Home of the Practically Perfect Pink Phlox and other native plants for pollinators

Friday, February 12, 2010

Need A Break From Wintry Weather?


Let me suggest a wonderful vacation spot. I promise you it will be one of the best vacations you will take. It's not crowded, there's an excellent restaurant nearby, no real transportation issues, a casual atmosphere, comfortable beds, just the right pillow and reasonably priced. The views are...just wait and see.


You need to head immediately into your photo archives!

Immerse yourself in them.
Don't pay attention to the clock.
Let yourself relax into the experience.


Here's how I spent my winter vacation.

I've just spent the most delicious few hours wandering around the photo garden.


My heart skipped a beat when I saw photos of the bees and butterflies that find my beloved natives and exotics so appealing.


I was transported to another world...It didn't matter if it was winter outside...
It was gardening time inside.

I sighed over summer beauties
Salvia azurea
and delighted in fall lovelies.
hamamelis and iteas

...and, there was an unexpected bonus!I totally fell in love with my garden ~~All over again.
It's a beautiful garden.
Not a perfect garden, but, a perfectly wonderful garden for me. It makes me smile. It makes me laugh....(can you spot Priscilla)

It nourishes me, it feeds my soul.

I can't wait to get back into the garden. To hear the birds singing their spring song, to see the hellebores blooming, to watch the crocus open, to count the daffodils, to hear the hum of those early bees, to smell my adored Practically Perfect Pink Phlox pilosa.

I need to garden.

So, I am going back into the archives to give my spirit a lift.

I hope you can join me.

Gail

“If you ask me what I came to do in this world....I will answer you: "I am here to live out loud” Emile Zola

47 comments:

  1. hello... hapi blogging... have a nice day! just visiting here....

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  2. Oh my, you are living out loud! Lovely...

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  3. Oh yes what a wonderful idea. I have also been perusing my garden diaries. Wondering when I did what etc. Fun to look back as it gives you a more clear picture of some of the things you might want to do this coming season. Amazing that a few years ago I built an arbor in February. It was 50F. Ha I won't be doing any such thing this year. My poor hellebors are buried in snow. At the rate the snow is melting I will have to dig out my snowdrops to have a bloom for GBBD. I love your second photo. It looks like a Mickey Mouse with a sweat bee on its nose. Your post is a cheerful way to start the weekend. ((hugs))

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  4. I may join you in this vacation!! Great idea..

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  5. Yes! to this vacation, Gail! Even before blogging, we had the photos of the garden in orderly files, (of course) and would go over and over them during the winter. Funny how shots that seemed below par at the time they were taken have magically changed into brilliant captures as we gaze upon them now. We too long to be in the garden. Soon, my friend, soon. :-)
    Frances

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  6. Hi Gail, I travel at lot among my photos, cheap and easy, no delays etc. it's brilliant.
    Thank you posting a most nourishing post, it feeds my soul too.

    Happy Saint Valentine Day

    Tyra

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  7. Wonderful post Gail! To fall in love with your garden all over again... longing for spring... a great way to be there ... through your archives. I love seeing Priscilla ... surely she lives "out loud" and your bench swimming in your rudbeckias... many beautiful portraits of your lush and lovely garden here! ;>)

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  8. Gail - you are SO RIGHT! Your photos are a relief from the winter doldrums.

    I've been doing the same thing here!

    Cameron

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  9. Gail,

    I've been doing this all week! Until something changes outside I think I'll be visiting my photos often. In a way it makes me appreciate the garden more when it is gray and dreary outside and I can look back at how nice things were.

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  10. Thank you, Gail, for this breath of spring air! I spent a very frustrated morning yesterday shoveling snow around my car, trying to figure out how to get it "unstuck" from my driveway (I finally did). I'm so ready for the snow to go away--spending some time going through my garden photos sounds like a great escape. And it's so good to see your garden blooming again and all your flying visitors.

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  11. Gail, you are a wise and practical woman. And ever so right--I *do* need to look through my photos, not just for spring/summer enjoyment, but because there are posts I need to catch up on before spring comes again! Also, if you need to garden now, winter sow!!!!!! :)

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  12. Aren't we lucky to have photos of our gardens to enjoy over and over again? Remembering those days of black and whites...Now you can almost smell the flowers.
    Balisha

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  13. That's a great winter pastime, Gail. Beautiful pics of your lovely eden.

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  14. Yes we definitely need those photo archives at the moment!

    However, the snowdrops have started to flower, so it's time to start the annual snowdrop count!

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  15. PS Thanks for wearing your Malvern badge with pride :)

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  16. Lovely and fun post but its title made me think of another vacation we're both gonna take next May. ;-)

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  17. Hi Gail, that's exactly what happened to me as I clicked through all last year's photos for my recent posts. I DID fall in love with my garden...and even enjoyed and appreciated it SO much more than I did when I was "living in the moment." ;-) Have a great weekend and thanks for the lovely post.

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  18. Lovely idea... I think that I'm going to join you in browsing the springlike archives! :)

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  19. Oh, what a perfect idea! What else are cameras for anyway, but to capture a scene that we want to see again. Your photos are lovely.

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  20. Hi Gail, I've been living in a fantasy world of my old photos plus other bloggers pictures. It does help--a little:)
    Marnie

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  21. Lovely, simply lovely. My favorite way to travel: in time.

    I did this last night and visited my former tulips.

