Winter Colors

As most of you know, one of my favorite things to do is to take photos of my flowers and other things that I have growing and/or bringing color around my house and it's been a while since I've actually posted any that I've taken. In fact, one of the last posts that features anything growing around here is "Green" which was posted on November 3, 2009. Although it's winter and  it's finally cold enough to actually "feel" winter (current temp 0 C/32 F)  things are green and growing and there's a lot of color throughout the season.  

Geraniums. I love that this climate allows geraniums to flourish year round as it's one of my favorite flowers. It's too bad Tarzan has eaten most of them, planters included. I took this photo yesterday and the only  reason that  it's survived Tarzan is because it's in a huge, cement planter that even I can't move.

 Lemons. Our lemon tree has produced hundreds of lemons this season. The second shot is from my balcony,   just outside of my kitchen. I can walk out and grab a lemon fresh from the tree whenever I need one. I love it.

Unfortunately, we've  lost a little more than half of the tree earlier this season due to a combination of the weight of the lemons and high winds. We have given bags and bags and crates away, just from this one tree and it's still full.

These little orange flowers are hardy and abundant. I  received the plants from my neighbors last winter and transplanted several throughout the property and they spread like wildfire.  Unfortuately, I forget what they're called. If anyone can tell me the name of this flower I would appreciate it. I did try looking it up but haven't had any luck. Also, according to my neighbor this flower has medicinal uses. It's pretty and strong and adds a lot of color to the yard throughout winter as well as most of the year.

Here's a photo of Tarzan's nose just near the flowers. He's always interested in what I'm doing so when I was  on the ground snapping photos of flowers he thought he'd supervise.

Peppers. These peppers belong to my neighbor. He's drying them for seed. I have a few left on some plants that I've neglected but his look so much better, especially for photos.  I love their redness and they definitely add color to my day.

Siberian squill ( Scilla Siberica). These are abundant along my front walkway. They've just started to bloom this week. The fragrance of these little flowers is absolutely delicious. I love walking by when these are in season.

We've had a few roses here and there but unfortunately, not this week. I hope that you've enjoyed a little splash of winter color from my corner of Greece.

Spider on a Rose

"The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line"

~Alexander Pope

Since I've been extremely busy, I've decided to do a quick post to let all of you in on why I haven't posted in a while. It was my second week home and I'm back into the swing of things.
Here's a little of what's been going on around here.





We began our week with Kosta appearing TV early Sunday morning. It was a lot of fun to watch, his sense of humor is amazing. I did record it, however, not all of it. I missed the last half of the interview because I ran out of tape. Yes, I have an analog video camera so I'm still doing things the old fashioned way. You can hear Gigi barking and the kids whispering, it's classic.





As soon as he returned home that morning, we set off for a picnic. The weather was gorgeous, the kids played games and we enjoyed live music. Beautiful day.







Within the week, we explored in our yard. The weather has been so beautiful, we've already started to eat outside.









We celebrated Foti's fifth birthday. He brought his favorite lemon cake to school to share with friends and we had another waiting for him at home. I love that he wanted me to bake his cake!

I've noticed that the figs have already started to grow.

Our lilacs are in full bloom.

Asproula is happy here. We are keeping her. Kosta was out shopping one day and he came home with a collar. She's ours. She loves it here and we love her. The nicest part of this whole story is that she chose us. We're lucky.

The kithonia(quince) trees have blossomed. Out of all of the fruit trees that we have, these are my favorite blossoms.

We've had a few visitors and have seen a lot of our neighbors, especially since the weather has been so nice. We've been lucky enough to receive a lot of gifts this week. What gifts?

Well, when you live here it's typical to give and receive on a regular basis. For instance, if a neighbor has extra eggs from their chickens, they usually share them. I like to give my lemons to the neighbors and friends since none of them have their own lemon trees. In Milwaukee I have excellent neighbors that share as well, it's just that none on them have chickens! I'm so thankful for all of the generosity that we're surrounded with. Here's what we've received this week...

4 loaves of tsoureki

30 eggs

5 heads of marouli (romaine lettuce)

tangerines in syrup

a bottle of homemade white wine

How's that for genorosity? All of this came from 5 different families.

Since tomorrow is Easter, my in-laws are going to be arriving with even more goodies. I'm sure that there's another tsoureki on its way and hopefully, a karythopita!

Have a fantastic weekend and KALO PASCHA!!

Almond blossom

Bee in Flower

It's been a while since I've posted pictures of flowers and other things around home. As the weather is cooling a bit I enjoy being outside so I'm starting to stop and notice the little things once again .

Garden gate...

Here's a gate on the property that we never use. I think that the vines curled around it with their orange flowers are beautiful.

Tomatoes for Sale!

Weekend harvest

Our garden is coming along nicely. This is what we harvested on Sunday afternoon. We only had one green cucumber. The rest of them are yellowish...something is wrong. I was told a few different things by a few different people.

