Filed under: Family time, Food, Fountains, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Koi Ponds, Lake and Pond, Love, music, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, Waterfalls | Tags: Family, Family Fun, Family time, July 4th., June, Love, Summer Nights, Summer Pond Tour, Summer Season, Summer Time, Summertime, Summertime in Tennessee, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Time, Time flies, Time in a bottle, Time Off
What a week it was! 1st day of Summer ✔️ record high heat ✔️ My iPhone self destructed ✔️ Pond Tour ✔️ But, We got it all done! ✔️ And now this coming weekend is the 4th of July! 💥🇺🇸 Time… Its flying by… Pay attention or you’ll blink and bam, its Labor Day and Summer will be gone…
Just a few pics form yesterdays Pond Tour/Fund Raiser. Hopefully we can all enjoy a little Summer this next week, after all its almost Independence Day!
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.”
~ John Lubbock
Enjoy this Summer Day!
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Food, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Herbs, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, Waterfalls | Tags: Balance, Cat Rescue, Catmint, catnip, Cats, Gardening, Herbs, Irish Sayings, Landscape, Love Your Pets, Nursery Cat, Pets, plants, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday on the River, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Yin Yang
Its a mild, beautiful, overcast morning. A perfect morning to get out and enjoy the air, check on plants, listen to the birds and the Waterfalls. I’m drinking my coffee this morning from the Hemingway House cup we got down in Key West earlier this year 😊 Like Earnest, I love cats 🐈 too…
Our cat isn’t a ”polydactyl type”, but shes a heck of a mouser 🐁 And she LOVES mint! Not just catmint, most any mint will do 😊
Balance is so important in life. All the hard work we have been doing to keep the Nursery up and to prepare for the upcoming Pond Tour is balanced by the beauty of the Landscape that I enjoy every time I stop to admire a flower or feed a Koi 🐠 Or even to watch my cat working through every one of my plants to see which ones she likes the best 🌺
Have a blessed Sunday 🙏🏻
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, Sunday Reflections, Sunrises, Sunsets, Waterfalls | Tags: Family, Family time, Family Traditions, Freedom, Freedom isn’t Free, I Love My Family, Love, Memorial Day, Memorial Weekend, Peace, Peace on Earth, Ragged Old Flag, Rest In Peace, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday on the River, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Thankful, USA
Early morning sunshine… Watering, feeding the birds and animals, feeling thankful 🙏🏻 Reflection on the reasons for our peace and freedom… Its a beautiful day!
Remember
Someone’s child, left long ago,
A strange land,
Someone’s foe.
An unmarked grave, fields of green,
Resting quiet,
Just eighteen.
Winds of freedom, wash us now,
Remember him,
This I vow
~ Victor C. Kleinschmit
God Bless America! 🇺🇸
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Food, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Herbs, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, music, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, Sunrises, Sunsets, Waterfalls | Tags: Beautiful Day, bird call, Birds, Birds and ponds, Breakfast, Coffee, Coffee Mug, Feeding Birds, Flowers, Fresh Lemonade, Get Outside, Homemade Lemonade, Lemon Trees, Lemonade, Love, Morning Coffee, nesting birds, Pottery, Potting Containers, Spring, Spring Gardening, Spring is Here!, Spring Planting, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Songs, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Sunrises, watering, Watering Plants
All I can say is ”What a beautiful morning”! I think every bird in the world is singing the song of Spring! Ive been up and out since early… Coffee ☕️ ✔️ Breakfast ✔️ Watering ✔️ … We have moved pottery a bit and potted some things up as well. Its mid-morning break time, so I thought I would write this little blog and fix some homemade Lemonade 🍋 Nothing tastes as good as a fresh glass of sweet lemonade on a spring morning.
I just Love Spring!
“It’s lemonade in a cardboard cup between the legs of a freshly tanned, sunglass wearing, brown eyed girl. It’s a white Jeep, blaring Enrique loud.
It’s the sweat beneath the dark curls. It’s the country song that brings tears to your eyes. It’s the lessons learned, the mistakes made. It’s the future ahead, bright and beautiful. It’s the laughter, memories. It’s the good things in life.
