The digital random thoughts of Flowergardengirl for Copper Top Cottage

When Flowergardengirl was considering the colors for Copper Top Cottage she thought of her favorite colors of fall and paired them~~~with ~~ this of all things–

~~ a rotating egg~~The above image actually spins on her computer and was created in Gimp using photos from the scenes from her back yard but WordPress will not allow that application and too bad for you~~~~Autumn is her favorite time of year. The image above allows her to look at the colors against the teal from every angle. Teal is the color of her Copper Top Cottage.

Soon the lace curtains will go up and all the treasures she’s been gathering for 50 years will purposefully be placed in every nook and cranny of her little shed. As I’m reading this back to her she’s saying this is getting way too quaint like and intense so and I should lighten the mood a bit. She says that although there’s a cute quiet side to her , she’s also a riot and that sometimes she wears her Tuesday underwear on Friday.

Copper Top Cottage will be filled with hopes of rows to hoe and gardeners to know. There will be a comfy reading chair by the stained glass window that was purchased at a salvage yard and always a red geranium in one of the windows which has nothing at all to do with the colors she has carefully planned for the space. But red  geraniums were her grandmother’s favorite and so it shall be.

The paint selection for the outside is in the  Natural Splendor line called Biltmore Estate: She’s loving the name  which is~~~‘Hidden Spring’  by Olympic Paint and is talked about in an article she wrote about HERE. One of her favorite color palettes is that of teal, deep peachy orange, and deep golden burnt umber. You can only find that in her back yard during Autumn . Right! Or does this happen in your yard too?

And she never buys a plant without considering it’s aged beauty. And she would never marry a man without considering his retirement plan.

Alaska nasturtiums are considered a bit hard to grow but they do well  in her front beds as there has never been any grown in her back beds. They love this time of year. They like the cool weather  unlike most nasturtiums which would rather see long hot sunny days I suppose~~ do you suppose?. Flowergardengirl likes the speckled leaves of the Alaska variety. She likes any speckled leaves.

Today is the first day of November and it’s so gloriously chilly. Flowergardengirl’s home is filled with biscuit breezes and the aroma of a roast in the oven. Would you like to see the leaves that have fallen and her roast in the oven? And will you please watch her later on tonight at Garden World Report. She’d appreciate it. Here she is now just before the show at her home in NC~~~~

Meet a delightful local NC artist, Gail Morris

I fist met Gail while I was trespassing on her front lawn and taking pictures of her flaming red tulips. You may remember that I wrote about it HERE. She caught me on her way out to check her mail and I’m so very glad she did. Now we’ve struck up a friendship.  She has one of those personalities that you want to hold dear to your heart and not let go.

( You do not have permission to copy these pictures for any use.)

As you can see, Gail Morris is an incredibly talented lady. Sometimes, she likes to paint my flowers( those aren’t mine above) and often uses them as models for some of her paintings. I love that she does. Big hugs Gail.

Gail  is a native North Carolinian just like myself and I’d like to take you with me to her canvas where she colors North Carolina from her home located just across the street from mine. I’m the lucky one. It turns out Gail is a very gifted painter. And….her husband’s parents were long time friends with my family for as long as the smoke trails from chimney peak to chimney peak.

Gail has two sons and two grandchildren. She has always loved art and at the age of six she painted porcelain pieces under the tutelage of an aunt. Her parents encouraged her artistic talent and enrolled her in art classes at the Reynolda House and the Arts Council.

Her First juried piece was in the first grade…She won first place with a drawing of a little pig-tailed girl in a swing.

Gail attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro ,majoring in business. Her job was wife and mother until she began working at Wake Forest University Health Sciences in the Departmento fo Neurosurgery and retired in December of 2007 after 28 years of service.

Shortly before retirement, she enrolled in art classes at Salem College and studied with Vicky Verano and has continued to study with other local artist such as Judy Meyler, Molly Davis, Sean Dye, Patty Bailey Sheets, Sharon Grubbs, Frank Rowland and many more. ( webpages added by flowergardengirl.wordpress.com and not the responsibility of Gail Morris. should there be a need for adjustments or any corrections please contact me via the information provided on this website. Thank you~ Anna~ and a warm welcome to my website if you have arrived by one of these links!)

Gail Morris is a member of the Muddy River Art Association and the Associated Artists of Winston Salem. She paints landscapes, figures, still life, home and pet portraits.

GAIL M. MORRIS
ARTIST STATEMENT

Simply stated, I LOVE to paint! Art is a pure joy for me. To express myself in color, light and shadow, brightness and contrast, brings me a deep sense of satisfaction. Capturing special memories of place, person, or a beloved pet brings a unique pleasure to others and is very rewarding to me.

