Flowers Bring Joy

I wish I had words to describe the sensory delight in seeing, touching,  and smelling these flowers freshly picked from my garden.

The fragrance of the gardenia is ethereal.

 It permeates the room and brings joy to my heart.

 Selecting just the right vase and arranging the flowers is therapy for me.

 Several roses, lace-cap hydrangea, endless summer hydrangea, and  pink spirea.

Merritt's Supreme hydrangea

Coleus.

Agapanthus.

Pink Spirea.

One of my four season statuaries.

 From my neighbors yard. Perfection!
 Also, from my neighbors yard. I want to find out  the name of this plant.

 The glory of an agapanthus unfolding.

White hydrangea called First White.

My daughter gave me the statuary of the sweet birds. I cherish things my children give me. Flowers are white penta's.

 And this was the glorious sky as I strolled through the garden making pictures and being thankful to God for so many blessings.

“All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.”   Isaiah 40:11

Linking to: Metamorphosis Monday, Wow Us Wednesday and Open  House Thursday.

Saturday morning banana bread

The little wren family

I believe this is a Carolina Wren because it has a white eye strip and a yellow chest. I understand mates are long term remaining together throughout the year. My information comes from, Birds of Alabama field guide by Stan Tekiela.

They sing very loudly and my reading tells me the male is known to sing up to 40 different song types, singing one song repeatedly  before switching to another. Female also sings resulting in duets.  All the pics are made from the inside window . I would have scared them otherwise.

For the last two years they chose to build their nest in a plant in this wire basket.  The female incubates and the incubation is 12-14 days. Next time, I will document their activity. Both male and female feed their young.

Because we sit on the porch so much we watched as they flew back and forth both male and female building their nest. You can't tell the male from the female.

Their nest is a cavity and they have two broods a year, sometimes three. We counted seven eggs in our nest but my bird book says they have 4-6 white, sometimes pink or creamy, with brown markings.  I wanted to make a picture of the eggs but it was too dark down in their nest. Before they built this nest they tried  building a nest inside a wet vac hanging in our garage.

This is the nest and it had one egg. They abandoned it because we shut the garage doors at night. This is not the shape of their nest I changed it to make the picture but is the best I could do climbing on a ladder.

You can see the blurred pic of the babies here.  I was standing on a chair and when they saw me they pulled their heads back in. The father and mother have worked so hard feeding their babies and I could tell their little chirping was getting stronger.  I made the first pics yesterday morning and he was telling the world something. I was away from the house all afternoon and much to my sadness I missed the birds flying back and forth and the babies chirping. I looked in the nest and they were gone. It is very quiet tonight on our porch. I hope they will return to raise another family.

Linking to Wow Us Wednesday, Outdoor Wednesday, and Open House Party Thursday

Master Bath Metamorphosis

After a long time talking about redoing the floors and shower in our master bath finally they are finished.
In celebration, I treated myself to fresh roses and a new orchid. I might continue to indulge myself with flowers in the bathroom. After all I see this area all the time. Why not?

I am showing the after pics first. I have not done anything about new light fixtures yet. Actually, I like the light they give out and don't want to chance picking out something else that doesn't give out as much light. I realize they scream dated, a word I dislike but right now I am weary of workman and decisions. All the workers I have had have been very professional and extremely nice. It is just a tiring process but rewarding after you recuperate.

The floor was carpeted throughout the bath and our closets.

The shower was tiled with 4 X 4 white tiles but was 20 years old.

We added the seat in the shower and extended the depth about 6 inches.

I love the seamless door. 

This is the before pic. The carpet was so plush and comfortable but let's just say it had plenty of wear.

I am cringing showing the next pics because you know what tile does when you clorox it to death. Can't believe I am showing these!

Do you think I needed a clean floor?

The process was messy. The workers labored one entire day hammering out the old tile. It was quite loud and dusty. 

We couldn't walk on the floor at this point for a whole day because it needed to dry.

My closet is on one side of the bathroom and my husband's closet is on the other side. Shelves were removed and the walls painted. It was a job to take down and put the shelves back up. Glad I was not doing it.

There was not a vent over the shower so we had a vent light combination installed.

The new vent light is great. They also repaired the ceiling from a leak  so everything looks better.

All in all the process of replacing shower and floor took five days.  The closets were painted and all the trim and molding so this added a few days.  It is wonderful to have freshly painted closets and new carpet. I won't say I enjoyed the process of taking EVERYTHING out of our closets and putting it back but I will say it was a great thing to do. I am still going through some things  slowly and giving away and throwing away. That's a good feeling.

 We also replaced the carpet in the our bedroom and I am still in the process of changing a few other things. Everything had to be moved out of this room also. I am thankful for clean and new. Feels great to be finished and almost back to normal.

Linking to Metamorphosis Monday and Wow Us Wednesdays.