landscaping

It’s True. I Feel Like the Luckiest Girl in the World.

Posted by Barbara Techel
It's True. I Feel like the Luckiest Girl in the World.
Existing perennial garden spruced up with a few new plants and chocolate mulch

As I write you today, I’m listening to Pandora radio, station of Doris Day.

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century or perhaps I lived another life. I love this type of music, nostalgia, vintage and old things. I think it’s perhaps why reading Susan Branch’s trilogy memoir recently resonated with me. So much so, I can’t get the books, her house on Martha’s Vineyard, and her way of life out of my head!

It’s a good thing though. There is something so comforting in her writing and how she lives a simple life.

And her gardens, well, I was so jealous (a good jealous!) when I saw photos on her blog.

And then I realized (terrible me!) that I posted photos on Facebook earlier this week of our new landscaping, but didn’t share here on my blog for you, my dear readers, as I had promised. I’m going to blame it on all the excitement and menopausal brain. Grin.

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But since our landscaping has been complete I’m feeling like Susan Branch with a bit of Tasha Tudor and Beatrix Potter rolled in. In fact, John has been calling me Tasha Jr. as I work on keeping up with the watering (tee hee!).

But every morning, I can hardly wait to open the blinds and look outside. And sometimes I just want to cry – happy tears, of course.

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I’ve always been a homebody and I can’t help but think back to when times were tough with the economy crash in 2008. We were scared of losing John’s construction business and our home. But we hunkered down and knew we could ride the storm out and live frugally. And we did.

And in many ways we still do. But having landscaping done has been all the more sweeter when we think about the tough times. We are appreciating it and enjoying it even more now.

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I keep pinching myself when I walk around my writing cottage each day as I take in all the beauty of the sweet little shrubs and the perennials that will bloom in the near future. When we built my little space in 2007 we had planned to add plants, but then had to buckle down with the bad economy.

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I’m especially tickled pink at the rock hill that leads down to the egress window of our lower level (well, okay, also known as a basement – but it does not feel that way because it is all fixed up).

Downstairs is where I hold my SoulCollage(r) workshops and the view out the window now is stunning!  Here is the view below looking out from lower level.

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It feels like the outside is part of the inside, and I couldn’t be happier!

When my friend, Shannon stopped over the other night, I gave her a tour around the house. She said, “I remember when we got new landscaping at our house up north. I felt like the luckiest girl in the world!”

And you know what? That is exactly it! I, too, feel like the luckiest girl in the world!

Thank you again to Willow Wood Acres and Land Steward for a beautiful design and job well done!

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

And this is Why I Write. A Heartfelt Note from Reader, Patti.

Posted by Barbara Techel

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Life as a writer can be lonely at times. Though I do love spending quite a bit of time alone there is on occasion when I wonder if anyone is out there reading blogs anymore. And then every now and then I’ll get a note from a reader that really makes my heart sing.

It was in 2007 when I started my blog to write about my love of the human-animal bond. It has now evolved into so much more and it’s like coming home to myself every time I sit down to write on my laptop.

One of my goals in writing is to inspire and encourage others to live a creative and meaningful life by sharing what that looks like for me.

When writing about ones life it can be a fine balance of what to share and what not to share. While I wish to share all the good, I also write about when things aren’t good too — though I try my best to look for a teaching in each situation that seems hard.

And the rewards of writing are that this is the way in which I take what is inside me and give it breath. And the other reward is hearing from readers.

Like today on this beautiful, sunny, Friday morning, I open my email to find this sweet note from Patti:

I am so grateful for your daily posts. On my darkest days, you seem to give me hope. You brighten my days and have opened my eyes to so many things, I might otherwise have missed. 

Thank you from the depths of my heart for being the person you are! I so admire you!

Thank you, Patti for taking time to send me this beautiful note. As I said in my response back to her, this is music to a writers ears. Though I feel like I’m in a place in my life where I can’t not not write, notes like this from readers truly mean so much to me.

So to change the subject a bit now, I promised to share the new landscaping with you. Here is a sneak peek of the east side of my writing cottage in the above photo.

Now I know there isn’t much color yet, but these are all new plants that will need time to establish themselves. Though I was told by Kathy from Willow Acres that I will see blooms on my roses on the west side of the deck in just a few days!  Woot!

In this space next to my writing cottage is a honeysuckle plant I’ve had for two years. The tree in the center is a limelight hydrangea and the shrubs with pink are Dark Horse Weigela, while I believe the other two perennials are Shasta daisies.

And just to give you an idea of the huge improvement, here is a photo of what it looked like before.

I feel on cloud nine with all the new plant life around me topped off today with the kind note from Patti. It’s these simple pleasures in life that are the air that I want to always breathe. Because when I do they fill me up with so much joy.

Thank you for sharing and subscribing to my blog updates.

Bentley the Landscaper. Come Meet Him.

Posted by Barbara Techel
Bentely the LandScaper. Come Meet Him.
Bentley – Official Garden Center Greeter

Meet the owner of Willow Wood Acres Garden Center and Land Steward Landscaping. Well, okay, Bentley isn’t really the owner. But he is the sweetest and most handsome greeter ever!

Well, that is, if you aren’t afraid of his low growl while at the same time his tail is wagging when you come in through the doors.  I’m pretty sure the growl means, “pet me please” as he loves attention, which I was happy to bestow upon him.

Today I was excited to review our landscaping plans with one of the real owners of the garden center, Kathy. We’ve not had anything done with our landscaping since we moved into our home over 25-years ago. It is sorely in need.

John built the owners of the garden center, Kathy and Stuart, a beautiful home last fall and winter on the same property as their business. And Kathy designed a beautiful and colorful, low maintenance landscaping plan for around our house and my writing cottage.

It was so nice to see all the pictures of the plants, trees and shrubs with lots color on this cold and dreary day of spring.

But before you know it, the sun will be shining again and the temperatures will rise along with the work to begin at what I call my little “cottage in the village.”

And this time around I’m going to try really hard to make sure I take as best care of everything as I can. I’m not exactly a green thumb type person, but this time I’m determined.

Maybe after reading about children’s book author and illustrator, Tasha Tudor, and children’s book author, Beatrix Potter, and their beautiful gardens this past winter, they just might rub off on me.  One can certainly hope!

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