It’s So, So Green at Toad Hollow Today …

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Cuttings (later)

This urge, wrestle, resurrection of dry sticks,
Cut stems struggling to put down feet,
What saint strained so much,
Rose on such lopped limbs to a new life?
I can hear, underground, that sucking and sobbing,
In my veins, in my bones I feel it —
The small waters seeping upward,
The tight grains parting at last.
When sprouts break out,
Slippery as fish,
I quail, lean to beginnings, sheath-wet.

Theodore Roethke


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Teaser loves to check out what’s going on down on ground level…


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While we call our home Toad Hollow, it’s also been called the house of the entwined cedars.  Behind the Aurora Dogwood is an enormous Douglas Fir.  Just beyond them up hill is a Stellar Pink Dogwood, shown in the very next photo.


Entwined Cedars & Aurora Dogwood


There is an Eddies White Wonder Dogwood in the foreground, and to it’s left is the Stellar Pink. Look at that Rhododendron color!

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The Rhododendrons are blooming one by one, we’ve bought different varieties with differing bloom times to extend the time we get to enjoy them.


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The Clematis have been blooming in successive waves and growing and growing and growing like never before up the posts that support our deck.


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My editor demands that I upload a photo of him too…


Firecat the OS Editor


There is so much to do.  This began as 15 square yards of 4-way garden soil.  It seems that we haven’t moved much of it yet …


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“Since childhood, since childhood!

Childhood is a toad in the garden, a

happy toad. All toads are happy

and belong in gardens. A toad to Diana!”

Excerpt from Romance Modern

William Carlos Williams 

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Toad Hollow in Summer

From our front porch:
Toad Hollow House RulesIn case you can’t read it, “this is the exact center of the universe which explains why none of the usual rules apply here.”
Another view:
The Rules 2
Toad Hollow 7/2011
Coppertina Ninebark
Coppertina Ninebark
Blackeyed SusansBlackeyed Susans (Rudbekia  )
Sutherland's Gold Elderberry  Sutherland’s Gold Elderberry
  4th of July Breakfast on the Sunny Deck
4th of July Breakfast on the Sunny Deck
Toad Hollow Garden 3
Toad Hollow Garden 4

  Prayer Lady

Shade Garden

Shade Garden2Shaded Sculpture Garden

Hummingbird in the Bee Balm

Hummingbird in the Bee Balm

Early Spring

And it all started in the Spring with quite a lot of bare dirt.


For a larger view of these  photos and more visit Flickr 

Fireflies in the Garden 

By Robert Frost 

Here come real stars to fill the upper skies,
And here on earth come emulating flies,
That though they never equal stars in size,
(And they were never really stars at heart)
Achieve at times a very star-like start.
Only, of course, they can’t sustain the part.
Firefly