Sunday Snapshot ... Checking on the Doves in the Greenhouse

Mr. and Mrs. Birdbrain Mourning Dove are the proud parents of twins!  I have been a good girl and I have left this nest completely alone since I noticed it last month ... it's been killing me, I tell ya.  The other day, curiosity got the better of me and I set up my ladder to take a quick peek.  This is what I saw:

Judging from their size, it's not going to be long before these babies leave the nest.  Mama and Papa have been going in and out of the greenhouse easily, so I have no reason to believe that it won't be the same for the babies when it's time for them to fly.  I will keep an eye out till then, just in case I need to perform another rescue .

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Sunday Snapshots are posts that are devoted to a moment in time that represents a slice of life in Hartwood, or wherever else I happen to be.

Lynchburg Day Trip, Part Two ... Porch Research

If you've been reading this blog for any time at all, you probably already know that one of my long-term projects is researching and recreating millwork elements for our front porch.  Our house was built as a gingerbread Gothic Revival ... during a renovation in 1967, all of the trim was stripped and replaced with colonial-style flat trim.  The front porch lost its Gothic Victorian gingerbread long before that.

I believe that this is the oldest photo that we have of our house, taken in the 1930s.  Notice the ladder leaning against the side of the house.  I have another photo that shows painters working on the front door surround.  My theory is that the front porch railing and tapered box columns were new at this point.

Our porch currently looks like this.  We rebuilt it in 2005, replacing rotting framing, posts, floor, and trim.  It has been in this state for so long because we found no clues about what it may have looked like originally.  Whatever we do is going to be our interpretation and recreation of an 1800s porch ... a fact that has made me very nervous.

Cedar 4x4 support posts, and a railing made from 2x4s and 36" grade stakes.

Last winter, one day while I was pondering my porch problem, I turned to Pinterest for inspiration.  I don't remember exactly what terms I used in my search, but whatever it was helped me find buried treasure ... this photo of the John Marshall Warwick house in Lynchburg!

Source

The Pinterest pin linked to an album of photos on Flickr, where I found this photo of the house's facade.  (There are nine photos in the album.  Click HERE if you want to see them for yourself.)

Source

Our second stop during our Lynchburg day trip last weekend was to see this house in person.  It definitely did not disappoint.

This porch has everything that I have considered using on the redesign of our porch ... double front columns, sawn balusters for the porch railing, fretwork corner brackets ... even a curved iron handrail on the stairs.  

What this porch brings to the design of our porch is the use of those little double corbels on the fascia board over each column.  

I'm more energized than ever about the prospect of finally putting pretty stuff back onto our front porch.  Can't work on it now, though, because spring is the time for garden work.  Any time I use for porch work takes away from other things that I need to be doing at this time of year.  That's okay.  Now that I have finally seen a porch that matches the feeling that I want our porch to have, I will file this away until the time is right to act on it.  This porch design keeps getting better as I wait to work on it, as I discover new ideas and refine the ideas that I already plan to use.  I may not be physically working to rebuild the pretty parts of our porch yet, but this project is definitely running in the background of my imagination.

(Want to see earlier posts where I show how the design of our porch has evolved?  Click the HERE to see all posts labeled "Porch".)

Antique Rose Festival at Lynchburg's Old City Cemetery

The Old City Cemetery in Lynchburg, Virginia, is an amazing place.  It's much more than just a place for those who have passed on ... it has historic buildings, museum exhibits, loads of special events throughout the year, a very busy chapel, and more.  (Weddings at the cemetery?  Lots of people do.)  Let's not forget, they have roses!

This past weekend was the cemetery's annual Antique Rose Festival.  My husband and I drove down on Saturday.  The weather was perfect!

The roses were just starting to flower.  (This spring, things are all a little bit late.)  I spent most of my time admiring the roses, and visiting with the folks that I know there.  It's been at least four years since I last visited, and it was good to catch up and hear what's been going on.  I did take time to snap a few photos for you.

This 'Harison's Yellow' was a fountain of gorgeous yellow flowers.

My favorite rose was this one ... sadly, it had lost its tag and no one was sure of its identity.  The plant was large (5' high and about 6-or-more feet wide), the white flowers are about an inch and a half in diameter, and the incredible fragrance was perfuming that entire end of the garden.  Any ideas?

The icing on top of this event for me is that there are dozens of varieties of heritage roses for sale!

