Roses...and such...in December

Beautiful blooms on the bushes at the cottage...in December...

...brought inside and put into my cute new-logo vase from work...

...across from a bed bedecked in seasonless English rose-chintz.

Another garden blooming inspiration from...Australia and my friend Kev!

Bring on the flowers...Kev's garden is having a very pretty springtime indeed.

In the midst of all of this actual winter-weather we've been having here on the South Carolina coast, it's getting harder and harder to remember that just a couple of weeks ago we were enjoying...roses in December!

...and flowering Azalea bushes, a plethora of pansies, lemons on the lemon tree and so forth...

This past autumn we truly enjoyed an extension of beautiful blue skies, warm temperatures, balmy breezes and blooming flowers all about us, ahhh. We were spoiled quite frankly! I was bringing in bunches of flowers each week into both the cottage and island house. Cutting into fresh lemons picked off the tree in the yard was a delight. Potted plantings lasting and lasting on the porches was a relief...extended time in between the usual seasonal re-do's felt so luxurious.

Inside and out, I tend to just adore flowers. Fresh is best, chintz patterning covers the rest....

The Cottage Look oh so fortunately includes embracing flowers, flower patterns and all things gardening. Back in North Carolina, our house was very "English Country" styled while out in Utah, our miner's cottage was very "English Country Goes Alpine Ski Bummin'" and here in the SC Lowcountry, our cottage is I guess, "English Country and Lowcountry Southern Relax Together."

Speaking about Southern...waaaay down under in Australia, my friend Kev's incredible garden is going full-blast-blooming with it being early Spring where he lives. I've posted before about Kev's garden and am glad that he just sent me some current pictures we all can enjoy within this blog post. So beautiful and so inspiring to see while winter's heavy hand is upon us here in America.

I've always heard the saying, "Bloom where you're planted." At times this quip seems hokey, at times it seems straight from the musings of some mountain top sitting sage and yes, at times it seems something to take quite literally into one's life and this one's daily lifestyle.

May you all enjoy...roses this December! Bloom, bloom away!