Updates To Our Living Room

Hi everyone!  I want to share some recent updates we've made in our living room.  I showed some pictures of our living room back in February, with a few snowmen here and there. The snowmen are packed away for another year, and I've replaced them with some rabbits.  I have a fondness for rabbits -- you can tell I don't have a vegetable garden.  :)

The bigger changes I wanted to share are what we've done around our piano, including new window treatments.  For years, I displayed about four or five accessories on top of our piano.  A treasured plate from my sister, a baby picture of our son, a Royal Doulton vase, and a few other items adorned that spot. 

I don't have a picture of the piano as it was at that time.  There was nothing wrong with the way it was, but at some point, I just wanted a change.  I decided the room needed a touch of silver.  I had lots of good black and white family photos, and so I set about getting silver frames for them to be displayed on the piano.

In addition, I wanted to hang something different on the wall above the piano.  This is what I had there for 16 years.  This picture was taken at Christmas, so I had ceramic Christmas carolers on the piano, but you can see the swag that hung on the wall at the time.

Brookgreen Gardens, Part Two

I have some more pictures to share with you from Brookgreen Gardens today.  You can see my earlier post from February Here.  Brookgreen Gardens is located in Georgetown County, South Carolina.  As I noted previously, these public gardens are situated on a 9,100-acre property which was formerly four separate rice plantations.  Brookgreen Gardens includes a Lowcountry Zoo, a self-guided history and nature walking trail, a Butterfly House (opened in Spring 2011), and a 50-acre sculpture garden.  So far, we've only toured the Sculpture Gardens; there's just so much to see and take in.

We were there the last weekend of March, so there were lots of spring bulbs in bloom.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Today is Thursday, and this is the first post I've published this week.  I had a couple of ideas in mind for the week, but things didn't work out quite the way I had planned.  I had a terrible headache Monday and Tuesday, my asthma flared up Monday night at bedtime, and I got very little sleep for two nights in a row.  That's more information than you want to know I'm sure.  I don't normally give you the details on my health issues, but I was just so frustrated not to have accomplished more this week.

I plan to link up to the "Be My Valentine" blog party, hosted by Laura at Decor To Adore, so without further ado, I'll share my Valentine's post for today.  I had actually thought to post something different, but I got a special surprise yesterday which called for a change in plans.

Art and Flowers at Brookgreen Gardens

On this Friday and first day of February, I thought you might like to do some garden dreaming.  If it's as cold where you are as it is here, maybe some flowers will help us remember that spring is not as far away as it was.  We even have more hours of daylight than we did a month ago.  :)

These pictures are from Brookgreen Gardens; we took a side trip there in 2011 while we were staying at Myrtle Beach.  Brookgreen Gardens is located just a few miles south of Murrells Inlet in Georgetown County, South Carolina.  I'm only sharing about a dozen pictures today, since I'll probably do more posts on this beautiful place.  **These pictures were taken by my husband, Mr. Forest Manor.

The Last Roses

Fall seems to be well and truly here now, in our part of North Carolina.  We definitely had an Indian Summer this year, because after a cold snap around the middle of October, we then went back to temps in the 70's later in the month.

Our David Austin roses have been continuously putting out a few blooms all through September and October.  We've had this Gertrude Jekyll rose for three years, and this is the first year it has bloomed  into autumn.  In addition, there were buds, promising more blooms to come (as long as they didn't get caught by an early freeze).  You can see previous posts on our David Austin roses Here and Here.

Well it's been cold and windy here this week, folks, and yesterday I was amazed to see two beautiful blooms still on the stalk, along with several unopened and partially-opened buds. The temperatures have been dipping into the 30's at night, but apparently they've stayed just above freezing, so these flowers were still healthy and intact, rather than brown and drooping.  And best of all, they still have their wonderful fragrance.

The Berliner Kindl Restaurant in Black Mountain

Hi everyone -- Happy Friday!  I'm so glad the weekend is here again.  This is my last post about our trip to the mountains back in July.  Earlier, I wrote about the Cherohala Skyway, The Blue Waters Mountain Lodge, and the town of Hendersonville.

On our way home from the mountains, we stopped to eat lunch at a little German restaurant called The Berliner Kindl.  The Berliner Kindl is in the town of Black Mountain.  The restaurant is authentically German; a married couple owns and operates the restaurant, and the husband grew up in Germany.

