The Vine House Again

Here’s how the Vine House is shaping up these days. One side is draped with coral honeysuckle and the other with native pipevine. Lush Boston ferns, in baskets, hang from the roof beams on chains and provide tempting nesting spots for wrens.

In the last six months, I’ve acquired two new Christine Sibley sculptures–the Water Spirit (in blue) and the Fire Spirit (in red). I’m up to 15 pieces now and I’m pretty proud of my collection. I’ve got sunflowers and Naiads and angels and leaf spirits.

It’s a challenge to keep the pots full of color throughout the year. In June, when the petunias died, I filled the smaller clay pots with heat-tolerant purple torenia, and that’s been a real success. Torenia is so tough, it looks full and fat and healthy even now in the dog days. The caladiums are still going strong, but I know they’ll start to get leggy in August. Sadly, their days are numbered.

Though I love this spot (the Vine House, I mean), I’m never quite satisfied with it. I always want to add another little doo-dad. I daydream about buying 10 or 20 crystal prisms and hanging them from the trellises that form the “walls” of the house. They’d catch the sunlight and make rainbows. It would be nice, I think, on a summer afternoon to sit in a periwinkle-painted chair and watch the rainbows play.