FAREWELL 'SWEET MAY' (GARDEN STROLL)

"In my garden there is a large place for sentiment. My garden of flowers is also my garden of thoughts and dreams. The thoughts grow as freely as the flowers, and the dreams are as beautiful." 

 ~ Abram L. Urban

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

~ Alfred Austin

'THINK PINK' ~ THE COLOR OF HAPPINESS (COLOR OF THE YEAR) / SPICY BAKED 'PINK' SHRIMP

"If you want to be happy forever, make a garden."

~ Chinese Proverb

ORIENTAL POPPY

(Papaver orientale)

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SPICY BAKED 'Pink' SHRIMP

~ a simple one plate 'happy' supper

1/2 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp. Cajun or Creole seasoning

2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice

2 Tbsp. fresh chopped parsley

1 Tbsp. honey

1 Tbsp. soy sauce

pinch of cayenne pepper

1 pound uncooked large shrimp, shelled, deveined

lemon wedges

French bread

• Combine first 7 ingredients in 9 x 13 inch baking dish. Add shrimp and toss to coat. Refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Bake until shrimp are cooked through, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
• Garnish with lemon wedges and serve with crisp fresh French bread and favorite tossed salad topped with feta cheese.

Garden 'Happiness'

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A Color for All Seasons

Courageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It’s a color for every day – with nothing “everyday” about it.

“The intensity of this festive reddish pink allures and engages. In fact, this color, not the sweet fragrance of the flower blossoms for which it was named, is what attracts hummingbirds to nectar. Honeysuckle may also bring a wave of nostalgia for its associated delicious scent reminiscent of the carefree days of spring and summer.”

PANTONE 2011 COLOR OF THE YEAR

'JUST ANOTHER PRETTY FACE' ~ ORIENTAL POPPY (Papaver orientale)

"Beauty is not the face; beauty is a light in the heart."

Khalil Gibran

ORIENTAL POPPY

(Papaver orientale)

'Light of the heart'

ADIEU 'SWEET MAY' (GARDEN DELIGHTS) ~ BLACK PEPPER POUND CAKE

"To own a bit of ground, to scratch it with a hoe, to plant seeds and watch their renewal of life - this is the commonest delight of the race, the most satisfactory thing a man can do."

~ Charles Dudley Warner

ORIENTAL POPPY (Papaver orientale)

MAY GARDEN STARS

WILDFLOWER GARDEN


GARDEN VIEWS


EXBURY AZALIA


GARDEN DELIGHTS


APPLE BLOSSOMS
(Michigan State Flower)


ORIENTAL POPPY
(Papaver orientale)
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BLACK PEPPER POUND CAKE
~ A delightful 'sweet ending' (Southern Living)
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1 cup room temperature unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
4 large eggs
1 1/2 cups AP flour
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. cream of tartar
1/4 tsp. ground mace (or nutmeg)
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. vanilla

• Beat butter at medium speed with electric mixer about 2 minutes or until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed 5-7 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until yellow disappears.
• Combine flour and next 4 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture. Mix at low speed just until blended after each addition. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla.
• Spoon batter into greased and floured 6-cup Bundt pan or 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.
• Bake at 325 degrees for 50-55 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean. Cool in pan 10-15 minutes; remove cake and let cool completely on wire rack.

ISN'T SHE LOVELY?

"Isn't she lovely

Isn't she wonderful

Isn't she precious

Less than one minute old ..."

~ Stevie Wonder

~ Oriental Poppy

(Papaver Orientale)

~ Watching you pop!

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Gardener's note: A favorite subject for artists, Oriental poppy flowers are the focal point in the garden when in full bloom. Once 'the beauty', the vibrant plant goes dormant and homely (so don't think the spent plant has died). I do believe many have been pulled and discarded during this transition period.

'SWEET DREAMS OF YOU' ~ MY GARDEN

"By a garden is meant mystically a place of spiritual repose, stillness, peace, refreshment, delight."

~ John Henry Cardinal Newman

For the garden is not only a place in which to make things grow

and to display the beautiful flowers of the earth,

but a place that should accord

with the various moods of its admirers.

It should be a place in which to hold light banter,

a place in which to laugh, and, besides,

should have a hidden corner

in which to weep.

~ Alice Lounsberry

~ Exbury azalia, Oriential poppy, tulip,

bleeding heart, trillium, Centaurea Montana,

Bearded iris, Scarlet O'hara peony, Rembrandt tulip

GARDEN STROLL

~ Oriental poppy ( Papaver orientale)

~ Scarlet O'hara (Paeonia)

~ Garden companions

Lady fern, Japanese painted fern, Hardy Geranium, Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla vulgaris)