Treasure Box Wednesday: Looking Ahead to Summer

As spring gives way to summer, we look ahead to warmer weather, vibrant flowers and well-earned vacations. For the thrifter, however, the summer months are not always the best. Thrift store shelves become increasingly bare as spring cleaning yields to summer leisure. Yet today, I don't think you'll be disappointed, since there's always something to talk about in the Treasure Box.

I'd discovered-- really by accident-- a painting on Ebay which pretty much demanded I bid. And perhaps it was due to the impending summer and the lure of the gentle outdoors that meant the usual competition was nowhere to be seen online.

You see here my purchase, a full-fledged Victorian painting done by a "G. Verdier"...


And I imagine with that full view, you've also noticed the painting's unusual and delightfully humorous element. The lady, who looks rather pleased at whatever the outcome of events has been, smiles hopefully at the horizon as the Cupid lies-- asleep? knocked out cold?--- legs akimbo in an upset of roses and arrows and overturned furniture.

Whatever has happened, it's been a serious ordeal for the chubby god of love...


So this has been a real delight for me this week. My only real thrifted goody came in the form of this trio of chicks... Or The Andrews Sisters, if you will. :)


They'll be great for Easter.

Other little joys involve the beauty you just can't buy. The garden is just beginning its summer blooms, and I'll give you a small preliminary tour. Like Big Red here... the first of the roses original to my house.


And here we have a ruffled columbine which planted itself in a compost heap a few years back, and which was transplanted to a little better location...


I don't know what this pink groundcover is, and I don't honestly recall planting it last year, but it's doing marvelously...


A previous year's investment of foxglove means this year, I have foxglove aplenty. I love their impossible-looking spires...


The yard itself looks a bit rough around the edges, I admit. Some of my topiaries haven't made it and need to be removed, and some of the roses need a serious trim. There's still a lot of work to be done in this tiny space...


But as day turns to night, the colors just continue...



I hope you're all having a beautiful summer so far.

• For those who missed Sunday's post on the artist R. Atkinson Fox, click here.

• And for folks who enjoy a chuckle, you may appreciate the gardening tales on my humor blog, Of Cabbages and Kings. Click here for that.

And as always, thanks to each of you for stopping by and hanging out with me. I really do appreciate your visits.