Good Morning! Let’s sit on the porch this morning with a hand roasted cup of Bearded Lady Blend; that would be with notes of (as the brewers say)  Molasses, Cocoa, Ginger, Cherry and a nutty flavor! Oh my! What a way to start the morning off! As you all probably know by now my summer is all about my garden and traveling…………and I have thrown in some decorating projects of late too. So here is an update………..

A few weeks ago I went on a tour of The Secret Gardens of the Fourth Ward. Now, for me, there is practically nothing better than to tour a garden ……I could go on one every day, if I had the chance. To read something about the history of the Fourth Ward in Charlotte, North Carolina look HERE. There were nine gardens to tour that day as we strolled the historic Fourth Ward. In addition, there were vendors in each garden, many pouring samples of their products. These were the Gilded Beverage, Doc Porter’s Craft Spirits, Method and Standard Flavored Vodkas, and the PRP Wines, all local businesses. There were also garden vendors selling flowers and arrangements and restaurants that were serving nibbles, if you call oysters a nibble! So you can see how joyful one could be on a garden tour as this one! So as I checked out the garden, had a sip or two of the beverage and moved on to the next garden………..my favorite beverage vender turned out to be the Gilded Beverage with his Cocktail Mixers….on the way out I picked up three bottles to take home! My favorites were Hibiscus Rose and Blueberry-Lavender-Aid! So here is Jake telling us all about his products!

One of the cottages on the tour was the Pink Cottage…..now if I had my druther, my cottage would be pink too. In our little spot in the world our cottages can not be the same color as another cottage on the street, and pink was already picked by the time my cottage was ready……….bummer! So, here is the Pink cottage……….

And the pale blue cottage……….

and some roses that could be found at both.

We like to plant in pots and then put the pots in the ground…………….  I came away with a lot of ideas for my own garden……..I will be doing an additional post on the Secret Gardens of the Fourth Ward, so stay tuned………..

Oh yes, to get back to the theme of this blog…. the garden chalkboard……. I came home from the garden tour with a plan for my wall. The one that hubby chalk painted for me. You saw it last week…….well ta da! I pointed the way to my garden and wrote the flowers on the chalkboard that I grow in my garden, following the alphabet! The wall is nine foot tall and 40 inches wide. The writing was a little testy at the top and the bottom for an old woman! Ha! But, I love that wall! The pictures I added are note cards I have collected of various gardens…… Here is the top half of the chalkboard wall………

and the bottom of the wall has note cards of my favorite cottages……..Sissinghurst Garden (garden of Vita Sackville-West), Monk’s House (garden retreat of Virginia Wolfe), and Charleston Farmhouse (garden of Vanessa Bell) and the quote N.W.H. is from my favorite author/gardener, Beverley Nichols.

PS I just winged the entire wall and when I stood back and looked at it I realized I left out Lamb’s Ears and a few other letters!!!!!! So it has been updated since this photo…….. I had to get very creative!

I hope you have enjoyed your coffee this morning with me! See you next weekend!