{Our Wooden Stirrups from Chile}

From the country where we received our Matrimonial Blessings (read: {Miracle in Chile - the country where we both got married}) we did bring home these wooden Chilean Stirrups. A small and a large one. The Chilean Horse is America's oldest Cow-horse.

More pictures from our honeymoon in Chile you can also see at: {Angels engraved on lucky calender coin of 1969}. But now, let's talk about the Chilean horse. Initially, the rural Native American population of Chile rode bareback. But even today, the horse is used extensively as a means of transportation in the rural areas where we got married. That was in the southern tip of Chile. A long, narrow country with immense beauty. As most of you already know from María Cecilia's extraordinary blog: Casa Dulce Hogar. We both LOVE her country and that for several reasons.

The Chilean stirrup was made of solid wood and by the 18th century, the trunk stirrup took on more of a Persian slipper shape. The later style had lots of influences from the Jesuits and you can read more about that at: The Chilean Horse. The two stirrups I show you here, are on the steps of our gazebo in daylight.

Like all the Chilean stirrups of the past 300 years, they continue to be artistically decorated with beautiful hand-carved baroque patterns that have no equal in the equine tack world. During the 200th birthday of the Republic of Chile, Bicentenario en Chile - 200 años de vida republicana. in María Cecilia's blog, you can see them still being worn on the horses! It's the 3rd photo, just click on hyperlink.

On yet another blog of María Cecilia you can see some real old wooden stirrups: La Casa y el taller de Coca en el Sur de Chile in a photo taken on her trip to the south of Chile, where we got married. By train it took us 15 hours from Santiago, the capital where María Cecilia lives! It is a very long country and till Patagonia you need to cover quite some more distance!

The groove where the metal part would be, you can see here at: Casa Dulce Hogar where María Cecilia shows how a complete one looks like. Also visible on the hyperlink above with more information on the stirrups.

This is how we saw the patients come to the little clinic of Mission Cuinco/Osorno in Chile, wearing such wooden stirrups.

So much about the Chilean cowboy's wooden stirrups...

{LOOK we got some Wakaebisu Satsuki Azaleas blooming!}

On May 4, I did write about our {Satsuki Azaleas Wakaebisu in Front of Our Home} ←(click it) that succumbed to the drought; last photos shown. BUT mother nature is strong and in our wood garden, Pieter did photograph these perfect blossoms from two shrubs, that came from the front of our home. Look how pretty these were on May 11th! It makes one happy to see their beauty. Lucky transplants that survived and blossomed. The climate in our wood garden is quite some degrees lower than out in the open under the scorching sun.

So glad to share these with you!

{Our Fiberglass Window Boxes & Double Cascade Pink Petunias}

In February 1996 we got our Fiberglass Window Boxes from Flower Framers of Cincinnati ←(click it) in Cincinatti, OH. We got the 8 Ft length for our retainer wall alongside the driveway. The kitchen bay window had 5 Ft and 3 Ft boxes. Our bay window area and veranda we completed in 1997. On April 15 of last year I did a post about our Fiberglass Window Boxes, ←just click on the hyperlink to go there. As we started off with some white petunias and white pansies, we went into verbenas. Till we lost those, due to drought while we were traveling... On the retainer wall, alongside the driveway we still have those verbenas. But last year we both fell in love with the Double Cascade Pink Petunias from Walmart! Look at my Halloween blog ←(click it) where they still were blooming proudly. Guess what? Pieter did take some cuttings and we had them all winter in our green house and TA-DA...

Home grown Double Cascade Pink Petunias and they do so well in our heat during summer! 

This is in 1997 when our veranda windows got their 7 Ft Fiberglass White Window Boxes. 

The quality of those boxes is excellent; we have them now for 14 and 15 years. They are not cheap, but per season they are, over time! 

These are the 3 largest 8 Ft long Fiberglass Window Boxes on the driveway and till today we still have pink verbenas in them. If we loose some through drought, the greenhouse provides a great environment for growing new ones from cuttings. After all, we both are the son and daughter of a market gardener...

 These are the 7 Ft, 5 Ft and 3 Ft length White Fiberglass Window Boxes.

White petunias on the kitchen bay window (one of three windows).

The veranda with a 7 Ft long White Fiberglass Window Box.

The kitchen bay window with its 5 Ft and 3 Ft White Fiberglass Window Boxes.

These are the double cascade pink petunias from last year from which we got the cuttings.

Last year...

Healthy in October and good for yielding cuttings!

This was on May 10, at 9:30 AM in the morning and what do you think of our own crop?
The bright sunlight makes the photo kind of harsh...

Double Cascade Pink Petunia in all its glory!
Market Gardener's blood...