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  22. Simply beautiful, Gail, and a great idea. Thank you. ♥♡

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  23. Ooooh Gail what a lovely idea. I was smiling from ear to ear looking at your photographs. I know how I am going to spend my evening ......must go to view some purple loosestrife full of honey bees.......

    Understand you falling in love with your garden, I do it everytime I come visit you.......

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  24. An excellent idea Gail. I tend to be more critical of my garden photos shortly after they're taken. Those spring, summer, and fall photos are looking mighty good now though, with the current state of the garden covered in a thick blanket of snow.

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  25. Loved going through your photos with you. What an absolutely gorgeous garden.

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  26. Yeah, I noticed Priscilla. ;) :) She's a little hard to miss. Is everything to her liking?

    Your garden is very beautiful, and you take such wonderful photos of it. One of my very favorite images of your garden is the bench surrounded by all of those gorgeous Susans.

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  27. What a wonderful way to spend a little time Gail. I do love looking through older garden photos. Some of the older ones are on the external hard drive upstairs or the hard drive on the computer upstairs....not the computer I am usually working on....so it is a 'vacation' to me to look at them.
    On my computer in the kitchen I have my picture file of the home gardens as my screen saver--- summer/spring/fall/winter all in a slideshow. I love seeing a picture come by that I hadn't seen for a while.
    So glad you found a home for Priscilla. My husband says open the door and call -- she will come, looking for food. ;-)

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  28. What a wonderful post! Your pictures made me smile too!

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  29. Gail, looking at photos of your lovely garden are a sure way to chase away those winter blues. Can't wait to see the Susans and the PPPPs again. Thanks for the reminder that spring will come again, one day. :)

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  30. Gail,
    A brilliant post! Revisiting the photo archives of the garden during the growing season is such a regenerative activity in this cold and wintry time.

    Lisa

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  31. That is a lovely shot of Priscilla.

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  32. Glad you had such an enjoyable time! And it will be even better when things are peaceful again, and Priscilla lives at her new home. Good luck!

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  33. Sounds like this vacation is popular Gail ~ I've resorted to it as well. Nothing to re-energize us like photos from blooming beauties, is there? and you've got a lot of beautiful blooms here.
    Love the silhouette of Priscilla in the tree! Perfect safe place for her.
    Have a terrific weekend. Hopefully we'll all get out in the garden again soon.

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  34. Lovely images Gail, when you look back at your pohotos of the garden in full swing - do you ever have trouble believing the pictures are of your own garden?
    I do - as I look around An Artists Garden I have forgotten what colour looks like - lovely to see some of yours.
    K

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  35. Gail girl how true is this for therapy to handle this winter weather ! .. or , dare I say illnesses ? LOL .. Love the pictures and they are therapy right here and now for me : )
    Thank you !
    Joy
    PS I so hope to have a "Curly-Joe 2" in my garden some where this year .. I just never knew what happened to #1 ;-(

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  36. Yes I spotted Priscilla! I can see why your "vacation" relaxed you. That one shot of your Susans and the bench way in the background - well it makes me want to lie down in the middle of it! Thanks for the lift.

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  37. I've done the same thing and what a trip it was! But I really hope all this snow we're having will go away some day soon so that spring may arrive / gittan

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  38. How beautiful! I feel like I've been on vacation in your garden. And fabulous pictures!

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  39. Love this! I'm flat on the couch this afternoon, down with the flu, visiting blogs and checking up on the rest of the world. This absolutely boosted my spirits. Fun post. I miss my garden...

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  40. That is the best advice and you are right. It won't be long and we shouldn't wish our lives away. I am going to the garden now....

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  41. Gorgeous!!! And you're right, I love my archives. But after our blast-furnace summer of FOUR MONTHS of ~100F temps, I'm glorying in cool/cold weather. Spring can wait.

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  42. Hi Gail,
    Our winter has been colder than normal, even the last few weeks. I am so ready for spring to get here! I enjoyed your gardening get away, and may look into my archives, too, if I get a chance in between the shopping for kitchen hardware and lights, and trying to get rooms organized for the remodel. I was looking at the calendar, and realized the day the kitchen is due to be done is the first day of spring.

    I can feel your need to be in the garden, too. Last year, I planted my first lettuce and such on February 18. If I do that this year, I'll have to do it over snow. I'm thinking about mixing some seeds with sand to put over the snow. I don't know if birds eat lettuce seeds, though.

    I was trying to save money for the kitchen work, but it kept getting spent on other things. Since we got our house paid for a year ago, I decided to take out a home equity loan, and since we can get it paid off within 5 years, the interest rate is 5%. We went through our credit union. They said we could get a line of credit for lower interest somewhere else, but I told them I wanted to keep the loan local and not have it sold to someone who may be giving huge bonuses. I hope you have better success saving than we did.

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  43. great idea...your garden is so lovely.
    happy v~day gail.

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  44. What a great idea. Searching through old photos is probably the only way I'll see some outside color for a while. Your pictures are certainly inspirational...

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  45. I've been, I've seen, I've laughed out loud (at Priscilla) and I've thoroughly enjoyed your beautiful garden photos, Gail. You have a little paradise there.
    I've been escaping to my archives too. And what a great vacation it is!
    Love that quote! And that second photo is so cute with its little "face" :)

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"Insects are the little things that run the world." Dr. E O Wilson