Each time I begin a new canvas is an adventure – from the initial sketch to the finished painting. It begins as an empty canvas, a puzzle beckoning to be solved – the brush in my hand, feeling the flow of the paint and seeing colors mingle, observing light and shadows forming on the canvas make my paintings personal. Becoming totally immersed in my painting with no sense of time passing by makes me feel that part of my soul is being expressed in my paintings. This is deeply satisfying.

~~~~~~~~If you would like to contact Gail, please use the contact button at the top of my blog, your comment will not appear publicly. It will go directly to my inbox. I will forward the message to her. ~~~~~~

Why I Came Home To A North Carolina Autumn

I’ve got a big announcement at the end of this post!!!

First you need to know!!!!! Garden World Report is up and running and I’m there receiving my award at blotanical.com for best blog design and best NC blog. I was on the chat board live last night but you can go Here and see the show. It’s up 24/7. Please go check it out and leave a message saying you stopped by. Shirley Bovshow is the brain child behind this online gardening television. It’s exciting and you’ll be in the know about what’s new in the dirt. Shirley’s website is at Eden Makers Blog

We’ve lived all over the United States but I was born and raised in North Carolina. So when my husband retired from the Air Force in 1994 he ask me where I wanted to live and I said home to the Autumn colors of the Appalachian South.

I want to be home where raindrops fill the birdbath and our red Cardinal will come calling.

I want to go home where the muscadines grow and limbs swing low and the people talk slow.

I could visit my favorite nurseries and decorate my garden with pansies and colors of the season. I like it when I can celebrate all 4 seasons but Autumn is my favorite. No other place celebrates Autumn like North Carolina in my opinion.

I can grow Teddy Bear Sunflowers like this one that grew in my garden last season. I will grow it again next year.

I can put —–Arugula and ornamental cabbages like the ones displayed on the nursery tables at The Briar Patch Garden Center in Advance NC.—-in my winter containers.

While I was visiting that little shop–A nicely arranged mantel  —-gave me some Autumn decorating inspiration——-

Look what caught my eye—- this little feeder just wishing to come and live at———

Copper Top Cottage, my little shed, which I am proud to announce!!!!!!- passed inspections this week!!!!!!! So—-I’ll be moving my stuff in the first of next week and decorating my long awaited dream of owning a gardening shed/elegant hideaway. There will be a party!!!!! When Mr. D ask where I wanted to move when we retired, I said—My North Carolina cause I pictured my little Copper Top Cottage in the woods at the end of property all fixed up with mums and such and so it will be. Stay tuned.

To see the building of my shed—-visit past post HERE. Cause not gonna show ya the finished product yet.

Copper Top Cottage is finished and the big reveal will be next week—stay tuned!!!!

In your opinion, how famous is the lily pad?

And Mrs. Frog sat Thumbelina down on a lily pad right in the middle of the pond.

When you arrive at the lily pad pond and see how enormous the lily pads are–well–you feel small. You probably feel like Thumbelina. Your mouth gapes open and no one says a word. The guide is still talking but you’ve stopped listening. All your senses have gone to focusing on what’s in front of you. Unless it’s a normal part of your day to gaze at gigantic lily pads then you are ogling over such a spectacle as these. I mean look at the picture. How many of you have even read this far?

So I was wondering what poor Thumbelina thought when Mrs. Frog sat her upon the lily pad and told her she must stay there until she agreed to marry her ugly son. Apparently, the fish sided with Thumbelina cause they had seen frog boy many times. Mrs. Frog had kidnapped poor Thumbelina and hoped she would marry the poor boy.

Do you know how Thumbelina was born? Was she born in the lily pad?

The fish began to eat the roots that held the lily pad in place. Once the lily pad was free, it drifted on down the stream. Do any of you know the rest of the story? Shame on you if you don’t. And more importantly–do your children know?

Thumbelina is a fairy tale written by Hans Christian Anderson. It was published in 1835 and was not well received at the time. Thumbelina was almost forced in to marriage not once but twice. First to a frog and second to a mole. She rescued a bird and then the bird rescued her. The bird carried her away to her prince. The bird then flew to the windowsill of Hans Christian Anderson and tweeted to him while the fairy tales were being written.

What’s not so obvious above is the illustrator’s name which is Thomas Vilhelm Pedersen. He was the first to illustrate Anderson’s fairy tales. Anderson’s tales had been published prior to Vilhelm’s works but were made much more popular as they were added. Today the two are inseparable. They are part of an original 5 volume book with 125 illustrations.  Vilhelm died at age 39 but his work has made the lily pad more famous than any other artist.

Here you see the giant lily pads at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens in Raleigh, North Carolina? Do you think of Vilhelm’s Thumbelina when you see a lily pad?

Learning to use Gimp to enhance blogging