Hendersonville, North Carolina

Well, it's Friday folks, and it seems that Friday is almost always my travel post day.  You might think, in reading my blog, that all we do is travel -- or that we travel a lot.  Not so.  We have been fortunate enough to take some big trips, which I'll be sharing on my blog in the future.  We usually go to the beach once during the summer and to the mountains for about four days during the summer.  And speaking of the mountains, that's what I'm writing about again today.  Last week I shared with you our trip to the Blue Waters Mountain Lodge, in the western North Carolina mountains.

Mom and Dad's Porch

I want to share some pictures of my parents' screened porch with you.  Every time I visit them, I find my eyes straying in that direction, because the porch just beckons you to come out and sit...for a few minutes or a few hours.  Of course, during the very hottest part of summer, it doesn't get used as often.  Most of us gravitate towards the air-conditioned house when it's so hot and humid outside.  But in the spring, fall, and early summer, there's no better place to be.

My parents had their home built about eight years ago, with a screened porch opening off the great room.  But after living there for five or six years, my mom and dad realized they just weren't thrilled with the look and feel of their porch.  It felt too dark, and didn't really flow with the warm whites and cream colors in the adjacent great room.

Old Salem at Dusk, Part 2

Hi folks!  I don't mean to bore you all to death with my posts on Old Salem, but I wanted to share the rest of the pics that Mr. Forest Manor took earlier this week.  Overall, I was pleased with my pictures, but he took some really awesome photos that I just have to share.

The community of Old Salem is such an integral part of our town.  It is where we began; and even though progress continues all around it, Old Salem remains like a small bit of history -- preserved and restored.  All the power lines are buried underground, so except for the cars you see there, you do get a feeling of having stepped back 200 years in time.

I took a photo of this stone wall, which is in my previous post.  My husband took this picture at the end of the wall, showing the intersection of a brick sidewalk and path.  I like the two different patterns of brickwork here.

An Ode to the Redbud

Our Redbud Trees in North Carolina are in full bloom right now.  It seems as if, overnight, they just burst into glorious color.  Many people have them planted in their yards, but they also grow wild in the woods (along with the Dogwood Trees).  And this time of year, you can see the Redbuds blooming all along the highways and interstates of our region, announcing that spring is here.

I've always thought that Redbud is entirely the wrong name for these trees, for their blooms aren't red, but a wonderful, purplish-pink color.  For as long as I can remember, they have been one of my favorite trees.  They are typically quite hardy, and when they get larger, they provide a wonderful shade in summer with a canopy of heart-shaped leaves.

Redbuds are also known as Judas Trees, although I don't hear them called that very often.  According to the website About.com.Forestry, our native North American redbud is the Cercis canadensis, and "the specific redbud that is most often labeled Judas Tree is Cercis siliquastrum, and lives in Mediterranean and Asia Minor countries.  That tree is the one most associated as "Judea's Tree" and is supposedly the tree Judas Iscariot hanged himself on after betraying Christ."

My North Carolina gardening book states that Redbuds are short-lived trees.  But in this case, I would beg to differ.  This old, and rather gnarled Redbud Tree in our front yard has been here since we moved in 16 years ago, and it was a mature tree at that time.  Since our house is 40 years old, I would bet the tree is at least that old.  In addition, it survived damage from a serious tornado that hit ours and surrounding neighborhoods in 1999.  You can see in the pictures where some of the big limbs were broken, and its shape is not the prettiest.  Yet there is something dignified in the way this tree continues to stand as sentinel at the top of our driveway.  It blooms every year like clockwork, and I'm quite attached to it after all these years.

Here are some pictures I took yesterday afternoon when the sky was partly overcast.

     

 

 

You can see the stunted shape of some of the limbs in the picture below.

The front of our house gets the bright morning sun, and since it wasn't foggy this morning, I zipped outside with my camera to try and get some more pictures of the tree.  I then noticed that my next-door neighbor's younger and smaller Redbud was blooming, and the sun was shining directly on it.

I just love those tiny pink blooms against the backdrop of a blue, blue sky.

 

 

Now for some close-ups...

 

Do you have Redbud Trees in your part of the world?  If so, are they blooming now?

Thanks so much for visiting my blog and taking time to leave a comment.  I always enjoy reading them.  :)  I hope you have a great weekend -- ours is predicted to be rainy.

I'm joining Home Sweet Home, hosted by Sherry at The Charm of Home,  Beverly at How Sweet the Sound for Pink Saturday, and The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sundays, and Kathy  at a Delightsome Life for Home and Garden Thursday.  Thank you, ladies, for hosting every week!

