The Colchicum Are Peeking Out of the Ground

As summer is winding down, it's always a treat to see something fresh, new and delicate -looking popping out of the ground!  The foliage of Colchicum wakes early in the spring and ripens off by June and then in late August, the leafless "crocus" blooms begin and bloom through September. Thy're a signal plant telling of seasonal change.   For more information about these, look here.

You Are the New Day

I will love you more than m

and more than yesterday

If you can but prove to me

you are the new day

Send the sun in time for dawn

Let the birds all hail the morning

Love of life will urge me say

you are the new day

When I lay me down at night

knowing we must pay

Thoughts occur that this night might

stay yesterday

Thoughts that we as humans small 

could slow worlds and end it all 

lie around me where they fall

before the new day

One more day when time is running out

for everyon

Like a breath I knew would come I reach for 

a new day

Hope is my philosophy

Just needs days in which to be

Love of life means hope for me

borne on a new day

You are the new day

-John David

Soon they'll look like this picture taken last September.

Happy new week, happy new day!

A Night Visitor

Last night I went out to the back porch to enjoy the evening air, heavy with the fragrance of brugmansia and saw this ghostly white moth hanging out on a curtain.

She politely stayed in place long enough to run inside and get my camera but not long enough for the return trip with the macro lens.  Oh well.  There are some great identification tools and color plates of PNW moths here but I couldn't decide which one she was.  

 Let's just call her Henrietta  and thank her for the nice visit.

Isled in the midnight air,

 Musked with the dark's faint bloom,

 Out into glooming and secret haunts

 The flame cries, 'Come!'  

Lovely in dye and fan,

 A-tremble in shimmering grace

, A moth from her winter swoon

 Uplifts her face:

  Stares from her glamorous eyes;

 Wafts her on plumes like mist;

 In ecstasy swirls and sways

 To her strange tryst. 

- Walter de la Mare

Have a great weekend everyone!

Andersen's Italian Escape

The next stop on the Federal Way Symphony Garden Tour was the garden of Donna-Mari and Chuck Andrsen. 

"Our Italian escape is a mix of formal hedges, framed green 'bowling lawns,' statuesque Italian cypress, and a smattering of whimsical English and Pacific Northwest inspired plantings along with several Italian-style concrete statues."

At the top of the driveway is this entry garden.

On one side of the house.

A view back from across the large sports court, 

 The back of the home features this fabulous covered outdoor kitchen.  I wish my indoor kitchen were this spacious and beautiful!

From inside the kitchen looking at the dining area.

Breakfast bar.

"The property lends a very neat and formal attitude while still exuding the natural style and whimsy of comfort."  

 Pergola on the south side of the house next to the "South Bowling Green."

Love the hug serpentine mixed border.  What a perfect lawn; glad I don't have to mow it!

 Looking back at the pergola and house.  

Lovely stream.  

Past the water feature the path continues on to

another seating area.

The featured artist in this garden was Dehanna Jones Totally Blown Glassworks whose work you may have seen at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show or a variety of other venues.

More of Dehanna's work and an excuse to get one last peek of this lovely space.

Thank you Donna-Marie and Chuck for opening your garden for us to enjoy!

Wednesday Vignette

Wednesday Vignette is hosted by blogging pal Anna at Flutter and Hum. Click on over there to find links to more W.V's!

From the garden of Deborah Cheadle (watch for a full tour soon) comes this mossy coolness.  Even at the height of summer we still have green moss.  Ain't it grand?

Soggy Bottom, The Garden of Gretchen and Duncan Blanchard

The Federal Way Symphony garden tour garden number three is called Soggy Bottom

"Making the most of a long narrow lot, the Blanchards embraced the shade and privacy offered by mature trees and rhododendrons.  As you enter the driveway, off to the right are 'The Woods,' a shady place to relax."

Notice the old black and white pictures on the bench.  These were free for the taking and offered at a couple of the gardens on the tour.  It always makes me a little sad to see unwanted pictures of people and places that meant something so someone once, perhaps because it reminds me that "like faded photographs in some old attic, all of us will be ultimately forgotten."  (Thank you niece Alison for that, don't know if I remembered the quote correctly and certainly forgot the source.)

"Exiting 'The Woods,'stroll down past the Hydrangeas and the birdhouse condo."

Pretty fancy digs, eh?

Mr. B. Bunny's house and garden.

Colorful planters.

Entrance to the Zen Garden. 

Continuing down the driveway, we come to the main parking area.  

Georgia's Secret Garden, which was begun two years ago when she was five years old.

Exiting that area, we enter the courtyard to the main house.  We're looking back here. 

On the left hand side of the house is this path.

 On the right, this stone path.  Can you see the mirror on the fence on the left?

 There is a whole collection of them in really cool frames.

The stone path leads down to the Mirror Lake.

Who wouldn't want a water feature like that in his/her garden?

The playhouse is used to stow water toys and life jackets.

Looking back up at the house.

"Coming back from the Lake, is a pathway to the fern garden."

From the fern garden, the path leads back to the courtyard in front of the house.  

What a fun garden full of surprises!  Thank you Gretchen and Duncan for opening your garden for us to enjoy!