Hearts and chocolates

With Valentine's Day around the corner, another little feather tree goes up. This one is ivory and covered in silver and red vintage glass beads. The wind is howling as I'm putting up the tree..we're supposed to have a cold snap soon. Here's the finished tree.

I like the little chocolates...

I placed my last rose order for this year. Focusing on David Austin's for the most part and leaving the Hybrid Teas out of my order. I just ordered 3 Sally Holmes climbers for the porch pillars. We'll see how they do....I needed something that could handle the shade. It's a shame about Pickering's. Disappointing that they can no longer ship to the U.S. Hope this changes. They were my favorite rose supplier. Now ordering from Regan's for Bare Roots. Only a month to go before the new roses start to arrive....sigh. January is soooo long. 

Crafting with Duct Tape

It's a foggy and cold Sunday so we started a fire and worked on a project for the basement. This post is about David's version of crafting which involves a lot of patches, some duct tape and a bit of patience. We stopped at Rugby the other day, so sad that they are closing, but their awesome patches were on sale for a steal, so we swooped and bought as many as we could.

When we were last at Ikea, we bought a few shadow frames. Took the mat out and removed the backing....

We had some left over Linen to cover the backing of the frames....

Cut the linen out to the shape of the backing. No measuring, just cut it by eye. 

Quick steam...

And now on with the duct tape...black duct tape no less....

Pesky corners were cut down and then re-taped.

All done and ready for patches....

The glass will just sit right on top of them, so no adhesive....

One done!...

We had enough patches for 1 more frame....

Finished product!



They were installed above the downstairs computer. Voila!

Best of the Garden 2012

I'm starting to get anxious to start gardening again. The garden is dead and ugly now and all of the roses are sleeping. I thought I'd post some "Best of 2012" pictures to remember what the garden will look like in a few short, but feeling like forever, months.

I'll start with my David Austin's since they are my favorites. Abraham Darby had a great year this year and completely took off in the back bed. Reaching over 5ft tall.

That's him flopping down into the path and growing between the Christopher Marlowe's and the Golden Celebrations.

Speaking of Christopher...he had a good year too.

So did the Golden Celebrations....

Gertrude Jekyll will always be one of my favorites because of the scent and because she always is the first to bloom. I bought 3 more for next year for the new rose bed.

This was the front garden in late May, early June.

A little bit later the Jackmanii Clematis bloomed with the Iceberg climber...

Side rose bed....

As the roses began to fade, then the poppies bloomed...

Drama Queen was new for me this year.

The Stargazer lilies put on their usual show after the poppies.

And the show ended with the pretty new zinnia bed that I planted from seed.

New roses arrive in late February. It's going to be a long 2 months....