Pinewood Castle

Late Spring Layers of Bliss - A Cumulative Song

I have been enjoying . . .

Afternoons outside by the big twin oaks.

Afternoons outside by the big twin oaks while the toddler plays happily in the sandbox.

Afternoons outside by the big twin oaks weeding the lilies of the valley while the toddler plays happily in the sandbox.

Afternoons outside by the big twin oaks hearing the children sing "White Coral Bells" in a two part round, weeding the lilies of the valley while the toddler plays happily in the sandbox.

Afternoons outside by the big twin oaks hearing the well tuned scale of our new wind chimes as well as the children singing "White Coral Bells", weeding the lilies of the valley while the toddler plays happily in the sandbox.

Afternoons outside by the big twin oaks creating a new fairy house while hearing the well tuned scale of our new wind chimes and the children singing "White Coral Bells", weeding the lilies of the valley while the toddler plays happily in the sandbox.

Speaking of Fanciful . . .

This one's inspired by Mirabelle by Astrid Lindgren ~

Dancer's imaginary friend, Clementine, evidently gave her a doll seed. Because Dancer is content with her beloved doll, Sarah, she passed the seed along to Sunshine who proceeded to plant it and water it faithfully every day.

After two weeks of watering, Sunshine was beginning to wonder if the doll would ever sprout.

A good soaking rain did the trick:

Sunday in the Garden

The Sunflower House!

Sunday in the Garden

Have a blessed Sunday!

Eggs in the Morning

Chicks at noon!

The 2nd batch of bluebirds this summer!

Butterfly Garden

Near our new library (but not close enough, IMO) a volunteer gardener in town planted a most fanciful garden in the shape of a butterfly featuring, of course, flowers that attract butterflies such as these.

Camera in hand, we walked from the library parking lot over to the garden most likely inspired by a chapter in Sharon Lovejoy's Sunflower Houses.

Is this not darling? Makes me wish we lived on three sunny acres to do a different garden project every year from Lovejoy's books!

Sunday in the Garden

Recent blooms ~

Phlox (Christ's Cross Flower)
These are the ones the deer did not get to!

Lavender
My all-time favorite herb. I aspire to own and read The Genus Lavandula

Cosmos (St. Michael's Flower)
I love looking at these out my bathroom window every morning when these are in their full glory!

Balloon Flower - see the balloons ready to pop?

Mallow - new this year. Can't wait to see the "fairy cheeses" when they form seeds!

Nasturtiums filling out

A Morning Glory (Our Lady's Mantle) growing up a sunflower

The Sunflower House - now taller than the children!

Sunday in the Garden

The mid-summer blossoms are starting to show their stuff this week. We have been blessed with a moderately cool summer - only a handful of days above 85 and some rain here and there. I think it's so thoughtful of God to arrange the blooming of butterfly's favorite flowers just before they emerge from their chrysalis!

Black-Eyed Susans are here (Golden Jerusalem)

Bee Balm (Sweet Mary)

Coreopsis

Obedient Plant - you know why it's called that? You can move a blossom left or right and it stays put!

Daisies - Dino's favorite

I totally forgot what this is!

Sunflower House Progress

Nasturtium - I've been letting the kids eat these as they bloom with a dab of cream cheese in the middle!

Cedar Waxwings gathering nesting material

Named for the tail feathers that look as if they have been dipped in wax

Sunday in the Garden

This week the snapdragons are going strong. They make the best toys.

The sunflowers making much progress.

The main event is the milkweed. The whole monarch/caterpillar/butterfly mystery is clearing up for me. And the children. And even my husband. I mean, we know the basic process - it's just the details of the monarchs in particular that have been demystified!

• When the Monarchs return, they lay their eggs on milkweed.
• The striped caterpillars hatch and feed only on milkweed. It makes them taste bad to predators.
• They eat and grow and shed skin several times until they are about two inches.
• When they are ready to form a chrysalis they go to another plant nearby to do this rather than staying on the milkweed. The naturalist at the nature center tipped us off to this!

Of the three caterpillars that were munching away on our volunteer milkweed, one of our stripy friends is camouflaged on the underside of an obedient plant leaf. The spots of gold are amazing.
 

One caterpillar is MIA.

The third is kidnapped. We cut the milkweed he was on, wrapped wet paper towels around the stem and covered that in foil. He is now in last year's butterfly cage and will hopefully attach himself to the top of it in a day or two for our viewing pleasure!

Sunday in the Garden

I once heard an older gentleman complimenting his wife on her garden, saying that she planned it in such a way that something would always be in bloom. At the time, we lived in an apartment, but I remember that the remark stirred in me a longing for such garden!

New flowers are blooming each week here at Pinewood Castle, though not all at once. No particular flower bed looks great right now, but some individual blooms have brought us some cheer.

These daylillies (St. Joseph's Lily) by the mailbox added a burst of sunny yellow. I think of these as a gift for the mailman.  I always wonder what kinds of flowers the mail carriers see by all the mailboxes on their route. When the morning glory comes up I always hope that the mail arrives early enough for our mailman to see the blue blossoms!

Blue flowers have always been my favorite. Many purple flowers are considered blue, but the shades of true blue in these delphinium always amaze me.

We have some volunteer milkweed that blew over from the path with three monarch caterpillars on them! Here's the fattest one:

There are buds on the echinacea, black eyed susan and bee balm - full of promise!