growing...

My garden space is growing and growing!  I have been really looking forward to having a vegetable garden this year.  I missed my garden so much while we were in AZ, and I was ecstatic to see that the owners of our home here already had a raised garden bed.  I promptly filled it up with seeds and waited anxiously for those first few seedlings to pop up.  I almost couldn't believe it when they actually did!

Of course I was excited to see my little plants get bigger and bigger, but I soon decided that I didn't have nearly enough space.  So Everett lovingly put in a second raised bed... and all this without even getting to anticipate enjoying the "fruits" of his labors. 

Even more surprising are these brave little seedlings.  These are from Morning Glory seeds that I collected our last summer in North Carolina.  They have been sitting, waiting patiently through all the AZ heat and two moves.  I can't believe they were brave enough to poke their heads up, but here they are.  They will be such a cheery sight by my deck this summer!

UK Part II- Wiltshire, Bath & The Cotswolds

I realized after my last post, that I never shared about our last-minute changes of plans. This trip was planned as a piggy-back onto a work trip for Ev. He was scheduled to speak at a conference in London, so we booked a ticket for me, and reserved a few extra days at the hotel so we could do some sight-seeing together. Less than two weeks before we were due to leave for our trip, the conference was cancelled. Crazy, huh? So they did some scrambling and tried to find some other reasons for a work trip, like visiting British air bases to talk with their British counterparts. We changed all of our accommodation reservations and I went to work re-planning our trip and researching what there was to see in the countryside. After about a week, it became evident that we were not able to do both work and pleasure in one trip. So we bought Ev a ticket and turned it into a vacation. It made for a very stressful pre-trip week, but in the end it worked out really well. We were able to see things that we would not have seen, and meet some very nice people along the way.

Which brings us to our second day. We headed first to Stourhead. It is a beautiful house, though we didn't go inside. I wanted to see the famous landscape garden. I was not disappointed. It was a beautiful time of year to be there, as the garden is filled with rhododendrons and azaleas which were all in bloom.











Eighteenth century landscape gardens are known for their "follies," such as the Greek-inspired temples and hidden grottoes that we explored. However, Stourhead has a magnificent folly of a different sort, named King Alfred's Tower. Maybe they wouldn't classify it as a folly in the strictest sense, because it was built partially to commemorate a historical event. Nonetheless, it was built primarily to impress the visitors to Stourhead. And it is impressive. We climbed the 205 steps to the top of the 160 ft tower, and we were rewarded with breathtaking views of the Wiltshire countryside.









The next stop on our trip was the city of Bath. Unfortunately, by the time we arrived in Bath, I wasn't feeling very well. Over-tired and under-nourished, I think. We only stayed a few hours, and saw a fraction of what we had planned, but I just wore myself out earlier in the day. It was also very, very crowded. We did see the Roman baths and walked around a little bit in the city center.





Despite feeling "rather moldy," as one of our b&b hosts put it, I did get a kick out of seeing this music man in the square. I also had to have a picture of this crazy pig sitting at the base of the Bath Abbey. What a crazy juxtaposition!





We left Bath early, and began our drive up to the northern part of the Cotswolds where we had reservations for the next two nights. I admit, I slept most of the way, while Everett drove and the GPS navigated. I'm disappointed that I missed so much of that drive, but my body demanded that I give in and sleep eventually. Here is a sneak peek at the Cotswolds.

UK Part I- Windsor & Warminster

I finished working through my pictures a couple of days ago, but it was too soon to post them. The simple fact is that when I look through my pictures, I get all excited, and love each one. I can't possibly choose when I'm in that state of mind. So, this is my pared-down, abbreviated look at our first day in England.

Here's Ev getting ready to drive on the left side for the first time...he looks a little nervous, doesn't he? Actually he did really well, although I never quite got used to it. I kept thinking that he was turning into oncoming traffic! Of course, he wasn't, so it was a good thing that he did all the driving. We were, however, soooo glad that at the last minute we asked for a navigation system!



Windsor Castle was not at all what I expected. Mostly because it is now sitting in the middle of a little town. That alone creates a really unique- and sometimes stark- juxtaposition of the new and old. It was amazing to walk through and think about the fact that people still live here. In fact, the Queen's standard was flying the day that we visited. I suppose she is used to it, but it would seem so strange to me to have hundreds of strangers walking through my house. I loved checking out all the details- like little crowns decorating everything that would stand still, from light posts to mailboxes. It's one of those things that is normal to people in the UK, but such a novelty to us!

















We spent some time walking around the cities of Windsor and Eton and along the Thames. We watched the swans along the Thames, which are all owned by the Queen. We had our first English meal- Ev chose fish & chips with mashy peas and I tried some steak and kidney pie with mash and gravy. I thought everything was tasty- though Ev said the coffee was not up to par. Go figure.




We left Windsor and headed into Warminster for our first night. The countryside was absolutely gorgeous- rolling hills, grassy fields and pastures. One of our B&B hosts said these yellow flowering fields were growing a crop that is actually used for animal feed once it goes to seed. We waved at Stonehenge as we drove past, and flew down tiny country lanes at breakneck speeds- usually we were still below the speed limit! We ended our day at this gorgeous little B&B named Crockerton House. It used to be part of a large country estate named Longleat, and dates from 1669. The owners are gracious hosts and have done a beautiful job of restoring it into a very comfortable B&B, along with planting some wonderful gardens, which we could see from our bedroom window. For dinner, we walked to the local pub and had a great time with very friendly locals and good food!

Small Successes

Well, folks, this is all I have to show for garden success this summer. At least I sunk less money into it this time- I'm learning. Out of three Dahlia tubers, all three came up, but only one has survived long enough to bloom. Thanks for persevering, Little Blossom. We enjoyed having you visit for a while!

Desert Gardens

I know, I know. Where have I been? Well, who knows, really. I have tons of excuses- though not many good ones. So I'll just skip it. One thing I've been doing, though, it playing hostess to some wonderful visitors- my parents! While we were in Phoenix we spent the morning at the Desert Botanical Garden. Sound like an oxymoron? Well, maybe not. We saw some amazing cactus, tons of wildflowers in bloom, very cool sculptures and birds galore. It's definitely a must-see if you're ever in the area, and also a great kick-off to our time together.

Just Humming Along

We've been super busy lately, doing some not so super things...like baskets full of laundry and taxes. But we've also been doing some super fun things...like watching our little hummingbird family grow. Meet Mama Hummingbird, who is enjoying the hospitality of our lemon tree for her nest this year. She fastidiously guards her nest- and is getting more and more protective everyday, so I think the time for hatching may be getting near.




It's been a great learning opportunity. We've spent several days talking about hummingbirds. We measured out grains of rice to see how tiny the babies will be, and how little they will weigh- less than one gram! Along the way, I found this great little Hummingbird Craft, which we had a great time doing.