Oh joy! The local weather guy, Glenn ‘Hurricane’ Schwartz (who we have met) said to expect 20 odd days of over 90 degree weather this summer. It’s dry already!
I was out late this afternoon planting flower seeds. The home center had 40% off the unusual seeds I like-purple and lime color zinnias and white marigolds. I planted them plus some Cosmos. My allium garden got weedy, so I asked Brian to dig a footer around the perimeter of it. I think he dug up about 10 daffodils, though I didn’t run across them when I was planting the seeds. The above flower seeds are no trouble at all. You just have to remember to just cover them with a light topping of 1/4 inch of soil. These are from the last few years.


I cooked a turkey meatloaf for dinner, which was good. I think my dishwasher isn’t set in it’s place well enough because when I open the door, it almost touches the floor and the rubber fittings on the top and sides seems to be showing too much. I guess I should call to get that corrected.
I have all the things I need for the tile work and tin work and wood trim around the new windows. I’m taking a deep breath before I start anything.
I got some more flowers at the home center, many of which were pot bound. I planted about 5 pots, two of which are teapots! I found some pale yellow phlox and put them in with the few roses that I have. This particular bed has a nice border of Sweet William. I’m almost finished. I like to get all my planting done by June 1st and then the rest of the year is maintenance.

After his surgery, he was lowered into water so he wouldn’t hurt himself if he started kicking.

Barbaro and his surgeon (that’s a news trailer on the bottom).

23 pins and a few plates in his back leg.
~Update-Sean and I did take a drive down Rt. 926 after we went to the local home center. He was driving and was going to pull into the hospital drive, but a police officer was there. We only saw a few cars and two local news vans next to the main building. The 11 o’clock news said there was a major news conference there sometime today. I think we missed it. We saw the signs on the fence wishing Barbaro well, which was heartwarming. Jade McCarthy, a local newsperson had an ‘exclusive’ with Barbaro. They showed her talking with the vet and petting a rather quiet Barbaro.

I promised Brian a pot roast and I delivered tonight! I am really tired from a hectic week. It was an ok roast, just a bit on the strong side. The asparagus was tough and a little overcooked. I’m learning to use the stove, and it takes time. : ) But the ‘smashed potatoes’ were yummy, thanks to a recipe in my head from Rachael Ray. I cut up red potatoes and cooked them with the skins on. After they cooked, I ‘smashed’ them and added dried parsley, salt, pepper, butter and the secret ingredient light sour cream! We had cranberry sauce and a nice romaine salad with edamane (raw soy beans) and beefsteak tomato tossed with a Vidalia dressing to make up for the squooshy asparagus.
Clean up was a breeze. I had so many pots, some are soaking in the dishpan! The sink is so big and pretty. Swanstone is as smooth as glass and cleans up nicely. I got a retractable faucet which should help clean that monster sink.
The funniest thing earlier was me forgetting where everything is-like the spices and my corning oven dish. Ha-ha-what an airhead.

Yahoo! The sink and dishwasher are working after a month of hauling a dishpan up and down the basement steps to use the sink there. We are running the dishwasher right now with about three things in it-just to see how it works.
I’m happy and a bit disappointed as Rob, the PM, chickened out on the tinwork. He looked at it again, but I couldn’t find the directions on how to install it (I just looked at the website again and it’s not that complicated). Mom suggested having my brother Ken help us with it. We could wait until he has his kitchen all finished or find someone who can install it or do it ourselves. I think if we take our time, we shouldn’t have any problems as the areas aren’t large where it has to go, but that could be tricky too. I see template making in our future.

Barbaro, the ‘former’ race horse is still nearby at the New Bolton Center. He has about 23 screws in his back leg. They emerged him in water when he was coming out of the anesthesia from his 4 hour operation in case he started to kick. They are showing people coming to the hospital leaving him carrots and apples. I recognized this one lady from a newsclip and sure enough it was a lady I worked with from Sean’s school years ago! Small world. : )

Guess I will go mail some birthday gifts later on to my good friend in Illinois. I haven’t mailed anything at the post office for a month and I don’t really miss it. I have one bid so far on 7 eBay listings that end today. I’ll get more into that now.

