What are Sisters For?

"Fall into Lavender Dessert Tea under the garden gazebo.

Tucker and I sharing a quiet moment.

After four events in three weeks and through all kinds of fall weather from sun and wind to rain to freezing frost and back to sun and wind again, Tucker and I need to sit down and take a breather.  Don't get me wrong.  I thoroughly enjoyed myself but I haven't sat down for more than ten minutes since somewhere around October 2!  In fact, by early last week, I had to call in the Calvary (my sister Chris) in order to get soaps, pomanders, pumpkins and everything else in order for one of our last big celebrations of this year's lavender harvest...The 2012 Loudoun County Fall Farm Tour!

Chris already in action after just arriving last Wednesday night.

Ohhhh...my artistic loved ones!...sighhhhh.

Who remembers TAB?  I didn't even know they still made it!

The Calvary, you say!?  Yes!..The Calvary and she arrived all smiles and full of energy.  We wasted no time in getting her started, before her energy could even think about waning. After all, what are sisters for if she can't come to your rescue and start painting as soon as she sets her suitcases down and grabs her favorite beverage...I did mention that she is my older sister, right?...TAB?...REALLY??

Tote those chairs, lift those tables!

I'm not sure, but I think I heard Chris whistling while she worked.

Chris with her current favorite nephew...sorry Kevin!

We had her doing everything from organizing cards to cleaning windows...And then, she, for whatever reason, noticed that she was the only one working as I piled on more and more tasks. So, I threw in P.Lorenz, just for good measure in the crafting process, just so she wouldn't think we were taking advantage of her.  I even got her to Tucker sit a little.  Then we gave her a Blooming Hill Shirt to wear. It made her feel all the more special...Older sisters, they are so gullible.

 The fork goes on the left side!

P. Lorenz and I were really busy!  Of course, we had to do some taste testing!

Anyway...where was I?  Oh yeah, then I made some more sad, sighing sounds and laid the back of my hand to my forehead, which totally worked, and she immediately went down and whipped the shop into Farm Tour readiness just in time to set up all of the chairs, tables and teacups on the patio for lavender-honey ice cream and apple pie or lavender scones and vanilla ice cream, topped off with tea and lavender-infused apple cider, all for Farm Tour guests to savor and enjoy!...MMMM....MMMMM....Good!

Loving sisters and the calm before the storm.

Back to the sister saga...We weren't through with her yet.  When the guests started coming, we had Chris running solo and after a few technical difficulties with the IPAD,  and us completely ignoring her desperate phone calls, only from time to time, for help (she is a retired elementary school teacher--she should be used to crisis management, don't ya think??) Okay..Peter and I  were really busy serving up dessert, lavender style for two days of lavender-infused bliss.  And we had to make that look effortless, too...oh Chrisssss!

Tote those chairs!  Lift those tables, again!

Never a younger sister to waste a single moment of older sisterly love and sympathy, I again sighed and ran my fingers through  my hair and tried to look my most tired so big sister Chris, never hesitating, once again jumped into action and helped clean up.  I tell you..this little sister thing is a sweet deal!

So, I'm thinkin' that will not fit into her suitcase.

Of course, the best shopping is right here at Blooming Hill.

Oh, don't feel sorry for her...I did give Chris the day off this past  Monday after the Farm Tour and let her browse a few shops, but, for whatever reason, it seemed as though she could hardly wait to be on her way back to Wisconsin, her own home and possibly some peace and quiet.  See you in the spring for that Farm Tour and Virginia Garden Week and The Leesburg Flower and Garden Show and.... and...Miss you already, Chris!

Pumpkin Revelry

A pumpkin tower teetering on a tree stump.

"Oh, Great Pumpkin, where are you?!" asks Linus in, It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, as he waits, faithfully, in a pumpkin patch by himself, after Lucy gets up and leaves in disbelief.  Who isn't rooting for Linus to be right??? And, who doesn't want to believe in the Great Pumpkin???  Certainly not me since I love pumpkins--all sorts of pumpkins from the homespun and "au naturale" ones to the fanciest, glitteriest and most sophisticated designer types somehow engineered and designed by the 21st Century farmer and/or crafts person.

"Folksy Pumpkin" Sign

Don't forget splendid gourds!

Pumpkins, squashes and gourds, painted by nature, abound at nearby farm stands for people to come and be inspired, and perhaps, pick up a few to take home.

A plethora of petite, pretty pumpkin gourds.

I love roaming through pumpkin patches, browsing in pumpkin stands and even rooting around the grocery store bins for pumpkins, squashes and gourds with unusual stems sprouting from the tops of their "warty"and misshapen, striped and speckled forms.  To me, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and the perfect find comes only after the thrill of the hunt.  Each pumpkin from the plainest to the most colorfully detailed is fall's answer to spring's Easter Egg.