How many of you use GIMP? It’s an image manipulation program–free. Very similar to photoshop. Be prepared to launch on a huge learning curve and take the time to read the manual that comes with the program. But once you grasp the basics, you can create some fun projects for your blog. You’ll be able to save the images as jpegs and make clever headers for your blog. I’m already working on January’s snowflakes. The above image is just a sample that I might use as an invitation series for my cards.

When making a header for my blog, sometimes I use my own images and other times—like with this current harvest theme for October and November—I purchased a clipart kit. You can look on my sidebar for Karla Donacher clip art and get your own. I purchased the CSS upgrade for wordpress so I can match the header to the theme colors. I also increased the header size. I could do a lot more with the background but then it would load slower than a snail. My blog already loads a bit slower than is recommended cause of all my images. But ya’ll do like those images!

So just wanted to share this with you and let you have fun too. Free is good right?

Invincibelle Hydrangea 2010

Proven Winners Plants A pink ‘Annabelle’ has come on the garden scene and is introduced by Proven Winners Plants. I am growing them and they bloom from Spring through frost. When the plant is young the blooms overwhelm the plant a bit but as the plant matures it grows into itself. The stems get strong and blooms are produced on the plant for several months. In my zone 7 garden the ‘Invincibelle’ hydrangea blooms in full sun untill frost. It has been blooming since I planted it in May. The blooms are huge and very showy. The photos in the post are from the new media information I recieved from Proven Winners. Wish I could take credit and aren’t they grand? I’m proud to tell you this ‘Invincibelle’ is a North Carolina native. Dr. Tom Ranney at the Mountain Hortaculture Crop Research and Development Center at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, NC and his talented students have brought us this repeat blooming hydrangea.

Richard Olsen, a graduate student, was hiking in the Appalachian mountains and discovered a pink lace cap. He brought a cutting back to the center where a team of students under the direction of Dr. Ranney grew this beautiful new variety. Proven Winners has teamed with the Breast Research Foundation on a campaign to help find the cure for breast cancer. For every plant sold, a dollar is donated to the cause.

The invincible spirit of this reblooming hydrangea is a reminder for us to continually hope and donate so a cure for this disease can be found. You all know I love Proven Winners Plants and this week I had the privilege of meeting Danielle Ernest and Janice Limbaugh from that company. Danielle, the public relations person for Proven Winners, discovered my blog about two years ago and contacted me about trialing the new cultivars and then writing about them. I had been growing their plants for the previous 5 years so I jumped at the chance.

This is me( after a day in the 100 humidity of a hot Sept. NC) and Danielle at the 2009 Garden Writers Symposium in Raleigh, North Carolina.  I was thrilled to finally meet the person behind all the phone and email conversations. Thank you Danielle and Janice for the nice PW gifts and plants over the years. I have and will continue to enjoy my journey with Proven Winners. This photo is a bit empty looking and I would love to showcase how pretty it was with the pink market bags and ‘Invincibelle Spirit’ hydrangea—-but people flocked to this site and wiped them clean. In fact, they were gone on both days within the first hour we were allowed on the floor. Everyone was carrying around a pink market bag.

To see how this booth was created and color choices made—visit Helen @ Gardening with Confidence. From flee markets to paint selection—-this is how it came together! HERE This booth was spectacular when the pink bags filled with the ‘Invincibelle’ hydrangeas were added.

Where am I?

Where is flowergardengirl? Anyone know? You’ll find out Monday.

Hint: Go north from my house. Stop after 4 hours and 45 minutes. Big big big gardens on the schedule tomorrow. Many heirloom seeds available. Big house–and the list goes on.

Stay tuned.

Writing a goodbye letter to your perennials

Dear Perennials,

I hope you remembered to write a will and leave me everything. I know you aren’t long to this world. I can promise that most of you will be back next year. Look around and say goodbye to the annuals as they don’t have enough genetic information to bloom again another season. They talk the talk but don’t walk the walk.

When you come back next year, could you increase in numbers? I’d like to get to know you better. I promise to prepare good foods for you and make your bed soft so you can stretch out your feet comfortably. In fact, you never thanked us for giving you a good home.

Some of you were caught asexually breeding with a different kind. I can accept that if you prove to be compatible. I am not however interested in supporting an offspring that is going to run amuck.

Some of you were a real treat to watch and some of you were a pain. I’m laying down new rules next year. You’ll have to grow more spread apart and stop sharing fungus feet and bed bugs. I’m fed up with such shenanigans. Next year you’ll grow where I tell you to grow!

You’ll get more grooming next year. I’m not putting up with those of you who swayed around in haphazard attire. If you can’t keep yourselves looking neat and tidy then I’m going to do it for you.

It’s your time to rest up and store energy for next season’s big show. I expect you to eat and drink while on vacation. No JUNK FOOD! If I see you are eating junk food then I’m going to cut you off and make you take your vitamins.

Thanks so much for all you did and we’ll get back together in the Spring.

Big hugs,

Flowergardengirl