Garden Art... and a cute coincidence!

Our travels last week brought us to Plattsburgh for a few days.  Since we were staying with Barb, I was delighted to find this nice piece of garden art at the Hendersonville Garden Festival the weekend before we traveled to serve as a hostess gift.  Barb has nice summer gardens and blue is her favorite color, so I thought this glass and china flower would be a perfect addition to her yard.  I loved the petals on the milk glass larger dish and the electric blue of the custard dish that formed the center of the flower.  I figured it was a real unique gift... certainly one of a kind!

When Barb saw us carrying in the piece of rebar that serves as a stem, she said, "You have your early birthday present upstairs... and it requires a rebar, too!"

So, here's my birthday present:

Barb picked a very similar flower for me!  She knows I'm fond of sunflowers and yellow, so this combination suggested that.  She also painted the rebar green, which is a nice touch.  This little guy is actually six layers of china and glass.  The wind will not carry this away!

 Here it is in it's temporary location between the rosemary and the chives.
While on the topic of yard art, here are a few other things I found in Barb's garden.

It took a lot of drinking, but her bottle tree is in full bloom.  I'm not sure if the wine was all that great, I think it was selected based on the color of the bottle!

Here are two shots of her hummingbird feeder that was made by a North Carolina artist... a past birthday/hostess gift:

 

 And a spoon flower, which I believe Barb bought on one of her North Carolina trips.

 Here is an early birthday gift I bought at Maggie's friend Elizabeth's garden center in Plattsburgh.  (Cook and Gardener, a must stop if you are up that way!)
It's not the greatest picture because it is taken with a backdrop of clouds, but it's a nice rainbow glass wind chime which hangs from a planter tree attached to one of our deck posts.  I love the frosted glass in all those shades of color and so far, I find the gentle tinkling of the chimes pleasant.
Next to it on another "branch" is a twirly copper butterfly shaped wind ornament that I bought last year in Santa Barbara.

 It's a great time of year to be outdoor doing some garden decorating!