Our New Herb Garden

 This is a sphere our daughter-in-law, wife of our youngest son, welded. She welded this sphere out of horse shoes our son removed from horses to replace their worn horse shoes. Every amazing item our beloved daughter-in-law welds is composed of used horse shoes she has to clean of rust and dirt before she can even begin to create her works of art. There is a whole lot of hard and very dirty work involved in simply making the horse shoes usable in her horse shoe compositions.

 My husband built the pergola in the background last year. This year he made an herb garden. The main feature of our new herb garden is the two spheres welded by our daughter-in-law, and the herbs.

 We are going to mount the spheres on tree stumps from our woods, soon.

 The herb garden also borders the driveway and our front yard. The sidewalk divides the herb garden from the front yard and walkway from the driveway.

 My old cat Miss Marple likes to sun herself in the new herb garden.

Even more is going on in the back yard and gardens. Our deck was rebuilt last year, we are in the process of making an outdoor kitchen/cooking/eating area now. Life in this part of Washington is coming to terms with the high and dry summer heat and learning to live with it and love it.We will have a covered eating area near the barbecue and smoker.This corner of our new (replaced) deck is where I've placed pots of herbs and flowers that will be moved later when our outdoor kitchen is done. My new chicken house is the building seen here in the background.

Life here has been glorious, we're so happy and blessed to live here. We're enjoying the many blessings of being near our sons and their families and also, now that we're retired , we're enjoying and appreciating the ability to set our schedule and time for ourselves. ( Hey, if we want to take a nap or just kick back and read a good book, we can !)

We have made many changes to our new home and farm for the better. We've improved our pastures, made vegetable and herb and flower gardens. My husband has invested much time and money in making our bee yard better for the bees and for increasing our honey production. Our poultry yard provides more eggs than we can use, but we're able to share the bounty with family and neighbors. My sheep have increased beyond my wildest dreams simply because sheep really do thrive on pasture ... amazing ! My husband and I love our new home more than we could have ever anticipated and I am thankful beyond what I can express. God is so good !

Thursday Tea In The Garden

 Thursday tea in the herb garden is a time of sitting quietly, sipping the herb tea I brewed in my pink teapot, eating the crackers smothered in cream cheese blended with chopped chives and chive blossoms from this very garden while soaking up the sights, sounds and scents of spring in full bloom.

 "Tea is quiet and our thirst for tea is never far from our craving for beauty ." James Norwood Pratt

 "Doing nothing is respectable at tea. " Sasaki Sanmi

 After a generous tea time I walked around Cedar Pond checking out the gardens as I watered them. The garden shown above is the vegetable garden my husband plants and tends. The garlic, onions, strawberries , and peas are coming along quite nicely. The slugs have been giving him a hard time with the beans and lettuces. He has to re-plant them, dang those slugs.

 Our rhododendrons are amazing to see from a distance. These bushes are taller than me !

 "Tea is a divine herb." Xu Guangqi

"Perhaps it is while drinking tea that I most of all enjoy the sense of leisure. " George Gissing

Tea in my gardens is a blessing and a pleasure I don't take for granted. All I need do is brew a pot of my favorite tea , choose a pretty teacup, take them to the garden ,forget the weeding and garden chores for a short while , sit down and enjoy !

Bird Bath Planter

 The bird bath did not fare well over the winter and the cracks in the pottery caused by freezing weather were too numerous to repair . I took a slightly smaller ( than the bird bath ) resin basin and placed it inside the bird bath so it could still hold water for the birds. Then I planted primroses all around in basin.

 Cheerful, don't you think ?

 Speaking of cheerful , how about my frizzled hen ? She's fluffy AND cheerful.

 

Blue Bottle Garden

 The blue and white anemones are blooming, heralding spring.

 This year I am determined to do a major re-do in my herb garden aptly named 'Blue Bottle Garden' because I have two blue bottle trees in it ( not shown here ) and cobalt blue glass type things all around it. Two of our grandsons helped me with the weeding and digging, and they really were a very great help.

 These two grandsons have fun together while they work, and that makes it fun for me.

 This little guy weeded a good size herb bed ( with help from his big brother ) that had been almost completely taken over by a weed that disguised itself as the sage the bed was planted with. After choking out most of the sage the weed proceeded into the garden paths headed for the oregano & rosemary. It was a big job and I had to dig up the few remaining sage plants so we could get the weeds' roots. In the background you can see the cage my husband built me years ago for some of my doves.

