Mint dreams and more.....

Do you love mint as much as I do??? Seems I can't smell mint without thinking of my childhood in Provence when my parents would send me to stay with my aunt and uncle during summer vacation. My "tata" would make me mint tea in the afternoon from the mint she would pick from her garden. Sometimes we would have flan....chocolat flan! It was not homemade but from a box mix. Go figure??? It was the best thing I'd ever had and I would dream of it often when back home and would plead with my mother to find it for me here or at least send for some. I remember her getting it and making it a few times but it was never as good as when I was there. I never told her, not after she had made the extra effort to get it special for me. The other day I realized I had to cut back some of the mint in the flats we had so instead of throwing it in the compost bucket like we usually do I decided to take some home with me.
I picked apple, ginger, chocolate and regular peppermint.
The chocolate mint leaf does actually look a little darker like there's chocolate running thru it. It makes a great tea. Apple mint is a little milder and sweeter. Ginger a little tangy and has a bit of gold coloring to the leaf. Peppermint...well you all know what that smells and tastes like.

I was told the other day that orange mint makes a great mosquito repellent. I'd never heard of that before but I'm willing to give it a try....couldn't hurt.

Today it rained all day so it was a good day to run some errand so while I was out I stopped at the estuary shop in town to check out any hidden treasures. Found a couple of pieces of junk jewelry...nothing much but my big find were the peonies that they were selling for 25 cents each. Can't help but think of the sweet old lady picking them from her garden to share with people like me who forget every year to plant some. Though this year I set aside a real gorgeous peony to plant called Coral Charm which has the most unusual peach colored flowers...kind of rare. It had lost it's tag and I thought I'd better keep it. Good excuse! Now I just have to find the perfect spot.

As I mentioned today was a good catch up day. So after we closed I decided to remove the hostas I'd been saving in the back of the greenhouse. They had been there for safe keeping to divide them when I had more time and were beginning to get to big and getting in the way. As I was going to grab a cart to move them I noticed how beautiful they looked scattered about everywhere. It's only been the last few years that I've become a hosta nut. A Hostaphile as a like to call it. I just love all the different foliage though I'm partial to the gold ones mixed with blue. Sometimes the tags get lost on them and I sit there trying to figure out which ones they are. Well if I can't figure it out...I guess I'll just have to save them for the garden too.....

This is a new variety called "Rainforest Sunrise"
....and this is "Orange Marmalade"

Question: What your favorite hosta? and why?

Have a great night.....I'm going home now and hopefully George will have nice bowl of cereal waiting for me.

Oh...and maybe a cup of mint tea....?

Talk soon,

Carole