Hosta Obsession

 I got bit by the hosta bug this summer. No, not an actual bug. I found it peaceful to go outside in the spring and work in the perennial gardens. This lead me to working on the shade garden up by the front door. It's really just the big area under the oak tree when nothing else grows. I started looking into hosta's and found there to be thousands of varieties of these beautiful plants. Each one with their own leaf shape and color. They have these cute little names like "Stained Glass" and "Captain Kirk". I started picking up new ones whenever I went into town and ran across one I didn't have. It became a obsession. I started the year with two varieties and I'm up to 51. It's kept me busy and active. 

June

Cool as a Cumber

I even found myself looking at hostas on vacation. Remember how I wake up hours before my family? Well I went looking for nurseries around Bentonville and found the jackpot of hosta nurseries. They had over 25 varieties and I told myself I could only get 5 or 6. Plus we still had to fit all of our luggage in the back of the Volvo to get home. I did find a beautiful Elderberry at a fabulous price that had to come home with me too. I have a very understanding husband.

I even found that you can buy hosta's online! There are several wonderful sellers up north (where hostas grow huge!) that will divide their massive plants and ship full grown hostas to you. It was like Christmas when these two boxes arrived. Some of these plants are known as giants, so they can get 6-7 feet wide and 3-4 feet tall. That would be so cool!

 

Plant on the left is immature nursery plant ($8 Earth Angel) and plant on right is full grown division ($12 Guardian Angel).

Soaking in a bucket of water.

The unboxing of Empress Wu, possibly the biggest hosta available.

Here she is full grown.

When I have the shade garden finished I'll share pictures. It's been a work in progress the whole summer. I'm currently making flagstone steps out of concrete, who knew that was a thing? You can learn anything on YouTube.

Bentonville

 We spent three days in Bentonville, AR for a mini vacation. It's a cute town. Not really a tourist town compared to many locations we've been recently but still a lot of fun to visit. My family is on a very different sleep schedule than myself so each morning I'd wake up at 6:30 am. This is when our dog Cooper usually barks to go outside at home. It sucks when you're on vacation and just want to sleep in though but your body is programmed to wake early. So I get up in the dark hotel room, dress and quietly slip out into the hallway so my family can sleep in. The first day I walked the mile down to the Panera Bread and got some tea just to waste the time. It was early enough not to be too hot but the walk home was a bit sweaty so the following two days I drove there. It was relaxing sitting outside bright and early and watching the world go by.

 

We enjoyed poking around Bentonville seeing the sights. The main reason we went was to see Crystal Bridges (previous post) so anything after that was just a bonus. 

 

 

Bentonville is the home of Walmart so we went to the Walmart Museum.

Arkansas is known for their waterfalls and caves so we randomly picked a hiking trail outside of town and set off to see both. Boy were we not disappointed! It was a short half mile hike to a beautiful waterfall. We must have stayed and enjoyed it for two hours. It was the highlight of the trip for me. The temperatures were in the 90's with high humidity and the water coming off of the falls wasn't very cold but there was an underground spring that emptied into the pool and the water was crisp and cool. It was so refreshing putting our feet in the water.

Love this picture of Sean.

As I get older I find part of the fun of vacations is researching restaurants and finding really good places to eat. Places we don't have around us at home especially. We found a wonderful Pho joint the first night which was so good! Second night was a pricey mexican joint that was ok but the last night we found a pizza/burger place that satisfied the meat eaters and allowed me to indulge in a whole vegan pizza. It was SO good. 

 

Finished the evening off with ice cream.

Coconut non dairy ice cream, yum!

Crystal Bridges

 This year for vacation we wanted to try somewhere new. We decided a small road trip to Arkansas would be nice and we headed to Bentonville for a few days. My parents were the ones that suggested we visit as they have a world-class art museum that is well worth the trip. They were correct! Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art was a wonderful experience. The architecture was unique as well as the grounds. They have such a beautiful collection of artwork.

We decided to come back in the evening once it cooled down to walk the grounds. There are trails everywhere leading you to unique artwork. The giant spider installation was a hit with the kids.