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Writer's Retreat

Sunday, January 20, 2013




It's become a destination. Whenever I enter, something has changed. Bloomed, budded, leafed.


I hardly recognize the geranium stubs I started in the living room in November.





The resilience of plants is something I strive to emulate. All they need is water, light, and warmth.



 Love helps, too.






Crown of Thorns. I want to cut it back but it won't stop blooming.



Teeny tiny Hawaiian impatiens.





Basking Zick




I've strung lights on Rosemary.





The Baby Butterhead lettuce is coming in, nice and sweet. I keep it near the floor where it will stay cool and not bolt.






Sweet fake of summer, the jasmine's in bloom. It looks pathetic but it's leafing out at last. And blooming, first. Thank you.






These greens are good for the eyes and spirit.






I have yet to tire of the primroses.









Best ten bucks I've ever spent.



Chet has his own chair. We keep three in there, one for me, a guest (usually Bill), and Chet. There wasn't room for even a stool in the Garden Pod. I always stood up when I was in there. But this is more like a little atrium. It's a room. A place to be.





And why shouldn't I have my own chair?





Mether thinks I look like George Clooney with my gray eyebrows.

12 comments:

Every Sunday morning ought begin like this! (...although George Clooney there is looking a bit constipated)

Your greenhouse looks lovely. However, after reading about your struggles putting it up I thought i wouldn't want one, but now it looks worth the trouble. I see a Bosai tree. I'm crazy about bonsai. What kind is it? How about a picture of it.

Wow, Julie. What a wonderful place to be able to take a quiet break in. Trying not to drool with desire; one of my long-standing hopes is to one day have a little greenhouse of my own, just like that.

Love your special room. I have wanted a greenhouse like this for many years. Probably won't happen but never hurts to dream. And now I can come visit yours in your posts. Darlene

What a wonderful room you have there! A great way to be outdoors--and not be--at the same time.

Anna Malcolm, the bonsai you're seeing is a Ficus laurifolia, a Laurel-leafed Fig, which is a tropical bonsai. I got it from a cutting off a beautiful old tree at Columbus OH's Franklin Park Conservatory. It has a wonderful form, but is subject to scale infestations, and I have to be OK with its going dormant in winter and losing all its leaves. But then it leafs out again in spring and it's all worth it. It's in the greenhouse because I can't overwinter it in the cold frame outdoors with my Japanese maples and Chamaecyparis. If you're curious about my bonsais, go to the search box in the upper left corner of my blog homepage and type in bonsai. Lots of results over the last seven years.

Hi Julie, Thanks for your response. I'll be headed to the search box momentarily.

Julie, good luck with your Crown of Thorns. It won't stop blooming! I made the mistake of putting a little one on my desk at work several years ago and now it towers over everything with those wicked thorns just daring me to do anything about it! But I will, soon!

Julie, you make us all long for a greenhouse, and perhaps for some, a Chet Baker as well! Fortunately for me, although I do not have a greenhouse, I do have three loving pugs-Lola 7, Brady 5, and Nikko 3 (a darling little pug/boston/chihuahua? mix with a white stripe on his head like Chet's). They all like to sit on my lap just the way that Chet sits on yours. Seeing photos of Chet Baker always makes me smile. Thanks for sharing!

Sheesh! You sure can bring stuff to life...plant or animal.

No, Chet Baker is much cuter than George Clooney... in my opinion.

Thank you, Julie, for a lovely evening at the Virginia Beach Wildlife Festival event. What astounds me is that I know a lot of what you were saying from years of bird watching but didn't know that I knew it. What interested me the most was nest box watching because in the city of Norfolk we have too many squirrels, racoons and river rats so that was all interesting news. We came because I liked your book so much and I could have listened another hour, even paid to hear you :0)

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