and it seems like far away, we used to go fly fishing, mostly on the Meramec River between Steelville and St. James MO. Because my mother-in-law lived with us, we were able to leave 3 then fairly small kids with her for the occasional weekend float trip. The original method was to put in downstream and motor upstream to where we planned to camp & fish. That way, if anything went wrong, the truck was downstream, so we didn’t have to paddle a loaded 19′ aluminum canoe up the river. We often went in the off-season, and woke up 1 morning I remember to temps in the 20’s, and a pretty good layer of frost on the sleeping bags 😉 Unfortunately, life eventually got in the way and those trips are only fond memories.
This clump of Amsonia/Dogbane is one enduring souvenir from those trips, in spite the construction project, in which a number of plants were lost. In looking it up, I discovered that it’s closely related to the milkweeds, oleanders and also vinca or periwinkle. In fall, it’s a lovely golden color.
Amsonia illustris.
The yellow rose has more flowers open practically every day.
Today we planted 2 new shrubs, after taking out a couple of pretty, but extremely invasive honeysuckle bushes. The witchhazel (l) and the winterberry holly (r) will fill in the space nicely, once they get going. 
Vine Lace Set is now up on Patternfish – please take a look!
Vine Lace Set
May 17, 2013 at 8:03 am
Why not plan a fly fishing trip now? 😀 Maybe not camping out for the weekend. Maybe a nice cabin retreat. 😀
May 17, 2013 at 2:14 pm
Love the new design! So pretty and perfect for warm weather. And, what lovely memories. Have a great weekend.