Gardening and Summer Colours
As crickets chorus and tree frogs sing the end of another weekend draws to a close. Cat and dogs passed out on the bed drained and exhausted from the heat. Wanting windows ajar at opposite ends of the bedroom wishing a cross-breeze in to caress warm bodies.
Through the skylight a cloudless dusk sky. The moon and the stars, diamonds of the night, play out their nightly dance.
The end of another weekend. I spent most of this weekend in the garden again, tidying up some more borders, strolling around our land and pondering the variety of fauna growing, never really quite sure weather to dig it up or not!
Spring is pretty much in full flow with butterflies and bees dancing around the flowers and with each breeze a pleasant floral aroma. A lush variety of greens is prevalent dabbed with random splashes of colour as plants and shrubs proudly rise above the foliage, awakened from their winter slumber.
Jen’s mum bought us Hibiscus and another Rose for her birthday which prompted me to clear out another border and build a stone wall! From my early masonary foray I have since come to the conclusion that your stones should be seperated into 4 piles. What I term ‘Facing’ stones, ‘Header’ stones, ‘Filler’ stones and shrapnel!
Facing stones should have at least one nice big flat side and are used on the outside of your wall to give a nice ‘clean’ edge. You then fill the back of the wall with filler stones and shrapnel to try and maintain a fairly level rise as the wall climbs. This should then be finished with header stones which should ideally be thin and flat to give a nice flat top.
I think my initial attempt wasn’t bad but I have come to the conclusion that it’s best to pay people expert in these matters for several reasons. Extracting stones and then moving them around the garden is a feat in itself and at 2 hours for a 4ft section; it’s going to take quite a while !
Here’s a few pictures from the garden.
My camera has a panaromic setting on it so I decided to experiment with it. This the view looking SE from the house.
The Knock Out roses we bought last year seem to be doing well.
Unfortunately our 2 peech trees have a case of Peach Leaf Curl a common fungus amongst peach trees and vine groves. Just need to figure out an organic cure.
Some White Forsythia (I think). Much more attractive than it’s thorny yellow relative.
The Wysteria seems to be doing great as well. Lots of colourful blooms. I’ll have to remember to collect up the seed pods and dry them out so we can plant some more.
… and finally the hammock. A nice place to come and relax.
Mental note to self : Must buy Peonies (the State Flower of Indiana no less!) and Lavender. Lots of Lavender!
Relaxing Weekend
This was the first weekend in many we actually got to do absolutely nothing ! It’s amazing how much you cherish “nothing”. We simply hung the hammock between the trees in the pine grove, lay there and idled away the hours looking up at blue skies and cotton wool clouds from the shade of the grove. Perfect !
Well… to say we did nothing is not entirely true. Having neglected the garden for a couple of weeks we decided to take care of some gardening and reclaim the flower beds from the weeds as well.
I cracked a nice cold beer and rode the tractor. Mowing the grass and sipping a cold Tetleys bitter, a small slice of heaven right there.
Out came the strimmer or ‘weed wacker’ as they call them over here and I tidied up the edges.
Jen tended to the raised vegetable beds and I weeded some of the borders. Emily was over for the weekend, so after dinner we had a little race around the garden, her on the tractor me on my mountain bike. I needed the excersise !
Sunday was more of the same, whiling away the hours under blue skies not really paying much mind to the time. In the afternoon the serenity was interrupted briefly by a passing down-pour, but much needed for the flowers after they had bathed in scolding heat for the last couple of days.
Everything is blooming, the colors of Spring are transposing to Summer. Roses and the Wisteria are just a couple of Summer hues.
Our vegetables are, so far, doing great and this weekend we eat salad made with fresh lettuce from the garden. Hopefully the tomato plants take off soon and we can add those to the list of fresh ingredients we can use. The strawberries seem to be going nuts, and hopefully they’ll bear some nice fruit in the next month or so.
The Buddleia we planted last year, Honey Suckle and Lilac all seem to be thriving. In an idea to attract more butterflies we planted several buddleia bushes around the deck and garden and it seems to be having the desired effect. Hopefully next doors bees enjoy the flowers and make some good honey !
This little fellow accidentally flew into the summer house, so Jen let it crawl on her hands so I could quickly snap this photo and then we let it free into the great outdoors. I’m not quite sure what variety it is, but I think it might be a blue monarch ?
Royal Visit From Denmark
In case you’re all been wondering where we’ve been for the last week or so, Christian and Lisbeth, good friends of ours came over to visit for a week. It all began Friday the 15th, as usual with a 5:30am start to the day.
Friday - Six Flags, Outback Steak House, Christian and Lisbeth Arrive
A couple of months prior to today Emily, Jen’s sister, invited us to Six Flags. America’s alternative to Alton Towers, not quite Disneyland but close enough! Jen, not one for roller coasters declined, and little did I realize I was offering my services as a chaperon to a bus full of excited school kids for 2hrs at 5:45am. Having survived the bus ride, which took us on a very scenic tour (including driving over Saville Dam on Barkhamstead Reservoir), I then spent the next 6hrs on rides such as Mind Eraser, Flashback and Batman which I have to admit were all great fun but my hopes of everyone screaming themselves quite were short lived and the bus ride back was even louder.
At 7pm we arrived back in New Milford and then it was onto Danbury to meet up with Christian and Lisbeth, who Jen had picked up earlier, at the Outback Steakhouse. Looking a little red from the sun, a little tired from the day, I joined Jen and another tired pair who’d just spent the last 8hrs on a plane. We all sat down to dinner and got busy catching up.
