Living the Dream in Retirement
I enjoy photography and find it nearly impossible to pass by beautiful flowers without stopping to take photos. These were taken yesterday at my BFF’s home in Traverse City Michigan where I spent a fabulous extended weekend.
I’m enjoying my ever changing garden on this sunny summer day. Connecting with nature, this oasis is my therapy in these troubling times. Surrounded by beauty, I’ve created a space where I can feel at peace and be grateful for all I have. And breathe….
A week of extremely hot weather including several soaking rainstorms sent my garden into overdrive. Multiple varieties of lilies, my first hydrangea and black-eyed Susan blossoms and every variety of hostas sent up their blooms. This gallery represents a stroll through my garden today.
At last my first Morning Glories of 2019 have appeared. In years past Morning Glories overtook my herb garden and naturally dropped thousands of their seeds. This summer as a pre-emptive maneuver I carefully pulled up the little ones as they started emerging and relocated them in other flower beds. A surprise was that a number of last year’s seeds dropped into neighboring pots and are coming up as “volunteers”. An unplanned siege by a maniacal woodchuck has limited the number surviving close to the ground as apparently they are delicious…don’t get me started.
I’ve also included other favorite photos from around the garden – moss roses, clematis and my pink lilies are adding to the beauty this week.
When Spence and I returned from two weeks in the Smoky Mountains, our stargazer lilies were in full bloom; so glad we didn’t miss seeing them!
While our part of Michigan has been in the seemingly unending grip of a draught, my work in the garden doesn’t end. Nearly every day I fill a wheelbarrow to overflowing with the removal of trimming and dead-heading those flowers now done with their spring and early summer showing.
Here’s a tour of my end-of-June garden….
