End of summer

How beautiful.  How very beautiful the garden looks on these last days of summer.  It lingers, its glories linger under the golden sun the end of early September, and roses seem to be saying “one more change! 

So, some of them are in bloom again. And what a lovely spectacle they are in the heat of the day in their beautiful pink crowns.  I have pulled out a lot of the phlox that was overcrowding a certain space in the garden and I’m thinking that next spring I want to see here more black-eyed Susan instead...

 

Birds seem to love this corner.  I can’t tell exactly what they have going on there, but I like to think that perhaps that’s their shopping center, or their dance club where they all come together for dance, music and socializing. It knows no borders. 

Their complex houses, where single-and-married birds and their families live, however, must be on far west of the opposite side of the garden.  There’s a tree there where dozens of birds hide, and you can hear the upheaval of their merriment and chirpings as they come and go.  But now that I’m thinking about it, perhaps this place is not really their home, but rather their worship place, or church where they surely must play an array of instruments and sing songs without stopping, for the ruckus is prodigious and the merriment great.

Two of the Quaking Aspens I had added to the garden since we moved back to our house in the roses have not grown much, and this is the second year since planted for one of them.  By now, I have lost almost all hope of seeing them making it, and I am thinking that perhaps they might have to be replaced next spring.  Quaking Aspens are such a graceful addition to any backyard with their pale bark and ‘quaking’ leaves that sounds like tiny bells on a breezy afternoon.  They are inexpensive trees, and tend to grow fast.

The Tartarian Maple hasn’t improved, or grown as fast as I had hoped for in a year… what a disappointment it had proved to be thus far, for I was hoping for a fast coverup of the two-story house right behind our fence…. As it is, we continued on being exposed and subjected to unwanted vigilance.  One day… one day I’ll have my little jungle all lush and luxuriant and I won’t have to see this anymore…

The grapevines are heavy with grapes that are ripping more and more each day and I have seen a foreign bird picking from them already.  

I don’t want these last days of summer to ever end.  I want to continue sitting here and let my soul drink in the view and glories I see and hear and feel, but I must obey the reasoning of the seasons and I must start thinking of sweaters and cozy banquets, and the fire pit in the back porch is ready for cooler mornings and chilly evenings. I’d let my heart dream, and I’d let my wings take flight.  In the meantime, I’ll remain right here where I am, enjoying my little life away.

Pink

Oh hi there my friend! Have I ever mentioned how I love to add a pop of color in my otherwise black/white living room each season?

Ah yes I like to transform the atmosphere of our living room according to the shades and colors of the seasons. And if you ask me, I believe that pink is the true color of summer.

Summer is pink cake frosting, flushed petals, bubblegum bright coral, rose-pink lollipops, ballet slippers, tulle tutus, pink-breasted birds, grapefruit and watermelon. Pink is the color of my summer garden, it is the color of girl-happiness and the pop of color I chose form my summer living room.

I have pops of every shade of pink throughout my living room, and it’s no longer a dull place!  Pink totally gets me in the mood for spring and summer.

I’m thinking mustard yellow for the fall, but summer still lingers around here, and with so many pink roses in bloom in the garden again, is only normal I want to add more pink more roses more bouquets to my decoration.

I hope you like my pops of pink. Pink add a feminine touch to any room. Pink is in bloom. This subtle tone has just enough presence to be impactful without distracting from the room's casual vibe. And I so love it!

The summer gypsies

We decided to go to the mountains again this weekend for the extra-long weekend.  And thus, we went out to find that “lilac” campground where the lake lays placidly below trailers and campers, and arid mountains seem to whisper at night.  And we were lucky to have found a site that, although it is not right at the edge of the mountain looking down at the lake, it is spacious and shaded, as it is surrounded and protected by a circle of firs and quaking aspens carved in a deep on the side of a slope.  Which means protection from the sun and a good amount of privacy from other campers.  And I love being surrounded by big trees.  I love to be observed by them from above and feel as if I’m tucked away in their arms in a big nest of sorts. 

The sun blew fire down on us all afternoon, and it was scorching hot and the heat made us walk like zombies and people went to hide in their trailers and in the water down at the lake in each and every little hole away from the sun they could find.  Even dogs were seen hiding from the heat under trailers and gypsy wagons and such.  

