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. 💖

fast forward

Just eleven days ago on my blog, I was saying how cold and wet it was here and that spring was late. Guess I'd better be careful what I wish for: this week we fast-forwarded right to summer with temps in the 90's all week! Crazy Illinois...30's and 40's one week with the heat on, and the next week so hot that the AC is cranked.

I am not complaining about the heat, mind you. I love warm weather and sunshine. It's just that it's too early here for it to be so hot (we set some record temps for this time of year) and we totally skipped the 60's and 70's. BUT. We'll get those temps next week, so all is good.

Brian had the day off a couple of days ago and we hit three garden centers; two of which are my all-around favorites that I look forward to going to every spring. We're behind about two weeks because of the weather and now we have a ton of yard work and planting to do.

Aren't these hanging chenille plants cool? I didn't buy one but I'm thinking twice about it. I might go back and get one. I came home with a variety of herbs, daisies, coleus, lupine, and tomato and pepper plants.

At my other favorite garden center, I was hoping they had black and blue salvia. I bought it from the same garden center a couple of years ago, put it in a pot on my front porch, and it grew to be about two feet tall. The black and purple (don't know why it's called blue!) blossoms were so beautiful, almost iridescent. The blossoms attracted the hummingbirds and it was wonderful to be sitting on the porch and have the hummingbirds be right there.

I was in luck. They had my plants! We bought three of them and picked up another two for my friend who wanted some, too.

We worked in the yard for several hours that afternoon and yes, we were soaked with sweat as you can tell by Brian's shirt. You can see one of the salvia plants in a pot on the ground. That sidewalk area is going to be professionally landscaped next week. We desperately need some help! The landscapers will also be putting in yew bushes along the sloped area behind Brian, with small boulders in front of them. The area with the straw blanket had hostas in it, but they looked terrible there. Brian dug them out and seeded the area.

With this heat, everything has now exploded into bloom. Remember how the beginning of the movie, The Wizard of Oz is in sepia tones and then later explodes into color? That's what it's like here. 

I was driving down our street today and marveling at the canopy of green the entire way. When it's been seven months since you've seen that, you don't take it for granted.

Just two years ago, we planted three small ferns that a friend gave to us from his yard. This year, the ferns multiplied and spread wonderfully on the shady side of the house. I'll be planting the coleus in this area for color. Then we'll spread a fresh layer of mulch.

Not kidding, just a few days ago, this peony wasn't even halfway up the metal cage. Today it's towering over the top of the cage and has blossoms on it already. So amazing how fast it grows!

CLEMENTINE

My sweet girl, Clementine loves to join me on the porch in the mornings, but I have to stick right by her or she'll take off. 

She's still hanging in there with her kidney disease and her gums being swollen where she lost an upper fang in early February. The vet dentist had said it would only be a few weeks to a few months until the gums became infected (and then there'd be nothing we could do...and of course, we would not let her suffer, so we would have her euthanized at home)...but, so far so good with just inflammation and no infection. 

I know her health could take a turn for the worse any day now, so I give her all the attention and love I can. I pretty much have always done so, being an animal lover, but I think now I'm  more cognizant of the limited time I have with her.

Have a wonderful weekend! 💖

mid-may home doings

We've been deluged with rain again here in the Chicago area. Just like last year, there's localized flooding. My back yard has standing water in several places, but thank goodness our basement is dry. I much prefer the few sunny days we had before all this rain. 

Clementine loves to be outside with me. I sometimes let her out on the front porch and I stand right there and watch her, but after a few minutes, she tries to run away. I found this pet tent on Amazon and ordered it for her. This way she can be safely outside with me. The tent is six feet long, so a nice size. Not sure what she thinks about it though.

I haven't done much in the way of flowers yet this year since we're just now warming up, but so far, it looks like yellow is the predominant color theme. There's still sooo much yard work to be done and more plants and flowers to be purchased.

I'm sprucing up my patio furniture this year with new cushions. I ordered these blue Sunbrella cushions from Target. Love the color!

