Cherry Blossoms

Cherry Blossoms
Originally uploaded by MarthaHughes

This is a photograph of the cherry tree in my yard. I have to thank my neighbor for saving it when our house was in the throes of a major renovation. Our house had stood abadoned for 8 or so years when the contractor bought it to rehab and flip it. He had plans to re-landscape the property as it was overgrown with weeds, plants and lots of trees that were overgrown or sick that needed to be cut down.  Thank god, my neighbor was able to persuade him to save some of the trees. I just can't imagine my yard without my cherry and locust trees.  The beauty they add to my garden is priceless and the shade they give me on our more frequently occurring hot summers days is beyond measure.

Spring is my favorite time of the year and I think the Pacific Northwest is in for an early one. My cherry tree is starting to show buds and there's lots of new growth appearing in my garden.  In a few short months my locust trees will be covered in blossoms, sending the intoxicating scent all over the neighborhood.  I can't wait.

As thrilled as I am at the prospect of an early spring I have to say to anyone who's reading this blog on the East Coast is: I'm sorry - I don't' mean to rub this in.

The Wish List for My Garden...

Amar and I have plans for the garden this year - big plans.  Last year we removed a holly tree to open of the space between the garage and the house.  It's a shady spot and grass doesn't grow there very well so we've decided to put in a deck complete with a fire pit and nice long banquets to lounge on. 

Then there's the breakefast patio Amar want's to put in that's right off the back porch.  Right now a mallow and a rosemary bush occupy the spot - they've sort of taken over the space and will need to dug up and moved somewhere else.  Once we get that done we'll have a nice sunny spot to enjoy coffee during the summer. 

Our last big project is the secret garden - which will run along the northside of the house.  I'm envisioning a grove of bamboo on one side to give provide us a  little privacy from our neighbors and on the side against the house I'll plant fushias and other shade loving plants and maybe a water feature.  It will be a sweet, serene little spot for me to escape to after a hard days work.

Then there's the rest of the garden - it's divided into 4 sections:  the inferno strip (the west side of the yard, and a south facing bed along the fence line and the parking strip), the woodland garden section that's under the big locust trees, the dappled shade garden on the other side of fence from the inferno strip and the shade/part shade garden under the cherry tree and the full sun section that faces the south that's inside the fence and along side the house.  I've got my wish list for the plants that I want to put in my garden:

• Lily of the Valley - to go in the woodland and shade/part shade section
• Rudebeckia - to go in the inferno strips
• Sicilian Mint to plant between the patio stones in the shade/part shade section
• Ornamental grasses for the inferno strip
• Sages - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Violas - shade/part shade and woodland garden section
• Daisies:  both Shastas and Marguerites - anywhere they'll grow!
• Bears Breeches - in the woodland garden
• Herbs:  Lemon Thyme, Basil, Chives and Lettuce - in the kitchen garden
• Purple Coneflower - to go in the inferno strips
• Hardy Fuschias - the secret garden
• Day Lilies - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Sea Holly - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Lavendar- for the full sun and inferno strip
• Coreopsis - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Hyssop - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Hostas - shade/part shade and woodland garden section
• Dicentras - shade/part shade and woodland garden section
• Anemones - shade/part shade and woodland garden section
• Poppies - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Cat Mint - for the fun sun and inferno strip
• Geum - for the full sun and inferno strip
• Deutzia - shade/part shade and woodland section
• Crocosmia -for the full sun and inferno strip
• Chocolate Cosmos - shade/part shade section

For those of you living in the Pacifice Northwest you might want to check out this great resource for choosing plants "Great Plant Picks" presented by Elisabeth Carey Miller Botantical Gardens.  It list over 800 plants well suited for those gardens in the maritime Pacific Northwest.  To save money I'm going to try and grow as many of my flowers from seeds and/or bulbs as possible.  So I will be using this guide to help make my selections.  Bulbs are no problem - but seeds are another story - so far I haven't been able to grow anything from seeds. 

I love my garden.  It's a lot of hard work and there are times where I'd rather do something other than to go out and dead-head blossoms, weed or even water.  But let me tell you - it's such a joy to sit back and be able to see the fruits of your labor.

Getting Back to Work

Yesterday was one of those glorious spring-like winter days that we get every now and then.  The garden hummingbird was out and about and running the garden.  He (or she) ran another hummingbird off and I think I irritated him because he dive bombed me a couple of times when I was in his favorite part of the garden.  Nothing excites me more than having butterflies and hummingbirds in my garden - it makes me feel like I'm doing something right. 

Not wanting such a beautiful day to go to waste, I decided that I would take this opportunity to work in my garden.  I was expecting that it was going to be tough going as I didn't spend anytime looking after my garden last year and it shows.  Happily, I found that pulling weeds and chopping back the over-growth wasn't that hard and I got a lot done.  It felt good to get out there and work.  I saw lots of signs that spring is on it's way.  I saw lots of new growth pushing it's way through the dirt. A new addition to my garden are these little white flowers - Snowdrops.  They're "volunteers" as I didn't plant them.  Each year I get these little suprises in the garden - lillies, scilla, forget-me-knots, foxgloves and those cute little orange poppies.  Most of the gardeners I know will pull out these plants but not me  - I like the idea of a natural garden and treat them as wildflowers.  Pretty soon I'll have tulips and daffodils galore - and I'll be able to see them!  Of course, this morning I'm feeling a little achey and I have been reaquainted with muscles I forget I had. 

