Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity, and a marvelous freedom from the tumult of the world.
–St. Aelred
Everywhere Peace . . .
Love Those "Hands at Home"
Celebrating the Human Touch
Love Those "Hands at Home" 
And I am sure the bumblebees would have no argument with that statement. Gorgeous.
Thanks, Gallivanta! I think we do have more bees this year–I’m so happy to see them!
I love the photo of the bee that is all covered in pollen.
Lovely garden.
Thanks!
“Postcard perfect”!!!!! Happy Monday morning!!!!!
Thank you! Sunshine and flowers do help on a Monday, don’t they?
Absolutely…..especially if it’s foggy/cloudy and chilly!!!!
it looks like one of those morning walks in your garden when it is absolutely quiet in your head and all is beauty and joy. Lovely!
I do tend to do a “walk around” in the early morning, to see the flowers and to kill Japanese beetles! They just seem to love my hollyhocks so they must die.
Beautiful flowers and a wonderful way to start the week 🙂
Of course, I only showed you the prettiest ones! 😉
Gorgeous. I imagine this is your garden?
It is my garden but only the pretty bits. 😉 I didn’t show you quite everything.
Quite right too!
May I come live in your garden this summer?
Are you good at weeding and murdering Japanese beetles? If so, come on along!
Love hollyhocks. Almost as much as foxgloves. Old cottage garden flowers are so beautiful.
I cannot get foxglove to grow for me! It makes me sad but the hollyhocks always cheer me up!
Its so odd when that happens. We have tried growing artichokes mainly for their architectural qualities but they just give up the ghost on us every time!
Beautiful flowers and great photos. But you and I both know that flowers like these don’t just appear….a well tended garden takes time and work. And even though that work might be enjoyable, it’s still work!
It is hard work! And, of course, I also take photos selectively–some of the hollyhocks have been ravaged by Japanese beetles (it’s as if they know how high I can reach and stay just above that!) and I’m always behind on weeding! But blogging is all about accentuating the positive, right?
Right, accentuating the positive is the thing! I have more Japanese beetles this year than normal and I don’t know why. I hate them!
Probably one of your neighbors put up a trap. The traps do trap the beetles but they also seem to entice beetles into the area. So, for every one in the trap, there might be many more flying around.
Your photography is absolutely stunning. Really, I can’t think of anything else to say (for once). Gorgeous, gorgeous, pictures. More please!
Thanks! It’s fun to have people to show the photos to. Too bad I couldn’t find all the colors in the rainbow like some people do!
You have a cottage garden? Just gorgeous! I love the quote and the photos do it justice. Enjoy, enjoy!!
Pauline, what, exactly, is the definition of a cottage garden? I read the phrase in British novels all the time and I’ve never really known what it meant. I love that quote, too, and have carried it around with me for ages because it sums up the feeling I want to have in my world.
Goodness, what a question to try and answer first thing in the morning with my coffee cup still half full, but I shall do my best 🙂
A cottage garden is typically a hodge-podge of informal plantings – many different types of flowers – annuals and self seeders are common – herbs and vegetables all mixed up together – companion planting is involved. It comes from the UK where small cottages abound and the residents took joy in cramming as much as possible into their small yards. The flowers in your photos are typical ‘cottage garden’ residents, allowed to grow where they seed and encouraged to leave no space unfilled. Does that describe your garden in any way?
That’s a great explanation! Some of that definitely applies to what I have going on–casual, lots of traditional, old-timey sorts of flowers, self-seeders highly encouraged! We probably have more space than the typical cottage garden (space–it’s an America thing, you know!), so the pictures represent flowers in different spots in a front and back yard. Thanks for taking the time to explain!
brilliant and all the flowers are so gorgeous-looking.. so luck to have a lovely garden like this.. thank you for showing.. love all them all.. the shots are very professionally taken. 😉
Thanks! Of course, I picked just the prettiest spots to photograph–like everyone, I have spots that are pretty sad looking!
Those are great shots! I especially love the first one of the dragonfly. I was chasing these tiny blue dragonflies all over in Alaska trying to get a good shot but they were all blurry. You got the wings so perfect and crisp. Also, yay summer flowers! =)
I just got a new photo of a dragonfly yesterday that I like even better–the iridescence on its wings shows. But I took about 30 blurry ones to get one good one!
This is why summer is my favourite season..sigh! xxx
Summer has tons of eye candy!
Beautiful.
Thanks!
Wow, are these taking in your garden? Lots of pretty thing sgoing on there!
Yes, my garden! Lots pf pretty but also lots of weeds–they didn’t make it into the photo shoot!!
I love peace and serenity too. Thanks for sharing wonderful photos!!!
It’s easy to lose track of both in our busy lives!
I’m absurdly late in reading blog posts…but I wanted to say how much I enjoyed seeing your photos filled with sunshine and summer and gorgeous flowers! Today it is so cloudy and grey and cold here, I really needed a pick-me-up! 🙂
I actually went back and looked at those photos again after I read your comment–we’ve been having the same fall-like weather and I needed a pick-me-up, too!