The Lower Garden and a Reveal

On a hot June day, Winnie takes shelter under a mushroom on the front porch of the guest house. 

It helps that she has a whirling fan just overhead. These new fans make even hot days bearable.

Eventually, I hope to turn this area into a cottage garden but this year is an experiment to see what I can  grow.
 

All of the pots to the right are holding pots and contain the roses that will be planted in from of the house when the work is finished.  The first part of the concrete work will be poured on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, I have lots of things blooming.

Canterbury Bells.
 

Dahlias

I have nasturtiums popping up everywhere.

Zinnias

A gorgeous apricot drift rose.

4th of July

Don Juan 

And here is the first look at the new outdoor sink!  It's not finished but I am thrilled with it already.

The son of the Sicilian mason who did all of the work at my main house is building this for me and his work is every bit as wonderful as his father's. And the son is as old as I am now!  He shows up each day and lays out all of his chisels on an old wooden work table.  Then he chips and shapes each stone, one by one. It is really something to watch. I had the idea to use half of the old cement stationary tubs from my main house so the sink will be deep and wide.  It will have hot and cold running water and counter tops made from old sidewalk stone and there will be shelves on the walls above it.  I want it to look like it has been there for a hundred years and I think it already does. He's matched the stone on the house perfectly.

I also enlarged the patio by about 5 feet and now I have room to add planters.  We've been painting some old urns to give them a second life and I've started to plant them too.  I'll show more pics soon.