I found this on Barbara’s blog. I found it interesting and challenging…

I am from suburbia, from hula hoops and Frisbees.

I am from the rolling, green, sweet scent of honeysuckle in summer, east coast.

I am from the evergreens, dandelions and gladiolus, tall, climbing trees, Queen’s Anne’s lace and gravel driveway.

I am from sparklers and fireworks on the 4th of July and singing when the mood strikes, from ‘Mom mom’Ruth and Mom Jeanne and the proud Strouds.

I am from the ‘see you on the holidays and birthdays’ and to random special phone calls.

From always saying ‘thank you’ and to be weary of boys because they are only after ‘one thing’.

I am from a Catholic marriage but a sometimes attend church Presbyterian upbringing. From knowing a little to starting to understand-just look at the amazing world around you!

I’m from a county seat and a melting pot, from Ellio’s pizza to turkey with all the trimmings.

From the first forest ranger in Oregon to the supposedly brother of John Deere to the brother who is an electronic whiz at a local tv station.

I am from the dusty, fading pages of sticky photo albums to shiny CDS, to plastic boxes with browning carnations and school memory books with silly messages.

What a sad turn of events for such a splendid animal. As I write this, Barbaro is just about 10 minutes away from here at New Bolton Center Animal Hospital in Kennett Square.
We were sitting in a local restaurant when the race came on the tv. There was no sound and we were trying to decipher what was happening. He had a false start and then the injury.
From the news: Barbaro, thought by many to be a serious contender for the Triple Crown if he won the Preakness, was diagnosed with a fracture above and below his ankle. Dr. Larry Bramlage, of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, called it a “life-threatening” injury.
Here’s hoping the ‘young fella’ will be around for more than 3 yrs.

We have been invited to a few events and we decided not to attend them. Sounds rather hasty and nasty, but when people just invite you for a gift and don’t bother with you anyway, then the heck with them. First, a relative had a two kid grad party today-one from high school, one from college. Flashback 4 yrs ago-same relative but 8th grade grad and high school. Go to their house-sit outside and watch elderly relative get bombed. Graduates look at you like they don’t know you. And you never get a thank you for those gifts. Every year you send same people Christmas card-they never send any to you. You stop sending them cards-finally. Relative tells Sean last year he doesn’t need her $25 and never even gives him a card. So you see where I’m coming from.
Wedding invite-another relative gives the groom our address. Say like 3 words to guy getting married in 22 yrs. They don’t invite Sean. Get stuck giving woman I don’t know a bridal shower gift. Send invite back saying we aren’t coming to the wedding. The only person I feel bad for is the groom’s mom. She is Bri’s dad’s sister and I got yelled at for saying indirectly that he should visit his only living sister in the nursing home.

We did go to the fair-it was fun. Mom wanted to go but couldn’t get ready to go early. I spent a lot of time looking for little things for her. I think I spend about $15 on two boxes of things. I got a large cobalt blue vase that will look great in the kitchen or in the middle of the dining room table. I got these little flat ceramic trees as a backdrop for my bunny collection. A local store (or the hospital gift shop) must donate things that didn’t sell or they have too much of. They had cute ceramic pieces like mermaids and little mice. I got a teapot, but when I got it home I noticed it had some of the enamel burnt off the bottom-I don’t dare put that on my stove. I’ll use it as a flower pot. Now I have two teapot-green and blue-a collection.
I saw my uncle’s step granddaughter at the fair. She said how mean he was to her and her mom. My uncle is the same age as Bri’s dad. Why do some older people have to act like the world is against them when we only have their best interests in mind? I don’t get it.

Painted Sky iris…it really looks like a sky over Montana!