ButtonWillowCottage

Alone in the Garden

It is a good idea to be alone in a garden at dawn or dark so that all its shy presence may haunt you and possess you in a reverie of suspended thought. 

~James Douglas

Decaying Beauty Surrounds...

 

Autumn wins you best by this, its mute appeal to sympathy for its decay.

~Robert Browning

If I Were a Robin

If I were a robin,

    I'd live here too!

The carpet is washed

    each morning with dew.

The apple trees bend

    in the friendliest way.

If I were a robin,

     I'm sure I would stay!

~Joan Walsh Anglund

At least we have socks...

Makes one wonder if they grumble to each other about "frozen toes" or do they just appreciate their gift of life...?

Welcome Autumn

Please unpack and stay a good long while wont you?

A Gilded Season

The dandelions and buttercups

Gild all the lawn; the drowsy bee

stumbles among the clover tops,

and summer sweetens

all to me.

~J.R. Lowell 1869

A Ticket Please...

 

GARDENS ARE THEATRES;

THEY ARE THERE TO

ENCHANT, TO EXHILARATE,

TO DECEIVE, AND TO

CAPTIVATE...

It's Coming...

Are you ready?

 
 

For the Winter Weary

One Crocus...

One Robin...

One Bee...

Can

Start

a

 Spring...

you'll

see!

~Joan Walsh Anglund

 
 
 

A Sprinkle of a Thought...

Not sure if we're ready to let go of winter quite yet, but the mind does wander...

 

Ready... Set...

April prepares her green traffic light and the world thinks
GO!
~Christopher Morley

A Fresh New Day

Ahhhhh...

Just lovely to wake up and feel like it's a fresh, brand new day. Hope this isn't a one day energy surge. Now off to the garden with Mrs. Rabbit!

Spring...Hiccup?

Full on spring fever hasn't quite hit me yet. Mrs. Rabbit is trying to get me motivated, reminding me that there is much work to be done in the garden...cleaning up winter's messes and such, but somehow, it's just not happening for me quite yet. Oh yes, a spring hiccup here or there, but not the full on "fever" so to speak. I can feel it though, just under the surface, bubbling away...growing. Perhaps it's still recovery from my long winter illness? Because all I'd want to do in the garden right now is nap. But, if I don't shake this off soon, I'll be napping in weeds!

Welcome Sweet Spring

It is so very nice to see you indeed.

Sprouting

We're starting to feel a wee bit "springy" around here.

How 'bout you?

In The Heart of a Tree

Of winter's lifeless world each tree
Now seems a perfect part;
Yet each one holds summer's secret
Deep down within its heart.
~Charles G. Stater

Sing a Song of Seasons!

In the other gardens
And all up the vale,
From the autumn bonfires
See the smoke trail!

Pleasant summer over
And all the summer flowers,
The red fire blazes,
the grey smoke towers.

Sing a song of seasons!
Something bright in all,
Flowers in the summer
Fires in the fall! 

~Robert Louis Stevenson

Still Singing of Autumn

Besides the autumn poets sing,
A few prosaic days
A little this side of the snow
And that side of the haze.

~Emily Dickinson

Autumn's Garden Duties

Harvest any remaining fruits or vegetables.

Since most soil is still warm, it's a proper time to plant large plants and trees.

Spring flowering plants and bulbs can be planted.

Clean away dead leaves and plant debris. Do leave some so as to replinish the earth and provide habitats for insects which in turn provide food for winter birds.

Tidy up flower beds and empty pots of dead annuals.

Clear away and store containers, pots and garden decor before freezing weather arrives.

When weather does turn much colder, be sure to wrap fragile plants and bring in those that can not stand freezing weather.

Inhale deeply and remind self that this Autumn, these moments will never come again and be thankful to have labored and delighted in them.

Toward The End of October Road

Keep me walking, october road.
Keep me walking in the sunshine, yeah
A little friend of mine
October road
~James Taylor

Greetings October!

"Listen! the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves, We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!"

~Humbert Wolfe

Goodbye September

"For summer there, bear in mind, is a loitering gossip, that only begins to talk of leaving when September rises to go."

~George Washington Cable

Dear Autumn,

...We hope you don't mind that we are greeting you a bit early. Yes, we know the leaves are hardly changing and the weather is still frightfully warm. And we also know that in reality you are still ten days away (because it's a leap year!) but we just can't help ourselves! The anticipation is just too much to bear and so we ask that you indulge us with this precocious welcome mat. Please do come in this teeny bit early and then be sure to stay as long as you wish. We would surely appreciate it, and we hope you understand our autumnal excitement.

Yours sincerely,

The Residents and Small Dwellers of ButtonWillow Cottage

Enjoying The Weekend Before Us

"Dirty hands, iced tea, garden fragrances thick in the air and a blanket of color before me, who could ask for more?"

~Bev Adams

Summer Rain

How beautiful is the rain!
After the dust and the heat,
In the broad and fiery street,
In the narrow lane,
How beautiful is the rain!

~Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

August Majesty

"Whilst August yet wears her golden crown, Ripening fields lush- bright with promise; Summer waxes long, then wanes, quietly passing Her fading green glory on to riotous Autumn."
~Michelle L. Thieme

Harvesting For A Summer's Potpourri

Be sure to handle your herbs and flowers carefully to avoid bruising them. Once they have been bruised you will have lost much of the value in them for their essential oils.

The best (and loveliest) time to collect leaves, roots, flowers and seeds is in the early morning after the mist and dew has evaporated.

Choose plants that are clean, free of any pests or diseases. Choose flowers that are newly opened. Some flower buds are also quite pretty in the final mix.

*Hint: Always collect 4 times the amount you will need for the final potpourri mix as flowers, leaves etc. will shrink when dried.

A Summer's Potpourri

"No bought potpourri is so pleasant as that made from ones own garden, for the petals of the flowers one has gathered at home hold the sunshine and memories of summer."
~Eleanor Sinclair-Rhode

JUNE

June 15
The birds still sing morning and evening, but there is not nearly such a full choir as there was a month ago. the cares and responsibilities of large families of hungry fledgelings make too many demands on the time and attention of the anxious parents.
It is very pretty to see the House Martins sitting in the roadway, collecting mud for their nests. Their short feathered legs look as if they had little white socks on.
I was quite surprised to come upon a bank of beautiful purple Fox-gloves today,--fully out. These are the first oI have seen in flower.
~The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady

The Morning Quilt

With the first gleam of morning rays, the garden is a prism of a thousand hues refracted in tiny does of crystal dew, a dazzling quilt of millefleur colors covering the sleeping flower beds.
~Duane Michals