Skipping Around in the September Garden........

..........It has been awhile now since I showed much in the garden. We have had a wonderful year for growing and the back yard was looking like a jungle until I got a lot of it trimmed back.  Now I have a few empty places waiting for the weather to be a bit cooler before doing the fall planting. So, in this post you will see the same old stuff. There is not much rhyme or reason about what I selected  except it is all from the back yard and using some of my recent photos...... 

 

Beginning with the old weathered bird house, which is not really a bird house but a solid piece of wood that looks like a house. It doesn't change much but every once in awhile I will aim and shoot one more picture of it.

 

 

I have been seeing these moths this summer. At least I hope there are multiples and that I am not just seeing the same one over and over.  

 

 

I think they are beautiful.

 

 

 

I know I am seeing several butterflies because I see about four different types every day. I have not been able to get a good picture of this one lately.

 

 

 

The pinecone gingers have made several cones.  These will turn bright red in a few weeks.

 

 

I have enough beautyberries to make some jelly but, I am not going to do that any more.  The last two times it was not jelly but more like syrup even though I added more surejell. Normally I would have pulled the Spanish moss off of this but decided to leave it for this picture.

 

 

 

The berries will still get darker and are such a pretty color.

 

 

 

I had some of these torenia plants in the same general area several years back and this one and a couple more sprang up this year in the middle of the blue eyed grass and have bloomed nice.  It's amazing how seeds work.

 

This staghorn fern has hung here many years and once in awhile I look up and marvel over how huge it has gotten.  It would measure at least six feet across! It am surprised the small chain holding it up has not broken before now.

 

 

This bloom was a very nice surprise. This blue ginger (not really in the ginger family) has been growing for many years and had never bloomed. I am hoping to see more.

 

 

I thought this air plant and lichen looked especially interesting and snapped its picture again too.

 

 

 

 

Another nice thing to find. More blooms on the gloriosa lilies this week. Two plants in different locations and both started blooming again.

 

 

 

This is the slowest growing plant I have ever seen.  Remember when I put the one big leaf in the soil in April and there was no action for months and suddenly one tiny leaf showed up. Now, several more.  All of them remain small and spotless. As the days get cooler I am going to put it in full sun and hope it gets its spots. It is boring without them!

 

 

 

This one is keeping its spots and staying healthy looking.

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I could go on and on, one plant after another but this is more than enough for this time. I have the whole year to show the rest of them! I sure am hoping for a mild winter again.

 I have way more plants to worry about getting frozen than what I had the last time we had freezing temperature here - about four or five years ago.

 

 

The Old White Chair Looking like Fall.........

As I was gardening this week I noticed my big tibouchina bush had a lot of leaves that have turned orange and it looked like fall.  I'm not sure if that is a natural thing for this bush or whether I have let mine get too dry or something. At any rate, I liked the look and decided right then to do an Old White Chair post using the bush as the backdrop.  After waiting a few days I found out this   morning that most of the orange leaves are on the ground but, I did the photo shoot there anyhow.........

So, I gathered up some of my favorite things and even without the orange leaves background I love the way the pictures turned out. I had a hard time limiting twenty-two pictures to nine.

Here you see that the old chair is near the wooden bench where the stone-face cat takes it's rest. I have a lot of falling leaves from a nearby tree already. They are not especially colorful so I embellished them a little with some of my indoor leaves.

One of my nieces, Wanda, made this basket for me years ago. I have so enjoyed having it and think it is the nicest grapevine basket I have ever seen.  It is showing a little wear and has lost a few twigs over the years but I am glad I have been able to hold on to it.

Also on the bench is my McCormick teapot.  I have had it a long time too. It was old when I bought it.

You already know how I like mossy flower pots.

My favorite fall tea cup is this Johnson Brothers one. I know some of you see it and the teapot  most every fall on at least one post. The cup will be showing up again when I show my fall indoors.

Literally, on my way out the door, I grabbed two magazines with a good look for this autumn scene.  Don't you just love the curlycues of the basket! 

  

This is enough to make me want to go make a cup of tea and snuggle up in the plaid blanket.

 

I am linked to Fishtail cottage Garden Party - here.

A Pride and Prejudice Wedding - part 2

If you missed part 1 of  "A Pride and Prejudice Wedding" please go here and look at it first.  I think you will be glad you did. 

