Irish Garden Week - Lakemount in County Cork

~ click on collage to enlarge ~

Irish Garden Week - in celebration of St. Paddy's Day this week, when we all claim to be a bit Irish, thought I would share some photos from a 1998 garden tour of Ireland.  This is Lakemount in County Cork.  Brian Cross (in wellies) is the garden designer/artist, assisted by "Violet".  Highlights:  fantastic mixed shrub borders, clipped beech hedges with a view, simply stunning arrangement of containers and plants, and a green velvet lawn.

Here are a few more closeups of the garden, including the assistant gardener :-) :

Check back in periodically for the rest of the week and I'll share some different gardens, traveling southwest from Dublin.  Slainte!

Quotography - Red, White, and Blue

"You may be a redneck if. . .your lifetime goal is to own a fireworks stand."

Jeff Foxworthy

Or, more seriously - "Where liberty is, there is my country." 

Ben Franklin

For more quotes and photography celebrating the Red, White and Blue theme, be sure to check out My Perspective Blog .

Americana

Happy 4th of July everyone! I hope you have some fun and celebrations to look forward to as the day goes on. Around here it will be quiet for Chet and me. Last night he had his first experience with fireworks and was a bit uneasy. I'm trying to help him be nonchalant about the whole snap, crackle and pop thing. Today we'll just hang out and hide from the oppressive heat that has us--along with most of the country--in its grip.

This week I've been thinking about what makes a good July 4 celebration and keep coming back to one place, historic Locust Grove just about 10 minutes from downtown Louisville. Locust Grove is the 17th century home and farm of the Lewis and Clark family. Today they're having an old-fashioned celebration

with family picnic on the grounds, children's activities, arts and crafts. Could almost guarantee that there'll be no fireworks set off here. You may, however, be able to see some from the Ohio River show on the downtown waterfront.

I won't be out there today but do go several times a year to photograph their beautiful grounds and look for pieces of Americana at their antiques and arts shows. Here's a few favorites:



A couple of views of the Locust Grove home through the garden:

This old outbuilding may have been a summer kitchen:

This wonderful split rail fence surrounds the farm:

You'll always be guaranteed to meet some cute dogs enjoying the antique show with their Servants:

And then here's some art pieces that say Americana to me:

So, Happy Independence Day, Friends! Stay cool if you can or just have fun in any way that makes getting out in the heat worthwhile. Blog friend Betsy over at Joyful Reflections asked what's on the 4th menu at our houses. Betsy, here it's going to be local white half runner beans with new potatoes and corn. More importantly, dessert will be Graeter's peach ice cream(limited to July)and fresh peaches. Num!Num!

Since I won't be blogging much for the rest of this week--except to catch up on some commenting--will make this post my entry for Friday Fences. Stop by Janis' place on Friday for the full list of players: Life According to Jan and Jer .

First of the Month - Rocket's Red Glare

I'm cheating a bit this month with the First of the Month photography meme in order to show you some spectacular 4th of July fireworks along the Louisville waterfront. The actual show is not until the 3rd so these photos are from the 2010 show.

For the past seven months I've been scanning Kentucky skies, camera in hand, in order to participate in a year-long photography meme that attracts aspiring photographers from all over. The idea is that we look at our surroundings and record the changes from month to month. The host for this meme is Jan at Murrieta 365 . Here's how it works: "The goal is to capture one thing repeatedly on the first day of each month. It can be a landscape, a person, an animal, a project; whatever your focus is fine. It can be a record of where you are each first day of the month." I decided to photograph Kentucky skies.

July is the perfect month to feature my hometown Louisville's strikingly modern skyline. Louisville is right on the banks of the Ohio River with Indiana on the other side. There's a wonderful green space called Waterfront Park where Louisvillians gather to enjoy the river views and great concerts and special events. Several times a year the celebrations include spectacular fireworks displays laid on the two bridges across the Ohio River connecting Indiana and Kentucky. Here's another view:

Those of us who live with dogs dread the fireworks, but there's no denying how thrilling and beautiful they can be when handled by experts like the Zambezi Brothers who set off the Louisville show. So, if you're ever in Louisville for the Derby or Independence Day, I recommend that you leave the "rocket's red glare" to the pros and just lie back in the grass and enjoy.

Be sure to check out Jan's link above for some photographs of people and places from all over on the first day of July.

(Image credit: Photobucket)

Harem Cookout

(Celebrating independence is the theme for this week's Fun Monday. Grace, our host over at Mama Rehema's , asks us to share how we observe our country's Independence Day. That's July 4th in the U.S. This year was a special one, a Cookout for the Harem, prepared by the Sultan himself.)

On the right is the Grilling Sultan, called Laddio in less formal situations. He has just recently upgraded his deck and was most eager to entertain his harem of six middle-aged women with a patriotic cookout. His chief assistant is Hallie the Pit Bull and sister of my own boy Willie. In the photo above Hallie is checking to be sure everyone will have their drinks of choice properly iced down.

