Pressing On Toward the New, December 28, 2015

The New Year is looming, full of promise like the gorgeous full moon of Christmas.  A Christmas full moon occurred last in 1977, when Luke Skywalker was flying across the skies for the first time.   We saw him again in 3D, it was great seeing the original crew of the Millineum Falcon together again, older and wiser.  Chewie seemed to have hardly aged.

Today I am linking with-

Skywatch Friday hosted by Yogi, Sandy and Sylvia

Today's flowers hosted by Denise  success!

In a Vase on Monday hosted by Cathy

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura  success!

I hope all of you enjoyed some times of celebration with some family members or friends.  This is a memento of my Christmas season with my favorite idealized bird, the beautiful Cardinal.  This was taken last summer with one from my collection of variegated/striped roses, with some Arctostaphylos uva-ursi berries.

Some of my favorite ornaments are ones I made myself, with crochet-

I'm Scotch-Irish so I made a Celtic knot heart-

With needlepoint, the point of the Advent, the angels marveled to see the King of Heaven born as a babe to die.

From my early ceramic endeavors, a hand-built angel, edges rolled with a sea shell-

And one from a mold-

My Christmas cactus came through with some blooms, 

Here with a basket my #2 daughter made-

And here with some of my Charlie Brown collection-

A globe that casts a lovely glow-

 And finally, for my current In a Vase on Monday entry, answering hostess Cathy's challenge to find something in your garden to put in a vase on every Monday of the year, I am featuring some steely blue berries from Viburnum davidii, and a couple of sprigs of the silvery Archangel Lamium.   Here with a wood painting by daughter #2 in her homeschooling days, and a little cardinal and silver pine cone.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukah -Hannah.

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.   I enjoy reading your comments, and will visit your blog and leave comments there if possible, but I am not able to do so if google + is the only option.  I would like to return your visit so leave an URL to your blog or email address.

Rainy Days In a Vase on Monday December 7, 2015

Welcome to my blog, today I am linking with-

In a Vase on Monday hosted by Cathy

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

Today I am rising to Cathy's In a Vase on Monday challenge to find plant material in my garden, so I went out in the rain to gather a few sprigs of Lonicera nitida and Vinca major variegata, and found a couple of rose hips from Dublin Bay, a beautiful climbing red rose.  I combined them with a flower from one of my indoor Pelargonium geraniums in my favorite color that blooms all year.  I also used my iridescent chicken dish and a vase I made.

The chicken is happy to be in the mystical spotlight-

The geranium is a delightful peach-

But the camera also likes to make it pinker-

It's hard to have flowers blooming outside all year but indoors is easier.  I'm also making up for the fall/winter lull in the garden by planting little seeds under lights, I hope they will start sprouting soon.  Are you planting anything or making plans for next year's garden?   Hannah

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.   I enjoy reading your comments, and will visit your blog and leave comments there if possible, but I am not able to do so if google + is the only option.  If so, I would like to return your visit so leave an URL to your blog or an email address.

Thankful for Blessings November 30,2015 In a Vase on Monday

Welcome to my blog, this is my 300th post.  Today I am linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

In a Vase on Monday hosted by Cathy

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura, welcome back!

I had a nice Thanksgiving dinner with my son and daughter-in-law and 5 grandchildren on Thursday, she likes gourmet cooking and made so many tasty dishes and three kinds of pie- pumpkin, sugarfree lemon meringue, and chocolate pecan, all gluten-free and delicious.  Then Friday I had dinner at my house with my younger sister and her husband who is my husband's younger brother.  They didn't meet until 12 years after we had been married then had a whirlwind courtship and got married.;-)  My youngest daughter also came, and my son's family as well.  This was the lower calorie version of Thanksgiving with emphasis on broccoli, asparagus, baked squash and white and sweet potatoes; the kids had ice cream cones for dessert.  I made my sugar-free Roiboos tea gelatin and the kids had that too, but I forgot to put in the Stevia so they ended up sprinking some on top.  They are a great bunch of kids.

For my In a Vase on Monday, I am rising to the challenge with some dried material today.  One of my favorite self-sowing flowers is Lunaria, a biennial that makes silvery discs for seed pods, AKA Money Plant, this is it in bloom from earlier this year-

I also have the white version.  It is not as vigorous but has been self-sowing under a cedar tree for years.   An interesting thing I learned about Lunaria is that it is in the mustard family and is edible, it has a tuberous root and supposedly the seeds can be ground into a mustard but I haven't tried either.