Sometimes, it's all in the stem.

Lavender Potpourri Velvet Pumpkins here at Blooming Hill.

A few years ago, I came across the most charming of handmade pumpkins by a company located in Minnesota and their price tag was astronomical, but I had to have one..well, maybe two.  However, since then, I've learned that when necessity is the Mother of Invention, then the mother better start inventing! So, that's what I did and, to put my own creative touch on these "soft as a velveteen rabbit" pumpkins, I fill them with Blooming Hill lavender potpourri.  The Great Pumpkin has nothing on me and I only wish Linus and Lucy were here to see and breathe in these little beauties in all of their October splendor.

Rich autumn colors.

Starry, glittery pumpkin at twilight.

Pumpkins lined up and at the ready at a nearby farm stand.

                    So, even though  I don't have to spend an entire night waiting in vain for the Great Pumpkin to appear, I can still surround myself in plump, luscious pumpkins, either by acquisition, or  of my own making. If you like these little velvet lovelies, they are available here at Blooming Hill while the rest can be found at your friendly neighborhood fall harvest stand or pumpkin patch.  In any case, here's wishing you, your own lavender-pumpkin dreams for a wonderful and bountiful autumn.

By The Light Of The Silvery Moonflower

  

Autumn unfurled itself in the waning afternoon sunlight yesterday, coming to life in the spiraled blossoms of the moonflower vine (ipomoea alba) that opened up to star-kissed flouncy petals.  It was as if flower fairies, hidden deep inside the heart-shaped leaves of this magical vine suddenly decided to celebrate the changing of the seasons by twirling their celestial moonflower skirts in the unpredictable breeze coming from the southwest, which usually means rain, here at Blooming Hill.

Billowy clouds in shades from crisp-white to soft-grey skipped across the blue sky in an effort to keep up with the finicky breeze.  Dressed in their finest cotton-candy outfits, the clouds greeted the newborn Fall and kept the moonflower blossoms well protected under dappled sunlight through the late afternoon.  All the while, the unseen fairies flitted in and out of the vine, for they were just getting started.

 

Evening came and still, with no rain in sight, more fairy-like moonflowers came out to dance, twirling their skirts as the dark night crept in.  The moon, itself, was nowhere to be found, hiding behind the burgeoning cloud cover that lingered to enjoy the company of the twilight gardens.  Still, the moonflowers called out by releasing their sweet perfume while dreaming of love, (as their meaning implies in the language of flowers).  The flower fairies wrapped themselves in the creamy-sheer moonflower petals with emerald-green leaves for capes, too protect them against the chill of the evening, in preparation for their nighttime Fall Gala.

Moonflowers claim their name because they appear in the late afternoon, showing off their full, round figures, so similar to the full moon and yet, possessing their own beauty.  They stay open, dancing the night away through the misty dawn before they fold up their petal skirts, leaving the sunlight to their cousins, the Morning Glories, who while away the quickening days.  Each moonflower blooms only once yet, their brilliance requires nothing more than their own radiance to glow in the garden.  Again, so much like their mentor, the full moon on a clear black night.

So, caught up in all of their enchanting revelry, I took their pictures by the light of their own silvery-ness and, they smiled back at me in all of their grandeur, basking in the glow of the cool autumn evening and bidding farewell to the long, hot summer.

Walk Up a Country Hill

I have a question for you...How many steps does it take to walk up a country hill?  Apparently, here at Blooming Hill, it takes sixteen steps.  Yes, that's right--it takes sixteen wide and gently sloped steps dressed in pearly pea gravel and garnished with cherubs, lavender and hydrangea all arranged under dappled sunlight and shade provided by tall trees along the way, to reach your destination, the gardens at the top of Blooming Hill.  Of course, there are other ways to go that are just as pleasant but, maybe, not so clever.

My last blog entry talked about the adventures of the Blooming Hill Ax Men clearing dead trees and branches off of the hillside which lead to a quandary of what to do with all of that wood--in fact, that could have been yet another question I could have posed to you but, I liked my original riddle best.  Anyway, there we were, with piles and piles of tree trunks, not too thick and not too thin, but just right to create a green solution to an age old problem of walking up this particular steep, country hill and it became Peter's pet project for several days and evenings.

We are already on a first name basis with the local milling establishment that supplies gardeners' necessities such as stone and mulch, as it seems we are in there every weekend for a fresh load of something to fill the truck bed with so, they were interested to hear what P.Lorenz was up to this past week with all of that stone and, a meandering, stepped walkway up into the gardens sounded pretty intriguing to them.

