No words, just an ah.

Stepping into the garden brings immediate peace.

This is the view from the back of the house.

Gazing ball only highlights the beauty of the flowers.

Where the heart is.

As we drove into my sisters driveway, I felt at peace with the end of our vacation.  The house was so welcoming, but for the people who lived in this house, they were even more welcoming.  My sister is the yard person.  My brother-in-law is truly a motor head, so each have their hobbies. 
For my sister, each step in the process of making their home beautiful, is thrilling and labor intensive.  But she seems to enjoy it.  We have more in common as we get older. Flowers, and greeting cards are the top two.  But as I said before, age seems less important as we grow older.  We are no longer big sister and baby sister, we are friends. 

We have always been miles apart, but our hearts have stayed close.  More pictures to come. This one picture doesn't show the beauty of her deck and garden.  Vacation soon to end, but for now, I will be with my sister, that little time will be well used. 

God Bless those who travel through my little world.
Carol

Garden of peace and love.

I have to say that my family knows gardening, planting and harvesting. Maybe it's because we started out as a farming family. I don't know if green thumbs are inherited or just developed, but the gardens my brothers and sister has, would make my dad proud.

I wish I could take pictures of how beautiful Vern and Dorothy's property looks. It's spectacular and this one picture only shows a small part of their creation. One thing I know is that they work hard at making every inch beautiful. As Vern digs up plants, splits them and finds a new place for the new plant, Dorothy does the weeding. Dorothy pulls each weed with loving care from the garden, to help the beautiful plants grow and bloom. Their ability to grow a beautiful garden is a reflection of their marriage.

I often sit with them and realize the love they have for each other. It's as beautiful as their gardens.

Carol

How does your garden grow?

I have gotten e-mails from family that wonder how the garden looks especially since the pumpkins are so big. Then the rest of the garden must be huge. I have to say that it's really beautiful. I wonder what it's going to look like in a few years when the plants have grown and everything has settled in.

So, this morning Austin and I took the camera out for a few pictures before the sun hits the garden. The sun is way too harsh on the garden and the photos never look so good.

God bless you all on the beautiful Thursday morning.

Carol

What a pumpkin...no a squash

Happy Sunday to all who stop by. For us it's a normal Sunday, coffee, breakfast, God and than time for our loves. Today isn't very unusual, except for the laughing hangover we got last night in our garden.

Last fall we put all sorts of veggies, like the pumpkins after Halloween was over, and decorator squash after Thanksgiving, into the area that would become our makeshift garden this year. In the spring pumpkins came up. We decided to leave them and see what came from them. John and I always love surprises. As you can see the variety is worth the time. The pumpkins look like squash and everyone has it's own personality. I hope you enjoy it also.

God Bless those who believe and those who prefer, have a great day.

Carol

Waiting for the boys.

I must say, that the garden intrigued me. So while waiting for the fisherman to return I took more pictures of the plants that graced the beautiful gardens. So today is picture day. I hope you enjoy it.

God bless those who travel through my little blog.

Carol

My Camera and Me.

After the boys left for Canada, my camera and my love for flowers took over. My brother and sister-in-law's gardens are beautiful. Even though it's July, the colors were spectacular. I couldn't get a picture of the whole gardens because they were so vast. But trust me they were beautiful.

I wondered through the gardens and tried to capture the best of their best. I hope you love the picture. It's a great way to show the wonders of God and his love.

Have a great day to all and God bless.

Carol

He's at it again.

Last I knew he was done digging in the back yard till we come home from vacation. But I came home from work to find a hole in our yard. This is no ordinary hole in the ground. This is going to be a pond that will house the water rolling down the river bed to this resting place. Only to be pumped up again for recycling. I was so excited but realized the now apparent hole will have to sit there till we do come home. But I have to say, I love change, and any change is good.

Stay tuned for the next change. I sure will be.

Carol

This is so cool.....

I am so excited our first venture into changing our landscape is started and here is the retaining wall that will hold back the gardens. Enjoy.

Look what we found. Step Two

Yesterday we took the next step. This was going to be a retaining wall that holds back the gardens. We have a slope built by the builder to navigate the water after a long rain. So the integrity of the landscape is very important. We decided to put two levels.

The first level, a garden of perennials, that won't need a lot of attention. The second level will be ivy that will only need pruning back. But for now the first level is what we're focusing on. The interesting part is, what we found two inches under the ground. Yes it's a wire. Was it hot, could it be important, this was the question. The funny part was that it went across our back yard from one fence line to the other. The power company came out, said it wasn't theirs but probably Charter cables. So we are waiting on them.

The amazing part is that our telephone line is only about two inches below ground and now this. In MN everything is at least at frost line. Which for all you hot land people is 36 inches. Every shovel push we do is a possible surprise.

John's best friend the tiller is most likely going to make a few mistakes and cut a few important or unimportant wires before we are done. We have already cut a few lawn watering system hoses. But hay, city living is new to us.

Tomorrow we hope to be back to building. But for today , we are wondering what secrets lie awaiting our next step. Thanks to all my friends. The Retired One and Vodka Logic. You guys rule.

God Bless all those who travel through my little world called Balsam Ponds

Carol

John's new best friend.

