Cool things about my house

I love Gardenias.

The flowers are gorgeous and delicate and so very fragrant. The smell is exotic to me- it makes me think of botanical gardens and tropical nights and things like that.

Coincidentally gardenias are also my mother's favorite flowers. All of her corsages when she was a teenager were made of gardenias. Most likely her love affair with them was passed down to me, as I listened to her romantic stories surrounding the blossoms.

One of the coolest things about my house in North Carolina is that I actually have gardenia bushes in my yard. I had no idea that I did when I bought the place;I am deceidely NOT a gardener. But I did know that my house was previously owned by the State of NC's extension horticulturalist or something like that. He did the cool plant.

I am the only house with them in my neighborhood, and really the only house that I've seen in Durham with them. My 'hey neighbors' actually get friendly when they bloom, so they can mooch blossoms and cuttings. I oblige them gladly.

This year the weather has been perfect (excpet for the brief hailstorm) and my gardenia bushes are just going to town! They are so laden with blossoms the branches are being pulled down at unnatural angles. In fact, I can't even get onto my deck to my kitchen door because the blossoms are bent over the steps.

Currently I have many vases of the blooms in my house (kitchen, piano, bedroom, bathroom) and STILL the things keep blooming. I even took a small bouquet to my piano teacher on Friday.

This is probably my favorite time of the year at my house-- no AC needed yet, gardenia frangrance wafting though my houe, my lawn actually looking decent but not yet needing cutting every 6 days.... ah.

If only these two weeks could last all summer.