Monday, May 5, 2008

Color me happy

Today was a beautiful day here in Maryland. We both spent the day out-of-doors, me working to clean-up one side of the house and my husband in the vegetable garden. George hung out with Natasha, our neighbor's yellow lab. He kept coming home to make sure I still loved him, though.

I cleaned up and edged and mulched one entire side of the house and could never have done it without the Aleve I took just before I started. I'll probably really be feeling it by tomorrow, but it was worth it because it looks so much better. At Lowe's this morning, I bought myself a hydrangea bush. I plan on planting it where it will get early morning sunlight and a sort of peppery afternoon shade. Now I've got to get the soil amended before I plant it, and figure out how I'm going to get water to it when it gets really hot and dry in the summer. Did you know that Hydrangea means water tub in Greek? See how much you learn by coming here?

I took these pictures with my macro lens this afternoon. When I was done, I had a glass of homemade raspberry iced tea. Mmmmm. I love homemade iced tea, especially when it's raspberry. Hope you like the photos!

Have a great Monday, everyone!

16 comments:

Shimmy Mom said...

I think Hydrangea's are very pretty. I ordered a Variegated Weigela this weekend. It felt so good to be out in the dirt getting my hands dirty again.
Hope your knee doesn't act up too bad.

Russell said...

Nice photos. I was thinking about how hard it is to find actual blue flowers. Apparently blue is extremely hard to produce in nature since, well, it does not blend in with grass or trees or bushes! But I suppose yellow does not either does it...!

The Chinese used to say that blue was, by far, the most difficult color to produce in fireworks. I guess blue fireworks are extremely recent.

Glad to hear it is nice in Maryland. Out here in Iowa we had a beautiful day yesterday (Sunday) and today is going to be nice, too.

Take care.

Mental P Mama said...

Beautiful shots....I love hydrangeas. The more acid you give them, the bluer they are. But I bet you already knew that;)

Dr.John said...

Loved the photos. Would like some tea.

abb said...

lovely! And the more alkaline they are, the pinker be become. Aren't we just a font of (probably already known) useful information, MPM???

dlyn said...

Beautiful Kate - love that color!

Pat - Arkansas said...

My, oh, my! Those gorgeous blue flowers have colored me happy, too. Wonderful photos.

tj said...

...I love that macro lens! Thank you for the beautiful photos!

...And how do you make raspberry tea? That sounds so good! Any chance you'll post a recipe of it here? (*hint*nudge*wink*)... :o)

...I love visiting here - it makes me happy! lol... ;o)

...Blessings...

Anonymous said...

Oh the blue is just fantastic, I mean really so beautiful!!

Thanks for that eye-popping adventure!

Leslie: said...

Beautiful photos! I used to have a huge hydrangea, but it took over half the front garden, so it went when I redid the whole thing. Don't forget to dry them! They'll last forever.

Chocolate Cat said...

What fantastic photos! We have quite a few hydrangea plants but they don't look like that!! They are surprisingly hardy, even with the drought we've been suffering they have survived well.

Jeannelle said...

Very lovely! I'm thinking we can't grow blue hydrangeas in Iowa due to the wrong soil pH. They are white here.

Mary said...

Oh so pretty! I'd love to have ne of those old-fashioned white Pee-gee hydrangeas, the ones that dry a soft brown...

Glad you got a chanace to enjoy the weather, and the raspberry iced tea sounds delicious!
xoxo,
Mary

Anonymous said...

This is absolutely beautiful!

Egghead said...

This looks like a lace hydrangea bush. Is it? I love hydrangeas. I have three at home and they are also planted around my office building but in pink. Did you know you can turn the flowers from blue to pink or pink to blue? It is by changing the Ph balance in your soil. I add lime or subtract lime based on the color. Pink to blue needs more lime (or aluminum) and blue to pink needs less. Easiest to do in a pot where you can control the soil a little better.

Anonymous said...

How did I miss this one??

I want a hydrangea now! What a beautiful blue color.