Sunday, August 14, 2011

Mosaic Monday: August in New Jersey



Welcome to August in New Jersey. Actually, these photos may have been taken at the end of July, but let us not quibble over a few days. This is what August in New Jersey looks like -- the fields are filled with thistle and asters and queen anne's lace. And if you are lucky, your garden is filled with phlox and echinacea.

My garden is actually filled with weeds.

But this lovely garden is about twenty minutes away. It is called Willowwood, and is maintained by the Morris County Parks system. Last year, I posted about it here, and here.

Encompassing over 130 acres, the garden includes fields filled with wildflowers. In the more formal areas, crazy paving paths are overhung with helianthemum and lilies and garden phlox in melting shades of pink and white. Joe Pye weed towers in the back of the beds, while the whole is guarded by sentinels of dark evergreens. Open the black wrought iron gate, and enter a magical garden. :)

Please Note: Next week there will be no Mosaic Monday. I will be taking a week away from the computer, to celebrate my husband's birthday, to get my new business going, and to enjoy the last days of summer with my daughter before she returns to school. Enjoy your week!

Now let's have some mosaic fun! Here are the instructions:
1. Publish your Mosaic Monday post. The post may be about any subject you wish. The only stipulation is that it include a collage, or mosaic of photos.
2. Once it is published, click on the title of the post. This will lead you to the static link for your post. The static link is the page with only that post on it. Copy the url from your browser at the top of the page.
3. Paste the url into the appropriate inlinkz box in this post.
4. Type your name in the appropriate inlinkz box in this post.
5. Click on "Enter."
6. Please link back to this Mosaic Monday post so that your readers can find other wonderful mosaics.
That's all there is to it! It's always a good idea to then check and see if your link is working. If you have any questions, feel free to email me: mrcarroll(at)optonline

And a quick reminder: if you would like to join Mosaic Monday but don't know quite where to start, there is a tutorial on mosaic-making on my sidebar. Just scroll down, and click on the small blue mosaic.



41 comments:

  1. Beautiful Mary. Have fun celebrating your husbands birthday!! Blessings...

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  2. Happy Birthday to your husband Mary...love the pictures of the Queen Annes Lace flowers especially!

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  3. You are fortunate to live close to such a beautiful natural garden, Mary! I love wildflowers.

    Enjoy your time off ..summer is fleeting!

    Happy birthday in advance to your husband.

    Hugs, Pat

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  4. New Jersey is looking beautiful, Mary. Your photos and the flowers are gorgeous. Have a great week!

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  5. It does indeed look like a beautiful magical garden. Beautiful shots. Enjoy your little break.

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  6. These mosaics are so absolutely beautiful and green! Our gardens are all but gone. The grass is crispy and so are our flowers. I enjoyed this post so much, Mary!

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  7. Happy Birthday to your husband! My flower beds are worse than pathetic - need too clean them out. It has just been to hot. Thanks for hosting agaqin this week and enjoy your break!
    Glenda

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  8. Willowwood is gorgeous. Thanks for the tour! Happy Birthday to your husband. Enjoy the time off and don't work too hard!

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  9. ...Just awe inspiring! Love, love, love it! :o)

    ...I also loved this sentence: "... is guarded by sentinels of dark evergreens." I dunno why but I loved the thought of that.

    ...Thank you for the lovely photos and the inspiration!

    ...Enjoy your week!

    ...Blessings :o)

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  10. Once again, absolutely lovely photos! the close up of Queen Anne's lace is spectacular. My garden is overrun with weeds this year too. Our very hot July was perfect for weed growth and not so perfect for pulling them so I let them go. I must have pulled 20 pounds of weeds in the past two weeks.

    Thank you for hosting, Mosaic Monday, Mary.

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  11. Your NJ garden photos seem so much more vivid and green than I could ever hope to find in CA! ::Jill

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  12. Beautiful garden pictures Mary. Happy summer!

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  13. Just delightful! You can really coax out such beauty with your lens!!!!
    Yvonne

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  14. This time of summer is so lovely. Crickets and wild night sounds (owls and fischer cats) and flowers. I like that iron fence and gate. Nancy

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  15. Another lovely garden. Enjoy your week off!

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  16. A lovely garden again and again and again! Thanks for sharing all!
    Have a nice week,
    Markus

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  17. New Jersey in the summertime is so beautiful. You area very lucky to have so many wonderful gardens nearby - and we're lucky that you share.
    Thank you for organizing this link party - I hope you have a lovely time next week!

