Once In A Blue Moon Dinner

Tonight, to celebrate the "Blue Moon", we ate a late dinner out in the cutting garden.  A blue moon is a rare phenomenon when there are two full moons in one calendar month.  Mr. Pressed Pants and I were married on a blue moon evening, so we always celebrate whenever this occurs.  After tonight, there won't be another blue moon until 2018!

 

Come on into the garden with me.

Of course, the table must be blue tonight!

This is pretty simple, but it is just the two of us and it's a very casual meal.

I put a white burlap tablecloth from Ballards over the collapsible table that I keep in the potting shed.  Then I layered this blue and white cloth from Crate and Barrel over that.  The rattan chargers are from World Market, and the blue handled flatware is too old to have a provenance.  These hand painted plates are made by Mesa in Porgugal and I love the way they echo the checks in the tablecloth.

These clear goblets came from Bed, Bath, and Beyond years ago, and I used these footed blue goblets as wine glasses.  They are not at all precious, and pretty sturdy, so I don't hesitate to take them to the garden.

These blue and white barley twist candlesticks are also from Portugal.

Here's what the white roses from Whole Foods looked like when I took them out to the potting shed.

I cut some hosta and some ferns and tucked them in and it made a world of difference.

Here's the arrangement on the table.

This French pot is the perfect size.  I use it a lot.

The "matching" bowl will hold salad tonight to go with pasta primavera.  The stripes are a counterpoint to the checks.

A simple white napkin from the Palm restaurant line of linens separates the charger from the plate.

Here's the tray that brought the dishes out from the house.  Isn't it pretty?  I gave it to my mom years ago, but when we sold her house and she went to an assisted living facility in June, I took it back.  I knew I would love using it.  

It was a beautiful evening.

The effort to get the stuff back and forth is worth it.  Every meal in the garden seems to make a memory.

The light wasn't the best to photograph, but you get the idea.

Here's a different angle, over the paddock area and down the driveway to the road.

I keep several sets of pillows in the potting shed and these blue and white ikat ones were perfect for this dinner.

The potting shed is one of the reasons I fell in love with this house.  You can take a tour of it here.

I can't pass up an opprtunity to style a surface!

The Limelight hydrangeas are white this year.  They have been more green in past years.

Can you see that we need to paint the board that was replaced early this spring?

The fence could use a date with a paint brush, too.

We're now awaiting the appearance of the moon tonight.  I naively thought that it would be blue, but our meteorologist says not necessarily.  We'll see!

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Ants at the Picnic

I've been wanting to do this table for a long time.  I love the combo of red/white gingham and ants, but I find a lot of  this type of collection rather cheezy.  Can you imagine my glee when I found this set of linens at the floral wholesaler in early spring?

I've been dying to bring it out to the cutting garden and set it up on the dining platform.

Look at this closely.  It's a polyester dupioni tan and black and white plaid edged with red and white gingham embroidered with ants.  Perfect!  Unusual, and whimsical but not too trite.  I put it over a cream burlap table skirt on our unfinished dining table that I keep in the potting shed.  You can see that here.

I bought four embroidered napkins to go with the topper.

The dish combination was easy.  Cream dinner plate from Pottery Barn, black salad plate from Target, and a red bowl from Ballard Design.

Then I chose this black handled flatware.  I think it came from Target, too.

I easily decided on these vintage red stems.

And I had a bit of fun with the Fiesta-style butter pat.  These ants are tablecloth weights from Michael's, but I unscrewed and removed the clips.

I went to several nurseries for red geraniums, but they were all out.  It's too late in the season for much planting here.  I toyed with the idea of red roses but they seemed way too fancy.  Carnations were considered, too, but I really wanted geraniums.  So, I bought a faux spray at Michael's and stuck it in this heavy black iron urn.

Here's the overhead of the whole table for four.

