’s house, this little guy appeared and followed Michael everywhere.  After several days of this, Mike brought him home since this cute little guy had chosen him. 

 To his disbelief his parents were good with it even though they never thought they liked cats and he would be leaving for college the following month.

  Now he~ Scout~ is a king in the house along with their golden retriever, Georgia who is the queen. 

It’s true.  My brother and his wife no longer hold these positions in thier own household. 

~”Until one has loved an animal,  a part of one’s soul remains unawakened.” ~ Anatole France

Click here to see other creatures of the Earth.

alias Purple Shamrock and in botanical terms… Oxalis Triangularis. 

This plant is growing in a window that I happened to pass by today.  When I looked into the room the plant appeared bright red.  I couldn’t resist taking a closer look. 

I was amazed not only at the plants beauty and unusual color but also at the sunshine beaming though the window. If I squinted and tilted my head it looked like a sunny spring day outside. 

I was wrong. 

 The leaves of the shamrock appear dark purple but on the underside, with the sun shining through, they were red.  So pretty and bright.

As I admired it glowing on the window sill I thought it would be so nice if there were flowers blooming on it too, and to my surprise there were.  

The flowers are the lightest shade of purple, delicate and so welcome to my cold weather weary eyes. 

  These plants grow well indoors in containers in bright light and cool temperatures.  They like their soil moist but not wet. Oxalis are also hardy in zones six through ten. They like light shade and well drained soil.

  So there you have it, The Love Plant or The Shamrock, either way a great pick me up to admire on a cold wintry day.  

~Plants give us oxygen for the lungs and for the soul.  ~Linda Solegato

Visit Tootsie Time for Fertilizer Friday and see what is blooming for others.

This metal flamingo was on the screen door of a little “summer house” in my husband’s back yard, growing up.  It was there as long as I remember and we started dating at 15.  I would say that it qualifies for vintage.  The house was really a screened in porch attached to the garage where they could enjoy being outside on hot days bug free.  It was also a place to have sleepovers when they were young, mosquito free.  We always had family parties and cook outs there in the summer time.    I have always liked it and now it is on our fence.  I should take it out of the weather but I really like it in my garden.

~Trees are your best antiques~ Alexander Smith

 Visit colorado lady’s Vintage Thingie Thursday! 

When I think about it, it was in my mother in law’s yard, where I realized my love for gardening.  Seeing how happy she was there and the beauty that she created in her little corner of the world was inspiring and I admired her gift of making her home welcoming and warm.   If I were to name flowers that bring me back there, the first that pops into my mind is the Clematis. 

 Every June her trellis was loaded with purple flowers that enveloped the porch.  I always admired their beauty and she would beam about them. I remember her telling me they liked their “feet” cool and their “heads” in the sun.  Which translated means, keep their roots in shade but make sure they get enough sun.  Good advice ~ I always put them in sunny spots but I keep pachysandra or hostas  planted at their base so those roots keep cool.

 When we sold her house, I took her clematis that she had been so proud of and brought it to my house.  I enjoyed it there for years to spite kids and dogs.  Every year when that vine would bloom I would think of her and how pretty that purple waterfall on the side of her porch was.   But then one day which I will never forget, my luck ran out in the clematis department. 

I was standing on my deck while my son and his friends played in the yard throwing the ball for our dog. Keep in mind that she was obscessed with tennis balls.  Relentless chasing of them was her most favorite thing to do in life.  As one of the bos threw the ball, like lightening, she quickly retrieved it right underneath my full blooming clematis.  Needless to say, her reverse wasn’t quite as graceful as her dive in and she ripped the entire thing out of the ground because she got herself tangled in it. 

 I could only watch in horror as she struggled free dragging the vine and it’s flowers in her wake. She never dropped the ball and emerged triumphantly.  My husband stood there watching me, thinking he would have to stop me from strangling her.  All I could do was cry.  Like a crazy person I just started crying.

 But then I remembered one of the other pieces of gardening advice Mom had given me….” You can always grow grass and flowers but not children or dogs”.  I repeated this over and over until I decided she was right.  I gathered the pieces but it was beyond hope.  The truth is, she was right, I do miss my dog, Scooter, brat that she was, and I would gladly give a hundred clematis to see her again, but I also miss that vine. 

 A lot.

 “The love of gardening is a seed once sown that never dies.” — Gertrude Jekyll

Visit  A Southern Daydreamer for Outdoor WednesdayVisit ABC Wednesday to see other “C” photos.  

     While taking a ride out in the country one afternoon, we found this wonderful Red Barn.  

 The paint was tired and peeling but the color more than made up for it.  

 I especially liked the red glass lightening rod on top.

Gardening is about enjoying the smell of things growing in the soil, getting dirty without feeling guilty, and generally taking the time to soak up a little peace and serenity.  ~Lindley Karstens

 Visit Work of The Poet for more Ruby Tuesday

And Visit That’s My World for a peek around the world.

  Just play along.What does this look like.  First thing that comes to your mind?

Laying under a group of huge snowy evergreen trees looking up to the sky, is that what you see?  Or is it a peek between a few evergreen branches?  

How about this one? 

  Silver artificial Christmas tree?  

Does this one below put a wintery scene with a bird flying away from a tall evergreen into your head?

That’s what I see when I look at these ice paintings Jack Frost put on my window.

What do you see?

Aren’t they beautiful? 

 Mother nature never ceases to amaze me.

 ~”There are two ways to live: you can live as if nothing is a miracle; you can live as if everything is a miracle.” ~ Albert Einstein

Looking out my window this morning I was amazed by the scenery.  It was as if beautiful landscaping was done in my yard, all in white.

  Turns out Jack, Jack Frost that is, was doing his handiwork on my window.  His intricate art is to be held in awe.  Each sprig of frost looks as if it grew like a fern from the ground. 

 They are paintings in ice that really look like a scenic winter wonderland. 

Or you could say they look sharp, edgy and jagged. 

 Either way it sure beats the frigid scene that waits behind them.

  If it has to be cold, reallllly cold,  I would just as soon see this wonderful artistry when I look to the window. 

 It warms my heart.  Thanks Jack!

  ~The color of springtime is in the flowers, the color of winter is in the imagination.  ~Ward Elliot