About BHM

Hi. I'm Alexandria. Welcome to this space! Here you will find books, flowers, pets, recipes, and sometimes kids; thoughts about manners, being present in your life, and how to treat people - all just my opinion. Some of it, I hope you find helpful. Some of it, I hope you find insightful. Some of it, I thank you for letting me vent.  It's basically my life in progress - from behind the scenes - monthly-ish, plus occasional bunnies! Thank you for joining us.

If you'd like to hear a little more from behind the scenes, I've recently (January 2021) joined a friend's podcast several times a month. Click here to check out episode 47. And here for episode 54.

Newer pic of me (Can't say I love the angle.)

It's Bunny Haven Manor because whenever I put in a garden, the lawn becomes a sanctuary for bunnies. They come in flocks and frolic. Original, East, North or Riverview. They are all Bunny Haven Manor!

2014 (?) pic of me from when I started the blog

 

TODAY at BUNNY HAVEN MANOR (Riverview)

There's a new space in late 2020. In the North, just off the river to the inland sea. Most of the herd came with me. (As did George the Garden Dragon.) The kidlets are invited to visit.  (And for the curious, nothing bad happened. It was just time. All things have a season.) In the 1st week I was there, I planted bulbs. Because my house always has a garden. Then I put out a welcome mat. So far, I've spotted a grey squirrel and deer. My bunnies will come soon.

YESTERDAY at BUNNY HAVEN MANOR (North)

We lived near Lake Michigan on 5 acres of a 20 acre family farm in a house overflowing with cats and kids. The kids grew up and moved out, and we just added more cats. As of this moment (Summer 2018) I think we are done adding to both categories! Here's us:

This is Israel (20) with her husband, Isaac - to the left. The wedding was a snow-tastic day (like the inside of a snow globe) for the start of their life.


There is also 18, 17, 13 and 11- but they are too young to be pictured. (No worries - I update this.)


And this is us - me and Guy - at the wedding. (Yes, there was a color theme and it just happens to be my favorite!) He brought the 5 #NotMyKids into my life. (Don't worry - I paid him back in pets. Check out The Herd.)

Other than that.... I have a small garden, we go to the beach a lot, I cook often and read too much (which I share with you on this blog) Sometimes I even write a bit beyond this blog. 

LONG AGO at BUNNY HAVEN MANOR (East)

There was a different space - Bunny Haven Manor East. (I painted.  Shutters. Lawn furniture. Many many things.) New herd.  New garden. New lawn bunnies. A new life, for a while. It was a pretty place with lots of flowers and a very nice garden. It's where Coco and Rusty came into my world. 

Columbine
aka Floral Butterflies

Spiderwort

A late blooming rose + a first year hosta

A bit of the new garden

For 2015, I added raspberries - they should bloom from June to September in 2016! Plus zucchini, green onions, yellow tomatoes and other single year things. And a long-term project, an asparagus patch for the human male who loves asparagus. Over the summer I added a shade garden to the shady side of the house and a host of new lilies to the sunny side.  We noticed our spring flowers were spotty - so this fall I added more daffodils and tulips. 2016 will be a beautiful year at Bunny Haven Manor East, even though I won't be there to enjoy it.

This year - 2014 -  (and last fall) I planted salvia, hosta, canna, lemon balm, spiderwort, bee balm and more to add pizzazz to the roses and lilacs that were already there. Plus a small garden - peppers, tomatoes, basil, oregano, cucumbers, squash and chives - went in the corner of the yard. Some plants grew better than others. (The lemon balm - as anyone who knows mints knows - took off! The cucumbers and tomatoes were also very prolific). A garden is always a work in progress. For next spring - 2015,  I've already planted crocus, daylilies, hyacinths, irises, and tulips. There are plans for putting in a more formal cutting garden area in the spring and I'll have to have peonies in that, of course. It's just a matter of time (or thyme).

 

ORIGINAL BUNNY HAVEN MANOR

Welcome! The house is called Bunny Haven Manor as all the neighborhood bunnies visit! Here are a few images from the yard....

The now ex-husband built this trellis and the raised bed gardens, but the rest - the growing things and making it a home, those are my work.

 When I first moved into Bunny Haven Manor, it was well planted in that there was a continuous show of spring/summer color in yellows, pinks, and lavenders. Unfortunately, most of the flowers lacked scent! Quelle horreur!  (In my world at least - allergies, schmallergies! Give me roses, peonies, lilies,  lilacs, jasmine to perfume the air...) I also sadly discovered that the vast hedge of Rose of Sharon - 75 feet on each side of the house and 50 feet across the backyard - gave me a vicious rash similar to the worst poison ivy you have ever seen. (Someone I work with once actually stopped a businesses meeting to comment on the lack of expected scarring after one of the rash incidents.) 

For those of you who have not experienced Rose of Sharon - it is beautiful, if you do flower pounding it creates gorgeous colors, hummingbirds love it, it flowers during that July to August time when there isn't much else, and you can't get rid of it. It comes up from seed; it spreads by root; you can even bury part of a branch and create a new bush! Indestructible

Bunny Haven Manor was blessed with many garden gifts from family and friends, and  became a grand experiment. 

• Transplanted forsythias, hostas, and muscari. (They were already acclimated to the yard. I only extra water when plants are new - after that they either work in our climate or not. No babying!) 
• Bought the on-clearance, end-of-season, very hardy plants (roses and lilacs), shrubs (lilacs, flowering almond),  and trees (two peach trees to shield us from the Kravitzs). 
• Put in blueberry bushes - although that was not a rousing success.  (I may try honeyberries next.)
• Bought plants from our church fundraiser (echinacea, lilies and strawberries). 
• Added bulbs - tulips, hyacinths, and crocuses by the cubic yard. (FYI - crocuses are superior bunny food! We got to enjoy them for just a few days before the purples and whites were eaten to nubs. The bunnies left the yellows crocus.)

Flowering almond (on clearance)

Lilies we bought as bulbs from the church fundraiser

What can I say? They made me laugh. That area is a little bare pending the growth of the tree peony

The vegetable and herb garden was more of a lark. 

• Weird herbs - too much basil, old-fashioned yarrow for no apparent reason, lemon verbena because I like the smell. (Tip from my mom - harvest all the basil. Make pesto. Freeze for the pesto later use, using extra ice cube trays covered with wax paper.) 
• Things we liked - tomatoes*, radishes, potatoes, peppers, cucumbers, carrots. 
• Things for no apparent reason - cabbage, neither of us like it. 
• Things that made me laugh - purple cow beans. 
• And I planted veggies for the flowers  - okra and scarlet runner beans. 

The garden was both bountiful and freaky.

*Two heirloom varieties - Black Russian and Hillbilly - because they made me laugh. (They also went completely Little Shop of Horrors after a very small application of organic fertilizer - two plants ended up taking over a 8ft by 6 ft space and grew into the adjacent forsythia. It totally smothered out all but 2 of the carrots. We harvested about 500 tomatoes from the two plants. Really!)

Potatoes, peaches and cucumbers - the rest are all tomatoes...

Okra flower

Another harvest day - tomatoes, okra, beans, peppers. And yes, I posed the veggies in this one.

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Take away -  A garden is the best metaphor for life. You plan, you work - and parts of it just turn out differently than you expected. Always remember to stop and smell the roses (or peonies)!