Walking Wonders



I have been taking advantage of Oklahoma's unseasonably cool temperatures recently to do a lot of walking...an activity I find creativity-inducing as well as pound-reducing. So many ideas for staging and enhancing one's home and garden, quite literally at your footstep. (Not in these heels, however. Aren't they hysterical?
I took a pic of them when their owner was having wedding pictures taken in my back yard last month.)



For example, the wonderful black and white graphic statement made by these great striped pillows and the accompanying handsome front door.  I love the way the containers echo the metal hardware on the door handle and letter box. It all pops with a punch of red geraniums...I think I would have continued this color pop in the contents of the planters...for a one-two punch if you will.


Another rare and wondrous surprise on a morning stroll in July...a lush, velvety seam of moss filling the gap between a beautiful boulder and a pebbled stone walkway. Sigh...simply lovely.


Salvia farinacea in white?! News to me until this walk. Google tells me it is most likely 'Victoria White', cousin to the more common 'Victoria Blue'. Lovely in either shade (do keep an eye out for budworms though, something to which it  often falls victim this time of year. Find seed for the white variety at Seedaholic if you see some in your future. I later found some for LC, lover of all things white, at the downtown Farmer's Market. Not surprisingly, some of it found its way into her garden.




A window box brimming with summer color is always enchanting, but note how this owner doubles the impact by planting a similar combo in a freestanding metal container next to the garage doors.




Need I say more?  It about knocked me over when I saw it. 

Given the right spot, plenty of room to grow, add good old Oklahoma heat and rain, any old-fashioned, or new-fashioned for that matter, hibiscus can be spectacular. 


See this utility truck? Nothing special about it you say? Well, just as I looked up from..


 sniffing this magnificent magnolia blossom...the scent wondrous in and of itself...I was already heady with its intoxicating scent...


that plain old orange utility truck started to project the most unexpected sound...not the grinding of a chain saw or the whining of a drill...


 but the notes and strains and heartbreak of...

  opera.

Madame Butterfly.

Truly, a wondrous thing to experience on a stroll through the neighborhood. I love that guy in the truck, whomever he may be.


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