Darjeeling Decisions

Posted on 07/12/2012 by Laurie

Before pictures.

Out with the old and in with the new …

Over the past week and a half, we have been redecorating the Darjeeling Room. (All of our rooms are named after teas, though I’ll confess, the tea-theme does not carry over to the decor.) We changed the wall color from a pure white – to a very pale blue-green shade called Morning Breeze. (The shadows in the before picture don’t quite allow one to fully appreciate the change.) The bathroom is now white and a blue-green called Holly Glen which replaces the dark Admiralty Blue that used to be on the upper wall areas. We are going for a more contemporary and airy look than we had with the previous decor and are very happy with how the room is turning out. (I’ll be updating the photos on our website soon.)

We purchased new bedding, curtains and lighting. The only thing left is putting artwork on the walls.

Sometimes, I reach a point at which I just can’t make any more decisions. I picked the two pictures below for the walls, and … then got stuck. I choose these because I like them and I thought that they fit with the overall look for which we are aiming. Then I realized that they both related to the Darjeeling Room because it looks out at the front garden and also on the crab apple tree on the East side of the house.

I’ll wait to see how these look framed and hung; and then, I trust, inspiration shall walk in to help me take it from there. (Oh, I’m so excited about the new look!)

I’ve Been Inspired by … Bougainvillea

Posted on 06/25/2012 by Laurie

Bougainvillea is rather exotic for this part of the country. So before now, I have not tried growing it in Kansas. Through her gorgeous photographs of these plants, Sofi from Arabica really got me thinking about how much I miss tropical bougainvilleas. When I lived in California, I loved seeing these colorful plants climbing in all kinds of places. So last week I purchased a petite specimen called Bengal Orange at one of our local garden centers. Bengal Orange supposedly only gets to be 18 inches tall but can grow up to 8 feet wide. I planted it in a terra cotta pot and am going to try to train it to grow along our “back porch” – a tiny space off my office where I do container gardening. The bougainvillea is a bright and cheerful addition. Thank you Sofi for the inspiration! I’ve since come across several other posts about bougainvilleas that I have “liked”: Smell the Flowers, Ramblings by Robin Scanlon, Gardening in the Lines, and The Make Shoppe. Here are a few photos of Bengal Orange. Oh, and since pretty Penny was keeping me company while I planted it, I had to include a picture of her too.

96 and Going to Havana

Posted on 06/19/2012 by Laurie

Officially, the high in Manhattan (Kansas) yesterday was 96 degrees F; but the official temperature is taken at the airport outside of town, and is always lower than what you’ll find recorded on any thermometer in town. According to ours, it was 101. Downtown, we experience heat reflected off streets and buildings and generated by equipment. In fact, different neighborhoods, even different properties can seem to have their own miniature climate zones. The back yard of the house on the corner near us, for example, is always a few degrees warmer than ours because it receives more reflected heat from the brick of Seven Dolors Church.

With the hot summer temperatures – though not as hot as they are likely to get later in the summer – one of our return guests surprised us yesterday with a bottle of Cuban Havana Club rum. When someone shows up at your door with such a gift, and it is so very hot, what can you do but make Havanas, sit on the front porch, and relax?

Havana

recipe from The Art of The Bar: Cocktails Inspired by the Classics, by Jeff Hollinger & Rob Schwartz

1 1/2 oz. Gosling’s rum

3/4 oz. Cointreau

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice

Splash fresh orange juice

Dash of Orange bitters

Edible Flower for garnish

Line the rim of a cocktail glass with sugar. Combine ingredients in an ice-filled cocktail shaker, shake, and then strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with flower.

(As you can tell from my photos, I was too tired yesterday to strain the cocktails, but I enjoy the pulp from the fresh fruit anyway … and it was so hot, we really wanted ice. And obviously, we substituted rums.)

Hydrangeas Living on the Edge

Posted on 06/17/2012 by Laurie

At the edge of our next door neighbor’s property, just touching ours, are two hydrangeas. Jean – a previous owner of that property and the woman who planted these bushes – told me that they are Nikko Blues.* To show their intended color, Nikko Blues require applications of acidic fertilizer when they are grown in alkaline soils such as we have in Kansas. Unless the ph of the soil is lowered, the color of Nikko Blues is unstable, ranging all the way over to dark pink. No one fertilizes the bushes next door anymore. Nevertheless, they have a beauty of their own. Unlike their showy true blue relations, these are subtle and sweet-looking, blooming away in the shade. The photos below are ones that I took yesterday. They are all of flower clusters on the same bush.

