Late August porch sitting

It has been a long hot summer here in Oregon and you probably are thinking I am going to say I am ready for the cooler fall weather. NOT...I am quite spoiled wearing shorts and flip flops and picking roses from my cottage garden. The winters here tend to be long, grey and wet. Usually we do not have such dry summers and there have been many downsides to it this year.
Mid July always brings 2 weeks of leaf hopper bugs. Almost impossible to sit out on the porch in the evenings. This year right  on the heels of the leaf hoppers we had an invasion of millions (and I am not kidding) of tiny black ant like bugs. Every house that bordered the farmland here in our little town was affected. It was useless to spray as the numbers were too great and too widespread. So we had to wait them out for another couple weeks. This meant I had to strip the coverings off my bench too.

But now I back in business, enjoying my "porch sittin". I came across this fun transfer at a craft store and added it to an old shutter. It gets a lot of attention from passers by stopping to read what it says.

I covered the bench with an old quilt and topped with a quaker lace tablecloth that has seen better days--always a reuse for everything!

 

  

Easy no sew pillows! An old denim skirt I simply pinned to a pillow form and added some crochet scraps to the the pockets.

My watering can collection is so fun to decorate with. 

Below is a very old can that came from my husbands family in Nebraska

 

Garden flowers in anything that will hold water!

 

As you can see, late summer here brings some really dry farmland. This view is from the front walkway of my porch looking south.

 

So for at least a couple more weeks I will enjoy the last colors, sites and smells of summer. The corn stalks are drying in the back garden and I am already planning the fall porch decor.

 

Last day of June walk in the cottage garden

Now I should have been here 2 weeks ago with a mid June update. But my cottage garden was looking quite sad in dire need of a clean up. We have not had a normal Oregon summer. Usually temps are below 80f and a bit of rain. But this spring and start to summer we have had HOT and DRY weather 95f plus. Most of the flowers are 2 weeks ahead. So what you are seeing today is what I normally would show you in mid July!

False Queen Annes Lace, always a beautiful soft and lacy addition to the cottage garden, but it does need to be kept tame or it will take over. I pull handfuls of seedlings every spring.

 

The Hollyhocks are just bursting! Can you believe I started with only one plant 4 years ago? It was a mixed color and now I have all shades of burgandy, white, peach and pink. Most have just grow where they reseeded, but I did transplant along the back fence to fill out the garden.

newly transplanted this year from another part of the garden are phlox and bell flowers, they mix in nicely with the coreposis and white coneflowers

 

Hopefully I will be back in August with another beautiful late summer walk--since so many things were early, I am hoping for a repeat performance on some of the early bloomers!

May walk thru the Cottage Garden

One of the joys of a cottage garden is that it is never the same year to year. Plants that reseed often end up in unexpected places. My foxgloves that were at the south end of the garden are now at the north end. They also are more like the wild species being quite a bit smaller.
One of the joys of growing Columbine is they tend to cross pollinate and what was one plant can be several dozen within 2 or 3 years. The colors surprise me each season. Last year I planted a purple one just to see what color I will get.
One mixed color hollyhock plant 4 years ago is now many plants at the rear of the garden and gives a spectacular July show.

Below are my first photos of the season. What is blooming now are just starting to show the full glory I will get this week.

As some of you who do follow my blog, you know that I blog more in the summer months because I love to show off my ever changing cottage garden and outdoor decorating. I have several trash to treasure garden and home decor projects waiting in the wings to be completed. Being from the Pacific Northwest, spring and summer is my favorite time of year--you could say 

"I am in my element"

Vintage Alphabet Party

This month's  challenge letters were D, E, F

 I just chose one letter this month "E" and am running with it. I love to share vintage images, so here is a couple of favorites for Easter. Right click to save these copyright free images and use them in your own art, there is plenty of time before "E"aster arrives April 5th

I'm also sharing a post and tutorial from a couple years ago for the letter "E" for "Easter Eggs"

"E"asy to create too!

 Starting with a wire basket I found at a thrift shop...I loved the handle! 

 I used styrofoam eggs, and used pinking shears to cut lots of fabric strips.

I prefer to use Fabric-Tac glue, it seems to work the best.

 Starting at the top of egg glue 2 strips in a "X" fashion

Then work the next strips overlapping until egg is completely covered.

I also used snippets of lace and crochet on some of the eggs. 

Added some raffia to the basket and viola!

Shabby Eggs~~

Join us over at the party~
http://etsycottagestyle.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-vintage-alphabet-party-february.html

From my porch

It can be said that summer is having it's last gasp. Here in western Oregon we have had a fabulous summer. No brutal heat waves, not too much rain (in fact not enough). The weather service just announced that this was the warmest average temperatures on record. Ever. Wow, that was hard to believe. But they factor in the night time temps and we did have a lot of warm nights and many 90f+ days.

With all that being said, my garden looks a lot more tired for the first part of September than it usually does. I took these front porch pics 2 weeks ago. I have to truthfully say that sadly the hanging baskets are toast now.

Note to self for next year. I had too many petunias. They need to be sprayed for budworm at least every two weeks. I missed a dose and they were gone within a week. Million bells will be the alternative next season. 

Next on the porch agenda. Something pretty for fall. But not quite ready to stop enjoying the summer weather.....