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Paul McCutchen's avatar

I need to get my flowers and garden back in shape. My mother doesn't raise a garden, but I don't think she has time with all the flowers growing around the house. She loves her roses and knows how to raise them. She will be 96 this year and still loves her flowers. She still lives in the house that we moved into when I was 6 months old. It is on a family farm that is about a quarter mile where she grew up.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Picking flowers from your own garden is a special kind of glory! I would love to hear more about her roses. I know I could do better with mine.

I cannot imagine living in the same house that long. (Not that I am saying you are old or anything 🤣). How extraordinarily lovely.

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Paul McCutchen's avatar

My mom lived in the delta of Arkansas, which is about 30 miles west of Memphis, TN. almost all her life. My grandfather was a farmer, owned a country store and a gin. If you look through my substack there are a lot of stories about growing up in the country. I moved to Georgia in 2000; my sister moved to northwest Arkansas. My brother died in a car wreck and my father passed away. This all happened after we moved so my mom says her flower garden was her therapy.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

There sure is an element of therapy in a garden. You said you need to get your own garden back in shape - what do you grow?

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Paul McCutchen's avatar

I raise a vegetable garden, but I do have some roses, gladiolus, daisies, and a couple of others.

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Heather @ Home's avatar

This is such good advice! I am very much a starter of things, not at all put off by the fact that it won't be perfect or even necessarily good. But my two nearest and dearest are both very much put off by perfectionism. I will try to help them to make a small start over my previous approach of 'will you just bloody get on with it!'.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

So glad it made an impression Heather! Thank you so much for the comment - perfectionism is something I have never suffered from thankfully! Sounds like you and I are alike in that! Happy weekend!

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Diane's avatar

Such a gorgeous garden! And so nice to see as we move toward autumn over here. And I love the lemon pic! We have a lemon tree that moves into the garage apartment every year. Have had it for over 10 years, given to us by a friend as a start. The garage apartment turns into a greenhouse for the winter months. Baby swimming lessons are the thing these days. I have a friend whose grandson was introduced to them at around one year old. He hated it, but is a swimmer now.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Love the idea of your moving lemon! I tried that in Illinois but it never fruited - here we have our own lemons and I could not be happier! I hope you have good winter stores lined up -

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beth Kennedy's avatar

I love the nanny granny idea, it is such a natural pairing. just like the flowers with the veggies and the baby's bathwater with the garden soil.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

The lemon tree gets most of the babies bath water. And I am sure that regular watering is making a difference!

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Lori's avatar
Oct 17Edited

What a great idea to be a nanny granny! The garden looks amazing, the rose is beautiful. My dad took a lot of photos and we have reels of slides. The next time I go home I need to go through them and pick out the ones I want to keep and have them printed as real pictures. If not they will be lost.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Slides often make excellent prints. Don’t forget to write everything you know about the image on the back of the photo. That will be gold for future generations.

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Jim R's avatar

I have a huge archive of digitized photos. Some were first slides. Some old b&w photos. Some new already digital. I enjoy going thru them to find ones to share.

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

That is fun! My son Sam is digitizing our collection - then sharing - but it is such a big job. A lifetimes work actually!

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Hans Jorgensen's avatar

Tiny starts indeed! Happy Thursday still from here

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Cecilia At The Kitchens Garden's avatar

Life is full of tiny starts! Good morning, from Friday Hans! It does make us laugh -

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Eha Carr's avatar

Celi - you make me breathless, utterly so! What don't you get into, what don't you do, what don't you enthuse us to try also!!! I absolutely love the wide shot of your 'now' garden in Melbourne, huge vegetables, beautiful roses, comfortable chairs . . . everything vibrantly 'alive'! And trust you to manage an Aussie 'Granny Nanny' license and plan to go to work besides! When do you sleep? But it looks we'll make you an honorary Aussie yet !!! Clap/clap !!! Just one matter - 'baby swimming lessons' - huh? - I'm lost in time - Louie? - but he just got 'borned' :) ???

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Charlotte Rains Dixon, MFA's avatar

Anyone who hires you for their Nanny Granny is lucky indeed. And the garden is looking quite spectacular!

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Mad Dog's avatar

Congratulations on the license.

I've been to the beach today - Morgan Porth. I'm watching the badgers now.

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