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Adventures galore
an imaginary world
our children’s sandbox
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Wendy/2015
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At our previous home, we had the coolest sandbox I’ve ever seen. My talented husband fashioned it out of huge pieces of driftwood. It even had a built-in bench on the side. Our three children were born during the time we lived at that old country home, and they spent oodles of time exploring an imaginary world within the sandbox their father had made. Often I’d take pictures of them creating sandcastles and miniature towns.
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Recently I photographed my favorite hydrangea (the one pictured). It’s a special plant because I grew it from cuttings I’d taken from the hydrangea that grew near our children’s sandbox. They never touched the plant because I’d warned them it was poisonous.
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My boys and their lab-cross chased a black bear up a tree, but they never bothered my hydrangea. My daughter fed the neighbor’s horse ferns from our forest, but she never touched the hydrangea.
And so now, each time this plant blooms, I remember the adventures galore our children had within the sandbox of our previous home.
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Adventures Galore Blessings ~ Wendy
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Did your children have a sandbox? Do you have special memories of playing in an imaginary world? Have you got ‘memory plants’ in your garden?
Don’t forget to read the following instructions for drying hydrangea if you need them.
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The secret to drying hydrangea for an indoor display during winter is as follows:
- In mid or late September cut a bouquet of hydrangea of equal stem length.
- Remove all leaves from the stems, being careful not to break the flowers.
- Arrange flowers in a large vase that has several inches of water.
- Place arrangement in a spot that has good air circulation and no direct sunlight.
- Be aware that stowaway insects may appear within the bouquet.
- Allow the water to evaporate over a week or so. By then the flowers will have dried, and you can move them to a clean empty vase.
- Next year simply discard the old bouquet into your compost pile, and start over.
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September 20th I’m switching this blog to http://www.wendylmacdonald.com .
I hope to see you there.
If all goes well my posts should automatically transfer you over.
If not, sign up at the link. I’ll leave this old site up for as long as I think necessary.
You and WordPress have been so good to me.
Thank you. <3
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I loved playing in our sandbox when I was a kid. I had small plastic animals and made a zoo in the sand… Thanks for the memories!
Karen, plastic animals and sand–a magical combination. Thank you for reminding me of zoo and farm creations of my own children. 🙂
Beautiful photos and sandbox memories. And Wendy, big thank you for posting a very complimentary review of my book on Amazon. Such a sweet surprise! All the best with writing your memoir.
Diane, you’re so welcome. I will be leaning on your book as I write. And you write so beautifully too—that in of itself is inspiring.
Stunning. I dry the Anabelles but these ones look great.
Thank you, Cynthia. I have mossy green ones I also dry, but these are my favorite. White ones would be lovely too.
Beautiful post, Wendy. Where would we be without our precious memories? So much of ourselves are tied up in what we remember and loved in the past.
Jennifer x
I agree, Jennifer. And writers can draw from these deep wells of the heart. <3
Beautiful flowers and bouquet. I did not know hydrangeas were poisonous. Does one have to wear gloves to handle them or is it just if they are ingested? I’ve not tried to grow them because the deer eat everything in sight.
I never had a sandbox. Your children were certainly blessed to have you and your husband as parents! Hugs and Blessings to you and yours Wendy.
Thank you, dear Rhonda. <3 Only the blossoms are poisonous if eaten. I kept a cage around my hydrangea while the kids were toddlers. It also protected the plant from the soccer ball. 😉
Great flowers and a lovely story of the sandbox
Thank you, dear Marylou. Hydrangea is one of my favorite flowers.
Love the driftwood, Wendy. Looks like a magical place for your kids and for you and your husband! Beautiful story. Thank you.
Thank you, Diane. We got the driftwood idea from a friend’s seaside sandbox. My husband added his own creative prowess to it. His talent with wood always amazes me.
lovely, understated photographs. My mum always used to dry hydrangeas…
Thank you, Maureen. A lovely English lady I worked with in a specialty garden gift shop taught me how to dry them.
What lovely memories Wendy! <3
Diana xo
Thank you, Diana. My children have lots of good memories of the old place.
A hail storm brought down a bunch of my hydrangeas. I tried to salvage them by drying them upside down. Next time I’ll try your directions. I suspect it will work better. Thank you for the tip.
Karen, the secret with hydrangea is to harvest them late enough so they’re beginning to go papery, but not so late that the fall rains have beat them up already. Some years I mistime it.
Thanks, I have some later plants that I will experiment with.
Blessings on your bouquet making, Karen.
Oh I love hydrangeas and love to use them dried in floral projects. Yes, my child had a playhouse, a tree house, and a sand box, and I had a huge sand box, it was the beach along the Pacific Ocean and I still remember loving to play in the sand. We were also allowed to use our neighbor’s garage to play in while his dad was away at work, and it was converted in our dramas into all sorts of things. Sadly nowadays, kids don’t use their imaginations for their playtime. They have TV’s and all kinds of other electronic devises. `At least my daughter makes her kids shut all that down at times and insists that they go find something else to do. Loved this post, Wendy! Hugs, N 🙂 <3
Thank you, dear Natalie. <3 Your childhood sounds like it was ideal and your daughter sounds wise. My kids were the last of their peers to get gadgets and they're glad they had a real childhood outside in nature. xo
Lovely memories. 🙂 I do have a few memory plants, and I do have hydrangeas. Now if only they would grow as large as yours, I could dry them using your “how to’ instructions.
Hydrangea are slow to start and then take off once established. They detest heat and drought. Our summer was hard on them (and me as I dutifully hauled buckets of water to each of them during the permitted watering hours). Yay, for fall rains. 🙂
Hi Wendy, you have also been blessed with a green thumb. Your bouquet in the vase is so beautiful. And I chuckled at the thought of your children not touching your precious flowers. And I was surprised that your boys chased a black bear up a tree…how brave! Your sandbox memories remind me of the sandbox my children played in for hours. 🙂
Thank you, dear Tracy. I couldn’t believe they’d chased a bear. It turned out to be a mother and cub. She was not impressed and soon sped back down the tree. The boys returned to the house while our sweet dog kept mama bear busy (no injuries). They never bothered a bear again. I had warned them about the dangers… but boys will be boys. Sigh.
Hydrangeas are one of my favorite flowers! We just moved to a new home a few months ago, from the house where we raised our children. I took a few small perennials, but didn’t know I could “transplate” my hydrangea from cuttings! The first thing I went out and bought this summer for the new home was a hydrangea plant. It never flowered, but maybe next summer I’ll be able to use your drying instructions. Lovely photographs.
Thank you, Cheryl. Blessings on your new home and on your hydrangea plant. It should bloom like crazy once it’s established.
When I was little, which was many moons ago, we would drive to the beach for the day and dad would fill a box with sand, put it in the trunk and bring it home to put in our sandbox in the backyard. One time it came back with little crabs crawling around in it which made an impression on me:) Thanks for another wonderful post Wendy!
Susan, thank you for sharing such a sweet memory. Dads are our first and most important earthly hero while we’re so young.
Yes they are…he is my mentor and my hero to this day:)
Hi Wendy, I can’t seem to get to your blog from my email notice. Anyone else having that problem?
Wanda, thank you so much for asking. Tomorrow morning I’ll post the first one from this blog address, and it should arrive in your e-mail if you’ve signed up here. I had to wait for a few weeks before using this location (according to some tech advice I received). I’m curious how it will go tomorrow. Hopefully I’ll see you then. 🙂 Change always makes me squirm.