Summer's Here Already?

Time seems to be moving quickly these days...I had so much planned for spring and now summer is already here....
We didn't have much of a spring anyway...torrential rains and cool weather dominated most of it. Suddenly we are getting blue skies and hot sun.

I am starting a flower garden in my side yard. I have always wanted a cottage garden...kind of wild, not manicured and orderly but full and interesting with little pondering points throughout...paths and benches, bird feeders and other interesting stuff...
So far I have 3 main beds that are already planted...one is my peony bed, one is all day lilies and one is a combination. I have a park bench with fanciful iron sides, an old half of a whiskey barrel and an antique hand pump, that I was thinking of eventually turning into a little water feature.
I have the garden all sketched out now and we have been building more beds out of the old hand hewn logs of the cabin that once sat here. It was built in 1890 and housed the homesteading family that cleared this land and turned in into a farm. I know the logs won't last forever, they are already rotting, but they will do for a while and will be replaced someday with field stones from the many rock piles in the hay fields beyond the river.
I have another bed we will finish this evening...I have delphiniums and sage and lavender that are big enough to go in...maybe a few others...I also picked up a rose bush the other day...its a beautiful wild rose, it will have a restricted spot in the center and I may add a trellis to train it along...
My cousin sent me a dozen or so gladiola bulbs recently and i have them planted near the peonies. They are in some interesting shades of blue that I think I will love. Blue being my favorite color!
I have lots of seedlings started in the greenhouse...I spent quite a while getting things to grow at all...a lot of my flower seeds were too old it seems... I have a weakness for buying them or trading for them and then I end up not planting after all...so there they sat....but I have managed a couple dozen plants so far...enough for a start!
This year I have a lot less work to do around here...and no husband to comment on what a waste a flower garden is when I could be tending an even bigger vegetable garden... I need the flower garden now... It will be my place to relax and unwind....a place to enjoy....my therapy.
I am planning lots of perennial beds... I will add annuals from the greenhouse every year too. I hope to attract lots more butterflies...and birds. It might not make the country living cover, but I'm sure it will be everything I had dreamed about for all these years!
In my dream I have even created a white picket fence...all hand made...and an arbor with a gate... This is definitely an ongoing project, but it's a start!

Farming and Life renewed...

I love my life... I am at a good place, now that my divorce is final and I can work at putting things right again. This farm is my santuary. I am happy here, my kids are happy here...it's home, it's peaceful and now that its spring, it is life renewed...just like how things are with me...life renewed. I have often thought about writing a blog, I like to write, I enjoy sharing my stories of life on the farm... Now that I feel that I am starting over, I thought it would be a good time to start.
I will try to write often and share all the little miracles of nature that appear daily here, as well as the wonderful day to day events on this century old farm, way off the beaten path.