It’s Spring.
~ Alixis Russell
I’ll see y’all in the house about dark:30…
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Fountains, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Herbs, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Pondless Waterfalls, Sunday Reflections, water garden, Waterfalls | Tags: 7 Days a Week, Best Wife Award, Garden Chores, Gardening, God, God Bless, God Bless America, Gods Classroom, Gods Country, Love, Love and Meaning, Love Your Pets, Nursery, Nursery Work, Plant care, short handed, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Taking Care of Business, Together, watering
I got up with the sun, fixed coffee, put on my garden shoes on the porch and haven’t been back inside yet… Again, short handed at the nursery and so many chores to do… even on the sabbath 🙏🏻 But I feel good with it, (see Luke 14), when Jesus demonstrates to the Pharisees that some emergencies must be dealt with immediately, even if it means breaking the sabbath to do so… Ox in the ditch… Or in our case, watering to keep plant stock alive… And to beautify the landscape❤️
Even tho we are working 7 days a week right now, I know at the end of the day that I’m a very lucky and a very blessed man! 🙏🏻
“Come, fill the Cup, and in the Fire of Spring
The Winter Garment of Repentance fling:
The Bird of Time has but a little way
To fly–and Lo! the Bird is on the Wing.”
~ Omar Khayyám
Have a wonderful Sunday Afternoon!
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Food, Fountains, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Herbs, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, Waterfalls | Tags: Coffee, Coffee Mug, cool, Eggs, Family, Family Fun, Family time, Frost Warning, grits, Here’s to Spring!, Homegrown Tomatoes, If You Don’t Like The Weather, Morning Coffee, Pancakes, Saturday in the Garden, Sliced Tomato’s, Spring, Spring Gardening, Spring is Coming, Spring is Here!, Spring Planting, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Sunrises, Tennessee Weather, Tomato varieties, Tomatoes
I had to put my jacket on this morning when I walked outside with my 1st cup of coffee 🥶 It was a little chilly… BUT, it’s supposed to get up to 78 degrees this afternoon 🌞 Great news! A little more great news, we have ‘probably’ gotten passed our last frost! Can you say Spring Planting Time!
I’m heading back inside to make another pot of coffee and fix some breakfast… Then its on!
My advice is to get out and enjoy this beautiful day! 🌞
“The sun was warm but the wind was chill.
You know how it is with an April day.
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You’re one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
a cloud come over the sunlit arch,
And wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you’re two months back in the middle of March.”
~ Robert Frost
Have a great Sunday!
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Food, Fountains, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Koi, Koi Ponds, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Pondless Waterfalls, Sunday Reflections, water garden, Waterfalls | Tags: Aquatic Plant Fertilizer, Aquatic Plants, Butterfly Plants, Garden Maintenance, Gardening, Greenhouse, Greenhouse Report, Hydrangeas, Limelight Hydrangeas, Oakleaf Hydrangeas, plants, Spring Gardening, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Songs, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, watering, Watering Plants
What a BEAUTIFUL Day!!! 🌞🌼 What do you do on an Sunday in the Spring, when you own a nursery, with limited help and beau·coup plants 🪴? You water 🚿 and then you water 🚿 some more… And in between, you clean and cut back and fertilize, ad infinitum… But, on a day like today, its not an awful deal…
“Spring drew on…and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily suggested the thought that hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps.”
~ Charlotte Bronte’
I’m going inside… Been a long day 😊
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Food, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Hummingbirds, Koi, Koi Ponds, Lake and Pond, Love, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, Waterfalls | Tags: Biscuits, Country Ham, Cut my Hair, Eggs, Family, Family Fun, Family Pictures, Family time, Family Traditions, Fun, Get a Haircut, Hair, Haircut, Ham, I Love My Family, red eye gravy, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, There’s No Place Like Home
Well, the first week of Spring has been exciting as advertised! Plants, Ponds, Stones and Boulders have been flying! Today – Grass to trim, bird feeders to fill! Including the Hummingbird Feeders that we have recently put back up for our returning babies ❤️ But not until we eat Breakfast!