 I moved the doves to another aviary and we now have 5 parakeets happily living here.

 Parakeets are such active and funny birds to watch.

 On the other side of the herb garden fence, under brown fern fronds, one of my ducks is sitting on her clutch of eggs. She is one of the ducks Ella & Fella ( my Sebastapol geese ) hatched out last spring. Her nest is lined with her down. I only saw her because I was weeding the inside of this fence line. She is well hidden and even my dogs haven't found her.

 Ella is also sitting on her own eggs and I am hoping she is successful in hatching her goslings. Fella guards her faithfully , as he did her and the ducklings she hatched out last year.

On the other side of the Blue Bottle Garden , outside the fence, is the fountain my husband & I bought to celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary a few years ago. I can hear this fountain burbling from the herb garden. My husband weeded & mulched this flower bed that is under our living room window. From indoors we watch hummingbirds bathe in the water flowing from under the doves, then the busy flying jewels take a break and sit in the bushes in the sunshine to dry themselves.

All this was done and observed in the last week while we had record high temperatures for this time of the year. The Blue Bottle Garden is finally being shaped into the garden I've wanted it to be for a long time now , the flower beds and vegetable garden are being prepared for spring planting. I am so excited to finish the planting and enjoy even more the time to work in the garden while I watch the new life hatch and grow. I am going to post frequent updates on this garden because I have found that blogging about my gardens keeps me on track and motivated to keep up with the weeding & tending. The garden looks sparse right now , but soon it will be full of the sage, thyme, rosemary, blueberries, and so much more that has grown there for years. Hopefully minus the choking weeds.

Gossamer Wings Or Fairy Dust ?

 There are fairies in my herb garden !

 I hosted a ladies' luncheon one day last month and apparently while we ladies were having a good time indoors, two of my granddaughters were having a very good time outdoors, with fairies !

 My granddaughters created these fairy homes in my herb garden without any help from me. Hey , I didn't even know they were in the herb garden , let alone creating such enchanting little homes.

Imagination, creativity , fun . Who knows  who'll move into these little homes my granddaughters built ? They took their fairies home with them. But I've been keeping watch over the tiny houses and maybe I'll spy a little flutter of gossamer wings or burst of sparkly fairy dust  the next time I peek into one of the tiny doors or windows....just maybe .

Love Made Visible

 My husband made these dove & scroll adornments for many of the animal homes he has built for me over the years. This one is on the dove cage in the herb garden. He had already built me a large dove-cote, but he did this for me because he loves me.

 This dove scroll is on the goat house he built for me , and he really didn't even want goats.

 The dove cage in the herb garden. The white doves stand out so beautifully when all is green and the vine maples are in leaf. Stunning in the autumn when the vine maples are red and yellow. Now you can hardly see the white doves against the snow. Their cooing is comforting to me. Often they sound like they're laughing . Sometimes the wild doves will land in front of this cage, eat the seed my doves have scattered outside the wire, and they appear to be having a chat with one another.

 

 The white dove & scroll is on the large dove-cote we can see from the house. It is lit up inside so we can see it in the evening too. The brown scroll is part of the kiwi arbor my husband built in front of the dovecote. the kiwi began climbing it this past summer and we hope it will provide a shady arbor to sit under when it gets unbearably hot in July and August. The anticipation of fresh kiwi fruit is exciting too.

 The door to the dove-cote with the grape arbor my husband built in the foreground. The grapes did give us a lot of shade and fruit this past year , and this arbor mirrors the kiwi arbor.

Everywhere I look around our home, around Cedar Pond I see the hard work and love my husband puts into all he does here. I have always believed this saying to be true "Work is love made visible", and know my husband loves me very much !

Herbal Favors for the Table ~ Thursday Ladies' Luncheon

 A very simple & practical table adornment you can give your guests to take home with them. A herbal gift that offers guests something pretty, practical, and useful .

 This Thursday Ladies' Bible Study I am featuring in my Tea-Cup Tuesday post was very special. The lesson was one I have taken to heart and impressed me with truths from God's word ( the Bible ) that has impacted me in many ways I may relate later. ~Anyway, I cut herbs from my herb garden to adorn each place setting the night before the study / luncheon and formed them into 8 bundles, each containing rosemary, thyme, and sage wrapped with burlap and tied with raffia.. I put each bundle in a bowl of water to make sure the sage did not wilt, then decided the individual bundles grouped together looked pretty good. I didn't need a fancy centerpiece, I'd keep the short herbal bouquet that way until my guests were leaving. They were each able to take away their bundle of herbs to possibly be used for their upcoming Thanksgiving dinner.This tiny bundle can be stuffed into a chicken or turkey as is ! If my guests are not roasting poultry, the herb bundle can be hung in the kitchen, dried, and used for any other recipe calling for such herbs. Practical too.