I was tempted by so many of them!  In the end, I followed my heart and only brought home one ... "Polk Street Noisette".  It's a rose that was found at an old house in the neighborhood beside the cemetery.  No one working the sale could tell me anything about it, but I didn't care.  I have a fondness for found roses, with their stories of survival and discovery.  This new rose is already planted in my garden, in the front yard rose border.  I can't wait to see what it does as it grows!

In addition to the cemetery, we made two other stops in Lynchburg while we were there.  More to come, later in the week.

Monday, Monday

I had the house to myself today.  This is a bit of a treat, since my husband works from home and is here all the time.  What did I do all day?  Come along and I will show you.

I got out early and I unloaded the last few wheelbarrow loads of mulch from my truck.  

All empty ... but not for long.  I'm gonna need a LOT more mulch.

I spread that mulch on the rose border that I have been working on in the front yard.  I had already pulled the weeds, trimmed the roses, and laid landscape fabric in this section.  (a post about doing this, with before and after photos, is HERE).  I'm getting pretty close to being finished with this garden, thank goodness.  I think it's looking awesome, if I do say so myself.

There are a few empty spots in this garden, and I put in two new roses ... from the batch that I propagated last fall from the collection at Monticello's Tufton Farm.  (That post is HERE.)  These new roses are small right now, but they will grow and get bigger pretty quickly.  

"Ruth's Wavy Leaf Noisette"

"Aunt Louisa Rose"

The edges of our driveway and some other areas of the property needed some attention, so I mixed up and applied two gallons of herbicide.  It's best to kill the poison ivy sprouts, thistles, and other nasties while they are small.

I have been replacing the brick edging on the front Hybrid Tea garden, using the same blocks that I showed you earlier.  I finished the day by working on this for a couple of hours.  The bricks had sunk into the ground and were uneven, and the mulch would spill out.  I'm really liking the cohesive look of having the same edging on all of the beds on that side of the yard.  Pull up bricks, scrape and dig a little bit to make a nice trench, set new blocks in place ... over and over.

New blocks and old bricks.

This is a good view of before and after, of a section of the garden that I did last week.

The bricks that I'm taking up are antique bricks that I have collected over the years.  There are these that have edged this garden, and some others in small piles here and there throughout the property.  Where can we store them so they're all together and not piled somewhere in the way?  Store them in plain sight, of course ... laid over the ground cloth on the floor of the greenhouse's lean-to.  (Post about the lean-to is HERE.)  This is a temporary/permanent place for them, convenient and not in a pile.

I had no intention of doing so much today.  When I'm here by myself, I guess I get more accomplished because there's no one around to distract me.  

Just so you know, I'm NOT working outside tomorrow ... I'm tired.

... and So It Begins ...

Every spring, three roses compete for the title of first one to open a flower in my garden.  This year, the winner is 'Sarah Van Fleet'.  (The other two are 'Old Blush' and 'Climbing 'Rouletii'.)

This rose was bred by Walter Van Fleet (my favorite hybridizer), named for his wife, and introduced in 1926.  In my garden, it is eight feet tall and at least that wide, perfectly winter hardy, disease free, generous with its flowers, and the fragrance is heavenly.

My friend, Goth Gardener, included a quote that I love in her post today.

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

 - Buddha

This perfectly captures how I feel every year when that first flower opens.

Open Garden Day Announcement

This year, the roses have been very shy about showing me when they expect to be in full bloom.  The weather has been up and down temperature-wise, and I like to think that they weren't sure about when it would happen either.  So, I'm making an educated guess, setting a date, and working on preparations ... Drum roll, please ...

The lovely rose in this photo is "Pink Van Fleet"

Mark your calendar and make plans to come by to visit with the roses and to see the fruits of all of my reclamation and renovation efforts in the garden.  You've seen photos of the work here on the blog, and now is your chance to inspect it all in person.  (Address is 335 Hartwood Road, 22406)

I love to meet blog readers, neighbors, fellow rose lovers, and other nice people.  If you're in the area, please make plans to drop by.  Feel free to share the image above, or this whole post if you're so inclined.  (I will even have a few roses for sale ... haven't finished dividing out which ones yet, so stay tuned for that announcement later.)  

Flowers in the House

I snipped this Tree Peony flower a little while ago, put it into my favorite vintage Farmer's Creamery bottle, and sat it on the kitchen windowsill.  

This flower is the only one that the plant will produce this year.  I wasn't going to waste it outside in an area that I don't see every day.  I want it inside, in a prominent spot, so I can enjoy it often and for as long as possible.

Sending this to Jane for Flowers in the House, and sharing it with all of you, too.  Jane had surgery today ... visits and flowers from friends are intended to make her feel better.