Our Golden Mist Home and Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold

 It is the BEST time of the year for our Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold...

Saturday morning April 15 with full sunshine! 

Benjamin Moore Golden Mist paint for our home with the Interlock Metal Roofing in aged copper slate and Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold to the right of our home.

Yep, the golden oak had a lot to do with the paint color... 😉

Lots of pot plants on our patio.

Here you can see the entire Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold

Sure it will even be more golden in the next week or so, see links below for the 'perfect' view.

Yes, our Eastern Phoebe is residing once again on the very same nest (we left it there as I'd read they return to their previous nest!) and has babies.

Last year's nest and you can see their beaks up—ready for Mom or Dad to bring them food.

They love their romantic surroundings by Vintage Woodworks...

This morning I captured the babies and we are not quite sure if there are 3 or 4 in the nest...

Pieter did purchase this beauty for becoming a potplant for our patio.

White Dipladenia it is called.

Dipladenia is in the Mandevilla family but it is a bushier plant whose stems grow down and hang.

This photo I made this morning to give a view of the bay window area and even you see the gazebo on the left.

There are lots of leaves blown off the Southern Magnolia tree...

Yes, on Friday, around 1:00 PM we had torrential rain + wind!

With our Benjamin Moore Golden Mist paint color, we of course had to have yellow pansies...

The same planter on the left is filling in as those got planted somewhat later.

A detail with some rain drops from yesterday...

Related links:

{Our Home with Aluminum Interlock Roofing and Benjamin Moore Golden Mist Exterior} | previous post by me

Our Home Freshly Painted | previous post by me

{# 1111 - Our Golden Live Oak 'Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold' changing color} | previous post by me

Eastern Phoebe Reside in Front Porch with Babies | previous post by me

Our Garden in May

 May is still a pleasant month here in the South; not yet too hot and plants and shrubs thrive.

Our Yucca lily is putting on a show again...

Yucca lily is a happy potplant and rewarding us annually with blooms!

So are our loyal Oxalis!

Snapdragons are quite happy and perform if they get plenty of water...

Happy yellow!

Oakleaf hydrangea or Hydrangea quercifolia.

Oakleaf hydrangea with Rose Arbor and Gazebo...

The bumble bee that flew around did not want to pose for me...

Yes, our kitties live in Paradise.

Lounging here under the Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold, left is Tiggy–Tiger and her brother Spooky to the right of her.

Palm tree is doing well and our fragrant Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno' is blooming.

On May 19, Pieter made this photo of a bloom of our fragrant Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno' and it measures 26  cm or 10.5 inches in diameter!

And it is double, two layers of petals.

Happy kitties lounging after supper!

Still sunshine around 18:00 o'clock and I love the shadow of the palm tree on the garage door.

The driveway is very warm from the sun and Spunky girl is stretched out, her brother Spooky in the grass...

Gazebo visible in the back and a tiny greenhouse in the distance to the right of it.

This is from the front, as I walked around our property and on the wood trail.

My first exercise on May 17, after my severe mid–back arthritis pain...

When I opened the repurposed mailbox (bird house now!) in the wood garden, the Carolina Wren flew out and I saw that she had now Baby Birds!

Read more in my previous post with photo of nest with eggs→: Husband Pieter Finished Restoration Work on our Bridges on Wood Trail

So glad that Pieter timely did remove the white egg, the brood parasitic bird one, just before they hatched, without disturbing her! 

Did not want to leave it opened too long, nor disturb the 3 Baby Birds; two beaks are clearly visible here.

Do you have birds nesting in your garden and/or around the house?

Related links:

Variegated Yucca Lily Blooming | previous post by me

213 Countries Visited - Welcome Sint Maarten and my Pinterest + Yucca Lily | previous post by me

Husband Pieter Finished Restoration Work on our Bridges on Wood Trail

When we purchased our lot in 1990, both of us were still 'young' enough to handle its size.

Over the years, as we both age and decline in health; it has proven to be more than big enough!

BUT we still take pride in our Estate:

Photo taken on May 3 and our lawn is nice green again.