I have to say that our neighbor again made us trendy by letting us use this small tiller. I say that because John prefers to use bruit strength to unearth, earth. But with temperatures being hotter than usual and the humidity higher than we are used to, this machine is heaven sent.

In Minnesota, June is a very productive month to get landscaping done. Mostly because it still is mild in temperatures and easy to work. We are finding living in the south a challenge. A good one but neither the less a challenge. All of our life we have spent in Minnesota and hence think like a Minnesotan. No problem if you live there. We always had times during the year when things happened. Especially all surrounding the weather. So, this morning while talking to John I said, hummmm we need to think Southern. Working in the middle of the day in June is hot. Working after 7:00pm is when most of our neighbors come out to do the little lawn things.

We will learn and change from Minnesota thinkers to South Carolina thinkers, until then, we will sweat more, drink more and shower more.

Have a great Sunday all, this day is the Lords. Relax and thank Him.

Carol

It's a start.

My followers that were with me from the great state of MN. Know that our last home was truly a slice of heaven, and wondered why we left it. The work we put into that house was something and it showed. When we moved we knew we were going to make our little piece of earth a better place for birds and all who see it. However, when we moved we also knew we would take our time. So pictures of the changes were not posted because we did little things to make it our home.

But it has started and I want to post a picture a day to bring you up to today. This picture was taken of our yard in December so it's old but gives you an idea of how it looked before we put shovel to the ground. I hope you enjoy the changes. Remember the changes will take a few years to really show how wonderful my husband is at making our place a slice of heaven.

God Bless all those who travel through my little blog.

Carol

Blue and Beautiful

Wow, the Hydrangea's in this area are wonderful. It's hard not to feel loved by God when you see what he has created. To those of different thoughts, mother nature is wonderful isn't the earth great?

Have a great day and to those who believe, God Bless

Carol

It's a Gerber kind of day.

I took this picture about a half hour ago. Gerber daisy is becoming my favorite. The plant is so bold looking, with strong stems and large colorful flowers. I love coming back to gardening. It has been a long time. But both John and I wanted to give this some thought. A new southern location with so much new and more possibilities.

I know many of you who remembered Balsam Ponds wondered what we are up too. Not much...giggle. I am taking lots of pictures so once changes are made, I will let you see the progress. But for now, this daisy will have to do.

Happy Sunday to all.

Carol

That's more like it....

Wow, yesterday was one of those days that just makes you wonder. What am I doing here? The snow feels like a beautiful Minnesota winter day, the only thing is that we live in South Carolina. As we watched the snow fall, John visualized another day without golf and me taking pictures to send to the family back home. Sending pictures of snow to Minnesota family makes the long winter just that more fair.

This morning I went out to see if my daffodil was going to be brave and open. I wasn't going to hold it against that beautiful little flower out there in the snow. But when I went out, it proved that being delicate is not being weak. Have a great day you all.

God Bless those who visit my little site.

Carol

It's Snow Joke

The other day we had a hard freeze and all plants either died or went to sleep. Which is always fine with me due to the maintenance it takes to keep them beautiful. But the next night this happened, yes you see it right, snow. In fact it measures two and a half inches. And the worst part it hasn't totally melted. So, on the tenth of October we have snow.

I just thought you would like to see the mess. See you guys later, back to packing.

Good Monday Morning.

I wanted to present my door watcher. Some would say guard but not me. This pretty little face that greets me every time I come home never has an edge of threat to it. Yesterday after church we pulled into the drive. I always take a look at the house and the gardens. Each step of the 8th mile driveway has it's beauty. Sometimes, like now I realize how things are getting out of control. But be it as that is, I love seeing it from a visitors viewpoint.

But the best is when I walk up to the door and see that little body sitting as still as possible with her eyes burning through me. I often wonder why she waits so still, that will be forever her secret. No wiggle is seen till the key hits the door. Then in a burst of excitement she is just a blur.

A wag, a sniff and out the door, that was it. Off to the back yard to protect us from the true

invaders. Timbers world according to us.

God bless those who travel through my little world.

Carol

What happened here?

Over the last few weeks I have glanced at the arbor in wonder. Why don't I have more flowers. We planted Morning Glory's and the plant looks good. I know that the weather her in Minnesota has been cooler than normal.

So the other day I took a closer look, and guess what I found, yes, beans. I started to smile and thought, how could that happen? Was it the old thought that a birds dropping created this surprise. I waited till my sweet husband to arrive home with this news of beans on the arbor. I just couldn't wait to tell him. As he drove in I waited with batted breath.

Honey, I said, look at this .... beans. He looked at me with such a strange look and said of course.

What do you mean...of course? I planted them there, where was I? Again, I felt like the excitement air was released without fan fair. Oh well, tomorrow is another day and maybe I can surprise him.

Summer in Balsam Ponds

The morning came with a newborn...Tiger Lilly

Wow, look at this, there is nothing more beautiful, other than my husband in my world. This Tiger Lilly opened this morning and the angles sang.

Have a great day from Balsam Ponds in Bloggerville.

This is my day....

I decided that after three weeks I was going to spend a day doing what I wanted, spend a morning in my pj's, bake cookies, and visit my friends blogs. And if any time is left, I and Timber will spend time designing. But I thought you would love to see another beautiful flower God has created. And I am so lucky to have it in my garden.