Tag Archives: Walks

Life is Good

Country Life, Gardens, Thoughts On Life, ,

Late Summer Urn

Things are changing noticeably around our property as fall approaches. In fact tomorrow is the first official day of fall. The plants in my large urn have completely filled in the space. The trailing, pale green vine is that of a sweet potato that now reaches the ground.

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The cleomes continue to provide quite a show. I’m very glad to have them in my rose bed because the roses barely bloomed at all this year. I am thinking that it was due to uncooperative weather and they will be back in full force next year.

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The cleomes are blooming in the bed back by our garden bench too. It seems that things we did not plant are doing best this year.  That would be the cleomes, snapdragons,  and butterfly bushes. What a gift they have been.

Butterfly bushes

This butterfly bush was so prolific that we can’t use the walkway here. We couldn’t bare to trim it back earlier because we took such joy from the hummingbirds, butterflies, hummingbird moths, and even bees that frequented it. It is later in the year and not many come now so the bush will soon get a haircut. These flying creatures provided some of my favorite entertainment over the summer.

Verbena Hydrangea

The verbena and hydrangea are still putting on quite a show. The hydrangea started from a small root piece that I bought for $3 at a discount store. They have grown into four large bushes that take up half of one our raised garden beds. Plants are amazing.

Harry Lauder Bed

My favorite part of the garden this evening though was seeing this new bed around our Harry Lauder walking stick. That’s the name of the tree. The species was named after a Vaudeville actor who had a curled walking stick, just like the branches on this type of tree. The stone in the back is from a burgundy vein of Pennsylvania blue stone. The new bed is what appears when you have a very impressive husband toiling while you are away. Also amazing.

What conclusion do I come to after my evening walk of seeing so many plants that grow by chance doing well rather than the ones that I planted? And new garden beds that appear as if by magic? Life is good.

 

July Garden Walk

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I think the gladiolus are the most glorious thing in the garden right now. I haven’t planted any in many years. I can’t think why. They are splendid.

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The glads are tall and majestic. Their flowers are a thing of beauty. Definitely more glads! They blend perfectly with the butterfly bush in the foreground. Both are tall and willowy.

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The butterfly bush does come by its name honestly as you can see. We have quite an abundance of these black and yellow butterflies, and an occasional swallowtail. On a warm, lazy afternoon such as this I sit and watch them.

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The snapdragons and petunias are an enjoyable site too.

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The clethra also draw in the flying creatures. We have two in the raised garden beds and the bees love them as you can see. The sweet scent draws them in.

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And who doesn’t love a rose? I  certainly do.

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I like some of the old fashioned types of plants too. The phlox are spectacular when they are in full bloom. And the best part is they draw the phlox bug, otherwise known as the hummingbird moth. No picture of those yet. I will keep trying. I get excited every time I see one.

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We even have pink phlox growing beside the house.

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It and the beebalm put on quite the show.

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The trumpet vine is an endearing plant for us. The hummingbirds come to it in groups of two or three to enjoy it’s sweet nectar.

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The Rose of Sharon in the front yard is very tropical looking to me. Although it is a shrub, the flower looks like a hibiscus.

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No garden walk would be complete without a stop at the vegetable garden. Things are looking pretty good here because we just weeded. Look quick,  it doesn’t last long. Soon the weeds will be back.

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Some of the trees are interesting now too. The mountain ash trees have their orange berries and the red buckeyes are setting nuts.

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I always end up back at the walled garden with its raised beds. They seem almost like a canvas where we display shapes and colors that we find appealing. This area never fails to soothe my soul.

Evening Walkabout

Country Life, Gardens, ,

Garden Wall

It turned out to be one of the rare evenings this June that it didn’t rain so I decided to take a stroll around the yard before weeding. I started at our “Secret Garden” across the driveway from the house. It’s not very secret but I do find that it holds magical things.

Archway

I enter through the archway with its large wooden doors and veer to the left. Taking the brick walkway the first site is a raised sandstone flowerbed with a beautiful red shrub called a nine bark.

Star gaze lilies

I  look down the path and see and smell the new Stargazer lilies. They were a recent gift and much appreciated.

