Tag Archive for: August MGB

Two Beautiful Garden Bouquets and Ups and Downs…

This weekend has been an extreme roller-coaster of highs and lows.  

Mostly lows though…..

You know what makes a person feel better though?  A beautiful bouquet.  I would like to showcase two bouquets that were submitted for August’s Monthly Garden Bouquet.


I can’t wait to share them with you.

Beautiful Bouquet

Isn’t it lovely?

This bouquet was created by Marguerite who lives in Prince Edward Island.  She has a great blog called Canoe Corner.

She created her bouquet using flowers from her own garden.  She included one of my favorite flowers, Peonies, which unfortunately do not grow where I live.

The next bouquet is from David who lives and gardens in Texas.

Beautiful Bouquet

David has been a faithful contributor to the Monthly Garden Bouquet.  He always creates a monthly bouquet from his garden for his wife.

This one he named “Welcome Home” bouquet after she began working full-time.  

He made it out of Blue Daze, Serena Purple Angelonia, Yellow Musseanda, Luteola and Bergarten Sage.

David is a wonderful blogger and you can read more about his garden on his blog, Tropical Texana.

So, if you would like for your bouquet to be included next month, all you need to do is to send me a photo via email (link on my sidebar), or you can send me a link to your blog page.  You can also post on my facebook page if you like.

I will post it on the 20th of next month.

The only guideline is to create a bouquet using plants from your garden.

I can’t wait to see what you create 🙂

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The past few days have been emotionally exhausting.

My father-in-law, who is suffering from ALS, was taken to the hospital with pneumonia.

We have spent the past three days there with him and other family.  Yesterday, his breathing became even more labored and he is becoming increasingly dependent on a machine that assists his breathing (not a ventilator though).

It is hard to see him suffer so much from this disease.  He can no longer communicate beyond nodding “yes” or “no”.  Using his hands is no longer possible and he is almost completely wheelchair bound.

Today his lungs began to collapse due to his disease, but for now, the breathing machine is helping to keep them open.  

In the midst of all of this was a very joyful time.  You see, my daughter had a 4-D ultrasound where we could actually see the features of our new granddaughter’s face.  Even though she is not due for 10 more weeks, it was so wonderful to gaze upon her precious little face.

granddaughter's face

It was disconcerting to go from such sadness, to joy and back to sadness in a period of 2 hours as we left the hospital to go to the ultrasound and then back to the hospital.

We did bring the photos of the ultrasound to my father-in-law so that he could see his first great-grandchild.  He has been so excited about her.  We only hope that he will survive long enough to see her in person.

For now, we are living in a period of uncertainty.  No one knows how long he will live.  Will we get a call tonight?  Or, will it be a few more months?  No one knows.

What we do know is that there will be a precious little baby born in about 10 weeks.  It is that certainty and joy that is helping us through this difficult time 🙂

I hope you all have a wonderful week….

Monthly Garden Bouquet – August

Hello Everyone…..I hope you are all enjoying your summer so far.  My August has been quite busy and filled with kids back in school, preparing to teach a vegetable gardening class, planning my fall vegetable garden, a baby shower (more about that later), knitting class, baking and writing for a magazine.

But, I did venture out into the garden to create my Monthly Garden Bouquet and this is what I came up with….

Monthly Garden Bouquet

My ‘Rio Bravo’ Sage is in full bloom and I love the light fragrance of the lavender flowers.  I decided to add a cluster of Gold Lantana flowers since they have been blooming in my entryway for the past 6 months.  I love their bright colors.

Monthly Garden Bouquet

I must admit that I sometimes overlook my Lantana.  They do so well and are almost always blooming.  They require no fertilizer or special attention except for twice annual pruning.  I think gardeners tend to pay more attention to the plants that take more care,  and ignore those that work hard and look beautiful without much effort, don’t you?

Before I went out into the garden to create my bouquet, I searched for a suitable vase or container to place it in.  I have used the same containers more then once for previous MGB posts and was determined to find another one.  It was then I remembered a special vase that I bought on a visit to Ireland over 9 years ago.

Monthly Garden Bouquet

My vase pictures a farm cat and her kitten.  It is from the ‘Landscape’ collection from Nicholas Mosse Irish Pottery.  I have other pieces of the ‘Landscape’ collection and they are beautiful,  painted with farm animals, flowers, and much more. 

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If you would like to participate in August’s Monthly Garden Bouquet (and I hope you do), here are the guidelines.

1. MGB begins on the 21st of each month and runs until the end of each month. Bouquets can be submitted during this time (or even later 🙂

2. Create your own garden bouquet as fancy or simple as you like.

3. I would appreciate it if you would provide a link back to my post inside of your MGB post, but it is not required 🙂 

4. Add your link to Mr. Linky below and that’s it!

I cannot wait to see what bouquets you create from your August gardens.

Have a great week!