A much-needed mood-lifter from commentor SkyBluePink:
Finally weeded and mulched the iris bed at the entrance to my drive a couple years ago. They repaid me in flower.
Two of my favorite flowers- Japanese iris and spiderwort.
Very fortunate to have a native lady slipper bed on the property.
Hydrangeas! Grown from cuttings – in memory of a now deceased friend.
Mixed bed of lenten rose, bluebells and daffodils.
Why yes, I am a flower addict- how can you tell?
***********
What’s going on in your gardens (planning / memories / indoor), this week?
OzarkHillbilly
Lovely flower beds SkyBluePink. Thank you.
Baud
What @OzarkHillbilly:  said.
MagdaInBlack
I love these, especially the first one. I’m always a sucker for iris. Thank you.
eclare
Beautiful!
raven
I’ll do “Home and Garden”. We’re almost finished with the renovation and the counter made from 2 eight foot slabs of cherry look great! Inevitably some of my brilliant “money-saving” purchases have backfired. I bought a used stackable washer dryer and the people let me leave it at their house for two months before I picked it up. It sat another six weeks before we hooked it up and it is terrible! Both the washer and dryer howl and clank so I gave up and ordered a new unit. The other disaster is the clawfoot tub. We were excited that the guy let us have it for $500 because it had the shower curtain and faucet setup. He let us leave it on his porch for three months while he renovated his own bathroom. Well, we didn’t look closely and it was just a hand shower and it turns out the faucet isn’t working. I could fix the faucet but getting a shower curtain rig that is compatible would be very difficult. That’s over $2k in unexpected costs but we’re so far over budget the hell with it! Oh, and in talking to the tub guy I told him about our new tenant who is coming from LA and wants the house “a few months a year” while paying year-round and it turns our he used to use the tub guys air bnb!!! Small town.
raven
Nice flowers!
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone???
rikyrah
The flowers are beautiful??
raven
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@raven:
?
eclare
@raven: That counter is gorgeous!
raven
@eclare: Yea, between the creativity and craftsmanship of the guys and my bride’s input we’ve got a sweet little “bungalow”!
JPL
@raven: the counter is beautiful. It’s all coming together.
JPL
The pictures of the flowers are beautiful and reminds me of warmer days. Thank you.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@raven: That counter is beautiful
OzarkHillbilly
I think I went a little overboard on my flower seed orders the last couple months.
In 2 separate orders from Baker Creek I got,
Oxeye False Sunflower
Flutterby Weed
Parker’s Variety and Polish Pastels Yarrow
Alaska Red Nasturtium (to go with my Yeti from last year)
Arcado Pink Hyssop
Jekyll Mix Love-in-a-Mist
Blue Monday Salvia
Yellow Coneflower (Paradoxa Echinacea)
Lemon BeeBalm
Wild Thyme
Globe Gilia
Double Sunset and Lollipop Mix Gaillardia
Evening Sun and Henry Wilde Sunflowers
Bright Lights, Fizzy Rose Picotee, and Sea Shell Cosmos
Cherokee Sunset Rudbeckia
Scabiosa, Macarenia, Persian Carpet, and Candy Cane Zinnias
That’s ummm…. 24 different types.
Oh yeah, Pinto Mix Coleus too,
I’m going to get started starting them this week, or maybe next. Then I have to build another tray table on the seed starter stand. Then to build some cold frames on the south side of the garage. Then I need to…
This shoulder surgery sure screwed up my winter garden construction schedule.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Looking good.
@raven: If you make it too nice you guys just might want to keep it for yourselves and rent out your current home.
SkyBluePink
Saw the first crocus yesterday. Today snow! But the star magnolias are laden with blooms so something to look forward to soon.
debbie
Just lovely to see these, especially as the snow bears down on us.
@MagdaInBlack:
Irises are one of my favorites, too. There are a couple of patches of orange and dusty rose irises in my neighborhood, along with purple, yellow, and white, and seeing them is one of the real highlights of spring.
debbie
@raven:
That tub might make a lovely planter. Just sayin’…
ETA: That is a nice counter!
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Yea, the insulation dude said “man, your power bills will plummet”! Of course, we don’t live there!!!
raven
@debbie: Nope, it’s a done deal. There is no way we go back and put in a walk-in. We have one in our house that was our only shower for 20 years.
Immanentize
@SkyBluePink: Thank you for the flowers, we barely got into double digits yesterday and maybe 20 as a high today? Your timing was perfect, I needed them.
SkyBluePink
@OzarkHillbilly:
Looking forward to pics of your flowers! I envy your ambition. My goal is to tend what I have. Until the next plant sale comes along…
@OzarkHillbilly:
Immanentize
@eclare: @raven:Wow, what a cool idea for a counter/pass through. Very good looking — both modern and rustic somehow. You and your bride have very good eyes for these things.