Denise

Happy Pink Saturday and Happy St. Patrick's Day

Hi everyone!  What gorgeous weather we've had this week!!  Just in time for Pink Saturday...

My husband took these pictures of our Saucer Magnolia, or Tulip Magnolia, about two weeks ago.  We had a freeze three nights later, and yesterday we had a thunderstorm, so the blooms are mostly on the ground at this point.  It was pretty while it lasted. :)

Does anyone have plans for celebrating St. Paddy's Day tomorrow?  Some of the Irish restaurants in our area are having all-day buffets, starting around 10:30 a.m., and Irish bands performing all day, as well.  Lots of festivities.  Hope you enjoy the day wherever you may be!

If you'd like to see more pictures from our trip to Ireland, you can click on the posts HERE and HERE.  Thanks for visiting me, and I'm joining Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, Seasonal Sundays, hosted by The Tablescaper, and Mosaic Monday, hosted by Mary at Little Red House.

All the best!

Denise 

My Mother-in-Law's Easter Tables

I haven't done any new tablescapes in 2012 -- at all.  For a variety of reasons, I just couldn't seem to get motivated.  We have a project pending at the moment, that I hope to be able to share with you later.  And I have plenty of small things like hanging some prints that I've had for a while, but haven't hung them because I got sidetracked with other things.

So, since I haven't done a tablescape this week, I've borrowed one instead. :)  I'd like to share with you some pictures Mr. Forest Manor took at his Mom's house last Easter.  I know Easter is still a ways off yet, but these pics are so cheerful and pretty, maybe I can be forgiven for rushing the season.

The first pictures are of the dining room, where the adults usually eat.  There are lots of pretty pinks here for Pink Saturday -- pink ribbons on the candlesticks, pink dyed Easter eggs, china with pale pink shells around the border, and pink flowers in the center. 

   

Historic Reynolda Gardens

Last month I posted pictures of some Snowdrops and Daffodils that I photographed in Reynolda Gardens last year. I took those pictures exactly a year ago this week. You can see them HERE.

I want to share with you the rest of the pictures I took that day. Reynolda House and Gardens are about 20 minutes from where we live. There wasn't a whole lot in bloom at that time (late February), but you can still get an idea of the style and layout of the gardens.  This is a photo-intensive post, my friends.  There were so many pretty things to see, and I couldn't bear to leave any of the pictures out.

Pink flowered Cherry trees are just bursting into bloom...

...

...while the Saucer Magnolias' pink buds are still closed.

I love this rich, vibrant shade of pink. 

Cheerful,  sunny, yellow daffodils.

I'm pretty sure this is Candytuft --

White Pansies with yellow centers...

More Saucer Magnolias.

 

 

Someone's soaking up the sun.  :)

The pictures below show the 1913 Lord and Burnham greenhouse and conservatory, which I think is an integral part of these gardens.  These pictures don't do this building justice; it really is beautiful.

This is still a working greenhouse.  Some examples of what they do here are gardening classes taught by local Master Gardeners for adults, as well as programs for school students.  In the spring of this year, the gardens will offer a rose care clinic, and the greenhouse will have a tomato plant sale offering hard-to-find heirloom varieties.  In addition, every spring the Friends of Reynolda Gardens host a spring plant sale of specialty annuals and perrennials, including herbs and vegetables.

Bunches of daffodils waiting to bloom.

You can see the manor house through the trees in the distance.  I'll post on that later.

Do you see the cottage in the background of this picture?  It reminds me of a woodcutter's cottage in a children's fairytale.

Here's a closer view.  I love the shape of the roof and the hinges on the door.

Precious Snowdrops...

 

 

...and some holly berries to remind us of winter.

I'll leave you to enjoy the remaining images.

It's really not hard to imagine I've just taken a stroll through the gardens of Downton Abbey.  Later in the spring, there will be Roses, Azaleas, Dogwoods, Redbuds, and English Bluebells blooming here.  A beautiful place to spend an afternoon.

If you're interested, you can read more about the history of Reynolda Gardens HERE.  Reynolda House was built in 1917, and the gardens date back to that same time period.

Thank you for your visit, and I'm joining the following:  Potpourri Friday, hosted by Honey at 2805, Pink Saturday, hosted by Beverly at How Sweet the Sound, and Seasonal Sundays, hosted by the Tablescaper.  Thank you, ladies, for hosting!

Denise