Love, Laughter, and Life

Adventures With a Book Lover

Sunday Thoughts

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History of the Garden Arbor

It’s fun to go back and look at pictures to see how things have changed over time. Our garden area is constantly changing.

The garden started with three simple garden beds placed in the pasture, which used to be mostly dirt and weeds. As you can see, it was already looking good with “greens” growing.

Frequent feathered guests foraged in the pasture and wide-open garden beds. Which transitioned into even more visitors, of the furry and voracious garden eating variety. The chickens were fine with me, but when bunnies ate down all of my plants, something had to be done.

My honey put a low fence around the whole lot. The main purpose was to keep the bunnies out. It worked great! Actually, the fence is so short, most of us can easily step over it. But the bunnies were befuddled and my plants could grow free.

And then. I found one of those old metal chain-link fence gates while visiting my buddy in Seattle. One of those “free yard sale” treasures! Guaranteed to make my honey whisk his eyebrows up when I drove into the yard with my little Mazda packed to the gills. Gate included. So, we added an easy access gate. By we, I mean him. 😉

And then. I really wanted an arbor. Over that awesome gate. We had this other piece of metal junk hanging in our shaded car park area. Just an old rusted metal grate of some sort. I think it was left on the property from the previous owner. And ta-dah! Instant unique arbor! Instant for me. A bit of hard work for my honey and Taylor.

I might add how HEAVY that thing is! And I am blessed to have 2 strong guys to let me come up these wild ideas and they make it happen. Oh, and it’s rusty. One of my favorite garden colors and textures.

My honey bought me a honeysuckle plant for Mother’s Day. You can see it above just starting out. Below, you can see I’ve been working on training it up. It’s nearly reached the top!

And here we are today. I just took this picture. It smells so good! Last week I stood and watched a hummingbird feast on the fragrant blooms, for so long that I wandered off before it did. That is my kind of garden.

Ahhhh. The garden continues to grow and change.

What about you? Any big changes in your garden or yard over the years? Any cool rusty items??


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Haiku Moment: autumn sun

orange beckons me

summer patience rewarded

autumn sun peeking

autumn sun by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley


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Haiku Moment: autumn tree

hide and seek pumpkin

twisting, vining, reaching out

autumn tree decor

autumn tree by Angie Quantrell

Sunday Thoughts

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Sunday Thoughts

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OH, THE THINGS YOU CAN DO WITH HAIKU! (+ WHO WON THE GIVEAWAY?)

Thank you, Danna Smith, for sharing all about haiku last week in a very special blog post. You can read it here. Danna has offered a giveaway of 2 (TWO!) of her Poetry Pop Journals! Wow!

But first. I had to play. I used the template Danna shared and penned a haiku comic. Sadly, you have to use your imagination to understand the drawings, and it was much harder to print small words than it looks! This is Monet, our cat. She loves the garden and watching moving things. I assure you, she is much prettier in real life.

In case you can’t read the print, here is my haiku comic:

Monet writes a haiku.

hot summer bees buzz

zig-zag garden rocket ships

orbiting flowers

Now that was fun! We would LOVE to read your haiku! Post one in the comments or tag us with #haikumoment so we can find you!

Drum roll, please.

The winner (with assistant Monet) of the Poetry Pop journals is:

It got a little dicey after this, because then Monet wanted to play a paper game.

Alyson, come on down! You are the winner of 2 Poetry Pop journals!

Thanks, everyone, for reading and participating in the fun. And thank you, Danna, for the word play fun and inspiration!

Now, let’s all go HAIKU!


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Sunday Thoughts

Photo by Angie Quantrell


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Haiku Moment: heart of sunflower

heart of sunflower

beams joy to avian friends,

buzzes, and humans

heart of sunflower by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley


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Haiku Moment: come sip

sweet zinnia nectar

and florescent colors call

flutter-bys, come sip

come sip by Angie Quantrell

Yakima Valley