A Fanciful Twist

Of Zinnia Summer & Queen Red Lime

I'm not certain that summer would feel like summer without zinnias.

Resilient in the sun, layers of sturdy petals...

Gifting endless blossoms as long as you prune.

Same for basil and other annuals.

They believe their only purpose is to produce seeds.

So, as long as you keep pruning and not letting them go to seed they will keep gifting.

But if you do not prune they will go to seed and the plant's life purpose will be complete.

So, prune prune prune.

The remarkable thing is that all my zinnias self seeded this year.

In late autumn I leave a few zinnias there to just dry and drop onto the garden floor.

And I was lucky enough that the birds did not gobble the seeds.

And so last year's Queen Red Lime zinnias have returned.

Along with other giant volunteer zinnias here and there, including in the pumpkin patch.

I'm certain that zinnia seeds were in the little tree's planter that I transplanted out back -

Because when I planted pumpkin seeds and watered these giant raspberry zinnias grew with huge curly leaves.

Absolutely remarkable.

When I am tending garden I notice little garden findings that I know I simply must have.

Like twisted roots and stems.

To me summer is zinnias and basil.

The epitome of the season.

The bees and hummingbirds looooove zinnias.

Unfortunately, the yellow belly finches do as well, and so they eat leaves and rip off petals all day.

Ah well, it's okay for the cute little birds.

In the basket below you see oodles of Queen limes and beneath that are the giant cherry zinnia volunteers I just spoke about from my pumpkin patch.

You can see how huge they are comparatively.

I just love Queen Red Limes.

They are peachy and pinky with neon green centers.

Sometimes the lower petals turn lime green too, hence the name.

Since they self seeded they turned up extra early and now are towering, chock full of flowers.

Every gardeners dream I'm sure...

To have gobs of self seeded flowers.

I don't think I have been without zinnias in the garden for over a decade.

They last forever out in the heat, it's just amazing really.

So many colors and shape.

There are California giants, lilliputs, cactus style - just to name a few.

But I have to say that these Queen Red Limes really remind me of why I thought that the bottoms of pine cones looked exactly like zinnias.

Do you recall that tutorial here?

I've never have hundreds of thousands of people love something I did as much as the pine cone zinnias.

I can't believe how popular that was.

Every time I go onto Pinterest I see my pinecone zinnias over and over.

Once I was in an antique shop and a whole booth was dedicated to pinecone zinnias, and they had a little print out on the wall that showed my blog post.

I was floored!

I guess we all love a zinnia that will never perish.

But for now we have the zinnias of summer bobbing in the hot breeze.

I adore collecting all manner of specimens.

I love the rose hip.

Just the texture and colors of things you can find is magical.

Pruning zinnias all day long, to allow for the fresh ones to have space and keep blooming,

I'm not quite certain how it is August 1st already.

Really truly the time is just flying by.

Pumpkins, zinnias, basil.

The Queen Limes are extra vintagey, aren't they?

I sit under the citrus trees and marvel at all the growing things.

The moon is big and bright tonight.

I eat basil and tomatoes right in the garden.

I pick my zinnias in my little basket and run inside when it gets too hot.

I will collect my seeds for next year from the older zinnias that have developed some seeds.

The life of a gardener, always plotting and planning with hope for the next season.

I prune my roses a little in late August for the spring like wave of flowers that turn up in all their glory in October and November.

I have a bunch of fall vegetable seeds planted.

I got stung by a fire ant the other day, which I never had been.

I get little ant bites every day, but never a fire ant.

It was worse than my 3 or 4 scorpion stings by far.

It hurt for about 9 - 10 hours relentlessly, then let up.

I was screaming and jumping around - the pain was absolutely shocking.

And I have a pretty good tolerance for pain and discomfort.

Luckily I had no allergic reaction and it was just another gardening experience for the books.

It got me twice on a toe :-)

But all is well now, and I'm still wearing open toe shoes in the garden.

I know, bravery for sure.

The moon has a golden haze all around it through my window, so beautiful.

I look forward to the monsoon rains that turn up in August.

It is so very green out in the gardens, all manner of little tree volunteers I've been nurturing are now taller than me.

Amazing what summer brings.

For some reason several roses nearly died in the little corridor going to my studio, so I dug them up, added rooting hormone and put them in pots for now and they all had new leaves and shoots this morning after about a month and a half.

I think there must have been bugs or something there, or perhaps not enough sunlight due to the expanded canopy of the Chilean mesquite tree.

They were doing great and from one day to the next started to shrivel, which really makes me think it was a bug.

I had never seen rose bushes do that but I am delighted that they are coming back.

The chattering of a mad gardener, I tell ya.

I hope you are doing well in your neck of the woods.

We are just fine here, staying busy.