Congrats on the (budget busted) near completion.
Ok, that was for Raven…. Sorry.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly:
Local directions:
“Go down the next road in the Holler, drive until you come to flowers, then your next left oughta get you there.”
OzarkHillbilly
@SkyBluePink: My eyes are bigger than my yard.
@Immanentize: Right now they say, “Go down Hwy ZZ till you get to that assholes drive and leave your garbage there.”
Lapassionara
@raven: Nice counter!
Gin & Tonic
First temp reading below zero this year. Negative 1, but still. Don’t think we went below zero last winter. I feel for all the folks who went north to ski for the 3-day weekend – it’s going to be mighty chilly up in the mountains.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I was in upstate NY for the last few days +- woke up to -8 yesterday and it didn’t get above 9 before I left.
satby
@SkyBluePink: Beautiful pictures! Thanks, just the thing for a freezing cold winter morning to remind us that this weather will pass.
raven
@Immanentize: I have had ZERO input aside from the two boondogles!
raven
@Gin & Tonic: You yankees would die laughing at the local storm coverage!
Immanentize
@raven: Ha!
Then i will say you did an excellent job and have a great sense of place. Congrats
raven
@Immanentize: We’ve reached the point where I have to start going over there and doing stuff!!
Immanentize
@raven: Wish I lived near by, I’d come help. And it’s warmer there.
Spanky
@SkyBluePink:
That ain’t natural.
satby
@debbie: the new Iris-tulip bed I put in is all planted with orange/copper/rust/brown varieties of both. Can’t wait to see it bloom.
Denali
@SkyBluePink,
I envy your green thumb. My successes are limited to iris and primroses. The deer haven’t touched them….yet.
oldgold
SkyBluePink,
Your beautiful photos are just what the Dr. ordered on this sub-zero windy Sunday morning in upper Midwest.
You might want to keep close tabs on the Spiderwort. My experience is that it makes Creeping Charlie look like a rule following pusillanimous pansy.
There go two miscreants
@raven: The counter looks great, and the kitchen overall is also very nice — I especially like the big window area on the sink side. One of my neighbors did a similar counter/passthru setup — no live edge however — and it is a very useful workspace.
laura
Wow Raven- love the live edge!
I spent many hours over the last 2 weeks weeding and cutting back and tidying up. After quarantining, I ran out and got some salads, herbs and winter veg planted, spruced up the porch with some shirley poppies and the Daphne is just starting to bloom. Can’t wait for that scent.
Because the Rona is tearing through town we’re not hosting a breakfast party, so we’ll have to start seriously picking oranges and having them to the food bank for the foreseeable future.
Kristine
@raven: I do like that counter! My house is on the rustic side and that would fit in so well with my kitchen update plans.
Kristine
Thank you for the lovely photos, SkyBluePink. They make me long for spring even more.
Sunny and calm 20’s here in NE Illinois. Possible snow showers tonight, but nothing after that for the next week. I have indoor flowers–African violets, gerbera daisies, and one of the mini roses–to brighten the scene. They’ll have to do for now.
Jeffery
Tomato seeds for this summer went into pots yesterday. They are in a south facing window.
Got an email the seeds I ordered are on their way. Will try winter sowing in plastic bottles outside. No need to harden the plants that grow.
debbie
@satby:
Pictures demanded!
jnfr
Definitely no flowers outside at this time of year. At least my (indoor) amaryllis is finally starting to bloom. I potted the bulb up on Nov. 12.
https://twitter.com/jnfr/status/1482447363285389316
susanna
@raven: Very good looking, Raven. Every kitchen would do well to have some warm wood for morning coffee and whatnot.
raven
@Kristine: This is a 100 year old mill house that was probably a duplex with two 45 sq ft rooms! Now it’s an 843sq ft cozy!
WaterGirl
Amazed at how happy just seeing pictures of flowers makes me this morning. Tired of zero degrees.
waratah
@SkyBluePink: thank you for sharing your beautiful garden.
frosty
No kidding! All of my projects have gone like that!
We’ve got a clawfoot tub with the shower curtain surround, I bought a new faucet for it – needed something with 4″ on center and a connection for the riser to the shower head. IIRC it wasn’t hard to find and I got it at a plumbing supply shop. The riser and shower connection came with the house so I can’t speak to how hard it would be to find.
When we renovated the bathroom I wanted to get rid of the tub and get an easier shower to get in and out of but because of the location of the windows and door there was no way to fit it in.
After it was done I looked at the room and realized we could have moved the door to a different location in the long hallway and it would have worked. Oh well.
OK, garden. I put my 4×4 square foot veggie gardens to bed for the winter and covered them up with leftover shingles to keep the weeds down. Covered the mulched parts of the house plantings hoping the weeds don’t poke through until late spring. Next year I’m going to try to get to more of the landscaping, but nothing to show this year.