Azaleas In February

I know, I know, all I am talking about is everything blooming here.  But it's just so strange for it to be happening so early.  It's been so warm for this time of year and every day there is something new blooming.  I love seeing everything coming out of hibernation.  I am enjoying seeing and using what Mother Nature is providing right now.





I don't think I shared my Christmas gift to myself this year on the blog.  Turquoise or aqua plates have been catching my eye. French antique Sarreguemines majolica plate in a very vivid shade of blue and featuring two birds perched in a cherry tree.

Now when I say this was a gift to myself, it was!  I have never traveled outside the country except for one short trip to Mexico in the 1980s.  This plate went over the Atlantic Ocean from France to my humble abode in the Deep South.  I was so excited when it arrived, I took a photo of the postage stamp!








My new addition...well additions.  I was fortunate to find the pretty one to the right over seas as well.  So it's a vignette of Valentine's roses, card, azaleas and french plates along with pinecones and a small container of tulips.




I have been trying different looks with them.







It was late March last year when I was able to bring azaleas inside.





The pansies took forever to have flowers this year and I don't know why.









I brought in a big branch of azaleas so they would show really pretty.  That's a tip, if you want your flowers to stand out then use a lot!





Meanwhile the hunt for new drapes for the dining room continues........and yes it has been challenging! I hope you have a great week!


Jan

Roses Every Day

 Of course it's that time of the year to celebrate the special ones in your life.  It doesn't have to be a boyfriend or husband but the special people in your life that let you know they care.  Call them up and go to lunch.  Buy yourself a special treat.  Or just ignore it and enjoy your day!

As some bloggers know there are times when the endless enthusiasm for blogging dissipates.  I hope to get my drive back soon but today I have a few photos from the past that celebrate the loveliness of roses.  I love all flowers not just roses.  Call me crazy but I have always thought I would love to live in a florist's shop.  Now I don't want to be a florist but to wake up to all that beauty every morning would be unbelievable.

My mister knows how much I love flowers.  In addition to his day job, he is a musician.  He is a guitarist and singer, playing at many venues, including weddings.  One night after a wedding, the people cleaning up after the wedding were throwing away all the flowers.  He couldn't believe it and went right behind them and loaded up his van.  When I woke up the next morning the whole bottom floor of our house was filled with the flowers.  He does have his good side!


My mister knows how much I love flowers.  In addition to his day job, he is a musician.  He is a guitarist and singer, playing at many venues, including weddings.  One night after a wedding, the people cleaning up after the wedding were throwing away all the flowers.  He couldn't believe it and went right behind them and loaded up his van.  (What blue bloods we are ;)  When I woke up the next morning the whole bottom floor of our house was filled with the flowers.  He does have his good side!  With all those glorious flowers I felt like I should go get prettied up like Eva Gabor looked every day on Green Acres.  But that would take this woman a couple of years......


This is one of the first photos I took for the blog.  I was using my cell phone and took it outside because the light was so much better.  It was freezing cold.  The berries was still holding on from Christmas and I had gotten these beautiful roses but they were past their prime.  So I plucked the heads off and served them on a plate for the photo.






I had on old mirror on the back porch and got to play with it some before somebody broke it.  Hmmm... wonder who, asks the the lady who is always breaking things.  It gave me extra roses in the reflection in this photo.





Roses that matched my vintage plate so well.




My trusty cherub will release a heart with his bow and arrow at you if you aren't careful.





Found these roses growing in the weeds, on the side of the road.










Multicolored roses in the bathroom against the wallpaper.






Roses from the yard fill up the sugar container in this vignette.






The roses go so well with the plate.  It wasn't planned either!





Roses from the yard one hot summer.






Jan

February Vignette

A February vignette that very much looks like it should be in March.  We continue to have such warm days and the biggest azalea bush in the front is starting to really fill out with blooms.  I couldn't help myself and brought some inside.  The green vase helps bring out the magenta color and it sits on top of the winter green glass bowl that is sitting upside down.  The combination of the two help pick and a reflect the light.  Pinecones still out for the winter decor could further confuse an onlooker.  Is it winter or spring?  Yes, I agree it's confusing!




This big mirror was living across the dining room on top of the armoire but I missed it here.  The mister moved it and I know I need to keep it in one place because it's so old and fragile.  You can't miss the cloudy spots on it.







Jan

Faux Spring

We have had so little cold weather this winter.  It's been unusually warm and many flowering plants and trees think it's time to bloom here.  They don't know it isn't Spring so I call it our Faux Spring.

Some Japanese Magnolias blooming closer to downtown are magical right now.  They don't know it's early February.  They don't know people are shoveling feet of snow from their yards a few hundred miles away.  All they know is the sun is shining warm on their leaves and it's time to bloom and give us all something beautiful to look at. It's time to open the brightly colored petals to display for our winter worn eyes.

And it is still winter...no way around it. A frost or dip in temperatures one night will end the kaleidoscope color show of Japanese magnolias, azaleas and camellias blooming. But the flowers don't know it February.  And right now, looking above us on the branches, we don't have to know either.

Lightness and laughter are a short distance away.  My daughter is a wordsmith and wrote the best of this post and a couple of photos included.




Sssh...it doesn't know it's February in this special place I happened upon.








































































White Japanese Magnolia blooms, I think the first I have been aware of seeing around here.









Jan