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  18. I just love the angle shot of the first pic Mary! I'm proud to join you again here. :)

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  19. The metal work is lovely and it always catches my eye! It is great that through blogging we get to see gorgeous gardens all year round in spite of the winter over here I get to drool over your stunning pics on the other side of the world! Sigh. I just know i am going to be totally snap happy when visiting open gardens this year!

    Veronica
    www.tasselsandtwigs.blogspot.com

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  20. Another beautiful garden. Enjoy your time with your family.

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  21. I can see why New Jersey is called the garden state. :)

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  22. Just 20 minutes away? That's lucky for you. Willowwood looks so pretty. Thanks for the tour.
    Rosie

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  23. Mary..
    gorgeous as usual..
    love all the photos..
    enjoy your BUSY week off!
    congrats on your NEW BUSINESS..
    Congrats to hubby on his special day..
    cherish these precious moments with daughter!
    hugs to all!!
    Loui♥

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  24. Beautiful photographs. I liked 1st and last one the most. And that was one cute bird house. :)

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  25. What gorgeous blossoms! Thank you for sharing!

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  26. Dear Mary!
    Such a lovely garden you are showing us! And about weeds - there is a lot of them too in my garden as it has rained alot this summer. And as there been a lot of grey skies, I will show some sunshine with a lot of sunflowers...
    Have a nice celebrating, and see you soon again!
    Best wishes,
    AnnA

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  27. Hi Mary!
    That part of NJ is looking much nicer than my little part of the Garden State. Weeds are pretty pushy these days, still, despite some vigorous weeding in the last week.

    I only have ONE phlox blooming -- when usually I've got about a dozen. I don't know what happened. I suspect the nasty winter took its toll. My rudbeckia isn't doing as well as usual either, but ... it will roar back next year I hope.

    Last summer when Howard was cutting our grass himself, he didn't do one section that is a drainage gully -- and it bloomed all on its own in gorgeous wildflowers! The landscape guys insist on mowing it down, so next year I may have to do some negotiating with them.

    Beautiful images ... the greens and whites and pinks look so charmingly casual and cool.

    Have a GREAT time this week -- enjoy it all!
    Especially spending time with your daughter; I did as much of that this summer as I could.

    Best -- Cass

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  28. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Always love to drop by!

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  29. So utterly lovely! You know I take offense at folks who make faces when I say I am from New Jersey, it is such a lovely state. :) Kit

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  30. Your photos are refreshingly beautiful. It's hard to believe it's been 25 years since we moved from North Jersey ... it seems far away now, Have a wonderful week of celebrations and time with your daughter.

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  31. Mary all are just gorgeous.
    I adore gardens too.

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  32. Such lovely images. Wow! Incredible blooms.

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  33. My gosh the beauty in your photos are just stunning. So marvelous and outstanding!

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  34. Hi Mary!
    It's been awhile but I see that your blog is still just as beautiful as ever!
    These pix are gorgeous and I am planning a trip here soon!
    Thanks for the inspiration! xxxooo Ruth <3

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  35. You have such an eye for capturing beauty in a photo! I'd love to see that first one as a huge painting in oil.

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  36. My garden is full of weeds too...I think I will call it a wild flower garden:) This place is beautiful...you live in a beautiful spot on earth:)

    Enjoy your time to yourself...sounds like you will be very busy!

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  37. Do you see how enthusiastic and emphatic so many of the comments up above are? I feel it to. I was happily reading about you adventures in SF and scrolling down and came to a full gaspity-gasp stop at that first photo with the path and phlox and yew.

    Then, wandered in a dream...except, I knew where I was - I recognize it from your past posts. =]

    Lovely, lovely and happy post, Mary

    xxo

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  38. Dearest Mary,

    do you see all of the enthusiastic and emphatic exclamations about this post, up above? Well, I heartily agree!

    I was cheerily scrolling along through your beautiful photos and news of your trip to SF, when, I got to the garden path with the phlox and the yews and stopped dead in my tracks. It's, for sure, a gaspity-gasper! It's so refreshing. I started to scroll down as if I was in a dream.;) Of course, I completely knew where I was. I remembered it from your past posts.

    I've enjoyed your garden posts, this summer. It's like reading a favorite magazine - no joke! So much inspiration!

    Love to you, Mary!

    xxo

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Thank you so much for taking the time to read and comment. I love to hear what you have to say!