Buena Vista

This post is mostly pictures, as my aunt's home and yard are so beautiful.  She lives on five acres in Buena Vista, Oregon.  She is a teacher, but in her spare time, she tends her flower business, Buena Vista Flowers.   And by spare time, I mean the 16 hours that she isn't working as a teacher.  Seriously, she was out until ten o'clock one night working in the yard. Brandon and I felt lazy, as we watched her from our bedroom window, ready for bed.

The sign above is outside her shop.  My aunt specializes in cut flowers and sells her flowers from her shop on the honor system or through special order.  I find it amazing that she prepares beautiful bouquets, places them in her shop, and leaves them unattended for customers.  Here's my aunt cutting peonies from the many rows:

Here's some beautiful yarrow:

Paige loved wandering the flower beds.  See the delphiniums in the back?  Can you imagine having that many beautiful flowers at your disposal?

Here's Paige and my Aunt back in the peonies:

It was hard to get pictures that didn't involve my Aunt working:

But I eventually succeeded.  This is my favorite.  At Paige's baby shower, which my Aunt Michelle hosted, the favors were little pink tins filled with dianthus seeds.  I still have several of them - I know I should have planted them, but I wanted to save the favor.  And it would have made me sad to plant them and then leave, as I would eventually do since we move so much.  A few people at the shower admitted they didn't have green thumbs and gave their seeds to my Aunt Mary.  She started flats and flats of them and then planted them around her shop.  She and Paige are in front of them.  They are the low-growing pink and white flowers.   I had never seen so many at once.  I love that those favors went from a fabulous shower in Orange County three years ago to their current state of prolific bloom at my Aunt's house in Oregon.