There are baby doves in the garden and I love watching mom and dad take such good care of them.

It has been outrageously hot, the dogs just run out and come right back in.

I fear they've had such a lux summer sleeping on cold floors that they've become a bit heat snobby.

But, that's okay.

Dogs are to be spoiled, that's my motto anyways.

Well, I best be off.

Early gardening ahead of me <3

 

Are you a zinnia lover?

I wonder if anyone has ever been named Zinnia, wouldn't that be just wonderful?

 

Love, Vanessa

 

 

ps:  I used to share music with you that I listen to whilst writing each blog post, so I shall attempt to remember to do that in the ps section.

I tried to get here days ago, but blog writing can take a while with the photo editing and then my programs kept crashing, so happy to have finally made it here <3

 

I listened to ones of my favorite songs by Janapriyan Levine (Suspended) while writing this post.

I love taking baths, meditating, stretching, writing and relaxing to this song all the time.

 

 

pps:

Up in the left hand sidebar (third item down) is a new section called "Spotlight Posts."

Every so often the posts will change, but it's a section with other posts that you might enjoy in between my regular postings <3

Just a fun little addition.

 

 

Autumn in July {Plus Book Details}

Some kind of magic has been swirling in my garden...

I know I know, we don't want to rush seasons, but this one is out of my control.

(by the way, book winners announced at the end of this post)

This all began with a curious little package of large white pumpkin seeds that rolled around my kitchen for a few weeks.

I decided to plant them in late March and they sprouted the very next day.

(please insert Hedwig's theme from Harry Potter at this stage of the story)

It's unbelievable but true.

It was time to take these first 3 sisters off the vine today, but just as these curious happenings occur in my life - 

I looked around the pumpkin patch this morning and found that 3 fresh baby pumpkins had set on the opposite side of the patch.

Almost to replace these 3.

And there are about 12 others in different stages of ripeness incubating under the umbrellas of leaves.

These pumpkins have enviable stems.

Just the perfect thing for my good garden witch heart.

Oh how it pained me to make the snip snip snips...

But I did want to cackle with glee simultaneously.

Because now I have three happy punkin babes.

I knew last week that the time was really nearing, which was only confirmed by yesterday's epic golden hour.

Come little pumpkins...

I'll take thee awayyyy <3

I am a tried and true pumpkin lover to the very core of my soul.

Are you?

I can not explain the why of such a thing.

It just is.

 

I am drawn to them and they to me.

They always grow in my garden, knock on wood 10 times.

I feel ever so lucky that they do, and only pray that they continue to for many years indeed.

And so, my first three pumpkins are coming inside.

Beginning the butterfly magic in my belly that autumn always brings.

The garden is slightly beginning to change, and I noticed today that the morning wasn't bright as early.

But do not fret!

There is still a world of summer to enjoy - it's just that as a garden girl you do have a certain awareness of the slightest change in garden happenings.

Little shifts start to unfold.

Planting of the late summer seeds is happening in the next month.

I have mine ready to go for autumn vegetables.

But right now it is summer, and there is a pretend café happening under the citrus trees.

I always feel extra excited when my grocer has things for delivery that were not available before.

Things such as chocolate croissants and maple yogurt.

Perfect for my make shift café bistro.

There are wisteria blossoms at the country house and quince are bobbing on the quince tree.

Thank you to the hatter for keeping the gardens alive there during this time of staying at home more.

I love my short drive between houses and long to sleep in the loft of my tiny house hidden in my country garden soon.

I have it all planned.

But since I can not be there every single day, he is an invaluable character in the tale of two houses.

I also wanted to mention and thank you for the notes expressing joy for more blog posts.

Blogging can be a very lonely cricket sound of a place, but still a fun and fulfilling destination.

I know I had not been blogging nearly as regularly the last couple years, but I truly needed some refuel time.

We all do, and I had the loveliest of whirlwinds during my refuel time.

It's really a job of passion and love to create blog posts.

And now I feel a bit more blog loving again.

I am glad to know there are some of you still out there, what fun would it be without you?

Down the bend and though the secret keyhole...

This is where we shall continue to meet!

 

And now, I best stop my sappiness to share the winners of the book set.

Since I do believe many of you are wondering madly.

I decided to draw two names since so many of you are die hard book lovers.

It is my greatest pleasure to send off two of these beautiful book sets to fellow bookphiles.

I was dying to engage and respond to your favorite book comments, but I didn't want to mess up the giveaway numbers.

Per random number generator we have lucky numbers 25 & 39.

Is that your number?

I know who it is, but I will let you go and check for yourself to add and extra level of mystery (tee hee).

I love love loved your sharing of your favorite books by the way.

I will be picking some of them up per your suggestions.

If you won please e-mail me or DM me on Instagram with your address so that I can send these lovely books your way.

