OK – I must confess. This lily belongs to my neighbor and is right next to where I park my car in the drive. But, I ask you, how could I not include this stunning creation in my collection?
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Category: Nature
Today’s Beauty – 07/30/2008
This day lily filled me with joy when I saw it at Kelly & Kelly last year. I had to have it. You see why. It’s the most feminine seashell pink. Oh, it does take one’s breath away.
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Today’s Beauty – 07/29/2008
This is a fancy hybrid, I think, of the rudbeckia family. Harald picked it up at one of our many nursery stops this year and it just went in the ground – and it is blooming spectacularly already.
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Today’s Beauty – 07/28/2008
This is another favorite lily. I don’t know the name, but I bought it because of the way it looks and this year is the first year it has done really well.
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Today’s Beauty – 07/26/2008
These globe thistles are a constant joy this time of year, their round orbs blooming in a beautiful purplish-blue.
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Today’s Beauty – 07/25/2008
It is a gray and rainy day here in Minneapolis this morning. What better to lift the mood on such a day that something sunny and cheerful. These are Citronella lillies (another Asiatic) that are ever so sprightly.
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Today’s Beauty – 07/24/2008
It seems as though we are bombarded almost daily with scenes of ugliness, barbarism or brutality – at least if we watch TV at all. The nightly news has almost become too much for me to bear. I’ve been wondering why I am so much happier when I spend time on the north shore. I’m convinced one of the reasons is because I don’t watch any TV when I am there, so my sensitivities get a rest from the otherwise daily onslaught. And I’ve been watching far less TV since I got back from Lutsen the last time. And it has helped tremendously. So, I’ve decided to start a new feature on my blog, at least for a little while, to showcase some of the beauty I am seeing around me each day. I have a ton of pictures from my garden, which has given me enormous pleasure this year. Every day when I turn into our driveway, I smile inside. I’ve decided to share that with the world. So here goes …
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One of the beautiful Asiatic lillies we have have in our front garden bed. It just opened, finally, yesterday, and I must say, she’s gorgeous, wouldn’t you agree????
Good News! (a/k/a “No Roof for you!”)
The first contractor we contacted went over the roof carefully last night and found only minor hail damage – less than 6 spots in the whole roof. They don’t even need to be repaired. He speculated the trees all along the north side of the house broke the force of the hail so the hail didn’t hit as hard and cause as much damage as it otherwise could have. Which is very good news because I didn’t really want to have to replace the roof. Plus, he said our roof is in good condition and we’ve probably got another 5 years before it needs to be replaced.
We spent the rest of the evening cleaning gutters from the accumulated gunk that was already there (how did they get so dirty when they were so clean at the end of fall?) plus the blow down from the storm. It was a wet, stinky, dirty job that took all night. But the gutters were all emptied and washed down and are perfectly clean this morning, just in time for the next round of storms they think will arrive today and/or tomorrow.
Let’s just pray we don’t get any more hail.
This weekend
I haven’t had the heart to write about it, but a hail storm passed over our house on Saturday and virtually destroyed our gardens. I know they are only plants, and we are lucky that no one was hurt and the house wasn’t more damaged (no broken windows, thank goodness), but still – it was enough to bring tears to our eyes when we walked out into the yard after it was over. H’s folks were over and we were just sitting down to dinner when it began. The hail came in three big waves, the second of which dropped golf ball-sized hail. The entire yard was covered in ice. The other two waves dropped large green pea sized hail. The hostas are just shredded. I know they will look like hell this year, but should be fine next year. Anyway, I called State Farm and started two claims this morning, one for my car, and one for the roof. I’ve been trying to find reputable roofing contractors this afternoon to come take a look and tell us whether we have damage requiring repair.
Tonight we have to spend the evening cleaning up the yard. Our large maples lost at least 1/2 their leaves. Some of the trees even have bare tops – they’ve been completely stripped of foliage. It will all be OK in the end, I just wish we didn’t have to deal with this.
Seed Savers
Two weekends ago we paid a visit to Seed Savers in Decorah, Iowa to purchase some transplants that we couldn’t get shipped to us. It was a lovely trip through rural America and I thought I would share just two photos from that day.
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This is the lovely, and functional, barn at Heritage Farm, the site of the great work that Seed Savers does.
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And this is one of the ancient White Park cattle which originally came from the British Isles. She had just given birth and the little calf was right out of camera shot and that’s why she’s looking at me so seriously. Isn’t she just beautiful?
