2016 – A Year of Growing Positiveness

I entered 2016 with lots of hope after the rollercoaster emotional ride of 2015. The selling of one home and the buying and moving into a new, smaller home left me drained and I wanted 2016 to be the exciting new chapters of a new book in my life.

Renovations in the new house continued with a custom-designed and built kitchen and a choice of unusual colors. I felt a driving need to surround myself with color. However, the work on the house continued to drain most of my energy even when I wasn’t doing the physical work. I didn’t have anything left to put much effort into writing, photography, or drawing. I felt the floundering of 2015 was ongoing. Where was I going in my art career?

But there was also a part of me that understood I had to patient because sometimes “… hope would be hope for the wrong thing.” I felt a change coming. I knew the inspirations and drives would return. 

The photography got a spark when, beginning February 1, a couple of us started a photo-a-day challenge for 100 days. I was unsure if I would keep up with it, but we were having so much fun, we kept going and are still doing it. Making time to take photographs led me into looking at things differently. It also makes me pay attention to the interesting beauty that’s all around me.

Spring came and I caught the gardening spark. Melissa, at Agway, said that plants they have early are OK to plant early, so I filled the back of my car with pansies, violas, English daisies, and Johnny jump-ups. I filled flower boxes and lined the back porch railing. Then as the weather warmed, I cleaned out the front gardens. I wasn’t sure of all the plants there, but I wanted more and subsequent trips to Agway had me filling those gardens and making more garden areas. 

The garage was the next big project and that led to creating more gardens as I strived to “Sasha-fy” my house. I bought lilies from The Lily Lady in Sutton and created a lily garden. The drought almost put an end to the outside garden projects, but a “water angel” offered to fill my rain barrels. She also gave me more lilies and I extended the lily garden. With her help, I continued to water the plants throughout the summer. 

In the meantime, I was reading books by Brene Brown and one by Doreen Virtue. Brown writes a lot about the same issues I like to talk about (and she’s done years of research). I wanted to “change how I think by changing what I think about.” I am highly bothered by commercialism and mistruths, false advertising, and all the depressing news we are bombarded with on a daily basis. Even though I don’t listen to the news or read about it, it still seeps in. And with the ugliest presidential campaigning ever, I had to do something for my own sanity. 

I began to redo the affirmation cards I made years ago using colored index card (still all about color). I post these around the house to provide constant positive messaging. I read some of them daily, often changing them around, and still occasionally making new ones. This has made a huge change in my demeanor.

Late summer had a new farmer’s porch built on the front of the house and the end of August into September had me driving to Wichita, Kansas, for my oldest grandson’s wedding. That turned into quite the 16-day adventure! The funny thing is I whined and complained throughout the whole trip, but once I got home, I realized how amazing it really was and how brave I was. I would do it again in a heartbeat! That realization and the commitment to experience more positiveness in life is transferring to the current book and I’m reliving the adventure as I write the story and edit the photos. 

I was inspired to get a Fitbit to motivate me into exercise. I am not so good at motivating myself and this is getting me up out of the chair and moving. I also joined Coach.me in which I developed a list of daily goals. I am actually doing more every day. I’m back to meditating, doing Tai Chi, I added leg lifts to my exercise routine, and because I have the online check-off list, I push myself to accomplish everything. I also cut back my caffeine intake to one mug a day (I like coffee too much to totally give it up). 

I wanted to share my new found positivity and desire to live a whole-hearted life and I came up with the idea to do these short “Dear Divine Presence” letters which I post daily on Facebook. One, this is my attempt to post positive messages in the face of all the negativity that bombards us on a daily level. Two, this is my way of giving back for all the wonderful things and messages I receive.

So, 2016 had a renewal in photography, writing, and mental well-being, but what about drawing? The desire to draw never went away for the two years I put the charcoal aside. I thought about it all the time, but never found the ambition to go to the easel. I had a number of unfinished drawings taped to various easel boards.

Blam! October slammed me new inspiration. I don’t even know where it came from (maybe from the Divine Presence prayers or just being more open to The Muse or…). I found myself at the drawing board and not only was I back to drawing, but my style has taken on a new persona, and once more, it’s all about color. The charcoal with just a hint of color pastel has turned into background layers of charcoal and lots of bright pastel color. 

