The painting continues....

Dunno what's happened here...maybe it's joy from the Boy moving in, maybe it's just a desire to stay indoors in the heat, but I'm wild about painting!!  I'm redoing just the accessories from Ma's old Pfaltzgraff collection to match my esthetics.  There's a pair of salt and pepper shakers and a couple of mini pitchers that have now seen the business end of my brushes.  Can't...stop...decorating!!!

And then there's the botanical madness that has struck this summer.  Last year, I lost almost all of my plants, full grown and seedlings.  This was doubtless due to my noobishness, but also to the "bright idea" I had to buy end of season sale plants to cut my teeth on.  My seedlings fell prey to the wicked rainstorms we had last summer, and all of them drowned before reaching maturity.

This year, however, I planned ahead and sought out low-light, low-water houseplants, and kept 'em indoors.  I had marginal luck with some lavender and pansy seedlings, but they grew right out of the soil, so I'll have to reset.  As for outside, there's a modest array, bought on advice from much more experienced growers, and research (eg my coleus, which flourishes almost unnervingly).

This success led me to consider a proper garden in a small patch in front of the house for next year, as well as some container "crops" out back of  the house.  We have two or three large recycling barrels laying around unused, since our town switched to some automated system that uses one giant container for everything.  So...I thought planters!  Soon I'll measure them and see if I can find plastic tubs/whiskey barrels that will fit at least halfway down, so I won't have an entire barrel to fill with soil.  This would also make them a lot more portable in case of storms, or for later winter storage.

Going nuts with this...money and weather permitting, I'd love to put tomatoes, peppers, and garlic at the front of the house, perhaps with a tea rose or two for James to tend.  In the barrels, I see sunflowers (not the huge kind), strawberries, peas or beans, and maybe some dahlias.  Or more roses - I'm enchanted with Albas and  as of late, due to their antiquity.  Don't know yet if they can be containered, though!

Alba Rose from Wikipedia

I'm fairly certain I cannot grow them in my current circumstances, but oh, the Bourbon roses!  Such a dream!

Bourbon Rose from Wikipedia

Then there's the Hybrid Teas....

Wikipedia again

I will rein myself in, due to budget and sanity concerns, but it's so much fun to window shop!  Must get a handle on the rose lingo, though, since it's really easy to mix up my damasks with rugosas and musks.