In the evening, a warm breeze moved on calming things down a little bit.  Scattered leaves blew away and there was an autumnal feeling to the atmosphere that, even if it was hot and it didn’t feel too comfortable, still made things beautiful and I even noticed that trees and shrubs are getting ready to move their summer outfits and change onto their splendid autumnal outfits… soon, very soon the entire atmosphere will take on the colors of cinnamon and clove and the world will be a better place to be for campers and old gypsies like us who enjoy being outside.

I picked some stems from the ornamental grasses found around the campsite and made bouquets with them.  Then, I went on setting a little living room out in the open by the foot of the hill, for us to sit.  Later, on I will use them to decorate our real home when autumn comes around and the decorations would have to be changed to something more agreeable with the season and its colors. 

We went down to the lake later... to fish and walk around the shore... we were amazed at how much had the lake lowered its water levels.  We walked on bared rocks that once had belonged to the bottom of the lake and all around the lake you could see the marks where the water levels were high up that hill of rocks.  

Our gypsy quarters get cozier and cozier each time we sleep there... I can hardly wait to sleep here in the fall when it will be cooler and chilly nights would bring the great owls to magical trees under which our gypsy trailer will sleep the night away with us inside...

On little house on wheels felt so cozy and marvelously comfortable in the early morning, with coffee on the table, breakfast and our favorite books...

The view outside was marvelous and the light perfect!

We cleaned our space, washed the dishes and then went back to the lake  that morning, the Fisherman caught a trout, I read my book, played with leaves and collected flowers, then we jumped on our truck and headed back home….

Thanks for coming along!  Until next time y'all!

Making memories

Days, specially mornings, have acquired this special aura of mellowness and crispiness and glorious hues of fresh pinks and glowing golden light, so beautiful, so magical, that my heart had been aglow-dancing, had been vocalizing the language of angels, and I… I just sit outside all day long and truly believe I’m the Alice of Lewis Carroll of my own little enchanted world.

How beautiful, how very marvelous this time of year is around here… here in our high dessert.   

I’ve been cleaning and changing things around the house, and our living room has got a touch of pink, so befitting with the outside summer look of pinks from roses and petals.  I love it—this touch of cranberry flushed pink along the patterned black and whites… just a touch; a mere blushing of color can make such a statement.

I also have a new rug in this area too. It was 60% off when I found it, and it has the perfect matching colors of my living room, so as you can imagine, I just had to get it, even if I didn’t need it… I always feel so guilty buying things I don’t need and I have to wrestled with my little heart sometimes, but I love details when it comes to decorating and always love to see small changes here and there... doing this uplifts my spirit and makes me so happy…

Our youngest son and his fiancée from NY spent a few magical days with us this week.  We older ones were enthusiastically inspired by them to feel young and fearless again and thus, we rode our bikes for miles and miles and floated the river in perilous rafters, we got stuck in the middle of rushing waters atop some very slippery gigantic rocks, I freaked out and came out of our raft, panicked some more and had to be rescued by our fearless handsome son, who literally had to walk on water to save his mom.  Then we walked and walked and walked for miles and miles back to our car after we floated the river and that evening still had some energy left to go to downtown for a late dinner at some fancy restaurant, were we sat outside in little cozy tables outlooking the city and talked and laughed, and  watched in amazement at how this young and wild generation handles life…

The following day we went to the thermal waters, took a plunge in almost boiling waters and then head out to a quaint little town cloistered in tall rugger mountains.  We rented a cabin, ate ice-cream cones as we listen to live music and then in the evening sat outside as the sun was setting down and sung old songs in all four voices…

Late that night, we went to the only place which was still open, the bar, and drank iced-cold lemonade and cranberry juice, went outside and watched an amazing starry sky and went to sleep… 

The following morning after breakfast we took a boat ride and were left in the middle of nowhere where then we started a 5-hour hike through the tallest mountains I had ever seen.  Trails and trails took us higher and higher in search of hidden blue lakes in the top of the mountains, we followed horses trails where we could almost touch the rugger peaks of the mountains and had an amazing view of the lake miles and miles down below… on our way back I stumbled and scraped my knees really bad, we had never been so tired in our entire life, our legs were cramped and we were famished and almost dehydrated, but we packed so many many many amazing memories in the sacks of our lives… perhaps, it was a little too much for us, perhaps we would never be able to do this again, but I’m so glad we did it all!  Memories is all it remains in the folds of our hearts, we should be willing to make them, treasure them and relive them until we are no more…cause at the end, that’s all we are left with—memories.