Beautiful Saturday September Morning

Twin Light Sunrise good harbor Beach ©Kim Smith 2013I awoke this morning before dawn to film sunrise and found a sweet gift of Virgilios sauce and amazingly fat rigatonis in the basket on my front porch. I am recovering from a leg operation and my friend Catherine Ryan called at the very moment that I was trying my personal recovery technique–on the floor doing a shoulder stand, with phone in hand–and she really got an earful. Thank you Catherine for listening to me complain about itchy leg braces and hospitals. I gave her the wrong impression though because I can walk and work–I just cannot sit or stand in one place for very long.

Good Harbor beach ©Kim Smith 2013

After putting the sauce and pasta in the cupboard I left to go film, and once again, the exquisite Great Blue Heron was there at Good Harbor Beach fishing amongst the reeds. For the third morning in a row I have observed a flock of cormorants leaving Salt Island en masse to fish with the gulls in the outgoing surf along the shoreline. I wonder, do they sleep there every night?

Sailor Stans ©Kim Smith 2013Next stop was to a friend’s home on Rocky Neck to drop off peaches from my garden. The light was hitting the Sailor’s Stan’s sunflowers perfectly and I just had to stop and take several snapshots.

Sailor Stans Sunflower ©Kim Smith 2013

By now it’s after 8:00 and I almost always go to yoga on Saturday mornings but because of the stitches, thought better of it and instead went to measure a new border at the Gloucester HarborWalk.

Gloucester harbor walk Gardens ©Kim Smith 2013 copyBlooming today at the HarborWalk are asters, goldenrod, annual rudbeckia, and salvia.

Long Hill Beverly ©Kim Smith 2013Next stop was the farm stand and then on to Pick Your Own at Long Hill in Beverly. In case any pollinators stop by, I prefer to leave my own zinnias growing in the garden and just love the array of colors in the Long Hill garden mix.

All this gorgeousness before 10:00 and I still have a work day if front of me, but it’s been a September Saturday morning I won’t soon forget! For all these gifts, of friendship and of the beauty that surrounds, I am counting my blessings.

Pick Your Own Flowers at Long Hill

Sunflower ©Kim Smith 2013

Last Thursday I spent the day photographing gardens around the north shore and couldn’t resist stopping at Long Hill and Sedgwick Garden in Beverly to pick a bouquet.

Pick your Own Long Hill Beverly ©Kim Smith 2013

Annual Rudbeckia ©Kim Smith 2013Annual Rudbeckia

Bee and Phlox ©Kim Smith 2013JPGCarpenter Bee and Phlox

Before and After Photos

Willowdale Estate April 2008

In preparing for the lecture I am presenting tomorrow at Long Hill in Beverly, I came across several “before” photo of Willowdale Estate, from the spring of 2008, which was the year I began working on the gardens.

Taming the Wisteria Willowdale Estate Spring 2008

I’ve learned over the years to always take the all-important “before” photos. Clients, and prospective clients, love, love to see the transformation documented!

Five months later, September 2008. We created a “wisteria arbor” that guests could pass through.

Willowdale Estate May 2012