This is the bridge closest to the road where Pieter used vinyl picket fence parts, that got damaged from the tree cutting.

Our center bridge restored and wood treated.

Our 3rd bridge that Pieter managed to complete on April 30.

Yes on the day that we had his Birthday dinner in the evening...

Just walked over JIT = Just In Time before it was DONE.

Yep, a 93 year old + 1 day...

Okay, let me take you back into the wood garden after the tree crew cut down several ugly ones or those that were not so healthy.

We let them decompose naturally and it will take but a couple of years.

This was on March 23, just for the oversight of our wood trail.

The trail makes a kind of |_|_| through our wood garden, towards all 3 bridges.

The creek is very calm here and it is forever changing over the years.

We look towards the road, standing on the 3rd bridge and you see the center bridge and the one closest to the road with the vinyl picket fence.

Now looking towards the house and gazebo...

Also on March 23.

On April 30, our Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold was once more at its best.

Each spring the new leaves are golden.

Yes, even live oaks do shed their leaves and renew in the spring!

Our palm trees are growing fast and to the right you see the White Oak towering tall over the more compact Grand View Gold.

Such a perfect day with blue sky and here, you see the Grandview Gold seen from the front.

On May 3, we walked the Wood Trail over the bridge closest to the road and when we bend left, we come past a damaged mailbox that Pieter used for bird house, with a hole made in the pull down lid.

When I opened it, not knowing that it was occupied, a Carolina Wren flew out!

There are 4 eggs but a bit strange that there is one white one...?

Looks like a brood parasitic bird has been in action here.

In certain areas there are short bridges on the wood trail... This one is the first after passing the bird house.

Those are now all repaired and treated in order to preserve the wood.

There were initially ditches dug for letting the water flow down towards the creek, so here is another bridge for walking over.

One can tell that it has been quite windy on and off and blossoms fall from trees down.

And the next one, passing over a former ditch or area where it can be wet in winter time.

This section used to be wet and had a bridge but Pieter is not replacing this one as there is no longer a need for.

A short section.

And now were coming almost out of the woods.

Our gazebo is visible and to the left our house.

But 3 days later, on May 6, this happened in that corner at our neighbor's yard!

We were for 7 hours without power as there were lots of trees down in our area and we had a lot of wind gusts, no tornado warning but a severe storm passed through.

Scary when you see such a giant being toppled!

We're grateful for having cut our weaker trees down early November last year.

Related link:

Bridge and Underbrush Clearing | previous post from January

Our Bridges a Constant Battle with Mother Nature | previous post by me

My Pieter Turned 93

 Yes, today is a very special day as my Pieter turned 93!

Thanks to a great Cardiologist and complete change of medications he lived beyond the grave message we received from our previous cardiologist; who actually neglected him.

Prayers also DO help!

Just to show you our ABUNDANCE of fresh flowers back then...

All varieties of Calla lilies and sweet smelling white Lathyrus.

I used all kind of Baccarat crystal vases for them, also Baccarat perfume bottles.

Below is a 1:33 minute short video from our vases with garden flowers on Pieter's 74th Birthday.

At 0:46 you see our white fragrant peonies.Immediately followed by pink roses in my Rose China with sprigs of Forget–Me–Not.A DREAM! We have no roses left, and if you see how many we had back then...Guess the competition of the now huge oak trees and others is way too fierce.And we miss the spent mushroom compost already for two decades!That was the very best from mushroom cultivation.

A Happy Pieter on his 81st Birthday on Dutch Queen's Day celebration in Atlanta.

This was good 4 months before his heart attack and open heart surgery on September 3. 2010.

Wearing my Escada suit that we saw while in Budapest but could not afford it then, at full boutique price.

Found it later on eBay.

Around Pieter's Birthday, our Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold is at its BEST.

One of our Palm Trees is right in front of it in this photo.

Sadly today was the funeral of the late Georgia Congressman, the Honorable J. Roy Rowland who had a special U.S. flag flown over the U.S. Capitol for both of us on December 30, 1993...

April 23, was Pieter's 29th Birthday as a United States Citizen!

