Nothing clings like ivy

Except for perhaps morning glory vines. Morning glory has taken over our front yard, as you can see from these photos. I'm happy to report that I figured out how to download my camera directly to my iBook and even managed to manipulate the photos via iPhoto. I'm still not quite down with how Macs save files, etc. I don't know how to put them in particular places but I think that's part of how Macs work. A primer from Roy is in order. Anyway, this first picture is of our front steps. The morning glory vines have enveloped the rose bush, the garlic chives, the sage, the hearty hibiscus and the railings. Believe it or not, I've torn down the vines a few times this year. They just come back stronger. Unfortunately, the lovely purple blossoms don't show up very well, but it's what keeps them around.



The vines have even entwined themselves around and up a 12 foot red bud tree, not to mention a large rose of sharon bush and my hydrangea. I'm still not sure whether it was the late freeze this spring or the morning glory that prevented even one hydrangea flower from blooming.



This morning Steve and I went to a flea market at St. Mark's in St. Louis Hills. Strangely enough there wasn't a lick of clothing, although there were shoes. Best buy of the day was this four-panel set of barkcloth curtain for $4. The color scheme is perfect for the living room, besides being just beautiful - turquoise, brown, black and (subtle) metallic gold.



In the close up you can sort of see that the repeated pattern is a scenic view out the terrace of an English or Italian villa. I mean, you've seen this terrace in any number of Jane Austen and E. M. Forster movie adaptations.



For $1 I bought a zipper bag full of 'broken' jewelry. Included were these three vintage bracelets, all wearable, if missing a stone here and there.



These earrings were also in the bag -- daisy cages!



And to add to my ever-growing collection, a gorgeous hand embroidered pillow case with fillet crochet trim. For 50 cents!