Category Archives: 1

Jul28

Inspirational to me

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Phoe Knits is having a pink contest with some great giveaways (Thanks to Missy at A Treehugger’s Wife for the thumbs up on this). She is judging part of the giveaway on what is inspirational to you. So here goes…

My mom…her singing and artistic abilities have been a blessing to me her only daughter as she has taught me and passed them on to me…
DiMomxmas05.jpg

My only child…watching him grow and learn has been the greatest treasure of my life… (thanks to his dad for helping me have such a great kid!)
nd Sean Mother's Day 2008
And people I have met online like my late friend Charlotte. She gave so unselfishly of herself through her stitching for sick kids and kindness to her faraway friends like me. I’ll never forget her and will carry on her mission.
Charlotte in Memorium

Jun22

Rust affecting the Shasta Daisies

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Rust affecting the Shasta Daisies, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Here’s what I was talking about in my previous post. See the spots? I did take many of them off by hand. Not sure if that will help or not.

My 50 gallon in ground pond was in ‘distress’. I have never seen it so full of algae, mud, you name it. It reminded me of my cousin’s big pond behind their farmhouse that we use to swim in. Icky mucky! I have no trouble sticking my hand in algae-it’s like long green threads. I use to make a mean mud pie as a kid. : ) So I decided to bail it out. Bri came out and did a few, but my back is going to feel it tomorrow. I even pulled out the two meshed encased waterlilies and peeled the algae off of them. I was fascinated that one was the home to earthworms as I didn’t know they lived under water. I’ll see how it looks tomorrow and if more bailing needs to be done.

The guys went over to the patriarch’s again as tomorrow he turns 85. I helped Bri pick out a food basket and a cake. I also suggested they take over a gourmet pizza from our new favorite pizza joint. Sean almost begged to go out to eat, even to Friendly’s but pop declined. He does get out of the house to ride the bus to Atlantic City though. I feel when he knows I am coming, he needs to clean, etc. Plus I can’t eat their usual choice of take-out. I use to take food over there all the time. It was so much work. And he use to take us out to restaurants too. We would have paid today. The people he wants are there IMHO.

The weatherman got it wrong about thunderstorms, so I was watering things yesterday and today. Bri trimmed our front hedges that run along the house and didn’t cover my impatiens on one side, etc so that was a mess to clean up. And I am so discouraged as deer have eaten all my sunflowers, leaves on my Hollyhock, leaves on my Dinner Plate Hibiscus and about a dozen buds off of one of my roses. I am happy that my tomato tepees are holding up so far. Those plastic clips that Martha Stewart suggested are great. Instead of using string or panty hose, these little circular clip with a latch do the trick.

Stay cool!

Jun2

Tomato tepees?

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Today I was planting zucchini and beans in one part of the garden. I would like to toss a few gourd seeds in there to ‘ramble’ and to see if they amount to anything. I then tried to make the tomato tepees as strong as possible by adding metal poles I had. It’s a process. I hope it works. I think you have to keep the tomato vines as sucker-free as possible because they usually get heavy. I’ll add a photo if all goes well and they stay up.

Things have quieted down over at my group. I posted a blog comment over there (not here) about possibly leaving and mentioned indirectly who was causing me to think this way, no names. So the lady giving me the grief posted the first comment revealing the who, what and wheres of the situation. She then went on to publish it in two more places until I took the original off and she did hers. I read her grandfather was having surgery today, so I wished him well in a note to her.

It drives me bonkers though when someone completely ignores my point of view-like my brother did. The cons for this trip outweighted the pros. If you are thinking about having a get together with blog pals, research the travel options first. Make sure everyone is on the same page. My friend didn’t want to travel at all, not to even meet us half way someplace. She also didn’t want us to go to the tourist attraction, but to spend 4 days with her exclusively. How many of you would want to spend 4 days with someone you really don’t know that well? These are my thoughts.

With the cost of gas, we won’t even be traveling that much this year!

Off to the store in a few, though Sean is taking me. I have a tire that keeps going flat on the van! Bri is going to get that taken care of tomorrow.