Post shared on FB Page

Shared also on my FB...Pieter had a very special and happy Birthday!

Related link:Our Garden at the Time we had Access to Spent Mushroom Compost | previous post by me with video from Middle Georgia Magazine{1993 Today, the American Flag was flown for both of us...} | previous post by me 

UPS 2nd Day Air Delivery from Louisiana Nursery + Fight against Tuberous Roots of Greenbrier!

We  found very special trees and shrubs in Louisiana from Albert, Dalton, Ken and Belle Durio in Opelousas, Louisiana.

Louisiana Nursery 

We got the largest size available, five gallon pots, for getting a good start of an established shrub or tree.This is where our special Magnolia Namnetense came from and our beloved Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold.Again, I've built in clickable points with English information as we always talked to Mom & Dad to whom we mailed these videos in The Netherlands.

Their Catalog of MAGNOLIAS and OTHER GARDEN ARISTOCRATS, has been the most impressive and comprehensive one, we ever saw...

Love their quote: FOR THOSE WHO KNOW THE ECONOMY OF QUALITY

We sure treasure their special Magnolia (see post below) and their Golden Live Oak (see also below).

At the end of the video Pieter mentions the mean thorns on those Greenbrier, standing backwards. ←click link for seeing such a thorn.

Related links:{Digging up Huge Indian Hawthorn and More...} | previous post where Pieter also dug up tuberous roots of Smilax (Greenbrier){Our Fragrant Magnolia Grandiflora 'Namnetensis Flore Pleno'} | previous post by me{# 1111 - Our Golden Live Oak 'Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold' changing color} | previous post by me

One More Patio Added

In the spring of 2014, I've written the post: Our Patio Tiles Are DONE! (see link below post...) and that was it we thought. All part of our Water Control program. We did leave out ONE corner without tiles because we still had our healthy Hibiscus syriacus Jeanne D'Arc living there. See a post from a healthy shrub in 2011. 

BUT... our Hibiscus started looking bad and husband Pieter took starters last year, in order to rescue at least some 'Offspring'...

Meanwhile, with the photos of the tile boxes and all info, in front of me from the post about: Our Patio Tiles & Freeze Warning, I found them on the Internet! Home Depot had long discontinued them...

Yep, at a STOVER'S LIQUIDATION warehouse in Knoxville, Tennessee at some 7 hours driving distance from our home. They even were open on Sunday! So I drove there on June 11 of 2017, to pick up our order of 10 boxes with the Marazzi Orizzonti Sunset 12" x 12" tiles. 

We'd spent a night at a Hyatt hotel in Atlanta and from the warehouse I did drive straight home.

Photo is from April 26 after our pot plants had been moved back from the greenhouse and after all patios had been scrubbed clean to match this NEW one!

This is on March 10, a day that it was not 'wet'... We have had our share of rain this spring! 

Materials are inside front porch for protection.

Concrete is being poured by hand...

Our workers did a neat job!

See how green the wood work in our front porch was from all the rain and pollen...

That has been scrubbed clean too.

The old wheelbarrow functioned for mixing the concrete.

April 26 from the bay window area to the front with all our pot plants already out.

There are dwarf Mondo grasses growing along the edging.

New Patio Corner where the Hibiscus syriacus Jeanne D'Arc once stood...

Left and right are now both tiled and looking a lot better!

May 20 and you can see that husband Pieter took this photo in-between showers.

We have had such enormous rain for weeks on end and more to come!

Our Quercus Virginiana Grand View Gold is therefore not looking its GOLDEN BEST...

Sunshine makes all the difference!

We also missed good photo options for the blooming Yucca lilies... They're all gone due to so much rain.

Hope you enjoyed this update!

Will visit you within a couple of days, have been rather sick but am on the mend.

Thanks for your visit and comment.

{Our Patio Tiles Are DONE!} | previous post by me
{Our Patio Tiles & Freeze Warning} | previous post by me where you see the tile boxes and name info
{Our Hibiscus syriacus Jeanne D'Arc & Our Life in Italy} | previous post by me