Tiger lillies

Another simple pleasure, beautiful flowers grown by a woman that sells them by the honor system from a table in front of her home.

I love the fact that people still do this...put a can out with the price and put their trust in strangers. There are alot of little stands like that around here and that makes me feel good.

Little gifts to myself...

This cute little bird nest statue was from a garden shop going out of business and was only 24$. It weighs a ton!

The little clay teapot was a find indeed. I have been looking for these since May when my friend and I saw one just like it at a gardening class we took. We both thought it was adorable and sure enough at the sale there were two of them..one for me and I gifted the other to my friend.

So what little treats have you bought for yourself lately??

The winner for the Pink Saturday giveaway is GypsyLulu. Thanks for participating and if you didn't win please come back, I'll be having another giveaway soon!

Pink Saturday-Giveaway

I haven't been around for Pink Saturday recently due to computer issues...which I thought I corrected but to my dismay did not. So I dug up a photo from the garden tour I went to this summer of a pretty tree peony called Carol. I just loved this plant and recently bought one for myself. I hope it blooms like this next year for me.

The giveaway is for this little sugar bowl. It's not all pink but has pretty little pink flowers. Just post a comment that you would like to enter the giveaway and I'll draw the winner Sunday night.

Happy Pink Saturday and be sure to visit Beverly for more pink pretties.

http://howsweetthesound.typepad.com/

I've been MIA..

I have been enjoying my vacation for the past two weeks. Little road trips, hiking and general puttering around.

I took the picture of the bear on one of our recent hikes. It's difficult to get a good picture because they generally take off when they see us.

I chased this butterfly around a meadow for 10 mins trying to get a good picture. They are as elusive as the bears!

And the raspberries are finally in season!! They normally are ready for picking by the 4th of July but this year are very late because of the rainy weather, I'm happy we are having a bumper crop. I've been busy picking, cleaning and freezing. I printed a recipe for raspberry cream pie and I can't wait to try it. If it tastes as good as it sounds I'll be sure to share it.

Scarlet Tanager

I love to bird watch but find it very frustrating trying to identify what species of bird I see. So it is always fun to see a bird that I recognize. I was fortunate to see 4 Scarlet Tanagers in a tree last weekend. They are recognizable because it is the only red bird in North America with black wings! As the summer progress the birds feathers turn green but right now they are brilliant red and just stunning to watch.

My picture isn't of the best quality, the birds were high in a tree and despite my poor photographic skills the beauty of the bird shines through!

And more birdhouses!

What can I say, I'm crazy for anything to do with birds!

All these birdhouses have license plates for roofs! This window display is in a home store in my town. I think these are adorable although a friend of mine thinks they were ruined by putting the license on the roof!

Which one is your favorite? I just love the blue and white one in the tree.

Birdhouse decorating idea...

I think the little birdhouse mounted on the shelf is just the cutest idea and it's just simple painting. I even think I could do it!

I think the taller birdhouse with the trail of rocks is another easy to do project. AC Moore and Micheals both sell birdhouses, a little imagination and paint and you have an adorable home for the birds!

I took these pictures at the garden tour I recently attended and thought I would share this charming idea. I also saw another birdhouse where an old license plate was bent in half and used as the roof, I hope to try this myself.