One of the things I like about working in the garden is that it gives me time to contemplate my life, to think, to make plans, to daydream while I'm pulling weeds and dead-heading plants.  I'm the happiest when I'm working at a task - even if it takes me forever to get to starting the task (I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire).  Amar and I have lots of plans for the garden this summer and I'm sure I'll have lots opportunity to think/contemplate/daydream while in the garden.

Welcome to the newest incarnation of Bella Faire!

I wanted to start a blog dedicated to cooking.  Then I re-thought that idea and have decided that it really isn't feasible to do so right now.  After all, that I have enough challenges maintaining the three blogs I already have.  My latest ideal is to modify one of my existing blogs and this is the blog that is under consideration.  First of all, my readership is very small as it gets the least amount of attention of all my blogs.  

This blog started out as a way to promote an art fair that I was helping to organize a couple of summers ago.  However, it doesn't appear that "Bella Faire - Art in the Garden" will ever happen again.  So, I renamed my blog "Bella Faire - The Art of Gardening" and I had grand plans of writing all sorts posts about gardening, resplendid with photos of  the neighborhood and local gardens and, most importanly,  my garden.  Nothing really happened after that.  For one thing I didn't spend much time in my garden last summer (too hot!  lost interest - didn't have money to spend in the garden.)  and I haven't been gardening that much lately (it is winter after all!).  All in all, a dismal failure.

That brings me to cooking.  I do a lot of it - it's my most practical creative outlet.  And I like to eat, love to eat in fact.  I'm a good cook and I have all these aspirations of starting a "cooks garden" this summer - growing mostly herbs and lettuces with a few tomatoes plants thrown in to create the beginnings of the perfect salad.  So, you can see where I'm going with this - I'm combining my interests in gardening, cooking and photography into one under utilized blog.  How perfect is that I ask you???!!!

In the future you will see this blog filled with photos from my garden, planting tips, recipes for my favorite things go cook and maybe a few "favorite blog features".  I see all sorts of possibilities for this blog and all of them are great! 

Stay tuned for more.

Best,

martha

Our Summer Vacation

Amar's sister and her family spent their summer vacation with last year. We really enjoyed spending time with them and I was there with my trusty camera to document just about every waking moment we had with them. I hope this video goes beyond your ordinary, average vacation photo album.

Art in the Garden

T Rex Lives!!!
Originally uploaded by Martha {Dancing Monkey Jewelry}

Saw this in my neighbor's yard on a walk - I love it. My dog, well, let's just say he doesn't know what to think of it and did a fair amount of growling when he first saw it.

I love art in the garden. It adds interest and gives you something to look at during the winter months. I intend to add some statuary in my secret garden and maybe a water feature - though I'm not sure if either of those would be considered "art".

When life has other plans...

This post isn't going to be about gardening. Though there's plenty to write about. My garden has been terribly neglected this year (to the point of being embarrassing) and it's also been the first year a hummingbird has staked it out as "his" garden - I've been dive bombed a couple of times when I get to close to the buddelia that he favors. Also, there has been abundance of butterflies this year. So there you go - a little good to go with the bad.

What do you do when everything seems to be going wrong for you? Me? Well, I can't seem to hold back and next thing you know I'm calling my family, texting my friends, posting on my social network sites and write about it in my blog. For some reason it's very therapeutic for me - let's me work out my angst and I get words of encouragement from those who know and love me. The problems don't go away but it's nice to know that other's have similar experiences and have come through relatively unscathed.

I've been on vacation for the last week. We have family visiting from England - Amar's sister and her family. For the most part it's been quite nice getting to spend time with them. Throw in a couple of illnesses, a cranky old dog (seen in the photo above) who isn't tolerating small children and the transmission going out in my car in the middle of an outing and I'm telling you I'm seriously considering not taking a vacation for a very long time. What's even more stressful is that I've got one week left of vacation and I don't think I'll be able to survive week two if it is like week one.

What are my plans? Well...I'll be relying on public transit to get to work and home for the new few weeks. Transmissions repairs are quite expensive my web research has told me - so there will be a fair amount of scrimping and saving. And then I'll be trying to generate some sales in my on-line shops (hint, hint). All in all, this hasn't been a banner year for me (along with a lot of other people) so I'll be happy when 2010 rolls around - I just want to be done with 2009.

So...if you want to help out a fellow crafts person/photographer/blogger and make a purchase from one of my shops (or even leave some words of encouragement on my blog) I'd be most appreciative. Right now I feel like I'm standing in the middle of a swamp and I've lost my path to land in front of me and there are alligators snapping behind me. Not the best position to be in but at least I'm still standing. And there's plenty gardening to keep me occupied as long as the hummingbird doesn't mind.