Now all I need are cushions for the backs of the seats. I picked out two sets of these colorful paisley cushions from Overstock. They have all the summer colors I love and will go perfectly with the blue Target cushions, the red wicker stand on the patio, the red vintage bench that sits nearby, and all the yellow flowers. (I also noticed how dingy this wicker settee is. Power washing is yet another thing on our outdoor to-do list.)

This past Saturday when it was warm and sunny, wet got a nice start on the yard work. We planted the coleus plants in-between all the hostas and ferns in this shady area on the north side of the house. The coleus is tiny right now, but I know from past experience that they fill out beautifully. I might buy a shepherd's hook with a hanging plant on it for this area for some height interest.

Hubby got the tomato plants planted in pots. He mixes potting soil with our own compost. I believe three of the plants are cherry and pear tomatoes (one or two yellow) and one is San Marzanos. We've never planted that kind of tomato before, so I'm excited to see if they grow well. If you are a cook, you probably know that San Marzanos are the best tomatoes.

More spring beauty from a walk around our neighborhood:

I believe both of these are crabapple trees...

An empty lot on the next block filled with blowy dandelions...when I was a kid, I loved to pick these, blow on the fluffy, white seeds and make a wish.

I haven't been doing a lot of baking because I would fill up on sugary goodies, and we all know that's not good for us. But my rhubarb was prolific, so I wanted to put it to good use. And nothing goes better with rhubarb than strawberries. I made a strawberry-rhubarb crisp last week and delivered some to a friend so that we wouldn't eat the whole thing. 😉 This past weekend, I made yummy strawberry rhubarb muffins. This recipe calls for vegetable oil, which I never use, as it's a toxic oil. Please substitute a good baking oil, such as avocado or coconut. If you'd like a streusel topping (and who wouldn't), I used the one found in this recipe. I noticed she has other strawberry rhubarb recipes on her site, too but I haven't tried any of them. 

I just looked at our 10-day weather forecast online and it looks like this Tuesday - Thursday will be the only days without rain or thunderstorms. Ugh! Looks like I won't get all my planting done until June.

Hope you all are keeping well and sane(ish).

xoxo

the start of may

The month of May is when spring really jumps into action here in Illinois. Inspired by my friend, Kari at A Gracefull Life who has been sharing beautiful photos of her walks on Instagram, I purposely noticed the beauty that surrounds me on my neighborhood walk today. I normally do pay attention to that stuff anyway; I'm always pulling out my phone to take pictures when I walk, but sometimes my same ol' neighborhood walk gets a little boring. Not today!

 Around my own yard, a few perennials that say SPRING to me are bleeding heart...

vinca...

and bishop's cap. All three have that delicate, romantic look about them.

This past weekend, the weather was sunny and warm, so I spent a lot of time on Sunday getting herbs and herb seeds planted in pots...

and more herbs such as basil, two varieties of thyme, and rosemary planted in the backyard herb garden. 

 I planted two pots of dahlias and sweet potato vines, too. I still have coleus and tomatoes to plant, but those are going to have to wait until it's warmer. We're in for another cold snap this weekend. Can you believe it's going down to 28 degrees Friday night? I've been bringing in my pots of flowers into the garage and covering my herbs with a sheet at night.

I had a helper while planting, too. Clementine loves to be outside, but I don't let her roam freely. She only gets to go on the front porch with me. If she starts to step off the porch, I bring her back into the house.  I ordered her a mesh cat tent on Amazon, but I haven't put it together yet. I'm hoping she likes it. She can stay safely in her tent on the porch when I'm outside, without me constantly having to guard her every move.

Speaking of cats, I ordered this art print online from Bed, Bath & Beyond and then got the frame on Amazon. Isn't it cute? Sorry the photo didn't turn out well; I kept getting glare from the plexiglass in the frame.

Here's what my big kitchen wall looks like now with the new print ~ and oh yes, two more plates around the gather here sign.

Here's an older photo I found when I only had two plates around the gather here sign. That sign seems rather sad nowadays though. No gathering around our table lately, except for Brian and I. 

Have a good weekend ~ stay safe and well!