Garden Gate Arbor and Clematis

The clematis that covers our garden gate arbor is in full bloom now!

This has been such a rainy week here in Massachusetts that it took some doing to get photos!

 But I was able to run out in between rainfalls and snap some photos before these beauties are but a memory.

 I love this simple arbor that my husband built over the garden gate. I'm hoping we can salvage it when we replace the fence and gate later this year. After 26 years, they are beyond repairing and mending, which is what we've been doing for years.

 Two weeks ago, when I shared photos of the screen feeder flower box, the black 6-pack pots were still very visible and the clematis was a mass of buds, just waiting to burst forth.

 What a difference two weeks make! The lavender is thriving, the impatiens is growing leaps and bounds, completely covering the sides of the 6-pack pots now, and the clematis is putting on a show behind them!

 Back on May 25th...

 And from the same angle on June 8th.

May 24th, from the deck, looking toward the backyard gate. 

Again, no clematis and the flowers had just been plunked down on the screen feeder.

 The same view, photo taken on June 8th.

 This photo was taken 2 weeks ago. The lavender was just starting to open.

But just look at it now, 2 weeks later. Heavenly!

  Late May, the lavender and impatiens were starting to take off.

 June 8. They're continuing to thrive.

 I think it's going to be another successful year of 'non-planting' on the screen feeder! 

Click here to see my original DIY post on using just the 6-pack pots without doing any planting.

Have a lovely weekend, everyone!!

Donna

Spring has sprung!

Spring is finally in full bloom here in New England!


And after the LONG winter we just went through, we are welcoming it with open arms!


Here in the backyard the white bleeding hearts are in bloom....


... as are the red & white columbine.


I hope the hummingbirds arrive before they stop blooming!


We have so much work to do in our little backyard area. This past weekend we got all the furniture out and set up the patio. Then I put a little picket fence around the perennials we planted last year. Within the next week or two we will be getting a load of bark mulch to spread around.


I got up into the girls' old treehouse to take this photo of the front yard. The hoppa crab tree was in full bloom when I took this photo last week.


Let's go through the gate and see what's in bloom out front...

A closeup of the apple blossoms...

And one of my favorite plants, my pink bleeding heart.

Once this little plant pops through the ground in the spring, it grows leaps and bounds...

It's going to be so much fun watching all the perennials come into bloom over the next few months! I think I'll be planting one of these in the backyard as well.. I just love them!

Please visit Cindy at My Romantic Home to see the incredible roses from her garden, and to find a list of everybody else participating in Show & Tell Friday!

I hope you are all enjoying beautiful weather wherever you are!

Donna

Bird love... such a 'sweet thing'

I love the candy hearts with messages on them. When they pop up on store shelves, I know that Valentine’s day must be fast approaching…


Hearts … such a sweet symbol of love…

I happened to glance out the window today and spotted a little junco looking up at me. I went to grab my camera, and honestly didn't expect him to still be there when I got back to the window...


(click any photos to enlarge)
... but he was. It won't be long before he is flying north to Canada for the summer.…


He sat on the gate for the longest time, just looking up at the dining room window and the feeder… Perhaps he was memorizing them so he’ll be able to head straight back here next winter.


He was perched right above the heart cut-out on the backyard gate (that I wrote about here)… I like to think he was sending me some valentine love…


So eat up before your long flight, little junco… And rest assured, the feeder will be full and waiting for you when you return next winter!

Donna (we're expecting another 6+ inches of snow today... brrrrrr)

The old garden gate...

I dread the day this sweet old gate swings open for the last time… I love it as much today - no, I love it even more than I did when hubby built it back in the fall of 1994…


Our youngest was just starting school that year, and now she’s in college. It’s the gate that swung wide for all the neighborhood kids to come for a dip in the pool… And it’s the gate that our sweet doggies could peek through if they wanted to know what was going on in the world beyond their backyard.


Hubby built the gate to my exact specifications…I wanted a simple arbor above the gate for the clematis (which have just started blooming)… I wanted the stockade pickets spaced apart so you could see a hint of the outside world, or a peek into the garden, depending upon which side you stood… I wanted the pickets to get shorter and shorter toward the center of the gate…


…..and I wanted the gate to have a heart… After all, a heart is the symbol of love, and I loved all the memories being made in our little yard, and I loved all the people that came and went through that little gate.


The ‘heart’ of the gate offers a little glimpse into the magic that awaits you when you enter…. If you look in this direction, you might see a hummingbird feeding at the hanging fuchsia…


…and if you look over here, you might see a new Mr. & Mrs. Wren starting to build their home in this birdhouse that we just put up yesterday…


But for years now, the wood has started to rot away… Pickets are being nailed and renailed into fewer and fewer places where the wood is still strong enough to hold a nail or screw. The old wheel that once allowed the gate to roll effortlessly is long gone. Some of the pickets have broken at the bottom of the gate, but I wouldn’t change a one of them. The broken pickets have resulted in the little hole that our Chip(s) use to enter the backyard, gather their peanuts, and then scamper back through the opening with cheeks so full of peanuts that they barely fit!


Yes, it’s a lovely gate… old, worn, full of memories, built with love… It welcomes our family, friends, birds and all the little creatures that visit our little yard. I pray it lasts many, many more years as I’m not even close to ready for a new garden gate…


Donna

Today's song: Home is where the heart is - Elvis Presley