Dessert Carnival Day

Make sure you visit Cielo at The House in the Roses to take part in her fabulous dessert party scheduled for May 30. You can find the details on her blog. Hurry on over to visit this fabulous, romantic gal who always writes something very special to touch one's heart....and shares beautiful photos of all things lovely.

National Day of England

Happy St. George's Day to all my family and friends in England........and those of you who have crossed oceans but continue to celebrate your 'Englishness' elsewhere.

It was good to hear that Prime Minister Gordon Brown marked today by flying St. George's flag over No. 10 Downing Street - a symbol that was lacking in recent years.

For England, St. George's Day marks its National Day. Traditional customs include wearing a red rose in one's lapel, singing the beautiful hymn "Jerusalem" in a cathedral, church or chapel......................and then heading on over to the local pub for a quick pint which, as you probably know, is the Englishman's cure for everything!!

Below are the powerful words of William Blake's poem which, set to amazing music by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, was a hymn/song every English child learned at an early age. We always loved to sing it and I must admit it still brings tears to my eyes and pride to my heart.

Jerusalem

And did those feet in ancient time

Walk upon England's mountains green

And was the holy lamb of God

On England's pleasant pastures seen

And did the countenance divine

Shine forth upon our clouded hills

And was Jerusalem builded here

Among those dark Satanic mills

Bring me my bow of burning gold

Bring me my arrows of desire

Bring me my spears o'clouds unfold

Bring me my chariot of fire

I will not cease from mental fight

Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand

'Til we have built Jerusalem

In England's green and pleasant land

The Dance of Life

Last week a call from my cousin across the pond informed me of the death of his mother, my only remaining aunt and my Godmother. She had lived a long life, ninety four years. In this much treasured photograph c. 1914, she is the twin on the right held by my grandmother, my mother is standing next to her. I spent a lot of time at my aunt's home as a child and she was very kind to me.

Looking at this photograph, I am always amazed and proud of this family. Grandma with her five children, born within four years as there were two sets of twins! My heart pounds trying to comprehend the fact that everyone has gone. We are now just four cousins, offspring of those five children. Scattered about the globe, two still in Devon, England, one in France and one in the USA..................the dance of life goes on.

If suddenly you do not exist,

if suddenly you no longer live,

I shall live on.

............Pablo Neruda............

Lifestyles

Have you noticed how everything old is new again.........................wasn't there a song with those words? This morning, while awaiting arrival of the carpet cleaner, I discovered while moving smaller pieces of furniture and decorative items in the downstairs rooms, the things that I love are definitely old passed down family treasures, or items found at antiques and vintage shops that once graced another person's home. Reproductions are now available everywhere, some quite attractive I have to admit, but they haven't absorbed any history............they just don't have authentic chips and scratches, they hide no secrets, they are just something pretty to fill a space.

Perhaps this modern new glass bowl above has yet to gather and hold a family's memories, but it's being helped by adding beautiful branches of old coral and sea urchins, maybe collected during a trip to an island..................and wrapped gently with miniature linen doilies and snippets of antique lace. How lovely to take the new back a bit in time by adding something from your family. How difficult it is to get rid of things that belonged to your family.

Remember my SIMPLIFY sign and the best laid plans to clean out, give away, unstore, declutter, downsize? That was last year and I've just realized I still have a way to go. So I'm off to work on it again - wish me luck.

Evening on the edge of the English Channel ~ October 2007

Why can't life always be this clean, uncluttered and simple?

Green and Gorgeous

Yesterday, on my way to the garden center of a 'big box' store to hunt down Boston ferns for the front porch, I stopped to buy a card at a chain drug store in my neighborhood.

At the entrance were these beautiful ferns...........FOR SALE!

I was jumping for joy at such perfection ~ even dh agreed they were gorgeous.

The store manager told me they arrived Thursday and were selling like wild fire. I'm not surprised because they are huge, healthy, and grown right here at a local nursery which of course is a good thing. They were $15 ea., which is $5 more than the BB store, however there's no comparison..............when I checked there later I found them smaller, droopy, many fronds broken, with a pale greyish green look as if crying out for fertilizer.........and a good long, slow drink!

Now I'm anxious to clean up the front porch. With the wrens gone, and hopefully the purple finches staying out of these lovely ferns (they are such messy birds), as soon as the pollen has eased up I can get to work. We had so much oak pollen falling yesterday it was hard to breathe outside. Hopefully showers during the night have dampened it down and cleared the air somewhat.

Have to show you my trumpet vine (Campsis radicans) which burst into bloom a couple of days ago on the arbor leading to the back garden. The orange flowers are profuse this year and will surely attract the hummingbirds............and bees, but that's good because we need more bees for pollination.

In the Southeastern U.S., trumpet vine is sometimes considered a weed and is quite invasive if not pruned. Mine was pruned back to the ground a few years ago when the house was painted and this is the best year for blooms since.

