A Blue Anemone Day

Even though it was another gorgeous sunny day today, I was feeling a bit like this anemone blossom today--worn, tattered, and blue.

Life has been a roller coaster as of late, going from the low of last Friday with Hubby's father being in the ER, 4 hours away, unconscious and the doctor discussing "end of life options" to the high of only 4 days later (Tuesday) Hubby's father being well enough to be transferred from the hospital to a skilled nursing rehabilitation facility for a long-ish stay to hopefully get back his health after a long year of post-chemo struggles with not eating or being physically active.

It's all been very exhausting, to say the least. I guess I was running on fumes until today when the fumes finally evaporated, and I was hit with feeling... well... blah.

Today, I managed to get out to the garden centers in our area to buy some large pots I needed and found two lovely lavender bushes as well as the bay laurel tree I've been wanting since I found out that a sprig in the pantry keeps weevils out of the flour and grains. Once home, I got the lavender bushes and bay laurel planted in their new homes. I also transplanted a New Zealand flax into the ground that's been floundering in a pot.

Usually when I've achieved that much in the garden, I'm all chipper and bouncy about it. But I'm just not.

Yeah, I'm definitely having a blue anemone day. But, hey... you gotta have one once in a while, right?

A Golden Afternoon

In yesterday's post I mentioned the song Golden Afternoon from my favorite Disney animated classic Alice in Wonderland. Today, as I knelt down out in the front garden in short shirt sleeves on a 68°F (20°C) "golden afternoon" to plant a flat of lovely delicate Apricot Antique shade violas, the song kept playing in my head over and over again. Let me share the lyrics with you.

Golden Afternoon
Music: Sammy Fain
Lyrics: Bob Hilliard
Performed by: Kathryn Beaumont [Alice], Chorus [Flowers]

Little bread-and-butterflies kiss the tulips,
And the sun is like a toy balloon.
There are get up in the morning glories,
In the golden afternoon.

There are dizzy daffodils on the hillside,
Strings of violets are all in tune,
Tiger lilies love the dandy lions,
In the golden afternoon,
The golden afternoon.

There are dog and caterpillars and a copper centipede,
Where the lazy daisies love the very peaceful life they lead...

You can learn a lot of things from the flowers,
For especially in the month of June.
There's a wealth of happiness and romance,
All in the golden afternoon. ...
All in the golden afternoon,
The golden afternoon...


It was definitely a "golden afternoon" with "a wealth of happiness and romance"--just perfect for the week of Valentine's Day.

The little Apricot Antique shade violas had an air of romance about them--the old Victorian kind of romance. Kissed with the dusty light purple of the gemstone of February, the amethyst, the little violas now fill a curving bed in the front garden in front of leafless rosebushes waiting for this year's leaves to grow. Their tiny little faces cupped water droplets after I watered them with garden hose. Like a little jewel in the center of each blossom, the water droplets added a particularly whimsical touch to the lovely blooms.

To my surprise, I discovered that the blue anemone has bloomed again with two perfect blue blooms! Usually it blooms around Christmas (it's a winter flower in our zone) and then it's done. I was so pleasantly surprised to discover that it's going to give me more of its beautiful "blue-ness" to enjoy. In case, you didn't know... I LOVE blue flowers and purple toned flowers. There is something magical about that hue in the garden amidst so much yellow, pink, orange and red. Blue doesn't seem to "belong" in the garden, so that's why I always seem to want to see it there.

The two anemone blooms are adding color to complement the little hyacinth that comes up in the same bed that is occupied by oregano 3/4 of the year. The oregano dies back every winter around the end of November. I wait until the end of January or the first part of February, and then I remove all the dead oregano twigs so the hyacinths have room to come up. I'm so pleased that the anemone have stuck around to join them. I think I've even got some volunteers from last year's Sorbet Mix violas that I planted to fill in the gaps. That would be a wonderful welcome addition too.

Another blue flower that's a favorite for me is the blue hyacinth. My hyacinths are early this year, but I don't mind. It's wonderful to have them here for Valentine's Day because they are a particularly romantic flower to both Hubby and me. We honeymooned in Victoria, British Columbia in late March back in 1998. Part of our visit included a tour of the famous Butchart Gardens. We found many of the beds to be chock full of hyacinths of every color you could imagine! The scent was absolutely heavenly as we strolled by each bed. We returned to Victoria for our 5 year anniversary and experienced that same wonderful display for our eyes as well as our noses. Now everytime the hyacinths come up in our front garden and we catch a whiff of their perfume, we fondly remember our honeymoon and all the wonderful romantic reasons why we fell in love and are still in love. Now you know why the hyacinth is a romantic flower for us.

And of course how could it possibly be a truly "golden afternoon" without my faithful garden companion Tom Tom joining me as I dig in the dirt. It couldn't be. That's why he came out and went on a "toot" while I worked in the garden. When it's this wonderful of a day it is a real chore getting him to come back inside. He doesn't want his "toot" to end--EVER! But I finally managed to catch him and get him back in the house--for which he received a little pile of Whisker Lickin's. Good boy, Tom Tom.