more plants

I couldn't resist buying a few annuals when I visited a nursery hunting for fruit trees to plant this fall. (And not finding them.)

Next year, I hope to get zinnias into the ground, but for now, just two in pots.

This one on the deck, next to the first geranium I've had in years.

The other one I meant to put on the front porch in a spot where I hoped the mail carrier wouldn't knock it over. But as I was picking up the rain gauge another idea came to me.

The center of the mill stone just seemed to demand that size pot.

Then there's the plant I greeted with glad cries of "Cardinal vine!" and the nursery woman called something else. It has dropped its red flowers in the days since I brought it home, but it has plenty of buds. I had one as a gift from my neighbor in the last place I lived in North Carolina, and if this one goes to seed I'll have many many more next year, for it's quite the weed.

Last but not least, a bell pepper plant. I had looked at this stone planter construction, and wondered what to do with it, besides prop garden carts on it. Nothing permanent, I think, because it looks like it doesn't have any weep holes. But here, I have a vegetable in lots of sun placed too high for the dog to pee on it. Win.

getting an idea

For more than five years I've been keeping the knives I use all the time in this mug. I just plopped them in there when I was unpacking in 2008, because there was no drawer between the stove and sink, although I don't remember what that green mug was doing there at such an early stage of kitchen unpacking. I know it was one someone had given my father full of little Christmas cookies.

So, after moving here, this spring I hung some mugs up on the wall.

After staring at them for weeks, I suddenly thought "I bet that Derby mug wouldn't tip over as easily when I grab a knife in a hurry," and behold:

In fact it is much less tippy than the Christmas dog mug. Also, in the interest of knife safety, I do not actually keep my knives on a windowsill over the stove, but the light under the cabinet on the counter was much too bad.
Also I have typed "mub" instead of "mug" every single time. If you know what a mub is I would appreciate your sharing the knowledge.

solstice plate

One of my traditions for almost fifteen years has been to display certain family hand-painted plates for different seasons.

This one, painted by my mother just before I was born, is the one I use for spring.

It's signed, but even though I know where, I can't see it in this picture.

So, on Thursday night, I put this one away, and got out one of two painted by my mother's great-aunt at the same time. There's no question about who was the more accomplished painter.

I love the afternoon light in my living room despite how well it shows up the dust, so I looked over here, where I had arranged a few things while I was unpacking the latest box.

I wanted something that would catch that lovely light.
The gold vase was a Golden Anniversary gift to my grandmother.

But after trying it I decided on this jelly serving dish, even though I haven't polished its silver lid in quite a while. It belonged to the great-great-aunt who painted the peaches.

borrowing the view

Here is what I see out my kitchen sink window this month.

Although this view of the yucca blooms is from my favorite spot to sit on the deck after supper. 

From there I can also see the coleus plants I've wintered over for three years, which I spent the last week gradually acclimatizing to the outdoors and partial sun. I think three years is about as long as I can stretch them, so I've taken some cuttings which need to grow a bit before they move to the deck.

happy transplants

When I moved these daylilies more than a month ago, they didn't have any flower stalks up. Daylilies are so encouragingly tough.

 

not a window box

Fortunately, the gutters on the rest of the house don't have sprouting tree seedlings in them, since this part is where the deck is, so I can reach the gutters from a stepladder, which I did this evening before supper. I suppose I'm going to have to hire someone with better balance than I have next fall, to clean them all out. I got the loveliest loamy compost out of the south side of the house, though. I didn't take an after picture; I'm sure you all know what gutters are supposed to look like.

mugs for May

I changed from the winter season mugs some time ago, when spring began to be believable. I haven't decided yet what to put up for summer, but I believe these silly hooks are going to be fun.

The way these pea-soup green walls set off many of my mugs almost resigns me to them.  The mug on the left is one I picked up in a thrift store fifteen to twenty years ago. I rarely use it now, because the one in the middle is one of several Bybee pottery mugs I own. Bybee is a very tiny town in eastern Kentucky where many generations of a family have been making pottery for a long time. http://www.bybeepottery.com

We went there once or twice when I was a child, and watched the potters at work, and bought seconds. Nowadays they're so fashionable that seconds are snapped up as they come out of the kiln, more or less, and they have a store (in what was the grocery until I was in school) in the town I grew up in (now  surrounded by Louisville, grrrr) where I bought several more pieces a few years after I moved back to Kentucky.

The mug on the right is especially appropriate for May, Kentucky Derby month.

It commemorates the 100th Kentucky Derby in 1977. Louisville Stoneware is also an old pottery.
(I really need a macro lens.)

I don't remember who gave it to my parents, but I remember my father trying it out for drinking coffee. He seldom drank coffee at home, because of my mother's coffee allergy. Since they were both great coffee lovers, he felt her pain. It sat in the back of the cabinet for years, and I took it home with me and also found it unsatisfactory for coffee. Something about the size and shape: the coffee gets cold too soon if you fill it up, and drinking the last drops is awkward. However, I have found it very useful for drinking gazpacho from; just the right size. I won't be doing that again until I acquire another blender: the one my aunt and uncle gave us in 1968 having finally died last year. But hanging it on the wall reminds me that I have it, and might use it. I use the Bybee mug at least three times a week year round.