The plant to the left of the gate is a climbing rose, John Cabot, a hardy Canadian. Also pruned back and mulched over the Winter, it's now growing rapidly with our warm temperatures this week, and starting to bloom. I keep white mini lights up year round on the fence and arbor as they look pretty and bring a little romance to the night garden. (Click photo to enlarge).

Another view of the front entry and porch. Our little fountain decided to quit bubbling and we have purchased a replacement which we plan to assemble this week ~ hope it's easier this time around ~ I remember it took hours to get all the internal parts together, especially with instructions in a vague interpretation of English!

We enjoy sitting on the porch and listening to the water splashing. The current fountain will be moved somewhere in the garden and used as a birdbath, which is what it's become anyway..........even catch squirrels stopping by for a drink now and then.

This warm, sunny weather is causing everything in the garden to start bursting forth. Each morning as the dawn chorus breaks into song, still in my robe, coffee mug in hand, I tiptoe around the dewy garden to view the beauty of the new day. Those of you who garden know the feeling when you see all those little miracles pushing up through the earth. Perhaps my love affair with Autumn is waning a little ~ have to admit Spring just gets better every year.

Off to grab clogs and tiptoe through the wet grass right now. Hope to have new garden treasures to share with you later.

Fly Away......or Come and Stay

"Psst - do you know the real wrens have left? Yes, flown away with mom and dad and are hopefully learning their way around the garden to the secret places where beetles, grubs, moths and caterpillars creep and crawl. Perhaps later, when fully grown with strong wings and perky tails, they'll go to the feeders hanging about in this garden - the people here spend an awful lot of money on really good bird seed - in fact I hear her dh complaining that the birds eat better than they do".

Some of the birds in my garden do not sit on those feeders picking and choosing peanuts, sunflower clips, safflower seeds.....................................they just stand about looking so cute. Although their songs cannot be heard, I think they are lovely to have around too.

Thanks for visiting this past week and sharing the enjoyment of the wrens on my front porch. I appreciate all the lovely comments you left and I hope your garden is full of Spring birdsong all weekend.

Empty Nesters.......

Yesterday afternoon and evening, up until dusk, Mr. & Mrs. Wren kept up a steady supply of food and vocal instruction....................a sure sign that it was time for the babes to get ready to fly........or at least flutter.......from that planter by the front door! I spent several hours at the dining room window and even seated on the porch for a while, armed with the camera, wishing I had a better one with a good lens, and no glass in my windows! By nightfall I had decided those babes were definitely going to fledge this morning - they were sticking way out of the nest when the parents flew in with bugs and seeds from the feeder hanging out front.

Pictures below taken as they flew back and forth continuously for hours yesterday...................parenting skills of the highest order, a mom and dad so caring of their young. Sometimes he would just sit on a branch and keep watch, singing jubilantly for fifteen minutes, as she gathered food from the lawn and walkway, bringing it to the nest overflowing with cheeping babes. Then he would go to the feeder, pick a tiny seed and bring it over. Needless to say I didn't get much done yesterday, other than watch 'my little family'. I'm such a softy when it comes to birds in my garden.

I set the alarm clock for 6:15 AM because I know the wren babies fledge early in the day. A perfect morning for flight - brilliant sunshine, warm and calm. Coffee in hand, I sat at the dining room window and by 6:30 AM breakfast service began along with much calling, singing and chirping. Then, while dad sat on his same branch calling, mom sat above the nest on the flag pole and proceeded to fluff and preen her feathers, almost as if giving the babes their first lesson in personal hygiene, and perhaps showing them how to prepare for flight. At 7:00 AM number one fluttered out of the nest directly into the hydrangea bush below the porch rail - that's when I called for dh to hurry. Then number two popped out onto the cushion of a wicker chair, down to the porch and into the same bush. Number three gave us a scare, fluttered into the water filled fountain but immediately hopped out and joined the others - I was ready to run out to perform a rescue thinking it would drown. Then four followed into the bush..........................and there was no five unless we missed it, the whole process took less than a minute, when they go they go fast.

One by one the babies then followed the parents across the front steps, through another flower bed and here I leaned out of my bedroom window and managed to snap these somewhat fuzzy pics of some of the babes. Wren babes have little stubby tails which grow into those cute long perky ones.

Above, two babes following their parents to a safe place. Below, the last one, "hurry up, they're waiting for you".

Here it is now 9:00AM and I hear and see the parents in my side garden, singing instructions and teaching life's little lessons. The cheeping babes are audible however I can't see them and don't want to go outside and disturb this lovely moment Nature has allowed me to share.

I'm now an empty nester again. We can come and go through the front door.........and let the storm door slam! Today I can take back the porch.......clean it up for Spring.......have a cup of afternoon tea out there.......go shopping for Boston ferns to fill the empty hanging baskets........and pray that this new little family will survive to grow into adorable wrens, the tiny, cute, perky birds with the amazing big voices.