This dappled sun wasn't the best for pictures, but it really was charming.  I removed the chairs to take better pictures.  They were on the pathway past the gardenia bush.

The only bugs welcome here are those darling little embroidered ones.  They make me smile.

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Garden Club Party III

I'm making a few changes, but if this post looks familiar, most of these pictures were posted a few weeks ago when my garden club came.  Some things are done by now, and some things are blooming that weren't quite ready then, but there's not enough difference to re-shoot and re-post.  I'm excited to see everyone else's entries to Alison's Favorites On the First party at The Polohouse.  This month's theme is "Share Your Garden".  Thanks, Alison!  Your beautiful blog will always be one of my favorites.

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Jennifer Rizzo's

Garden Tour Linky Party

Here's my entry!!!

This week, my garden club came to my house for lunch.  I offered anyone who was interested to go into the cutting garden and see how it was coming for the season.  (I also asked for any suggestions they might have.)    I thought you might like to see what they saw on their tour.  Here's the pathway, with the stones newly cemented into place.  For over a year, we had the base of crushed granite and sand, but they were only placed on top.  Mr. Pressed Pants and I had a little difference of opinion on the next step, so we had a Mexican stand-off.

Getting a little closer.  Do you see the five knock-out roses on the outside of the fence?  No???  THAT'S BECAUSE THE DANG DEER HAVE EATEN THEM!!!!!  Yes they ate the roses.

I just love this rusty old gate.  We usually have to keep it closed with a bungee cord to keep the dang deer out.  Yep!  They actually open it with their noses and stroll in.  They are still known to jump the fence, but at least it is a bit of a deterrent. (You may notice that the term "dang deer" is used as one word around here.)

Ok, I'm done with my rant and now you are right inside the gate.  Notice that the hydrangeas are just starting to bloom.  Yea!  I love them.

Here's the sitting area without the cushions.  Because we irrigate the garden with overhead sprinklers, we keep the cushions in the potting shed so they don't stay wet.  We designed this sitting area to hold four chairs and a round table if we want to dine out here.  I keep the table in the potting shed.  

Now I have the cushions out.  I chose to use the blue ones today.  I seem to have a wardrobe of choices.  Do you remember the Ikat fabric on these pillows?  I used it for a tablecloth here.

Here's the other side.

I've used this zinc barrel for an end table here and planted succulents for it.  There is some difference of opinion in blogland whether this is a French laundry tub or English. Care to chime in?

This table is interesting and I've used succulents here too.  I hope they don't get too much water from the overhead sprinklers.  The rock is kept here because it seems I always need to weigh down a stack of napkins.

This is the orange part of the garden, and it's mostly annuals like zinnias and dalhias, so they are not too far along.

The begonias that line the walkway are doing pretty well, and the pink zinnia in the corner is very happy.  Hosta line the walkway on the other side.

This is the Wms. Sonoma fire pit that I gave Mr. Pressed Pants for Fathers' Day one year.  I don't plant too close to it, because thing would get trampled when adding logs, or roasting marshmallows.  :-) 

You can see the yellow hibiscus here, a hard color to find.  The peonies are across the pathway and they are much more vibrant than they photograph here.

The yellow roses are blooming their heads off and the lower plants are blue balloon flowers that have not quite bloomed.

This is my newest peony.  Isn't it pretty?

You can just see the pink bleeding heart here with yellow tickweed across the path.

No, we don't have to leave yet....I just wanted to show you the hosta and the way I've planted around the forsythia and bottle brush plants.

And in one shady corner, I've just recently added these ferns and planted white/green caladiums in front.  That little speck of lime green on the right is a lady's mantle that I've moved around for years and it is never happy anywhere I put it.  Any thoughts?

I did open the potting shed for anyone to take a peek.  

I clipped a few ferns and hosta and ligustrum for the wicker bottle holder.

You can get a complete tour of the potting shed here.

Are you warm?  Help yourself to some water and, as they say in the South, "sit a spell".

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