Ten Things Thursday

Today is all about porches, a pool and sunrooms.

I love everything about this pool setting--the woodsy background, the fence, the fringed umbrellas, the loungers with those cute pillows and fringed---towels? I also like the color of the pool tile and water. Just everything about this looks so inviting.

I always love these porch scenes. But I also know how unrealistic it is. Any outdoor space require a lot of cleaning--a lot--if you want it to look pristine like this! There is always a thick layer of pollen, dust, leaf debris--on a daily basis. It's not like you can clean it once a week and be done. It's every day!! Every day!

All I can say is OMGosh! So beautiful!! That hanging moss means it's somewhere in Mississippi or Louisiana. Which also means, it's hot, hot, hot!

Okay, come on! I do not believe that you can have climbing roses inside. But it sure is pretty.

Another beautiful sunroom. Love the furniture and that ceiling! It looks like it might have been added on to an exterior wall. Love the shiny tile floor too.

Love this pink and green so much!!

All that white!!! Totally love it! That ceiling, all the light and windows (which only look good if they are perfectly clean which is kind of hard to maintain), the view which is also perfectly clean. I'm no convinced that it would look like this ALL the time with a lot of work. 

Can you tell I am tired of working? It's all too much! I have so much to clean out of our house. It's overwhelming, but I swear, I'm going to get on it! I have been getting rid of books since I plan to move all of my scrapbooks to the library. 

Okay, that's enough for today.

What I Buy Wednesday

My granddaughter, Morgan had my first great-grandbaby on May 5th. Sorry, I am not allowed to put pictures of this beautiful baby on social media. Her name is Cassidy Luna (Luna is the tiny village in the Philippines where her other grandma grew up). I immediately ordered flowers to be delivered.

This is the bouquet that was to be delivered. Morgan & Olly live in a small town in Illinois.

         

The flowers were to be delivered on Wednesday. I texted Stephanie to see if they had arrived. They did not. They didn't arrive on Thursday either. On Friday I called. They promised that they'd be delivered that day. But, no, they didn't arrive until Saturday. Steph sent me this picture. 

Considering it was not one bit "girlie" nor what I ordered, I called to complain. Right at that moment--before anyone answered--Steph texted me that these flowers came from someone else!

The flowers didn't arrive on Saturday or Sunday--which was Mother's Day. First thing Monday morning, I contacted the company to cancel my order and get my money back. I told them it was too late. They told me that I would receive a refund in 24-48 hours. Instead, I got it almost immediately. Okay, I was happy with that.

Later in the day on Monday, Morgan texted me that the flowers had arrived. I asked her to take a picture. Here is what they sent:

Although it's sort of pretty, it's still not at all what I ordered! I told Morgan it turned out to be a "win/win" as I got my money back and they delivered some flowers. 

This is the second time that I've ordered flowers and they have not been what I ordered--at all! You can read about the other arrangement here.

I get that maybe they don't have every flower, but it seems to me that--that's the reason they use basic flowers--daisies, roses and carnations. And, there's nothing particularly special about the colors. In fact, if I was ordering mauve colored roses, I would have thought that might not be possible. But regular pink? Come on, baby pink is what you want for a baby!

Travel Tuesday

I'll be traveling this week, so don't have anything new to report. So, instead, I thought I'd share this information for anyone planning to come to Tennessee anytime soon.

Me on Monday

So, I've done it again! I've bought a "sucker" plant. I haven't bought one in probably 20 years. I know they don't live. They only look beautiful for a few days. But, I fell for it again! 

This flower is called a Fuchsia. It's red, pink and purple. Really so pretty. 

I know better, but I thought I'd try it again. I'll keep you posted!! Maybe this time I have it in the perfect place--full shade. We'll see.

Something for Sunday

When I saw this, I just had to figure out how many of these shows I've seen. Many of them were favorites of mine.

I've only watched 26 of them. What about you?

Friends on Friday!

So, I've decided to add something else new to my blog. Sometimes on Friday, I'll be posting specifically about my friends. 

Let's start with the 2026 Steeplechase. Steeplechase is sort of what they call "the social event of the year!" It's a place to see people and be seen. But, after 40 years, I'm over it! It's a very long day. Luckily, the weather was beautiful--some years it's been brutally hot! It's always hot in the sun so I bring an umbrella. 

We had a good day, but by the end of the 3rd race, I was getting tired. We left the house at 10:30 and now it was 3:00. Turns out, they moved the Iroquois (the main race of the day) to the 5th race--to start at 4 p.m. Everyone was on board to leave after this race. So we did. We were stuck in some of the traffic, and didn't get home until 5:30! Still better than 6:30 or 7. 

We do some light betting and I won this year--$16.00--but, I had $10 in the pool. 

Mindy, Nancy, me and Bonnie.

Justin, Nicky, Butch and Dave

Since Stephanie was up at Morgan and Olly's with the new baby, I invited Nancy to join us. I always say that she's my friend that says yes to anything I want to do!

Trees on Thursday

So, I've decided to do something a little different. Today, I'm going to focus on our trees. 

In January when we had our "big freeze"--we lost many huge limbs from our trees. As a result, they look decimated on one side and fine on the other. 

This is a scraggly pine and not particularly attractive. This is the good side.

This is the side you see from the street. So ugly! But taking it down completely would leave a pretty big hole in our landscape. It's already looking sparse since our neighbor lost a lot of their trees on that side. Plus we had several other large limbs lost.

And then there's this one:

This is from the street side. You can tell that it's sparse on the other side.

It's almost bare on this side. This is/was a pretty sawtooth oak. A lot of our trees seem a little lopsided now. And to top it off, we had an entire dogwood tree topple over during the ice storm. It was there since 1985 and was right in front of the house near the shade garden. Although I hated to see it go--after all, it was 40 years old, there's enough greenery on that side, that it didn't leave a gap. 

Then, you might recall the demise of this 50/60ft. magnolia tree that toppled over in 2020.

At that time, it left a huge hole.

We replaced it with a forest pansy redbud--which died within the first year. I was determined that I would get another. It has taken a few years, but I persisted!

Voila'--my new forest pansy redbud!

I just love that it adds color and a new texture to the landscaping. Redbuds grow horizontally and have pretty, heart-shaped leaves. But we do have a problem. We are currently in the middle of a drought. This is happening:

Our trees are so stressed that they are dropping leaves like crazy. We have a sprinkler system, but it has only been turned on in the last week--when the new tree was planted. In addition, we are watering the new tree. Planting in the spring is not ideal--fall is better. But sometimes you can't get what you want in the fall. So, we're making the best of it. 

Also, in the winter of 2025, the green giant arborvitae on the left lost about 4 ft. from the top. It turned completely brown. We didn't know if that meant the whole thing was going to die or what. I had my garden people cut the brown out. That looked ridiculous most of last summer--half the size of it's 4 brothers!

Now look at it this year--almost all caught up. These are the best conifers for screening as they grow 3 to 5 ft. a year! They last for 50 years--150 in ideal conditions. By next year, we should not be able to see the house behind us at all. You might recall that I was not happy that the new owners cut down the patch of woods that separated us and formed natural privacy. Pretty soon--another year or so, it won't matter.

And finally...

This is the view from my bed! I love looking out this window in the early morning. There's such a variety of colors--and that red--that's what I've been waiting for!!