Suddenly, after not doing any drawing since … well, I finished one I’d started in 2014 in January 2016, I did two drawings in a couple of weeks and a third by Christmas. The funny thing is, the four scenes are spring, summer, autumn, and winter, in that order. I hadn’t planned that. Now I can’t wait to see what 2017 has in store!

In closing, I would like to add that one of the most positive experiences of this year is the community support I’ve received. I was so hesitant to move to Hillsborough, but the people in this community have been so nice. People have graciously assisted me in whatever help I’ve needed. I am so grateful. 

Plus my very good friend lives across the brook and we get together once a week for Weekly Wednesday Winefest where we might work on a project (she’s been instrumental in helping me downsize and organize) or we just sit with our glass of wine and enjoy the most amazing conversations. 

It seems in today’s society there is less and less community. People don’t have time any more. We are human beings and humans need connection to others. We can’t save the world, but we can do our part to help each other. This is my goal for the coming year. 

Time to Garden – Part 6

My beautiful hollyhocks, Spring Celebration Crimson and Spring Celebration Pink, which I bought on July 24 are not looking so good. I planted as directed, full sun in a sheltered corner of the house, but they are withering and looking like they are burning up.

This morning I was going to move them to the side of the house, but when I checked them, it dawned on me that the problem is what is known as rust. Rust on hollyhocks is a fungus and starts as lemon-yellow to orange spots. The spores can easily travel in their air from other gardens. 

The disease starts on the lower leaves, but if not taken care of, it will spread to upper leaves, stems, and calyx (the outer part of the flower). The leaves shrivel and mine are turning a grayish-brown which was why I thought they weren’t getting enough water. And now the plants are full of those orange spots now.

Some websites say it is prevalent this year and to treat with a fungicide and another site says the fungicides don’t work. The sites also say to destroy the plants if heavily affected. My plants are only a couple weeks old, so before I do that, I headed off to Agway to talk to the gardener there. 

Melissa is great and has given me great advice on purchasing flowers this year. She wasn’t surprised. She said it’s because of the extreme humidity we’ve been having. She said to definitely not destroy the plants and the fungicide (a sulphur product) will save the plants. They will look awful for the rest of this season, but next spring they should come back fine.

I gave my hollyhocks a heavy dose of powder and planted the new hibiscus. Later, I looked up the information again to include it in the reference book I’m putting together on the plants in my yard. Now I see that hibiscus are also susceptible to rust. Luckily my hibiscus look good right now, but I will keep an eye out. 

I’ve been lucky so far with the gardening this year. This is the first major problem with the beautiful flowers. Yes, I do have Japanese beetles, too. 

My mother used to grow hollyhocks. I remember them growing up the side of the house near the chimney where I used to play ball. Now that I think about it, I remember her plants getting those orange spots sometimes.

Time to Garden – Part 5

When, where, and how to build a rock garden

I am a bit of a rock hound. I’ve been collecting rocks for years -- from gem stones, minerals, beach rocks, and ones that just catch my fancy. I have pieces from Arizona, coral from the Caribbean, minerals from Ruggles Mine, and stones from other places I’ve traveled. There are glass bowls and small pine needle baskets inside the house holding pretty stones and outside I have small buckets and other containers full of various rocks (some I’ve actually paid for).

My plan outside is to build a rock garden. Now these are not the big rocks that make entire walls, these are mostly pocket-sized and smaller. (Hey, when I’m out for a walk with camera, notebook, and walking stick, what I pick up has to fit in my pocket!) 

A rock garden keeps coming to mind when I think about all these stones, but I can’t quite figure out in my head how to go about it. Do I build an entirely new area; a complete rock garden? And figure out how and what flowers to plant there? Or do I use them in the existing gardens to try to highlight the various plants? Do I line up all the stones so they can be seen or do I make piles? Also, do I try to choose the color of the stones to match or compliment the flowers around them?