(I will notify the winners if I do not hear back in a couple of days)

 

 

Thank you all truly, for joining in the fun <3

Let's do it more often, shall we?

 

Now...

In more pressing news.

What ever shall I name my 3 pumpkins fresh off the vine??

 

Do you know?

I feel you truly might.

Will you share the names with me??

:-)

 

Well, I suppose it is toodles for now.

And I promise - I will see you soon.

 

Love, Vanessa

 

 

ps: here is a phone camera photo of the winning numbers.

 

Book Lovers Unite {A Giveaway}

I was sitting there enjoying my books when I thought...

Why don't I share this set I love so much with my fanciful friends?

Mister Rabbit thought it was fine time we have some fun around here, and I agreed.

Just by leaving a comment, sharing one of your favorite tales of all time, you will be entered to win the set of books below.

 

I got my first set as a gift from my mom in 2015 and have loved it so much.

I am a total and complete Anne of Green Gables girl.

And an absolute March girl as well.

Little Women is absolutely dear dear dear to my heart.

And I think I grew to love porridge because of Heidi.

But I will never ever forget how I swooned when I found out that all girls are princesses.

The Little Princess, a true love.

And so, why not share these with you?

And they're pretty too, so they will add a bit of delightment to your home for certain.

I just love grabbing a stack of books, hiding in a cozy spot and losing myself.

Books, what marvelous magical things.

Simply leave a comment sharing one of your favorite tales of all time to enter the giveaway.

I'll use the random number generator to draw a name in a couple of days.

If we have to spend more time at home, we might as well have some fun, don't you think?

There are clouds rolling in which puts me into a book mood in ways I can not describe.

Some treats, a hot tea, rain drops on the roof, blissssss!

I will be back on a couple of days!

 

See you soooon!

 

Love, V

 

 

 

Of Tea Times and Fairy Cakes

This morning I woke up knowing it was time to do something fun.

To turn on some music, and set out to bake some treats.

To add magic into my life on a random day.

I will tell you one thing - 

There is something wonderful that happens if you stay at a tea party for too long.

But I'll tell you that part in a minute.

First...

The menu was mini scones, brownie cake bites and tea sandwiches.

All made from scratch.

I love the zen of baking.

I start by cleaning my kitchen really well, a blank slate.

Then I plunge into the measuring and mixing and oven timing.

I love the quiet hum of the oven.

And Matty standing by the corner of the oven door sniffing the air.

Have you ever known a dog who is obsessed with baked goods?

I set the table with antique cloth napkins and dried flowers.

When I sent my mom a little video of what I was doing she said - 

I think tea time like this should be a daily must.

I have to say it was an instant mood lifter and I agree with her.

To sit and enjoy a cup of tea, add a spark of light and joy to the day.

It's about taking the time to do something nice for yourself.

And then of course, after several cups of tea the real fairy magic begins.

When cherries get dipped into edible fairy dust and edible stars somehow float onto your cake.

And before you know it, you have a very proper piece of fairy cake right in front of you.

And what, may I ask, could be better on a weekday afternoon than a proper piece of fairy cake?

It seems nothing was at that very moment.

I am working on finding my new norm and not feeling worried all the time.

I have been home since March 8th.

I leave occasionally to visit my country house, but have been nowhere else.

I have not seen my family or friends since February 16th.

I am working to do my part to keep others and myself safe.

So, tea parties are a necessary must.

I am working in my garden, throwing tea parties, and working on art projects.

In the meantime, I am finding ways to add a spark into my life and live happily in this moment in time.

To find my own joys and get back to living in some way that adds light and joy to my life.

I did feel quite stressed for a long while, but now I feel that stress gets me nowhere.

Things are what they are, and all I can do is my part to stay safe, stay home, stay healthy.

And why not have a little fun while I am fine and well?

I am taking this very seriously, I know many people who have gotten sick and a few have even lost the battle.

And while that sounds quite somber - for whatever time I have left in my life I have decided that I need to do the best that I can to live with a mindset of gratitude and do my part, whatever I deem it to be. I will sacrifice whatever I have to in order to help the cause.

If that means I stay home for the next year, then I will.

I know not everyone can do that, but if I can then I will do my part the best way that I can.

And in that time I will grow plants and bake a lot of fairy cakes :-)

I will watch the birds and nurture my pumpkin patch.

I will sing and play my piano.

I will paint with wild abandon.

I will pray and do yoga and dance.

I will talk to all my friends and family on the phone.

I'll read books and watch the sunset.

That's basically what I'm up to here in my neck of the woods.

How about you?

All I can say is that tea time is a mighty fine medicine.

Hands down.

 

Sparkles included ;-)

 

I'll see you really soon.

Can you believe it?

 

Love, Vanessa