First, someone said that I'm watering them too much.

Next, I was told that they need to be fertilized.

Shortly after that-they're getting too much sun.

Finally, we're not watering them enough. (sigh)

I suppose that it's up to us to figure out what our cucumbers need. ???? I've grown them before on my balcony in Milwaukee so it's not my first encounter with this veggie. Only time and testing will tell what's wrong with the cucumbers.

So, aside from that little mystery things seem to be growing well. We're really enjoying our first real garden. Here are some photos that I took last week...

Ladybug, Ladybug...

Izabella's favorite bug! I took this picture at her request. Foti is starting to like them too.

Snail for Friday

Summer garden

Our summer garden is officially planted! Last week we worked hard to prepare the soil, buy the plants and sketch out the plans. We planted everything on Monday. Here are some photos from the process...

Alexandra inspecting some flowers. Her favorite job is "dead-heading" flowers, even if they don't need to be.

Gigi waiting for the tiller to come around again. She supervises everything & everyone that goes in and out of the garden. Unfortunately, she's been relieved of her position since we've officially banned her from the garden as of Monday. She was caught chewing on the leaves of the new plants and also stealing strawberries.

A row of tomatoes.

A sweet strawberry blossom.

What did we plant?

Tomatoes-classic, roma & cherry
Eggplants-oblong & globe
Peppers-green, florinis & those green "banana" peppers...the kind that you find in salads and that you can also fry. (have to find their proper name)
Cucumbers-a lot of them!
Zucchini
Melons-honey dew & watermelon
Squash
Basil
Strawberries (actually planted in March but relocated Monday)

That's it for now. We'll be adding more tomatoes & cucumbers at the end of the month and I still have to plant some seeds & romaine lettuce this week. Wish us luck with our first real summer garden!

Little Sweeper

Looking for a Poppy

After weeding my 16 rose bushes and planting a few flowers & seeds yesterday I felt a little stressed and I was crabby. I think that's because I usually view gardening as refreshing and therapeutic. Yesterday, however, it wasn't. Alexandra kept attempting daredevil-like stunts and would go missing from time to time. I had to keep getting up to find her. Gigi kept trying to dig in the freshly worked soil around the flowers that I planted. She also kept pouncing on Alexandra when they were playing but knocked her over a few times only to make her cry. It's amazing to watch a toddler and a puppy fight. Foti wanted to watch a movie inside, then he wanted juice...and pudding...he needed assistance in the bathroom...he wanted to go in the basement to see his dad...he wanted to play outside...he wanted to go back inside. His shoes were off & on at least 5 times within an hour. Izabella was whining because she couldn't figure out what she wanted to do, it was the same with her- in & out. Finally, I tried to redirect their attention and it worked. I had Iza help me with planting and watering. I gave Foti the job of watering the planted seeds. Finally, I gave Alexandra a spoon from the kitchen and a pot of dirt. She was thrilled. Everyone was busy and I finished my work.

As I was cleaning up Izabella asked me if I had seen the one poppy that was growing in the back by the garden. I said "yes, but I thought that it had lost its petals already". She insisted that there was another one so we went to look for it. Iza also mentioned that she could tell that I needed to take a little walk around to relax-and that I needed to bring my camera to take a picture of the poppy. Aren't kids perceptive? So here are somethings that we noticed on the way to find the lone poppy...

A Hummingbird Hawk-moth... It took me about 10 tries to get this shot. We have a lot of arugula that's flowering and it's always full of bees, butterflies and these little cuties.

The one poppy that we were looking for. It might be the only one in bloom for now, but there are a lot more on the way.

Our quince(kithonia) trees have blossomed. I hadn't noticed until I walked through the yard with her. (please excuse the huge, dead branches behind Iza-still cleaning up & gathering wood from the major pruning event)

The blossoms from the quince trees are just beautiful!

The walnut tree is blossoming.

The apple trees are in full bloom.

We also found a green catepillar that Iza put in her bug jar in hopes that it'll turn into a butterfly. To be honest, I can't tell if it's a catepillar or just a worm but we'll see.

Iza was thrilled to take this little walk with me and I was more than happy that she suggested that we look for that one little poppy. She helped me out of my funk and I'm so grateful. She redirected my focus...just as I had redirected hers earlier. I was refreshed and ready to make dinner, which she said was the best that she'd ever had! (talk about boosting mommy's ego!)

I bought these flowers at the laiki (open market). Although I asked the vendor about them, I can't remember what they're called. I do know that they'll look great wherever I plant them.

Iris

Sweet Alyssum

Kiwi bush budding

Pear blossoms

I can't help it, I'm obsessed with spring and all of its beauty. This post is dedicated to all of my loved ones back home- I hear that there's more snow on the way. You have really had a tough winter and it seems as if it's never ending! I hope that spring arrives soon. Until then, I'll share my spring with you.