Afterwards we headed home, got the firepit burning and relaxed into the evening with some cold beers, in the girls case, wine !
Saturday - Woodbury outlets and some extreme shopping !
Before arriving on Friday Christian and Lisbeth had expressed an interest in some serious shopping. With clothing typically cheaper in the US they’d decided to fly out with a single suitcase, bought a couple more suitcases here and crammed it with as many clothes as they could buy. Rather than spend what precious time we had in the city shopping we decided to take them to the Woodbury Outlets, a short stop away. The drive to Woodbury was beautiful. Crossing the Hudson into New York state on RT-6 you enter Bear Mountain State Park and begin a very scenic drive into Woodbury.
Once you arrive literally hundreds of premium brand outlets are on tap to satisfy even the most die-hard shopper. We then spent the next 8hrs shopping before finally finishing at close to 7pm. By the time we’d finished our wallet’s were significantly lighter and the car significantly heavier.
When we got back to the house it was time to unpack and take an early night.
Sunday - Taking it easy : Stew Leonards, American Pie Company, Hopkins Inn, Hopkins Winery, Lake Waramaug and the Litchfield Hills.
Sunday we decided to take it easy a bit and just spent the day doing some local site seeing after we’d taken Christian and Lisbeth to see the wonders of Stew Leonards and Starbucks. Stew Leonards is a cross between a mega-Tesco’s and Disneyland.
For people from Europe it’s a pretty amazing phenomenon. Isles and isles of produce interspersed with animatronic puppets, American excess at its very best ! I think they left with the same reaction I did when I first saw it. Shock and amazement.
After stocking up on groceries for the week we headed home to unload and then out for some lunch at the American Pie company in Sherman just off of RT-39.
Not too far North of us are the Litchfield Hills in Litchfield County. Litchfield County is quite a prestigious area of Connecticut with some pretty amazing scenary and properties. On occasion we head up to the Hopkins Winery and sometimes the Hopkins Inn, so today we decided to introduce Christian and Lisbeth to some of Litchfield County.
After a gentle drive around Lake Waramaug, it was back home for some Alaskan King Crab we’d bought earlier at Stew’s !
(Christian wanted steak instead ! fool ! : ) )
Monday - Back to work
Well Monday came back around all too quickly and it was back to work. We left a little earlier than usual so Christian and Lisbeth could catch the train from Stamford to Grand Central and spend the day site-seeing in the City. They had the perfect weather and were able to amble around Central Park, take in the American Museum of Natural History and St. Patricks Cathedral.
Friday - Newport Rhode Island and the Newport Mansions
The weather this week was absolutely beautiful and feeling that time, as usual was passing all to quickly, decided to take Friday off and head up to the Newport Mansions in Rhode Island. I’d previously arranged for Christian to spend the day on the gun range with another friend, so whilst he spent the day laying down several hundred rounds from an arsenal I’ve only seen in The Matrix, we began the 3hr drive to Newport RI.
Newport RI is located on the south coast, a small state wrapped by Connecticut and Massachusetts. Like Mystic and many other ports on the south shore of New England, Newport is a very quaint ‘city’ with cobbled streets, boutiques, and cozy restaurants serving local seafood. It is also the home to the Americas Cup , an important event on any yachtsman’s calendar. Sailing and Yacht’s are very much the theme, harbors mooring a plethora of boating excellence. Maybe one day I’ll have one!
After some lunch we had a wander around some of the boutiques before heading onto the mansions.
I’ve heard people talk about these houses before, simply imagining luxury seaside retreats but these mansions were larger than any imagination, places of such palatial magnificence. Built by some of Americas wealthiest people of the period, they were no-expense-spared marvels of architectural grandeur. Built from marble, gold-leaf, even platinum ! The materials used in some of these houses was equivalent to King Louis the 14th in the building of the Palace or Versailles!
Often architectural reference was taken from France and Italy with The Breakers recreating the Grand Staircase of the Paris Opera House, something I noticed straight away having stood on the same steps in Paris two years prior.
As I stood on the 2nd floor of The Breakers overlooking the foyer, admiring the gold-leaf, the works of art on the ceiling I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like to walk out of your bedroom, pause for reflection on the banister and look out over the grand foyer. This was Cornelius Vanderbilt II summer retreat and what a retreat it was !
After amazing at the wealth of the private properties mixed in with the mansions we took a 10-mile ‘cliff’ drive on Ocean Avenue overlooking Rhode Island Sound, a popular summer retreat of wealthy New Yorkers in the 1800’s, the same can be said today. I was left wondering; how do people get that rich ?
Saturday, Sunday and Monday - New York City here we come !
For Christian and Lisbeths last weekend we decided to finish it up in the city. Manhatten is a strange place, it’s not somewhere I’d really want to live for a any period of time, but everytime we go there it always amazes me. There is always something new to see and the eclectic mix of cultures and people almost makes New York City it’s own little world.
I’ve decided to add all the photos of our visit to Manhatten to my photos.tonycollings.com website as there are way to many to put up here !
Before I sign-off, we made a trip home on Sunday night so we could spend Memorial Day at home. Brian, a friend and volunteer Fire Fighter, had managed to organize it so that we could take ride in one of the fire trucks in the parade! This is pretty special as normally you only get to watch the parade, so to ride in it was a nice finish to Christian and Lisbeths week.
After the parade it was a quick rest before heading back into The City to drop Christian and Lisbeth off at their second hotel so they could catch their flight home the next day. We spent a casual evening dining out and wandering around a Time Square devoid of traffic before bidding our friends fairwell and heading home, unfortunately it was back to work for us on Tuesday.
Entries