Oh, so many choices. I’m kinda (love the not-real-word, kinda) leaning towards its own garden, but I’m not sure where to put it. Perhaps I should choose flowers for it first and do a real design instead of just throwing the flowers in the ground. However, I can’t even begin to imagine which flowers would look great with colorful and interesting rocks.

Still thinking and although I wanted to do it this year, it may not happen until next spring.

Time to Garden – Part 4

July was a crazy month and although I didn’t make time to write about the gardens, I’ve been out there working almost every day. I usually go out about 8-9 a.m. while it’s still shady out front, then again at 5:30 p.m. when the shade returns. Yes, I regret not keeping up with this as so much has gone on.

The front gardens were finally weeded and I got all the new plants in the ground or in flower boxes. I haven’t made up my mind if I want the big boxes attached to the house again. Window boxes look cute, but I would have to walk through the garden to water and deadhead the plants. That could lead to accidently crushing or breaking the flowers planted in the ground. Plus, rain in the window boxes causes soil to splash against the house.

Right now the boxes are sitting along the edge of the garden. Those front edges are on hold until I get the walkway put in as I’m not sure yet how the design will go. There’s a decision to be made with this, too. Do I want stepping stones or go for a more expensive “real” walkway. My preference is a real walkway. I want to make my house inviting and a good walkway will make people feel more comfortable coming to the door. (Of course I always tell everyone that if the garage door is open, they are welcome to come in that way.)

The garage was finished and this opened the opportunity for more gardening. The garage is attached to the house and there’s the section under a window which opened an area to add new plants between the old side of the house and the driveway. The garage sits back 5 feet from the front edge of the house which makes that section of garden deeper than that along the front of the house.

The house and garage sit on a raised area which means there’s an embankment on all four sides (close to being able to have that moat I’m always joking about). The builder suggested I grass in the flat area around the outside of the garage, but I’m not a lawn person. I couldn’t make up my mind what I wanted to do with that sandy area that leads around to the back of the garage and deck.

The area to the far side of the garage and down over the embankment had purple cone flowers. He suggested I move them, but Echinacea doesn’t like to be moved and I like that they were planted near rocks. I weeded and mulched the area after cutting back the blackberry briars. I planted rudbeckia (another type of cone flower) in front of rocks nearby and mulched that in.

I worked on the garden manual in between the physical aspects of playing in the dirt. I am gathering information on all the flowers and plants in my yard and creating my own book complete with photos from the yard. I’ve been waiting for the plants that came with the property to bloom so I could identify those and add them to the manual, too. 

I stopped at The Lily Lady in Sutton on July 17 and purchased eight different kinds of daylilies. Yeah, I get carried away. Marge Davison is wonderful and gives all kinds of advice and tips on how to care for these beauties. She carefully dug up the ones I chose and put them in a big trash bag with a little water. They sat in my garage for a couple of days while I prepared the area I’d chosen for the lily garden.

The one issue with my yard is that every rock I turn over, every clump of weed I pull, and every place dug in the ground, thousands of ants swarm. I can’t even stay still for a few moments and they are crawling on me. They are even all over the plants so when I am deadheading the spent blossoms, I have ants crawling up my arms. Arrgggh! I may have to get an exterminator next year.

It took two days to get the area ready for the lilies (two days because I only work while the area is shady). I wished for a second opinion in the garden design, but, alas, it’s just me. I went to sleep at night thinking about the lily bed design, woke in the night thinking about it, and it was on my mind in the morning. 

Marge had told me I needed nine holes for the lilies, but I found I could divide the plants even further. She had said it they come apart easily, they are ready to divide. I worked on one or two holes at a time, mixing two different potting soils, adding water to make a much, then choosing the lily to put in the hole. I built a moat around each plant and watered.

The sun came out and I roasted, but I wanted to get it all done. Sweat dripped off my brow and ran down my nose. My body was screaming in pain from the bending over. I had five lilies to go when my area was filled. Now what? I took a break until after 5:30 when the area shaded again. I put the last five lilies in on the higher level beside the garage not sure if that’s where I’d keep them. Uh, oh, I had one tag left over. I got mixed up in the dividing of plants. I had to wait until the other lilies bloomed to match that tag. I mulched the new garden areas the next day.

