Monday, May 11, 2009

From One Sea of Purple and Yellow to Another

This past weekend was graduation at James Madison University. We have one daughter who graduated Friday evening with her Masters and our other daughter graduated on Saturday morning with her undergrad degree.
When one starts a special weekend in Harrisonburg the first stop should always be 'The Little Grill'. It is a wonderful co-op grill, very college town atmosphere. We went on Thursday night which is breakfast night. Lots of fun.


Hippies, pay heed to the sign. No trip to Harrisonburg is complete without a trip to Kline's!!!

Flavor of the week this week was Raspberry.

Friday evening graduation ceremony was for those completing Masters and Doctorate degrees. With all the rains that have been gracing the area, luckily it was indoors in the Convocation Center. I see my sweet cherub in this photo.....

Here she is lined up to receive her diploma....

Saturday morning-- still no rain, but now we are outside in Bridgeforth Stadium. And the river of purple begins............


And yes, I can see my second little cherub in this photo......



We were lucky and had no rain for both the big ceremony in the stadium as well as the college ceremony on Hillside field.
It was a wonderful weekend, and a little bittersweet. My babies have both graduated. We are enormously proud of both of them. When we got home it looks as if the garden was celebrating JMU purple and yellow as well.


Lots of Spiderwort, Tradescantia, mixed with Salvia 'Maynight', Stringy stonecrop, Wallflower, and Dusty Miller.


I have both the Tradescantia virginica and Tradescantia 'Sweet Kate' --makes for a nice combination of color.



A nice purple phlox (from a seed mix packet the girls brought back from Ireland) and an Iris pseudacorus.

Will have more photos of garden blooms later in the week.

17 comments:

  1. Purple and yellow? No question about it! A big hearty congrats to both the grads and the parents too.

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  2. Hi Tina! Many thanks. It was a big weekend.

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  3. Congratulations to both of your girls. Such a great accomplishment and you must be so proud!
    The gardens look beautiful - I love Spiderwort. I have a purple one and a fuchsia colored one. I don't know the names of either as one was purchased at a farmers market and the other given to me by a friend. But they are both very pretty!

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  4. Congratulations, Janet! I can imagine you're thrilled and relieved. It's cool that the garden was also joining in the celebratory efforts. And I'm glad the rain let up. What a nice Mother's Day it was for you.

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  5. Looks like your garden would fit right in with the College colors right now. :) Congrats to both of your daughters on their graduations.

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  6. Congratulations to both cherubs Janet! My eldest cherub graduated this weekend too from Berklee College of Music. But she decided not to go through the ceremony...diploma in the mail.

    I love the flowers. They do seem to get the spirit of the occasion. What a nice Mother's Day gift. Two diplomas!

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  7. What a wonderful way to spend Mother's Day!! I love you purple and yellow blooms... my two favorite colors. :) Congratulations to the graduates!!

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  8. Hi Janet, a big congratulations to both cherubs and parents. The sea of purple and yellow was just for them! :-)
    Frances

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  9. I love yellow and purple a great combo no matter where it's growing! Congrats to your sweeties on their graduations! I know you are proud...gail

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  10. Such beautiful cherubs (I can almost see them!) and flowers (I CAN see them!). The purple and yellow really looks pretty together. Makes me wonder why I don't have much yellow in my gardens. That should change! Congrat's on these big events...such big steps for the girls, and the parents!

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  11. Linda, I like spiderwort in small doses, but mine has reseeded all over. I thin it out all the time! I do like the Sweet Kate. Love the contrast with the foliage and the bloom. (and thanks! yes, very proud)
    Grace, thrilled is almost an understatement! We were worried about the rain...feels like monsoon season here.
    Racquel, I have always liked yellow and purple, as luck would have it, they picked JMU with those colors. :-)
    Lauren, Berklee College of Music, how wonderful. congrats to you as well! one of mine minored in music...what will yours do with music?
    Liisa, they are good colors aren't they? thanks.
    Frances, thanks a bunch, yellow and purple screams CELEBRATE to me. :-D
    Gail, thanks I am very proud.
    Jan, yes, they are the ones in the center and on the left. ;-) graduating is really a big step. The color yellow is a good 'punch' of bright.

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  12. Congrats on the grads! And thanks for calling purple purple instead of blue. I think the hort world would flunk kindergarten because of their color blindness towards violet flowers that are not blue. Someday I'll write a post on this and vent :-)

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  13. Hi VW- thanks for the congrats. Purple is one of my favorite colors, so it is easy to call it what it is!! When you see the sea of purple robes on the graduates, then the blooms right next to it...hard to call it anything else! :)

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  14. What a great occasion! Congratulations.... And the photos of your garden flowers are lovely.

    Lisa

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  15. Hi Lisa, thanks. It was a wonderful occasion. I am going to put more photos of the garden up in the morning.

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  16. Congrats! I have to tell Chris about Klines and the Little Grill. I'm sure he has no clue. So glad it didn't rain on ya'll. Their robes look royal and rich. What a very classy university and you should be proud. It's pretty tough academically.

    My boys will all be together this weekend up at Chris' place in Harrisonburg. They are going flyfishing.

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  17. Thanks Anna,
    Yes, tell Chris about the Little Grill and I am sure he knows about Klines...think everyone knows about Klines. Purple is pretty regal.
    Hope the guys catch some fish!!

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