A place to nap

Many people comment when they visit my garden, that I have lots of places to sit and rest.  Those of you who garden know that having a beautiful garden does not mean sitting still...and the few minutes I do, the garden calls to me and I have to leave my chair and start pulling a weed or deadheading.

However, I learned years ago that it has often been important for visitors to my home and garden to have a place to be still, rest, and reflect.  When I was first married, guests would often wander away to look at something and I would be startled to find them napping in a chair on the couch, on the porch swing, or on the chaise in the garden.

I often invite guests who are feeling stress in their lives.  To sit on the porch to have coffee and talk.  And soon they are napping.  When mentioning it to a friend, she said I made it OK.  That the house was a calm, restful place, away from the world where you could find comfort in the coffee brewing, the smell of fresh baked goods or something in the crock pot.  And the rule I have against gossip .  What is spoken in the garden stays in the garden.

A peaceful place to be still... and nap.

Waiting for spring

The Door to the Garden Shed

Waiting for Spring

It is the time of year when the seed catalogs and the rose catalogs start to arrive.  I start dreaming of what I will plant this year.   I love to stoke up the wood burning stove in the garden shed, put the tea kettle on to boil, cuddle up in a wicker rocker and go through my collection of garden books for ideas.

I am blessed that my husband built me this incredible garden shed.  We have been re-purposing for years.  My friends would often just shake their heads at what we were dragging home.  However, my dear husband and I would spend early Saturday mornings over breakfast dreaming of what these odds and ends could be.  This beautiful garden shed is just one example.

When my granddaughter (four at the time) walked in the door, her first comment was "Grandpa must love you so much cause he built in everything you love!"  That is so true.  This door, found in a barn by a friend who brought it to me stating "I found the door for your garden shed" is just one example of the blessings contained in this tiny 12 x 16 building.   My son and I spent several weekends stripping the dozens of layers of paint off to discover the spoon carvings below.  

A friend is a remodeler by trade and many of the components we use on our projects would otherwise land in the dump.  The shed has a set of sliding doors and two sliding windows formerly in someone else's home.  The sliders are covered by a set of sliding wood doors previously on an old barn which provides winter protection and shade in the summer.  

The antique wood burning stove was a find on an anniversary weekend spent antiquing.  I haven't totally perfected the art of baking bread and pies in it - so I really respect women of past era's for their ability to wake up early enough to heat the stove to a temperature that will bake evenly.  However, it is great fun to try and I get better every time.

This is my porch garden last year in early June right after a few days of heavy rain.  The reason for all the tiny seedlings and the droopy peonies...the porch rails are another re purposed item, having a past life on someone's deck.  The Jackmani Clematis are to commemorate my grandparents who always had a magnificent specimen by their back door.  The roses are likewise very important to me...more in a coming post about them, but the tiny pink are a Canadian Explorer called Joie de Vivre.  The peonies are a particular favorite of mine.  A future post will show a picture of me at 1 in the middle of my grandmothers peony border.  And then the staple of the late summer garden, when all the bright blooms are tired, hostas and day lilies.  

What are you dreaming of for your garden?