Urn

As my walk continues I have to stop and look at “my” urn. I never tire of its beauty. This was picked out of the dump at a local cemetery. I couldn’t bear the thought of it being lost to a landfill, so home it came.  It’s probably from the Victorian era and I could not let it meet its demise after surviving for this long. The world needs this kind of beauty and history in it.

Summer Fountain

I turn back before I leave this garden to enjoy the patio and fountain. This was once a side yard with nothing but lawn. Lawn is nice but this is better. You may have guessed that we don’t have many idle moments in the warmer months. I am fortunate to have a husband with the desire and ability to create and build such things.

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I continue my evening ramblings and end up in what we call the spoke garden. The center consists of a witch hazel bramble surrounded by five small mounds with various types of plants in each. This is in the very corner of our property. There is a street on two sides with a stop sign in the corner. It is just four feet beyond the row of shrubs. When I come home I feel safe and insulated from the happenings of the world and this little garden illustrates why.

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Lest you think we only do ornamental gardening I walk past the vegetable garden and get pictures of the cabbages and beets. For some reason these shots make me think of Peter Rabbit, sans rabbit.

Petunia

But then I have to stop and take a picture of this petunia that grows on the border between the herb bed and vegetable garden. I put it there because I thought it would be nice to have something pretty to look at while tending to the vegetables. Why should we confine beauty?

Fern

And on my way back into the house to cook dinner, I pause just long enough to take this last shot of a fern that grows beside the door. I have tried to grow flowering plants here without great success. It is in the pathway that the dogs take as they run back to the house.

Shelby and Baxter

And for me, it is always about the dogs. Dogs win. So I reserve this little bed for green things such as ferns. And this suits me well enough.

Priorities

Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

Shelby, Phoebe, and Baxter

Last evening I had a decision to make. I was at home, finally, after working for 10 hours. There was much to be done. Things to clean, things to put away, preparations for the next day. But I looked at these eager faces, smiling at me and ready for whatever attention I would give them. So what did I choose to do? I loaded these three up in the car and we went for a long walk.

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We went to West Branch State Park which is about 10 minutes from our house here in northeastern Ohio. This is the beauty that greeted us as we began our walk. This was a heck of a lot better than cleaning!

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And I got to spend it with these three beautiful faces. I think that I chose wisely. One of the reasons that I like to walk here, aside from the beautiful scenery, is that I can let the dogs walk off leash if there are not too many other people around. The dogs know they are given a privilege and prance so proudly to know that I have unhooked their leashes and trust them to stay with me. Occasionally we encounter other walkers or bicyclers and I briefly leash the dogs back up until they pass. Not so much because of the dogs but because I don’t want the other people who are out enjoying their evening to be afraid. I want to be a good steward of the trail so that dogs will continue to be welcome. Baxter, in particular, gets much more exercise when he is off lead. He runs 20 feet or so ahead and circles back behind and continues to make this loop as we walk so he can monitor and sniff the area. He walks much farther than the rest of us with his loping circuits of the path. Baxter’s behavior is excellent when he is loose. When we see someone approaching, I can just tell him “over here” and point to where I want him to walk and he will stay next to me until the person passes. He is very reliable on this and I can tell that he understands because he keeps looking up at me and communicating “I’ve got this mom”. I will leash him up if I think he will make the other people nervous when they pass. Shelby and Phoebe I do usually leash up because there is an even chance that they will go up the person and demand to be petted. This might be intimidating for someone who doesn’t know them.

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As we go about our walk I notice that the landscape is really quite impressive. It is a calm evening so it is quiet. One of the sounds that I do hear and love is the sound of the waves on the water. This, I thought, is not so far removed from the views I love to see when I go to Maine.  Each place has it’s own beauty if you are able to see it.

West Branch

Life is good. There is beauty to behold and I am able to see it in the company of three of my dogs. It doesn’t get much better.

West Branch Sunset

By now it is sunset and we close out the evening with this last view. Earlier I had a choice to make of how to spend my evening. I think that I chose wisely. This is an experience that I will remember fondly.

End of the Evening

And although it was getting dark by the time we got back to the car, you can see by these happy faces that they also think that I have chosen wisely. Let the adventures continue!