Jacob also insists on getting a haircut today, so Jo made quick work of that!
Anyway… It turns out that our son was under that pile of hair too 😮 WOW!
The Barber came to cut my hair,
I told him that it wasn’t fair.
My hair had done him no harm,
Without it I would loose my charm.
The Barber he grinned a silly grin,
Said to cut my hair would be no sin.
That I should face it like a man,
But I’m a coward and away I ran.
Do you like sitting in a Barbers chair,
With him chopping away your lovely hair.
Once my head was full of curls,
Covering my face with twisty twirls.
But then the Barber came my way,
I was a child, I had no say.
Off came my curls one by one,
The Barber seemed to have great fun.
Now I’m old and very grey,
I’m nearly bald, my hairs gone away.
But when I see a Barbers chair,
I feel the loss of my curly hair.
You know I truly rue the day,
When that first Barber came my way.
– Bernard Shaw
Have a great Sunday Evening!
Mark C.
Filed under: Boutique, Family time, Food, Fountains, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Koi, Koi Ponds, Love, Nursery, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, water garden, Waterfalls | Tags: 1st Day of Spring, Aquatic Plants, Art, Art in the Garden, Art Show, Artistic Waterfalls, Flowers, I ❤️ Aquatic Plants, I ❤️ My Art, Love, Love and Meaning, Love Thy Neighbor, Love Thy Neighbor As Thyself, plants, Spring is Here!, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Songs, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Sunsets, Vernal Equinox, Water Garden Maintenance
Good Morning! And, ”Happy Vernal Equinox! I’ve been hollering ’Spring is Coming’ since February, and finally – here we are 🌼 SPRING!
Yesterday we held our annual Spring Workshop and Customer Appreciation Day and so many people came out! We talked gardening, water gardening, Koi, and more. We ate some Wonderful Craft-made Pizzas 🍕 and saw some beautiful Art Displayed by a wonderful local artist – Matt Brown.
The Sun finally popped out late in the day and we saw the Full Moon after dark 🌝
Now that Spring is here, its time to go to work!
“Oh, give us pleasure in the flowers to-day;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
Oh, give us pleasure in the orchard white,
Like nothing else by day, like ghosts by night;
And make us happy in the happy bees,
The swarm dilating round the perfect trees.
And make us happy in the darting bird
That suddenly above the bees is heard,
The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid air stands still.
For this is love and nothing else is love,
The which it is reserved for God above
To sanctify to what far ends He will,
But which it only needs that we fulfill.
~ Robert Frost, A Prayer in Spring.
Y’all Have a Beautiful Sunday!
Mark C.
Filed under: Family time, Food, Fountains, General Blog Entry's, God Bless America, Landscaping & Gardening, Love, Outdoor Lifestyles, Sunday Reflections, Waterfalls | Tags: Daylight Savings Time, Early Spring, Flowers, Hanging Baskets, Homegrown Tomatoes, I ❤️Tomatoes, Life is Good, Longer Days, Plant a Flower, Snowy waterfall, Spring, Spring Forward, Spring is Almost Here!, Spring is Coming, Spring is Here!, Spring Planting, Sunday, Sunday Breakfast, Sunday Brunch, Sunday Gardening, Sunday in the Garden, Sunday Inspiration, Sunday Morning Coming Down, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Naps, Sunday Poem, Sunday Quote, Sunday Reflections, Sunday Sunrises, Sunday with Family, Sundays, Sunrises, Time, Tomatoes
Were you early to church this morning? Or, were you more like me and actually set your clocks ahead like we were supposed to, only to have to drag your butt out of bed 🛏 Springing forward ain’t easy!
As I watch the snow melt this morning, Spring is in the air! And in a week, it will be official 😊 I am so ready for longer evenings, flowers, boating season and homegrown tomato’s 🍅.
“In spring when maple buds are red,
We turn the clock an hour ahead;
Which means, each April that arrives,
We lose an hour out of our lives.
Who cares? When autumn birds in flocks
Fly southward, back we turn the clocks,
And so regain a lovely thing
That missing hour we lost in spring.”
~ Phyllis McGinley
Mark C.
Carter's Water Garden 