Who needs a membership to a gym when you have endless projects such as this to keep you honestly working out and working hard in your finest work clothes? Now, walking  a country hillside here at Blooming Hill just became a little easier and not quite so steep.

So, here are the completed steps that now connect the shop, down at the road, to the upper gardens and lavender beds!  Pretty nice, don't you think?

The Ax Men of Blooming Hill

Blooming Hill Ax Men crew from left to right: Micheal, Sean, the Prodigal son, Kevin and  P. Lorenz  (Peter).

As the day went on, more trees came down.

It was an episode straight out of the History Channel's Ax Men, here at Blooming Hill, the other day.  Well, it was if you take into account that the Ax Men were not in the Great Pacific Northwest and they weren't big and burly with full beards and wearing flannel plaid shirts--although I did notice that none of them had shaved that morning and these Blooming Hill lumberjacks were more on the collegiate-preppy-athletic side.  Well, again, that description also excludes P.Lorenz, the tree climber extraordinaire, for the day, who is preppy but way beyond the collegiate side of life...Sorry dear...'Tis true, however.  Anyway, I digress--where was I?  Oh yeah...

The three Ax Men pulling on rope attached to a tree they are pulling down.

Okay...now they look serious!

Don't let the narrow trunk fool you.  These Black Locust trees are made of very hard wood and they all reached about 50 feet in height.

...It was the day of reckoning for four dead Black Locust trees and two very ominous looking dead branches on an old Silver Maple tree, all precariously perched on the hillside overlooking the garden shop and it was time to end their reign of terror they gleefully held over Peter and me, especially every time a good wind whipped up around here.  These trees were leaning menacingly toward the shop and you could see them conspiring with each other, planning their own day(s) of excitement and adventure.  Are you following me?  In short, these trees and branches were an accident(s) just waiting to happen.  So, P.Lorenz took a day off from his "day job," and summoned the "prodigal son," a.k.a.  Kevin, home.  Kevin, in turn, called in his own reinforcements, Micheal and Sean, to help heave and ho, saw and chop and gather and dispose of old and rotted wood planted stubbornly in the ground...PHEW!

One of the first trees to come down.  Then the work of chopping and cleaning began.

Sean, Micheal and Kevin loaded and unloaded chopped-up fallen trees in and out of the truck all day long, creating a huge burn pile.  Burning the left-over wood will happen much later in the fall when county fire restrictions are lifted.  Like Micheal's shirt says, "No guts, no glory" for these guys.

From left to right:  A Rugby player, a Lacrosse player and a Baseball player (and former pitcher, I might add) trying to lob a ball, attached to a rope, over a very high limb in order to help stabilize it and pull it down as Peter, in the tree, saws it off.  Note to reader:  Kevin was able to snag limbs this way and the tugging and pulling on ropes by all three helped get these trees and limbs down safely.

I must say, having three Generation X-Ax Men here to do a lot of the heavy and dirty work sure made things a lot easier for Peter and after a long and hot day of hard work and sweat,  P.Lorenz and his band of merry  Ax Men finished the job. The trees were not only reduced to a huge future burn pile of branches, but their trunks will also be recycled and used here at Blooming Hill as a stepped and slightly slanted path, sometimes referred to as a peron, up the steep hill and into the gardens and lavender beds.  Good idea, right?  According to P.Lorenz, "Felling trees is as much an art as it is a science."  So, he is applying his artful skills to making good use of these trees.  More on the progress of these steps in a future blog entry.

Micheal brought his own chain saw and cut through trees quite easily.

P. Lorenz and one of his favorite toys, his own trusty chain saw.

The beginning of the "peron."  Logs from the trees placed as a winding path up the hill.  The logs still need to be dug into the ground and secured.  After that, pea gravel will be added to each step.  

Once the day was done, and the BZZZZing, SNAPing, CRACKLing and CRASHing  stopped, our band of Generation X-Ax Men ate a hardy meal and then merrily headed down the road and off, to yet, other adventures they had in store for themselves. I'm thinking those adventures probably will not involve chopping down trees, at least not in the very near future.  Thanks guys!

Finishing up with lunch at the "OK Blooming Hill Corral"...er .. actually, on the back porch. Tucker, the dog, was too preoccupied with keeping his eye on the table and refused to turn and smile for the camera.

The Blooming Hill Ax Men from left to right: Micheal, Kevin, Sean and Peter.

P.S.  I'm also thinking Blooming Hill should have our own reality show.  We could call it the "Ax Men of Blooming Hill"--I think that's a pretty catchy title and these four modern lumberjacks are a pretty handsome crew...Don't you think?!