Bounty Season

It is late August already! Where does the time go?

The beach trip accomplished what it needed to do...it put me into the wonder zone. The season of the golden light arrived on a Friday, August 8th. A clear golden breezy day at work, that shifted me into the awareness that summer will soon fade. The enjoyment of it's last moments has become priority. Everything I see is so fully blooming and lush, in spite of a serious dry spell. It puts me in a beauty buzz. All I want to do is hang in the gardens, water thirsty plants to make them happy, dream and paint.

I arrived home to the harvest season. Celebrating with large pots of gumbo, tomato sandwiches with whole leaves of basil and fresh mozzarella on crusty ciabatta, and an out this world squash casserole that my friend Carol recommended, with her recommended additions of peppers and such. Yum! I harvested a beautiful bag of carrots this week that will go into a batch of samosas, as will some potato's dug last month. The samosas, frozen and reheated make such a simple, delicious meal after a long day of work. I am addicted to the cilantro chutney I dip them in.

In between cooking and painting I stare at my garden. The Nicotiana 'White Jasmine' is beautiful and so fragrant, bouncing back easily from the neighbors clumsy golden retriever, who has no respect for plants.

I love Pans crown. I keep photographing him in different light. Someday I will try to paint the image.

Finn unlike the retriever, 'tippy toes' into the beds more often than not, to fetch the occasional ball from my wild throws. He also steers the other dogs away from the garden if things are getting rowdy. I do try to heft the ball or stick over the hedge into the neighbors yard. They have no gardens. But they did recently mow. Finn brought home four balls he recovered from the field over the hedge yesterday. I have a large collection of sticks on my roof.

Finn stashes balls on every property we work on. I'll catch him plunging his head into a huge hosta to grab a saved and treasured toy when he needs one on the job. Michael has been away, putting in another beautiful pond, leaving Finn confused and whining for him at work.

Fortunately Matt helps out a bit making Finn very happy. When I am working I am not as easily distracted by ball playing as the boys are. Actually, he barks obnoxiously at them til they relent and throw the thing. Finn knows, when I grab the hose, it is time to hunker down in the shade of an evergreen and supervise me.

I do enjoy this cross quarter season before labor day. I call it bounty season. A stillness accompanies these golden days, the plants seem to pump up their life force, knowing time is short for showing off. The insect chorus provides the background music, I watch the 'Empress of India' nasturtiums glow in the sun, the moonvine and datura glow like the moon, and the butterflies flit from bloom to bloom.

It is magic, and makes all we did in the spring so worth the sweat and effort.

Traveling out of the Norm

I'll return in a week or so, but I am traveling off the hamster wheel to play on the beach with Finn & family. The gardens are all looking amazing at the hieght of the summer season, all weeded watered and groomed. They will be fine til I get back from dancing on the beach.

Speaking of dancing, I love this video.......






Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

50th Annual Homes Tour

Blowing Rock's 50th annual home tour is next weekend. We will be getting the gardens of Miramichi, a Cherokee word, meaning happy retreat, ready for busloads of visitors.

Miramichi was restored in 2006, we began restoring the gardens in November of that year. At the time they had suffered from years of neglect and two years of construction.

With the help of Graham, Michael and Robbie, who befriended me when they were working at Shadowlawn, which is also on this years home tour. I was working in a small garden across the street.

Robbie's dog Sophie was Finn's first friend. She patiently taught Finn how to puppy play, while we worked in neighboring gardens.

We dug out massive overgrowth of Iris, orange daylillies, Black eyed Susan and blackberry. They helped me bring in loads of good soil, spread mulch, and hauled away mountains of debris.

It was like digging for treasure, in an archaeological dig, peeling out columbine babies from massive networks of ancient Iris roots. We kept plenty of the plants found in the gardens while sifting through the overgrowth. The peonies, baptisia, fragrant Hyperion daylillies, trillium and Turkscap Lilles, Iris and Phlox. We added Helleborus, Hydrangea endless summer, Echinacea 'Big Sky' , bleeding heart and ferns.

Last Fall we added two 'Million Dollar Red' Trellises, matching the trim on the house for the massive 'New Dawn' Rose and Clematis used to screen the generator. Which I just realized I have never photographed....

But, the gardens are coming along nicely, and ready to be seen.

This is the last big event we have to complete from our spring agenda. I am also putting a beautiful new coat of paint on the walls in the basement. A project I have put off for way too long. It is cooler down there, and after today I will have a beautiful and cool studio to paint in. I have come come a long way since the basement flood two weeks ago. After this wonderful but demanding spring, I think I need a vacation~

Saturday I am heading to Cape Hatteras for a week with the family by the ocean. Finn has never met the ocean, he will love it, as I will love spending time with my family and granddaughter. I will be packing my watercolors.

Sweet Mimosa

I was mowing the grass last night, so happy that it was lush and green again, thanks to the recent and regular rain we are having. I got to one corner of the back garden and smelled it...the Mimosa above me was in bloom. On the ground I found a perfect blossom laying at my feet, picked it up and deeply inhaled. I love the scent of Mimosa. It is so haunting and romantic.

I know my Mimosa tree is an invasive alien pest.....but the scent is awesome. I wonder if all the plant Nazi's were to eradicate this 'pest', which I am sure is quite good at colonizing territory, what would a warm southern summer night smell like with out them?

Also known as the Silk Tree, these exotic ornamental trees are native to Iran though Japan. They were introduced to our continent about the time this country, as we know it was born. They are masters at colonizing along riparian areas, traveling downstream easily. So clever.. that they block out light to other native species. Greed is not limited to humans. I have a few more saplings trying to establish themselves in my forsythia along the property line that I do need to deal with, later. In the meantime I am inhaling every molecule of beautiful fragrance I can get during it's brief time in flower. I am also studying and paint the blooms and the leaves.

