I’ve been completely lost in the limbo land between buying and selling a home. It seems as if all we’ve done this spring and summer is work on one or the other house or garden and move objects between them. Cats are confused. I am exhausted. My blog has been neglected. I’ve been painting walls and longing to paint again from a palette rather than a can. I am excited to move into my new home though and I love it madly even though it’s stolen all of my time. The most challenging and emotional part of all this has been moving the gardens, deciding which plants to keep and which to leave and where they go and all that jazz. These photos were taken last week at the beach house garden. Everything has changed dramatically again. Faded irises have given way to an explosion of daisies, coreopsis, and foxglove. So much inspiration. So little time.
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Happy Birthday a few hours early!!!!
That Iris is beyond divine and I’m sure your new garden will be even better. Is that a neighbor’s kitty I spy?
PS. Have been thoroughly enjoying the Teaberry gum and the childhood memories it inspires. Thank you so very much.
Thank you Lisa.
So happy you are enjoying the gum.
The cat is Zinky or Minky or Mingus or Binky or Maw Maw. He seems to be called quite a lot of names. I’m not sure which is official. He kills butterflies.
You so cracked me up with that last random tidbit about Zinky-Minky-Mingus-Binky.
I was having a Jean-Pierre Jeunet moment.
encouragement
Good luck as you continue to move and replant. I’m sure your new garden will be just as lovely as the one you’re leaving.
Re: encouragement
Thank you. I know it will but I am sentimental and impatient!
Beautiful! *smile*
We just went through the hell of moving, too, from an apartment to a home we purchased in April. It’s really something, isn’t it? Our new place is in a cute, sort of gingerbread-housey looking area in the historic area of town. I have six rosebushes in six different colors and a nicely cleared area perfect for herbs and tomatoes.
It’s a whole different energy from renting.
Congratulations on your new home and garden. I’ve never much cared for renting, especially when investing so much in the landscape. This could be the place we stick with. The beach house always felt temporary.
Everything is just so beautiful. I know your new garden will be just as beautiful and even more special with your chickens! I can’t wait to see your new house!
Moving a garden is hard. I felt I was abandoning some of my children when I left plants behind. Edited to add: and your pictures are beautiful.
Thank you. Yes, this is how I feel about it. I wonder if someone will care for them. This is not as tough as leaving the garden in Boston though. This is hard but that was heartbreaking.
The beach. The garden. The beauty. OH MY!
But just think – now you’ll have a place to make an even bigger spiral garden! And lots of other wonderful things as well :~)
Have a happy birthday ~ hope you have some time to celebrate YOU!
The new spiral garden will wind through the woods.
I’m taking the day off today for my bday. I need a lazy day and hoping for a Thai or Japanese dinner. :)
Happy birthday! The flowers look lovely and I know your new garden will be even more splendid than the one you are leaving behind. Get some rest today!
I didn’t rest so now I am resting from the day of resting. I walked all over Boston and was pleasantly surprised to see two art exhibitions that I actually liked and another that I loved.
Happy Birthday!
I know how a much can take over your life! I hope it’s all done soon.
Beautiful photos. Moving a garden must be very hard…
beautiful <3!
Thank you.
I know the fustration of moving and cleaning and painting!
Happy Birthday!
Thank you. Yes, two of those three are not my favorite things to do.
Happy Birthday! It’s so good to see your garden again. :-)
Thank you. I have a lot more pictures coming up. I have to thoroughly document my garden before I leave it.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! … it’s still technically your birthday out here in the West! :) :)
And thank you for posting such beautiful photos of the flowers from your beach garden … I love that you captured one of the ‘confused’ kittens in the last pic. Hope you all settle in nicely to your new place!! :)
Thank you. Yes, I like the birthday extension idea. I was up all night because I had such a nice day that I wanted it to be longer. More pics of the beach garden coming up.
I want to be a tiny mystical insect in your garden. Happy Birthday to you! Can’t wait to see photos of the new place.
Thank you. We’ve been working on the inside so we can move in. We’ll start working on the gardens soon and take pictures of our progress.
I know a bank wheron the wild thyme grows …
You must be aching that good achy feel that comes from pouring your physical and metaphysical self into something you love.
Hope it won’t be long before you can stand back from your creations to admire them, at least for a while before the maintenance part starts.
It might interest you to know that I first heard that quote in my subject line not from A Midsummer Night’s Dream but from the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers as delivered by Kevin McCarthy to Dana Wynter (who was a pretty fair-looking brunette herself).
Oh, and a most Happy Birthday to you.
Re: I know a bank wheron the wild thyme grows …
Achy. Yes. That’s me. You are right that I like it that way. I’m always pouring myself into something. It’s how I keep my mind and spirit healthy. It’s probably not bad for the body either.
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is the movie that terrifying me more than any other. There are times when I have felt like that last man at the end. I can relate to him completely!
Re: I know a bank wheron the wild thyme grows …
I know what you mean.
After Katrina, I rebuilt part of and repaired all of my roof which had been heavily damaged in the hurricane, which I documented over the months in LJ.
I somehow managed it by myself and, despite the seemingly never-ending excrutiatingly hot and dirty task I faced, finished it in August, 2006. And I loved every minute of the process. What a sense of accomplishment! It was really a blessing in disguise – for me.
In fact, I missed being up on my roof so much (especially when the Sun went down and the cool night breezes swept over me) I went up one last time a few days after I’d finished it and wrote this post:
http://metaphorsbwithu.livejournal.com/62073.html
It was the most satisfying feeling of my life and I’d never trade the experience for anything (although I’m still dealing with some of the damage and repairs inside my home). So like I said, I can totally relate.
Btw, did you know the ending of the original Invasion of the Body Snatchers (“YOU’RE NEXT! YOU’RE NEXT!”) upset test audiences so much they ADDED that scene in the beginning and end where he’s being seen by doctors who think he’s crazy and someone brings in a driver who was in an accident and he was trucking in the pods?
Yep! That is one of my favorites too, and as relevant today as it was in the fifties. Sometimes I truly wonder who’s walking around here these days. :-D
Out of touch
I’m so sorry I’ve been MIA more than you! I thought about it being your birthday and yet I never sent you a message about it. I hope you somehow feel me when I’m full of thoughts of you because you certainly wouldn’t know from any “normal” communication.
That aside. That wine colored iris is faded? Or is it truly that color? I must say I’ve never seen one like it.
I currently have a huge blossoming of yellow Iris in my garden. I don’t have a camera, it’s gone truly MIA, or I’d share a picture of it.
Foxglove is a favorite of mine. I refuse to pull it up though most consider it a weed around here!!
Re: Out of touch
No worries. I’m sorry about your camera though. I would be quite upset if my camera went missing.
The iris is not yet faded in the picture. It was faded by the time I got around to posting it. Now it is on the ground. I’m surprised that anyone would consider foxglove a weed. Seriously? I never heard that before.