The affects of the drought hit and the district posted a strict water ban – no watering of grass or flowers were on the list. I was upset. After spending a lot of money on beautiful flowers to make my place look great, now I can’t water them? Yes, I have the brook out back, but I can’t get down to the little bit of water, and if I could, I’d never get the heavy bucket up the embankment.

I posted my issue on Facebook. Someone offered to help me set up a sump pump to get water from the brook and I picked one up at Aubuchon’s. In the meantime, others suggested a rain barrel. But what’s the sense of a rain barrel if there’s no rain?

A water angel came through. “Take the sump pump back,” she said, “and I’ll come fill your barrel every few days.” Wow! How nice is that! My heart was overflowing with joy that two people offered to help me.

A couple days later I came home from an assignment and there were jugs of water beside the garage door along with 10 more lily plants. I was so happy, but where to put these new plants? But before I could plant them, I had to make an Agway run for more potting soil. I couldn’t help getting a couple more flowering plants.

I read that lilies don’t mind sand. The back and side area of the garage is all sand, so I built a terrace in the embankment and planted the lilies mixing the potting soil with sand. I wasn’t sure how it would work. If we got a good rain, would the mulch and sand all slough off down the hill? (It hasn’t yet).

I planted hollyhocks and the balloon flower next then I tackled the area below the railroad tie retaining wall that Michael had built behind the garage. I had previously planted a couple of hostas that Nan had given me and I wanted to weed that area between the wall and a couple of big rocks.

First I had to build steps down the soft, sandy embankment. I used a few leftover planks that Michael had cut from the deck when doing the garage. It’s not the sturdiest construction setting the planks into the sand, but they served the purpose for the moment and I finished the weeding and mulching.

My water angel has been bringing me water. I set out two big plastic trash buckets which she is filling. We were lucky to get a little rain, too which perked things up. I want more flower gardens.

There is one forsythia bush bordering the road and the driveway and another on the opposite side of the property behind the dumpster. There were indentations in the lawn which looked like other plants might have been put in there at one time, but now were grassed in. I dug out the grass and two are forsythia and one looks to be a lilac. I made little beds with mulch and put up little white fences to protect them. I’ll see what happens in the next couple of years (I know lilacs take a long time whereas forsythia is fast growing.)

This morning I put the planter full of catmint and the one with regular mint and chocolate mint on little glass garden tables. I dug up (what I think is) a butterfly bush that was growing too close to the rose bush and moved that to the garden area that has more open space. 

Little steps and I’ll be a gardener yet.

Time to Garden – Part 3

The men-in-orange mowed the lawn yesterday. They had to move my flower boxes which I had kind of set up as an outer perimeter of the walkway-to-be. I’m still debating the curve of the walkway which will determine the curve of the front line of the garden.

I also have a few annuals that need to go in a box. I’m considering removing the perennials I put in boxes on the back deck railing and getting them in the ground. But I have no idea where I could put them. Where would they fit?

I also have two small pots of mint that I brought from Bradford last summer and survived the winter. Those need to go in the ground or in a bigger planter. I’m thinking they might be better in a planter out on the deck where I can access easier from the kitchen -- although I’ve never used mint in anything I cook. I could learn… but that would mean I’d have to cook…

I stopped at Agway on the way home from breakfast and picked up four small trellises and a jug of fish emulsion. Oops, I have five rose bushes. I’ll have to get another trellis. The fish emulsion is food for the roses, hosta, and more. I have to build a new list to show which plants like what food.

I have to get the lilac bushes out of the gardens. They are scrawny, but bigger than I can dig up alone. They are towering over and crowding a couple of the rose bushes and roses like sun. 

While at Agway, I should have looked for another small pair of cutters/snips. I can’t put my old pair back together and the other pair is too big to fit the jaws between small flowers. I suppose I could use scissors, though while those blades are narrow, scissors overall are too big to deadhead pansies, petunias, and violas.

Time to get to it.

Time to Garden – Part 2

I chatted with a neighbor yesterday morning and by the time I got to the gardening the sun was creeping over to the front side of the house. I don’t do well in the sun. I’m only good for about an hour of work at a time anyway.