Spring Garden Walk and Memories

Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, , , ,

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The weather was pleasant with sunshine and the temperature was perfect so I decided a walk around the gardens was in order. I started by checking on the trillium. It achieved its personal best for number of blooms this year at six. The trilliums grow in our pine grove, enjoying the shade of the  tall trees.

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Then it was on to check out the hemlock nearby. It is doing great. We purchased it when it was no more than a small twig from the County Extension Office, and have enjoyed watching it grow from a small Charlie Brown type Christmas tree to its current self.

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The ground cover throughout the pine grove is covered with Vinca vine also known as myrtle. It has these pretty bluish purple little blossoms at this time of year.

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Growing near the house we have a viburnum. The bush doesn’t look like much, although it does have these cute little flowers, but ohhh the smell. Heavenly! You can smell its glorious perfume from the door of the house. I wish there was a way to record smell so that I could share it with you. Maybe that will be the next wave of the future.

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Also near the house we have the woodland bleeding heart. Named for its heart shaped little flowers.

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And of course the requisite spring tulips.

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And continuing on the walk we see these the tiny, white violets nearly everywhere. They grow up in the lawn and so fall prey to the mower, but still they always seem to be there.

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The flowering almond is resplendent with many blooms right now. This little tree always makes me think of my beloved sheltie Duncan. Every evening, during his last days, we would take a walk to enjoy our time together and I have pictures of him in front of this tree. The tree is beautiful by its own merits but the memory of Duncan makes it even sweeter. He grew from being my greatest challenge to my greatest gift.

Duncan Almond

And so I will leave you with the memory of Duncan who has been gone from me two years next week. You can see his therapy dog tag in the photo. He was the light of my life but he also brought joy wherever he went and made the world a better place. Rest well my sweet boy.

Pack Walk

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life,

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The day was so beautiful yesterday that we had to go for a walk. The temperature was perfect and the sun was shining. We went to a dedicated walking and biking path near our house. Phoebe, Baxter, and Shelby are so good that they get to walk off lead. Unless a bicycle or other people with dogs come along, then we leash them back up, lest the others become afraid. This is Shelby ‘ s first year of being reliable off lead and she is quite proud, as am I.

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Nikki does walk on lead. She is so skittish that she needs the security of the leash. Even though she is small, she is fast and I wouldn’t want to try to catch her. I  just slip the leash through one of my belt loops and that is enough to keep her with us. Alas, poor Roxanne stays home. She is now only able to walk across the house and that takes a while.

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So this was our view as we walked. It’s a spillway and reservoir that was constructed during WW II. Often I think of all the houses that must be under the water. The land was previously farms until the land was used for this purpose. But soon I am back to watching the dogs and appreciating how much fun we all have on the  pack walk.

A Sunday Walk

Dogs & Other Animals, Thoughts On Life, ,

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We like to walk dogs at a local cemetery. It is an old cemetery and some of the stones are beautiful pieces of art work. It is a rather large place too. It doesn’t seem to matter how many times we go there, I always see something that I never noticed before. I always learn something too. From the surnames on some of the stones, I learn how some of the streets and roads in the area were named. I notice that some first names seem unusual and have gone out of fashion. From seeing the different types of monuments you call tell what medium holds up the best and what was in fashion at the time. There is zinc, marble, and granite. Some are plain, others are ornate, big, small, with urns, human likenesses, floral carvings, or symbols.

You can also tell how some of the people likely passed from the period of time. Lots of folks have dates on their stones from the time of World War I and World War II and also from the time of the great flu epidemic early in the 1900’s. Also lots of infants and young children have grave stones from times when growing to adulthood was not so certain.

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The dogs are just happy to go for walks.  They don’t care where. Blitz and Shelby are pictured. Since this cemetery is large, paved, and picturesque, many people exercise here. There are other dog walkers like me, and lone walkers and joggers too, with sometimes occasional picnickers thrown in. Once in a while I encounter someone I know who is also walking. It is an especially nice place to be in the spring and early summer months. The old plantings of trees, shrubs, and flowers are beautiful.

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I think it is rather nice to take a place that was set aside for the dearly (or some not so dearly) departed and infuse a bit of life into it. I know it would make me happy to know that the final resting place of my earthly body was a place that brought joy to children, dogs, and other fellow humans.