Here is the large purple one for something from my garden for In a Vase on Monday, with the intact pods containing seeds, and dried elephant garlic seed heads.  The vase was made by my DIL but the glaze didn't work so was painted silver, and the vase is very heavy so great to hold up topheavy stems.  There is a boat painting, a silver pitcher, a ceramic piece I made that is the top of a garden sculpture, and a "frog" sculpture from my daughter's senior art project-

Close up showing seeds and elephant garlic flowers-

Frog Sculpture with linotypes sewn into paper sculptures-

Here is the same with the outer seed pod husks removed.   I have trouble rubbing off the husks so I bend the pod away from the stem then grasp the top by the stem and pull it off with less damage.  In these pictures I added garage sale silver items for my daughter and a little boat, sailing by the light of the silvery orbs.

Without flash-

I hope you had opportunity to get together with some family members and good food to spice up your life.  Perhaps other countries have different occasions for this.  -Hannah

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.   I enjoy reading your comments, and will visit your blog and leave comments there if possible, but I am not able to do so if google + is the only option.  I would like to return your visit so leave an URL to your blog or email address.

Frosty Weather Juncos, In a Vase on Monday, November 21, 2015

Welcome to my blog, today I am linking with-

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

I'd Rather B' Birdin' hosted by Hootin' Anni

In a Vase on Monday hosted by Cathy

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

The water on my deck was developing panes of ice so I brought in a few plants like the tropical milkweeds to try to overwinter them again, like last winter, I enjoyed the flowers they kept having all summer and until now.

Here is another of my winter resident birds, the Dark-Eyed Junco, Hyemalis montanus.

My vase for In a Vase on Monday, answering Cathy of Rambling in the Garden's challenge to find something to plonk in a vase to decorate our houses is having it's last hurrah of flowers from outdoors.  I rescued some Ageratum and purple Laura Bush petunias from the icy fingers of the frost, but I didn't cut the flowers from Camellia sasanqua 'Apple Blossom' until after the frost so they lived through it.  Hopefully the buds will still open.  I've never had so many blooms of Apple Blossom before.

And to continue the theme of family resemblances, the one that always struck me was my father's mother (FarMor) and my younger sister Carol, who inherited her moonpie round face.

Thanksgiving is a time for families to come together and commemorate good times.  Have a Happy Thanksgiving!    Hannah  

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved.   I enjoy reading your comments, and will visit your blog and leave comments there if possible, but I am not able to do so if google + is the only option.  I would like to return your visit so leave an URL to your blog or email address.

Autumn Leaves In a Vase on Monday November 15, 2015

 Welcome to my blog, today I am linking with-

Skywatch Friday hosted by Yogi, Sandy, and Sylvia

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's  Critters hosted by Eileen

I'd Rather B' Birdin' hosted by Hootin' Anni

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

In A Vase on Monday hosted by Cathy

Pine Siskins show up in groups to eat sunflower seeds-

This week for In a Vase on Monday, I was seized by some orange impulses, shown here with a Star Wars fighter made by one of my grandsons-

Join hostess Cathy in her challenge to find something in your garden to put in a vase for an enjoyable display.  With warmer lighting, the oranges come through a little more, featuring my orange Japanese cutleaf weeping Maple, rose hips and yellow leaves from a Rugosa rose, sprays from the tropical milkweed, Asclepias currassavica, sprigs from my Hypericum frondosum 'Sunburst' with fall colors, and a few leaves from my indoor Oxalis triangularis-

Here with a ceramic cup I fired for someone, and a cloisonee pendant-

And a close-up that shows the Oxalis leaves looking like purple butterflies, and salmon orange and yellow Hypericum leaves-

Fall is zipping by, and soon it will be Thanksgiving and Black Friday.  It looks like our weather should hold out until nearly Thanksgiving, at least.  I cooked one of my pink pumpkins, it had a wonderful fine texture and flavor more like a winter squash than the typical pumpkin.    I like to eat it with a sprinkling of cinnamon and cloves, and some butter, very yummy and simple.  What special dishes are you planning for Thanksgiving?     Hannah

C*Weeding On The Wild Side, all rights reserved.  I enjoy reading your comments and would like to return the visit and comment on your blog but may not be able to if google+ is the only option .