I first put more spray paint on the cement deer and one other lawn piece to give them more color. Later I will take other paint and use a paint brush to add other color to detail some of the lawn ornaments and little pole feeders. 

I got out the wheelbarrow, pail, shovel, and small rake. The wheelbarrow takes six or seven bucketfuls of mulch. I pushed it up the incline onto the front lawn. The side of garden I’m now mulching has more plants with less space. I put down a layer of newspaper starting from where I left off the day before working back to front. Then I dumped a few pails full of mulch and raked it out.

A garden looks much better with mulch, plus it protects the plants and helps hold moisture in the ground. This year as we’ve had such little rain that’s important. Some plants, though, don’t like mulch up against their main stock. I have to keep looking up the plants in the manual I’m putting together because I don’t remember which plants need what.

I’ve moved the hose reel twice and I’m still not happy where it is. I have it in the back of the garden because I don’t want it sticking out, but that means I have to walk through the garden to get to it. Then when I drag the hose, I have to be careful not to mess up the mulch or damage the plants. I don’t know if this is going to work.

Hoses give me a hard time. A friend had given me a pair of channel-lock pliers, but my hand isn’t big enough to hold the pliers at the right width to be able to tighten the fittings. I’m also finding I don’t have the hand strength I once I had. No matter what I do, water squirts all over the place when I turn it on. 

I squeezed between plants taking care not to step on any good ones. Some of the mulch I spread with the little rake, but some I had to reach into smaller spots between plants. I found grass clumps I missed the other day when weeding and the roses kept biting me when I tried getting the grass near their roots. Two full wheel barrows full of mulch later and I was feeling slimy from sweat and my back and knees where saying enough.

It will probably take two more ‘barrows full of mulch to finish this section of garden, but that won’t mean I’m done. I plan on moving some plants. The iris and day lilies need to be divided. Most of the iris didn’t even bloom this year. The lilacs are too big for the front garden. I will move those to the sunny side of the house.

I have so much to learn about gardening.

Time in the Garden

It’s the first week in July. I should have started writing this in April. My gardens are not where they should be by this time of year. This is the first summer in my new home. By the end of next month, I will have been here a year. It’s been a year of renovation and living in clutter. One area gets cleaned up and organized, but then it gets messed up again in fixing somewhere else. It’s getting there and the newly added garage is a huge help in storage space. But I digress. I want to talk gardens.

The house came with a seven foot deep swath of gardens on either side of the front stairs. I recognized rhododendrons, lilacs, roses, and azaleas. I remember from last summer that there were some wild flowers: goldenrod, black-eyed Susans, yarrow, and daisies. Along the slab is a single row of day lilies.

It’s been fun seeing what’s coming up and some of the plants are still not yet identified. I think there are some daisies. I’ve weeded out sheep sorrel, wood sorrel and tiny oak and maple trees. Right now I’m debating whether to pull the wild strawberry. There’s a lot, especially on the front south side (the front of the house faces west and gets a lot of afternoon sun). 

The garden is straight-lined (like the house) and I’m trying to create more of a curve. The guy who rebuilt my kitchen and built the garage also likes to do landscaping. He’s going to build a front walkway and we’ve discussed how to do a slight curve to work the walkway with the new part of the garden. 

I’m at the stage of the game in my life where my body doesn’t allow me to do a lot of physical work. Too much of the past years have been spent sitting. My knees are shot, my feet, hips, and back hurts. I break up my day now by doing a little writing, then going out to the gardens. I get outside before the sun gets on that side of the house.

Yesterday I took white spray paint to the cement deer I’d painted brown the other day. I added the white to the chest and inside the ears. Spray paint isn’t exact, but it’s quick. I’m determined to add brightness to dull-colored items in the yard.

I loaded the wheelbarrow (which I spray painted purple on the outside) twice with mulch and started putting that to the right of the front steps. The left side is mostly done except for the very front of the garden to which I am extending to add that curve. I’m putting a layer of newspaper down first to help keep the weeds down.

I didn’t like where the hose reel was, so I moved that over a bit maneuvering it between iris, day lilies and an azalea. I pulled out quite a bit of wild strawberries, but left some. Two loads were all I could manage before my body screamed for a break.