"A lady's imagination is very rapid, it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment"

- Jane Austen

 

Emma and Peter arrived at Cyprus Grove together and had a little time to enjoy the upstairs Bridal Room.  As with the downstairs cake and champagne room, shown in part 1, this upstairs room was just great for this particular couple.

 

Most of the following pictures are from the wedding photographer, Castaldo Studio.

 

 Relaxing on the period sofa and maybe thinking of this line from the book, "I cannot fix on the hour, or the spot, or the look or the words, which laid the foundation.  It is too long ago.  I was in the middle before I had begun."  Notice the book page heart garland draped over the sofa. It was made by Emma's mother. While you are "noticing" look over Peter's left shoulder and see my hat pin holders, filled with hat pins.

Time to get ready to walk down the aisle. Again, over the shoulder - my glove holder and gloves.

Across the room awaits the rose and babies breath bouquet, another page garland and a few of my accessories.

 The rooms are bare of anything except a few pieces of furniture. Using these items here on one of the chairs made it seem warmer and takes you back to the days of Pride and Prejudice. 

Harpist, Christine MacPhail is always ready with her nice smile and music. She was outside for the short ceremony and moved here to play during the cake and champagne.

Going down the isle!

I don't have any of the actual ceremony pictures but, the following are after.

Mr & Mrs

Congratulations, and may you live happily ever after!

Pride and Prejudice Wedding ........

  Recently, I assisted my daughter Carrie with one of her Destination Occasion weddings http://www.destinationoccasion.com All the weddings are nice but, I was especially excited about this one because of the theme the bride chose - Pride and Prejudice. And so many things seemed just perfect. Starting with the venue location at beautiful.......

 

......Cypress Grove Park in southeast Orlando.

 

 

It truly is a beautiful place and especially for this wedding. The bride had only seen pictures but made a good choice of the venue for her special day. All these pictures are snapshots and not from the professional photographer.

 

 

The wedding was held in early morning which is a fine time when you are here from England and this being a destination wedding with no guests attending - just Emma and Peter. Emma is very much a Pride and Prejudice fan. And, she looks like she could have just stepped out of the story! Beautiful bride! They live only ten minutes away from where the movie was filmed.

 

 

Carrie often goes beyond the expected with her planning and provision. This time she secretly discovered Emma's favorite quote from the book,  printed it and a short announcement on book "pages".

 

 

The bride was surprised and seemed very pleased when she saw the pages on the cake table.

 

 

Another surprise, she found this old book and used it for carrying the rings. Unlike most of the destination brides, Emma did not invite Mickey and Minnie to the wedding but, seemed happy he was included inside the ring book

 

 

 

 

 

The ceremony took place outside on the back lawn area and this small intimate room with appropriate furnishings was good for the cake and champagne and pictures

 

The nice built-in cabinet is usually totally empty.  Carrie asked me to select some things from my décor and collections that might add to the ambiance.

 

 

You will notice another copy of Pride and Prejudice on the shelf.  This one was loaned by the florist.

 

Emma ordered the paper wedding cake. http://thoughtfulimagesink.com Her mother spent hours making heart garlands, etc. from book (yes, Pride and Prejudice) pages. They will be seen in part two. Notice the cake stand which looks like it is from the story era. If I remember correctly Carrie purchased it especially for this cake.

 

The small cake that you had to look close at before knowing it wasn't real satin, lace and beads was from a local baker, Lisa Dorn.  I have never seen prettier fondant work.

 

 

Very well done.

 

 

The bride and groom brought their own Mr. and Mrs. forks. The words are at the base of the tines.

I am going to stop here with part one and will do part two in a few days from now. It will include pictures from an upstairs Brides Room and outside shots.

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Fresh Cuts......

It has been awhile since we have had a "fresh cuts" post so that is what you get today and remember there is not much need for talk on "fresh cuts"......

This is probably my favorite fresh cuts arrangement so far.......

Pretty simple.  Just plumbago flowers, delicate euforbia and a few sprigs of the dark purple plant that I don't know the name of and other upright sprigs with tiny white flowers that I cannot remember the name of at the moment.....

......all in an old tea pot.

The pot is a Winsor from England.

The pot is rectangular in shape, even the lid.

Just the flowers

The small, square cake stand is more suitable for this arrangement than the woven basket that I have used most for "fresh cuts".