 We also celebrated my daughter's birthday , along with sharing encouragement and inspiration in God's word. ( the Bible ) A special blessing is to have one of my granddaughters at the table with us, reading aloud the scriptures, learning from older women about what is truly important.

The china I used in this table-setting is Rosebud Chintz by Spode. The china was a precious gift from my Aunt Ruby. Our luncheon consisted of shrimp pasta salad, deli sandwiches, tossed green salad, and birthday cake for dessert. There was coffee, peppermint tea, and cranberry juice to sip as we ate.

I enjoy the many tea-time blogs & posts I read from so many other ladies. I especially appreciate seeing how they use the china and teacups they are richly endowed with being used practically. Using the lovely china and tablescapes to set a table for sharing good times, celebrating family & friends, to encourage and uplift people in their lives. Do you have a friend, relative, or neighbor who would be cheered and delighted to be invited for a cuppa and a snack ? If you need any inspiration for a tea-time recipe & good time then check out the blogs listed below.( Just remember you don't need anything fancy , expensive, or even too much fuss to offer what is most important, hospitality that shows you simply care ).

* Sandi
*Terri
*Martha
*Bernideen
*Antiques & Teacups

Blue-Bottle Herb Garden

 The dovecote my husband built me for my herb garden makes me happy . I especially love the detailing in the roof ridge that mirrors the roof ridges he put into our larger dovecote , the goat house, and also the grape & kiwi arbors.

 I keep only 2 doves in my herb garden, my Blue Bottle Herb Garden. You can see how we decided on the name...

 ...there are blue bottles everywhere in this garden.

 These blue bottles are holding the prongs of upside down tomato cages together to form supports for my comfrey . Comfrey loves to get big and floppy , and does so very quickly, often taking over this shady corner of my herb garden if left unattended too long. I use a lot of comfrey for my livestock, poultry, and also make poultices out of it for my feet which have a tendency to get very dry and crack & bleed. Comfrey poultices are great for this. ( I will do another post on this later.)

 Our dog Hawk keeps me company as I weed the garden.

 This old bike holds an old milk crate stuffed with blue bottles and flowers. It is leaning up against a picture window we had to replace after a big earthquake here a few years ago caused the window to split & crack. I like the window in this garden and it helps  keep the woods on the other side of the garden fence at bay.

 Fennel has a lovely licorice scent and thrives in my garden. The fennel has seeded itself in other parts of the herb garden too. It is like growing feathers ! You can see some of the sage and Lady's Mantle growing at the foot of the fennel.

 Lovage also thrives here. I have metal cages and stakes around and through the lovage to keep it from bending and breaking. I love this herb. It tastes like celery, the leaves are yummy chopped up and used in salads, eggs, soups. Anything celery adds flavor to would benefit from lovage. It has a little stronger celery taste, so not too much is needed. The stems grow up to 6 feet in my garden and are hollow so if you strip them of leaves ( or not ) you can use the stems as straws in any drink you might garnish with celery such as tomato juice, delicious!

 My rosemary grows quickly in this garden, and thrives all year, even in the coldest winters. Since my older rosemary plants are now unruly bushes I decided to start 2 new rosemary bushes and encourage them to be more orderly and well-behaved. I placed a large tomato cage upside down over rosemary planted in a large pot. The blue bottle holds the prongs of the cage together. I like the touch of blue it adds.

My blue bird bath sits in the thyme portion of the garden, along with a sun-dial ( not shown here). There are several varieties of thyme in this garden and when they bloom it looks like the bird-bath is perched on a beautiful carpet of color. Our honeybees love the thyme garden especially. My Blue Bottle Garden is a source of herbs my husband and I use for cooking . Some of the herbs are especially beneficial to our health. The garden is also a place of delight on sunny days to soak up the sights, sounds, and scents of Cedar Pond . God is so good and we are truly blessed !

I am joining the Thursday Farm Blog-Hop*. Please check out all the blogs offering useful and inspirational information regarding all things farm,gardening, crops, food preservation keeping poultry & livestock...decorating too. You don't need to have a farm to appreciate all you can learn as you visit these blogs !*