* To be honest, I am not certain that these are Nikko Blue Hydrangea bushes, though I am inclined to trust Jean. I have been reading up on the subject on hydrangea identification and am thoroughly confused. These are most definitely not Oakleaf, Lacecap or Annabelle Hydrangeas – which leaves Mopheads and Paniculatas. (Nikko Blues are Mopheads.) The leaf formation rules out the Paniculata family; but the flowers open white and then turn a pale pink or blue, which would seem to rule out the Mophead family. Plus they don’t seem to have a full “mophead” – though I suppose this could be due to growing conditions. If anyone has any thoughts on identifying these bushes, I would be happy to know them. We have 6 hydrangeas in our yard, but I don’t consider myself an expert hydrangeas at large. Whether Nikko Blues or something else, I am always happy to see these bushes in bloom.

Crape Myrtles After the Rain

Posted on 06/15/2012 by Laurie

Along with almost everything else in the garden this year, our Crape Myrtles have now started blooming about a month early. After the mild winter that we had in Kansas, the die-back on the Crape Myrtles was almost non-existent. Some years the die-back is quite severe and we have to cut the trees/bushes to the ground. We received 1.27″ of rain last night. This as made everyone happy, especially the farmers, as prior to that we had received only .01″ of precipitation this month. With the garden all wet this morning, I tried to get a couple of pictures. These are of are buds and blooms on Crape Myrtle “Royalty” – one of my favorite plantings.

Rosy-Fingered Dawn: Downtown Manhattan, Kansas 5:30 a.m.

Posted on 06/13/2012 by Laurie

A few weeks ago I posted sunset photos from a recent trip to the Adirondacks. That motivated me to try to get some sunset or sunrise photos from here in Manhattan. I took these pictures about one block away from the B & B, before making breakfast. It was a peaceful morning. My goal now is to get out to some different locations over the summer to get more photos from the bookends of the day. If you look carefully at the bottom two photos, you can see American flags lining Poyntz Avenue and in the window of the mall at the end of the street. The city has put these out in preparation for the 4th of July.

It is going to be a lovely day!

Photos From Master Gardener Tour

Posted on 06/11/2012 by Laurie

Sunday was a busy day. Fortunately, I was able to make it to the local garden tour organized by Riley County (Kansas) Extension Master Gardeners. I was only able to visit three of the wonderful gardens before having to make it home to check-in guests, but I did get some nice photos that I hope you will enjoy! (By the way, if anyone has suggestions as to how to present the photos in my posts, I am open to advice. I had received some comments early on in my blog that my photos took too long to load. So I have been saving them as smaller files, but sometimes they appear a little grainy.)

Saturday Morning Farmers’ Market Photos

Posted on 06/09/2012 by Laurie

After we finished serving breakfast this morning, Nicole and I headed out to the downtown Manhattan Farmers Market. It is open on Saturdays and is only about 4 blocks from The Morning Star. I made sure to remember my camera this time. Enjoy the photos! (In my next post, I’ll share the recipe for what I made when I got home.)

K-State Gardens

Posted on 06/07/2012 by Laurie

As part of my resolution to experience more of what Manhattan has to offer, I recently attended a gala at Kansas State University Gardens. It was a wonderful evening. The theme was Three Coins in the Fountain to celebrate the installation of a second fountain in the gardens. Unfortunately, I didn’t bring my camera that night, but that just gave me extra reason to go back! The gardens are just over 2 miles from The Morning Star. I hope that you enjoy my photos. (Since the completion of the gardens is still “in progress”, I’ll certainly have more in the future.)

Mystery Blooms in the Garden

Posted on 06/06/2012 by Laurie

As I recently learned from Redneck Rosarian, June is National Rose Month … a perfect excuse to once again write about roses.

I have several ground cover roses in my garden. When I purchased them at least 8 years ago, they were labelled “Red”. In truth, they are more of a magenta. Anyhow, I am quite fond of them. They bloom from mid-Spring through Autumn and add a lot of color to the landscape … and they have proven hardy in Kansas. Now here is my mystery. A few weeks ago, one of the bushes, at the end of one branch, started producing clusters of pale pink roses. At first I thought that I was seeing an errant limb from Flower Carpet Pink, but both the form of the flower and the color were wrong to belong to that other rose. Upon closer examination, I could see that the pale pink blooms were definitely coming from the magenta ground cover rose bush. The flowers on the rest of the branch matched the rest of the bush. What has happened to cause this mutation? Will there be more mismatched roses? Nature is full of mysteries. Fortunately, this is a fun one.