A Little Behind but Still Here

I have been so busy this past week trying to catch up with summer....it came finally, but now that's it here I needed to get the backporch open, continue to plant (I say continue, because I am still not finished), try to keep up with Picture Color (a new class by Tracey Clark) flickr, Prompt Addicts, etc etc etc. 

I LOVE our screened back porch.  It is so relaxing, comfortable, quiet, all those words that invoke peacefulness.  I do find great peace sitting on the porch listening to the birds, it is a place I can turn off all the troubles, pains, heartaches, and generally ugly stuff and focus on the peacefulness.  The backyard garden is beginning to burst into bloom which also adds to the delight of sitting on the porch.  The porch is about 20 years old, and has had some updating and transforming since it's birth.  Listen to me, I sound like this is a child, but it has been around about as long as both of my children were.  (they are still here, but not here, if you know what I mean).  A couple of years ago I changed the motif to this bright look.  I love these bright colors...reds, blues, greens, oranges, yellow-gold all happy colors. 



Isn't this a great hanging basket!!??  It so matches the decor of the back porch.  I spent a fortune on it, but I couldn't resist, it is filled with all those happy colors.  Now the trick is to keep it alive so we can enjoy it all summer long. 

Last Friday Catherine and I went on another photo fun trip.  She suggested we go to Graue Mill so we turned on Georgia and off we went.  Now Graue Mill isn't that far from here, oh maybe 20-30 minutes, and wouldn't you know it, I turned before Georgia gave me the go which ofcourse, made the trip 35-40 minutes.  Georgia and I haven't become the best of friends yet.  Anyway, Graue Mill has an interesting history, the most interesting was that it was a haven for slaves trying to escape via the underground railroad in the 1800's.  Frederick Graue, a miller by trade, housed the slaves in the basement of the mill.  Graue Mill's location on the Salt Creek River was a perfect spot for those slaves traveling north to escape the slavery of the south.  This made me think of "The Help", the characters weren't slaves, but they sure treated them as such.  If you haven't read the book, do, it opens your eyes a little wider.  We didn't stay here very long.....it happened to be the very day that every school in the entire area decided to take a field trip to Graue Mill.  The din of children screaming, adults yelling shortened our stay, I don't need to say anymore.

Since we were already in the Hinsdale area I thought we should drive by Trudi Temple's home to see, just by chance her gates were open.  They were not, so all we saw was the curbside garden.  Trudi Temple is a world renowned gardener and the founder of "Market Day" a huge fundraising business in the schools in 16 states.  Trudi is probably close to 80 by now, and unfortunately some of the areas around her garden looked as tho they had not been tended to.  Trudi has kept her acre lot filled with a huge variety of trees, shrubs & perennials in beautiful order and usually tended it herself.  When I worked in OakBrook in the 90's I would come over to Trudi's at lunch time and just stroll thru her garden in total awe.  That was when her gates would be open all the time.  As more and more people began to hear of the gardens she began to restrict the days she would allow people to come in, and now I think it is by invitation only.  Her curbside garden was filled with early summer/late spring blooms.   The orange poppy with that beautiful purple center is a stunner.  The the beautiful blue Baptisia is in bloom, even the stepping stones had beautiful blooms between the cracks.  Eventho the gates were not opened we got a taste of what was behind the garden gate.

A terrific day, all in all.  See you next time.