I was so out of sorts yesterday, I could not get the fountain fixture in the pond to stay upright and to keep the tubing to the waterfall attached to that. I waited until the water settled today and it dawned on me that the tall plastic container that my water plants came in would be more stable. It worked! I was so happy. And happy that the changing mushroom solar lights came today too!

May30

6 months ago

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I got our ‘reunion guy’ as a pal on Facebook (which reminds me, if anyone who reads this wants to be a pal on Facebook, let me know!) and he shared the link to our 30 reunion photos. It was a little over 6 months ago and you know I had that biopsy looming. We had the little disposal cameras on each table. I was really happy to see this one:

and this too:

I really like the first one! I am holding up the reunion book in this shot, no one else did. : ) I guess Brian took that one.

Seems there were at least 3 or more other get-togethers, one being a Bon Fire feast where the host Bill had venison stew and lots of vittles. Still a lot ‘earthy’ folks in my class.

Late Thursday afternoon was spent pulling out honeysuckle vines growing up near my mom’s one side of her house. I think ‘phase one’ is finished. I now have to dig deeper to find those blasted roots! I had the entire area cleaned out a few years ago. I came close to poison ivy-a bit afraid I’ll wake up with it tomorrow. My back is complaining right now. At least mom’s gardens are starting to look better!

May18

Bloomin’ Saturday

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Yellow Calendula, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I plan to plant these around the edge of my Yucca bed near the road. When I spied them at the nursery, they all looked this gorgeous, but the container they are in was bone dry. I figured if they could take that abuse, I want to see what they look like with some TLC.
Sean took me to a hospital fair Saturday which turned out to have moved to another location. We were told they did that as they had planned to do renovations at the hospital, which they hadn’t started yet. There was no white elephant table or vendors, two places we love to roam through. We ended up buying raffle tickets for a car and other goodies (crossing fingers) and homemade donuts-I’m feeling the affects of those today.
Last night, our parish gave our priest a new Chrysler Sebring as a gift for 20 years of service to the community. He said he was speechless!

May3

Photo Hunt-Time

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PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.
White star wine bottles, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Time does march on……
These bottles were found on the White Star shipwreck the S.S. Republic. They still sealed and contained wine and were being tested to see if they were still drinkable.

The RMS Republic was the pride of the White Star Steamship Company prior to the
building of the R.M.S. Titanic in 1912. The ship foundered at sea 50 miles south of
Nantucket Island on January 24, 1909.

If you like exhibits, especially FREE ones, stop by the Shipwreck Museum in Fenwick Island, Delaware. They change their exhibits all the time.

May1

It’s a favorite childhood toy party!

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Thanks to Scrappy Jessi for hosting this fun event.

Ok, when I was really little I loved my Thumbelina baby doll. Here I am with her and my mom (with the funky 60s do with the faux braid and me still parting my hair on the left!)

And here she is about 41 years later, a little worse for wear:

The poor thing needs a good scrub, which I will try to do if I think about it, but I should ‘honor’ her presence, since I have had her this long. I had cut her hair and chewed on her fingers back then. She’s been through a lot with me.

Here is a photo of my brother and I at Christmas playing with our Flintstone building blocks. We use to fight over them:

When I was a little older, I started to love Barbie and her friends:

They could also do with a little sprucing up. Poor Barbie’s fanny is peeking out of the lace in the back! I also have my original case and a few others dolls (somewhere). And I do have some newer collector’s Barbies in the guest room. I was wise and kept most of them in their boxes. My favorite-the Van Gogh Sunflower Barbie and the Vera Wang bride.

I also loved my coloring books, crayons, markers, drawing pads, chalk boards, books, Silly Putty, Fuzzy Wuzzy soap, Lite Brite, Spirograph, play dough, two wheeler bike with the banana seat and monkey bars, board games like Mouse Trap and Monopoly and even checkers! I could go on!

I wanted to add a few of my son (21.5 yrs old now) :

Here he is with his dad using his magna doodle board.

And here he is showing us his creation (he’s about 3 here):

And last but not least, his favorite bears Snuggle and Boo (very well loved):