This side of the house is too sunny and hot to work during the day, so I do my inside work. I’m in the process of making a gardening manual of all the plants in my gardens. I’m gathering info from websites and writing my own version which I print (along with a photo). This way when I want to know something about one of “my” plants, I don’t have to thumb through a book with pages and pages of what I don’t have in my yard. It’s a slow and tedious job, but it’s also teaching me a lot about the plants.

I don’t get back outside until 5:30 p.m. I deadheaded and watered the flowers in the boxes on the back deck first. Out front I debated about more mulching, but decided to deadhead the big hanging planter. 

I got a folding chair from the garage and set the planter on the bench on a bigger pot so the height was easy for me to work. Petunias are sticky things and I got to it. I hadn’t deadheaded this in a couple of days. They are mixed in with calibrachoa (which look like small petunias, but are not). This kept me busy for awhile. The little latch-thing broke on my favorite snippers. Now I can’t put it in my pocket. 

I felt a bite on my leg and looked down. Drat! Ants! There are so many ants in my yard. They are everywhere and they are swarming. (Do they call that swarming?) Anyway, if I stay in one spot any length of time they start crawling on me and they do bite! I’ve put a ton of ant stuff down. I think they like it. (Just like that animal repellent spray seems to attract the squirrels and raccoon.)

I finished the big pot and did a smaller and watered both. I also watered the rest of the flowers in my gardens.

I have a long way to go before I can be considered a gardener. I’m struggling with these plants that say they like full sun, at least 6-8 hours a day, but by late afternoon, they are looking burnt and wilted. 

See-Sawing a Garden Project

One minute I’m up, the next minute I’m down. Maybe I’m breathing in too many spray paint fumes.

I’m working on a big project and other projects are suffering. But I know me. If I don’t finish this, it’ll fall by the wayside and I’ll never get back to it. I feel I could work 24 hours a day and I’d still feel behind and chaotic.

The current huge endeavor is gardening. The house already had two flower gardens on either side of the front door. They were 7 feet deep rectangles with one side longer than the other due to the house layout; plain, square-edged rectangles to a plain, square-edged house – boring and unappealing. 

It’s a bit exciting waiting to see what comes up, but in the meantime, I went to the local Agway a couple of times and spent way too much on annuals and perennials. Even before I had them all planted, I began making my own garden manual. If I want to look up a plant in my yard, I don’t want to thumb through hundreds I don’t have. My goal is to list every plant, have a write up about it (gathering info from websites on plants and plant care). A timely job for sure, as I’m also taking photos and adding pictures to better know the plants.

A couple hours a day I’m outside playing. The guy who built my garage helped me fix up a new flower bed in the middle of the lawn incorporating the crabapple tree that was already there. He did the cutting in and taking the grass off the top, then we mulched. I had already planted a couple of flowers in that area and we added a couple more. (My body just won’t handle that much physical labor any more.)

I’ve finished researching the plants I bought or brought from Bradford; although I eventually want to get photos of leaves and seed pods. There are a couple that if I don’t deadhead every day, I can’t tell if it’s a new blossom coming or a seed pod. Now I’m to the point of trying to identify what’s coming up in the older gardens. Some I recognize and some I don’t. Some I remember from last summer when I moved here: black-eyed Susan, goldenrod, yarrow, and, of course, I know roses, azaleas, and rhododendrons.

I’m learning that some plants like to be mulched up close while others like a couple of inches between the mulch and base of the trunk. There are different kinds of fertilizers for some while most do well with just Miracle Grow. I’ve even learned that coffee grounds are great to use around some. (‘Course I still have to look up which is which for now, but eventually I’ll remember and know.) 

Some plants want dry soil, some moist, and others need daily watering. I’m still struggling with if it says to plant in full sun, why do the plants wilt in the afternoon? There are plants that in these dry conditions need to be watered morning and evening (mostly those in pots and flower boxes). 

But I’m getting better and this property no longer looks like a cookie-cutter, boring-colored place. Oh, and the spray paint? I’m adding color to all the lawn ornaments, feeders, poles, and flower boxes. I intend for my yard to be bright, colorful, and happy.