Sally, the Number One Wife, is the only married member of this group of long time friends. Therefore, she very generously shares the Sultan with her friends--we call ourselves Laddio's Harem. He takes us out to dinner and on rare occasions is loaned out to "screw" for us--that is, putting up window boxes, curtain rods, etc. Here's the benevolent Sultan relaxing with his harem while the brats and burgers grill. As you can see, he enjoys his role:
How lucky we are in these friendships of over 30 years. All started by working for the same company for all these years. I'm the late-comer to this group and that was over 20 years ago. When we're together, I look at each of them and wonder how we've stayed friends for so long. We are so different. There's Z the social animal, J the witty and smart geek squad, S the hard-working romantic and Sally my heart friend and partner in many adventures. We don't necessarily share the same interests. In fact, sometimes we don't even understand what the other is talking about, but there's a glue that melds us together. It's is the experiences of a lifetime--work, relationships, family joys and troubles, illness, dog love, adventures.

So Friday night we sat out on the deck until almost 10:30 pm. We ate brats and burgers with all the trimmings prepared by our Sultan. And, after some trial and error and much needed direction from Hallie on how to get the ice cream maker cranking, we finished off the evening with homemade strawberry ice cream under the summer's night sky.

After I got home I read the ending to the last work of the Irish journalist and writer, Nuala O'Faolain, before her untimely death in 2008. In Best Love, Rosie Nuala writes of the challenges of late middle-age and how many of our support systems fail us in our later years. One thing we can always count on though is friendship in its many forms. Here's what Rose sees in her motley crew of friends at her own birthday celebration:

"The breeze was blowing the hair on all five heads in the same direction--so that you'd think, to look at them, that they belonged together: that they were all in the same little gang. But I knew how many hesitations there were between them--and between me and them. And it made me like them even more: that I knew how every one of them found it hard to get life right, and still they were willing to make a celebration, still they were generous. . .Yet I was moved by our middle-aged selves much more than if we had been young. It seemed a wonderful thing that we had come out of our separate lives and gathered on the top of a ridge for no reason but that we were friends." p. 368, Best Love, Rosie by Nuala O'Faolain

So, there you have it, Grace. My independence day celebration--good food, friends and a reminder of how precious the role played by each of these people in my middle-aged life. Now be sure to check out other Fun Monday celebrations. I suspect they'll be similar to mine.

Lunch Bunch does Chicago

(Our host for this week's Fun Monday is IamwhoIam at Dungarees Ablaze . She wants to hear about a favorite birthday celebration. It can be one of our own or one we planned, attended, crashed--you get the idea. So, for this assignment, I'll tell you a "twofer" tale.)



The stretch limo was flashing this ungodly hour when the driver carefully pulled up in my little cul de sac in early January '06. The limo had been hired by my good friends, the Lunch Bunch, to take us to the airport for a weekend celebration for me in Chicago. In the past couple of months, I had turned 60 and retired from the company where all of us worked together for almost 20 years.

Limo aside: if you haven't been to a prom or other fancy do in the last few years, let me tell you, stretch travel is highly overrated--especially for women of a certain age. I had to crawl on my knees to reach the other five members of the Lunch Bunch in the back of the limo. Luckily I had learned from Brittany that you really must wear underwear before mounting or dismounting a limo, but it was still a challenge. And then there's the champagne in a plastic glass. At that time of the morning I would have been happier with a Starbucks tall, extra cream. The thought was very much appreciated, though.

With the assistance of our able limo driver we were in the air and landed in Chicago before early morning traffic even settled down. Our hotel was in downtown Chicago handy to the best shopping. We got into our rooms and then headed to the nearest multi-story shopping center. We all found things to buy that we wouldn't consider in Louisville, especially with a little egging on from others in the group. Most notably, Sally and Linda found themselves in a foundation shop in the hands--quite literally--of a French fitter. Their "girls" had never looked prouder than they did on leaving that store! We were all excited to go through L'Occitane trying all the lotions and potions of Provence since we were still waiting for this store in Louisville. We all sat on a bench outside the store and sent all six of our Lunch Bunch group back in individually under the pretext of learning how to pronounce "L'Occitane" properly. And, by the way could we have samples for six people?

We had a memorable brunch in the elegant Drake Hotel. This sparkling floral display was in the lobby, hanging on from holiday decorations, I suppose. As I'm writing this, can't remember that we did anything in particular except shop, laugh, and enjoy each others company. I may have been the honoree, but that doesn't mean I got to go to concerts, museums, or art galleries. The mission was to hang out with a group of good friends. It was a pretty good plan.

I hope each of you are fortunate to have a few good friends who are always there to see you through the times of celebration and sadness that come to us all. I know I'm fortunate to have the Lunch Bunch. Now head over to Dungarees Ablaze to find out how the other half celebrates birthdays.