Farmer Boy Brings Home A Gift

Text message received at 2:46 pm yesterday:

"If you're good I have a present for you."

And my sweet tease of a husband did!

A whole flat of NW grown Hood strawberries

AND 1/2 flat to give away as gifts to other strawberry-lovers :)
I LOVE my Farmer Boy,

I love PNW strawberries,

I love the fact that we had more than enough to eat,

enough leftover to freeze some for treats later

and some to give away too!

~

In other news:

our strawberries are bigger now, but still green:(

Also green--7 little tomatoes on our Early Girl and Sungold plants?

Our third plant just has blossoms still,

but if the weather continues warm and we get some sunshine,

I have BIG expectations for a lot of tomatoes this summer!

BTW, I paid a whole $3 for these tomatoes so I will be

saving a lot of green this summer while I enjoy our own fresh,

sunripened, just off the vine, sweet, juicy tomatoes! YUM!

And my final green for the day-

(we won't count all the grass I mowed or weeds I pulled today as a green),

a few of my carrot seeds have FINALLY sprouted and

I just might get carrots from my garden this year!

Hope springs eternal (forget who said that)

Have a blessed Pentecost,

Aimee

Photo:

I didn't want to stop long enough last night to take a picture of the berries,

so this one from last year will have to do!

Note to PNW gardeners:

Thought you might be interested in receiving a free monthly

gardening newsletter from OSU in your e-mail box.

I have been getting it for quite awhile and really, really like it!

BTW--this month's issue had information on the Spotted Wing Drosophila which damages fruit such as raspberries, strawberries and a lot more. I am definitely interested in learning how to protect our fruit from this new pest! It would make me quite unhappy to see our berries destroyed just when they are ready to eat!

If you think you would like to subscribe to the monthly NW Gardener's eNews,

you can e-mail them at: gardeners-subscribeATlists.oregonstate.edu

Feel free to copy the e-mail address above,

of course

replacing the word AT with the symbol @!

Disclaimer: I am not associated with the school except I subscribe to this newsletter.

Of Wildflowers + Mountainside Gardens: part 2

I am still not home-by that I mean my body is; but my heart isn't.

It is still there-listening to the sounds of nature,

feeling the warmth of the sun on my face and arms,

and embracing the peace I felt there.

It feels good!

How about a few more photos of our peaceful trip?

At one point we crossed this bridge-

it was fun watching the planks move as we crossed:)

In some areas we went through woodlands like this;

in other places we were in a forest--complete with moss, ferns and wildflowers!

Look at all that wonderful moss on the trees--

in the PNW we are experts at growing moss:)

And the native bleeding hearts were beautiful--

I SO want to find a native plant nursery!

A creek we crossed over.

I wonder if there are fish in these waters and if so,

what kind they are?

I wonder if there are any cougars around here?

In Colorado they have signs to warn you that you're in THEIR home!

More bleeding hearts--

And more native vegetation--

I can't remember what my friend called these.

Sorry:)

~

Well it is time for a snack --

I am feeling the need for some good protein after eating so many fresh strawberries!

BTW--has anyone made strawberry bread before?

I've never tried it but it sounds interesting.

Blessings,

Aimee

Of Wildflowers + Mountainside Gardens

My day started in our wildflower/perennial garden.

But the sky was so blue and it was so warm-

it called for a field trip and

I knew exactly where I wanted to go...

It was a place I had found on the Internet that had most of my fav things

mountain views

and trees

creeks

and a waterfall

(I SO should have brought a tripod)

some historical places--one being the very road we were on

(but the rest will have to wait for another post because we never found

one of the places we were looking for)

YEA! Another road trip:)

and color--lots of color!

The amazing, beautiful, wonderful, totally awesome

color of the PNW in spring:)

the yellow of scotchbroom which was all over--

once we found the right road that is

(I, of course, had left my map and carefully written directions--

you guessed it--at home)!

Actually the wrong road was quite beautiful too:)

the purple of native irises

(I am NOT even going to mention the green of the trees, ferns and other vegetation--

this is the western PNW after all and we have had MONTHS of rain!

I will say this is our payoff after suffering through all

those gray, wet, cold days though:)

white blossoms--absolutely gorgeous in person I must say!

This is either a wild astilbe or spirae.

(BTW--please feel free to correct me if I am wrong!)

and...

~

the rest will have to wait till later because I've got to get some sleep :)

Blessings, Aimee

~

Photos: late spring, coastal foothills + mountains

Thank You!

It makes my heart SO very happy when I come to my blog

and see the visitors I have had!

And my one wish for you will always be the same

that you leave here feeling more blessed then when you arrived,

because your very presence here --

whether for a minute

or

for longer

has blessed my day more than I can ever say!

~

And

one thing more...

I just want to say
THANK YOU for visiting!!

Blessings,

Aimee

A special thank you to all my followers too--

appreciate you all very much:)

~

Photos:

Deepwood Estate in springtime, Salem.

Amazing mansion and gardens!

camellia

garden by gazebo

more camellias

(can you tell I LOVE them?)

view from the main gate--mansion and carriage house

the room I love the most!

For more info: http://www.historicdeepwoodestate.org/

Enjoy!

Dolls

I knew my mom had a collection of Josef Original dolls--

both she and grandma kept them on a window sill.

And I knew she had a Raggedy Ann + Andy--

they sat for years on a wooden shelf in their home.

and mom had some other little dolls/figurines too --

but I never knew that she had these!

Here they are taking a nap on the floor while they have their photo taken.

See how peaceful they look...

They must be resting because I hear they have travel plans soon!

~

Life is an adventure--

lately I have been living one at my mom's place:)

Blessings,

Aimee

Early June Garden

I LOVE PNW natives and I try to use them often. Here you can see the salal and kinnikinnick we planted last year--apparently they are very happy here as they have grown quite a bit! You can also see that we use soaker hoses--actually we use a combination of watering methods depending on what we have planted, but soaker hoses do work quite well and in time they will be more camouflaged by the growing vegetation. This is our newest garden--for my mom; it needs LOTS of work:)

One of our newest and last to bloom rhododendrons. This is not the best photo of it, but it is SO pretty! I really wish the blooms of spring would last longer--love this season!

Our blue Japanese irises--by our lower pond. Love this shade of blue:) Speaking of ponds---keep reading and soon you will see something flowering IN our pond:)

Roses, roses everywhere---this is a miniature kind. I love my minis but this year I may have to break down and treat them with a non organic blackspot treatment and that is NOT making me happy at all!

Another view of the Japanese irises. One of this year's projects was to extend the path and bed here; we have now laid the landscape fabric (we use one marked contractor grade) and added garden mulch. We still have to add the flagstones and do finish work. Seems like garden tasks are never done!

And here (drum beating and trumpets sounding)...

our first water lily of the 2011 season:)

Love these guys (or gals) :)

Have a great Tuesday!

Blessings,

Aimee