it's about time

Hello! I can't believe it's been two months since I've posted. Not sure what the future holds for my blog. I haven't had much of a desire to keep up with it. It's so much easier to post on IG. If you don't already follow me there, please send me a follow request (my page is on private) at melaniescomfyhouse. 

I think May is my favorite month of the year. Spring finally and truly makes an appearance here. Planting begins, weddings, graduations and barbeques are in full swing, shorts and t-shirts come out of storage, dining al fresco becomes a thing again, windows are open for the beautiful cool breezes, and there's usually a nice mixture of sunshine and rain in May ~ without the extreme humidity that we get in the summer. Though this year, we've had more than enough rain this month. Lots of thunderstorms and even a tornado warning the other night.

I've made my annual trek to my two favorite garden centers and got my big pots planted. Of course, they'll look much better when they fill out. I did this same planting last year: begonias, rosemary and a trailing vine. By August, this should be huge and lush, with vines trailing down the sides of the planter.

This is my first time planting the colorful annual, mimulus ~ also known as monkey flower. The licorine plant vine is also new to me.

Another new-to-me annual that I fell in love with with I saw it: Iresine, or Blood Leaf. It's native to Brazil. Love the bold color and shape of the leaves. 

We don't have enough sun on our small piece of property to plant a veggie garden, so we plant a few things in pots: tomatoes, red onion, purple bell pepper.

My butterfly garden is mostly green right now; just the Columbine is in bloom.

If you're in the US, I hope you enjoyed your long holiday weekend. (Thank you to those who served and sacrificed their lives for our country.) We attended a retirement party; I spent time with friends; and another day we spent the day in Wisconsin. We discovered an amazing garden center (Bluemel's) with an attached coffee shop. I was in heaven! The dome is from an old high school.

Inside of the dome still has the high school kid's signatures.

The inside of the coffee shop is welcoming and charming, but best of all was the coffee. They serve Colectivo ~ one of my favorites. (I admit: I'm a coffee snob.) Colectivo is Milwaukee based, but they now have locations in the Chicago area. 

There's a huge, covered patio between the coffee shop and garden center, so we took our drinks and sat out on the patio for awhile. 

Then we took a walk around the garden center. These are some of the annuals and hanging baskets I admired...

I came home with this gorgeous hanging plant ~ Thunbergia. Love the vines and the delicate pink flowers.

After we were done at the garden center, we headed to the charming town of Cedarburg. Spent the rest of the day walking around and popping into various shops, having lunch at one of our favorite spots in this town, and basically just enjoying the perfectly beautiful day. 

Lastly, on a totally different subject: a kitty update! Remember Blanco, the feral? He's still around and comes most every day for food. Poor thing currently has beat-up ears. I have tried several times in the past couple of years to trap him for TNR (Trap, Neuter, Release), to no avail. And now the trap I have borrowed from a friend is defective. A cat can squeeze through an opening in the front of the cage. Not sure where I can buy a trap; perhaps a farm supply store. It's on my to-do list. By the way, I am not this close to Blanco in this photo. This is taken through the glass of my screen door. He still won't let me within at least six feet of him.

And my sweet Clementine...she is still unbelievably very much with us! She's around 15 years old now and in stage 4 kidney disease. She also has hyperthyroidism. When she was nine years old and first diagnosed with kidney disease, the vet told me she'd probably only live about another 1-1/2 years. And then in 2022 when she lost an upper fang, the vet dentist said that without surgery (all her other teeth are bad, too - very common in cats, especially as they age), she'd get a massive infection where the fang used to be and that she'd only live another few weeks to a few months. But the thing was, it'd be extremely risky for her to have the surgery, because her heart might've not been strong enough. Not to mention, they estimated the dental surgery would be about $3000. Welp...over two years later with no dental surgery, she's doing just fine.

For those of you still following me here and leaving comments and sending me emails, thank you for hanging in there with me. 💖