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.