How long has it been since I really studied the anatomy of a Mimosa flower. They are so delicate, subtly colored...the feminine reproductive tube is loaded with sweet nectar, hidden in the yellow ...turning to pink at the ends, filament like flower petals. All held securely by spring green colored tiny sepals. If held upright, the petals are geometrically and perfectly spread on a dome shape, all exactly the same length.

According to the British Flower and Vibrational Essences Association the signature of the Mimosa flower and it's healing properties is is used for peaceful sleep and relaxation. The pink color resonates with the heart and encourages forgiveness. Well duh! Who can hold a grudge in the midst of such a sweet fragrance?

I did sleep and dream well last night. Mimosa' motto is "My bright head greets the morning and my leaves sleep at night"

Nature does often blow my mind.

Dog Days and Flooding

I just realized I have not posted at all this month. Much has been happening.

I got called up for Jury duty last week, the day after my water heater overheated and poured 50 gallons of water onto my basement floor. It was all quite an adventure, saving the oriental wool rug with the rug doctor machine, in two day spurts between Jury duty at the courthouse in town.

But it did help me to hop off the hamster wheel of work and get my basement cleaned, a job that need to be done anyway. Fixing the heater was no big deal and I did give my own lawn and gardens the special attention it deserved while the plumber worked in the basement. So much got done in the three days I was off work, it all turned out to be a big ole blessing~

We have been getting wonderful rainstorms most evenings, so my gardens are flushing up and radiating deep green health. Even the mountains are looking deep green and shiny. The plant kingdom is having a major party in celebration.

About dog days...The Saturday before the water heater incident Finn had an epileptic seizure on the kitchen floor. A new experience for both of us and very unsettling. We also found out that day that Finn's father, Tank, has been diagnosed with Lymphoma, and that it was terminal. Our family is devastated by this news. Most especially my oldest daughter, who is now feeding him the BARF diet based on raw foods for dogs. I will go this route with Finn as well when I can find a supplier, or learn to make it myself.

After the basement incident I decided to treat myself to quiet hours of painting. I am out of practice after the spring work marathon. But I have entered two paintings in some local shows at the end of the month with the High County Water media Society. I also enjoyed a demo at the meeting from Cathy Futral in acrylics. I decided to stick to water colors, after the demo, and save experimenting with acrylic painting until winter. As always, watching another artist work opens up new ways to work with the medium I am already using and brings in much needed inspiration.

Finn has not had much fun through out the basement incident and my retreat into painting. So we went to Wilson's Creek on Sunday morning. This time he actually went down the small falls above the swimming hole at Lady Rock. He is quite the water dog and very entertaining to watch. I did bring my camera this time......

All this, right in my back yard!

Hail

Just as we finished with the final touches on the gardens along Wonderland Trail last week, a hail storm arrived and massacred everything in sight. In less than fifteen minutes, this entire garden was in shreds.

I have never seen Hosta looking so pitiful

So, we groomed, replanted and fertilized everything.

The gardens looked much better by the end of the week. But the tedious stooping over every single hosta carefully removing damaged leaves to expose new young ones took it's toll on my body. My back took in a lot of sun radiation in a Rose garden in Wilksboro as well, while pruning, removing diseased foliage and fertilizing on a scorching hot day. Not to mention the never ending dehydration.

All the gardeners I know have just about reached total burn out.

I can hear it in my daughters voices when we talk on the phone. Even though there is good news to share, like my eldest, Airynee calling to tell me she just had a photo shoot with Southern Living Magazine, for the gardens she is creating at Goodstone Inn in Middleburg, Virginia, we are acknowledging the need for personal restoration and balance.

It seems I will be needed on Goodstone as well. Airynee wants me to do some design work on CAD for the long term garden planning they need to do. I will head up there in July to begin.

It is hard to believe I was just up there a couple of weeks ago for a visit. June has been such a busy and productive month. I spend the weekend in quiet, resting, eating and painting my garden.

Ahhhhhh gentle rainstorms all weekend....I am in heaven.

Even Finn is spending the weekend sleeping in the sandbox.....

Way Hot

My White Siberian Iris is blooming, so I sketched it. It was way too hot this weekend to do anything, but go zen and sketch. I also contemplated The Way of Bee's.

I was so dehydrated from the work week, and hungry, no time to eat last week. We were in the ER resuscitating plants everywhere we planted.

I was gathering anger at the weather, stressing out about 'my gardens' and I was spiraling into energy whack. Bee's were aggressively scouting me in my garden. I usually have no issues with the buzzy stinging ones, but I was making them nervous, so they made me nervous. One sat on my head and in no uncertain terms made me aware of it. Something was up, and they were trying to tell me to chill.

I was going into 'me' and 'mine' energy.....whoops! Where had I stung or been stung recently?

I puttered, painted, drank lots of water, swam in Wilson's creek with my dog. I immersed my self in the cool water and soaked in the sun on a rock, like an old seal.

It was wonderful to feel chilled after I emerged from the cold water. I looked upwards at the skyline of the mountains above me, and absorbed the beauty of my environment. Fortunately, Finn had a few children to play with which gave me the time to get into this space. He had a blast. I surely think that dog would swim until he had a heart attack, if I didn't pull him out occasionally to rest up.

I reveled in my microcosmic place in the world, while allowing the macrocosm take care of its self.

We did magnetize a rainstorm to Ski Mountain right as we finished work this afternoon.

Apparently it didn't rain anywhere south of us. But we saw the potential clouds and invited them to the garden. It worked! A special Thank You to the nature spirits for that.