This gallery contains 22 photos.
This past Friday, on the 7th, Brian took me down to the annual Philadelphia Flower Show at the Convention center. I saw that Rachael Ray was going to make an appearance (at a flower show, thought that was interesting as she is known as a cook), and I wanted to see her. We had gotten […]
This gallery contains 23 photos.
Sean and I went to Longwood Gardens a few weeks ago so we could see the holiday decor before it came down. What was exceptionally pretty to me was the outdoor lighting! They really outdid themselves. It was fun to walk among the glowing, glistening tree and things. Not having a tripod made it a […]
This gallery contains 23 photos.
Last week I decided to take a solo journey to Longwood Gardens as I was dying to see their yearly mum display. I was going to try for 1/2 hour and stayed for 2 hours! I walked over to the Conservatory and was wowed by the what I saw! There are over a thousand blooms […]
Last week when Brian was cutting the grass, he said a Monarch butterfly came out of nowhere and he wasn’t sure if he swatted at it or it was just hurt. It was laying in the grass and not really moving a lot. It let me pick it up and it’s one wing looked a little ‘out of joint’. I put it up on a zinnia in a pot and would check it the next day.
The next day it was on the ground, so I scooped him up and put him on the white butterfly bush. Almost immediately, it started to drink through its tube-like tongue, the proboscis, as it went dipping it into each little flower middle.
It still wasn’t moving it’s wings as much as it could, but it looked happier.
The same thing would happen day in and day out for a few days. I moved it around back to the purple butterfly bush too.
You can see the damage on the wing.
Then it started getting braver and wouldn’t let me pick it up. I watched it fly over the roof one day and then land on the branch of the chestnut tree near very prickly burrs. It could surely impale itself on one of them. It then took off again, flying a little zig-zaggingly around the yard.
I haven’t seen it for a few days, but it was neat to be the guardian to such a fragile creature.
All life is fragile.
After looking at photos, I’m pretty sure this is a ‘she’ as she has lots of spots around the border on her wings.
My Moon flower vine and Passion flowers are gracing me with their blooms. I plant the moon flowers by seed and bought the Passion flower plant back in May. What unique treats. The moon flowers smell like talcum powder.
On a personal note, I had been working once a week at a church preschool and they asked me to come in twice a week now and 3 times a week once a month! I’m really flattered by this.
A few days ago, I had injection therapy on my back in three spots. I took one Valium and did fine. The worst one was the shot near my tailbone as the doctor really jammed it in there (fanny area). I can see a difference already! I know I can handle something that some people get put under anesthesia to get. It was only 10-15 minutes. I sure did not like laying on my tummy the most. Sure hope it lasts a while.
This gallery contains 21 photos.
Visiting these gardens have been something I wanted to do for a few years, but never got around to it until a few weeks ago. They have a Facebook page and their photos were tempting me so much! So Brian and I went over to Wayne, PA and spent a few hours enjoying the property […]
Well, that isn’t going to happen with one day left in May. I am rather slow this year with getting my gardens cleaned up because of my arthritis issues. Plus the weather has gone from cold to hot and back again and windy thrown in! I only have two gardens that look fairly good. I’m really proud of the Asian themed one I have under the Japanese maple that came from my mom’s house as a wee sprout. I think all of her kids have one or more of them in their yard as do a few friends.
I love Sweet William or Dianthus and only a few plants came back from last year. I added about 18 new ones in white, burgundy and pink. The bushy one in the front is the only good one from another growing season. I added a few hostas (Brian did the digging for me) and the wild begonias come up by themselves. I also added a few orange impatiens and red begonias. The wild ones are pink. It the pots are Stargazer lilies and a Passion plant.
Next is the red mulch which is really cinnamon color.
I did some planting around the pond where I have the ‘Mod Squad’ of frogs. I always call one Elvis (as in Elvis as left the building, meaning they usually jump in when we approach). The little one I call ‘Squeaky’ as he sounds like a dog toy when he jumps in with a quick squeak and a splash. The other one, well let’s just call him Froggy-lol.
Anyway, I like to plant salvia around there for the hummingbirds. I added a chocolate Cosmo next to the burgundy Coral Bell plant. I’d like a few more ground covers. My Japanese iris gave me one flower.
What is looking good this year are geraniums. I just re-potted mine last night (I always re-pot them and always keep them in pots). I have some bare spots around the house, think I’ll get a few more geraniums.
I used a filter on Instagram and it made my steps look really dirty. But I have to admit, the steps and wall there need a good power washing. That’s the last thing I do.
It got really warm today, about 90. I decided to plant some things in shady areas under my front bushes. I did impatiens and begonias. I then went around and started my fairy and gnome patch and got some little ‘globe’ flowers and snap dragons in before I got tuckered out.
My yellow rose bush is gorgeous! I didn’t prune it back and I am glad I didn’t!
So I had to go to the dentist (filling repair) and doctor to see about my recent blood work. My glucose is was 115 and the doctor felt that it was ‘pre-diabetes’ since I have two siblings with it. I’ve been told that was kind of in the normal range. I really didn’t like my triglycerides being 50 points above what they should be. I’ve been making more vegetable based dinners. Last night we had Black Bean and Sweet Potato chili which I liked better than the kind I’ve been making with meat my entire life! I have some work to do, and I slip up as we have the tempting food in the house and I try to eat fruit or drink water first before I give in.
So I guess it’s better to take my time with gardening anyway. I just want to avoid the mosquitoes and other bugs.
Sean and I went up to Lancaster on Memorial Day as Brian was working. We only did a little shopping, but we also did geocaching! We found 6 out of 8! We saw a couple of covered bridges too.
We were all set to apply for our passports, even got our photos taken at CVS (they look like mug shots as you can’t smile). We then were looking for our birth certificates and Brian has misplaced his! He had to order a copy. We were hoping to go to Canada and Niagara Falls this year….sometime!
Just a little play on words there. Ha ha!
Happy May Day!
My son Sean and I headed over to Longwood Gardens a few days ago so we could see most of the tulips in their full spring glory. I can pretty much say I felt like I was in Holland as the waves of colors and the varieties of tulips were amazing!
Hi Sean!
There were other pretty flowers like poppies
Pansies and such
Tower of Jewels
Canterbury Bells and Begonias
And many more gorgeous things and plants!
I realized it’s been a while since I did a blog post. I’m going to keep this blog as long as possible as it’s a good record for me. I now upload my camera photos right to Flickr and Instagram, so it will be semi-updated there on the sidebar. They won’t have details like my blog, but you can kind of see what I am up to.
So what have I been up to? LOL Well. for one thing, we are climbing up to 300 geocache finds. This is pretty good for someone like me with my issues, but when we go out looking, I tend to forget I hurt sometimes.
Last Friday we went down to historic New Castle, Delaware to look for a few caches. First I wanted to stop near Wilmington to see ‘the biggest cache’ some people have ever seen, this of course is according to the logs for it. Well we found the location and the van-yes, it was the back of a van, like one used for a/c or heating which was near the business where it was parked. We were confused to where the key was to open the cache, feeling around under the bottom of the vehicle for a ‘MKH’-you all know what that is. All we did was knock off rust down there. I finally went into the business and they told me where to look and within a a few minutes we had it! So then we unlocked the back of the van instead of the side-it said to unlock where a certain number was located-duh. I guess we were too excited to see it after all the hype.
Here’s what we found:
This was facing the back. I guess that’s a seat for photo ops! The lights even went on!
Right under this was a big notebook for the log book! There was a travel bug hotel (I was hoping for a bug, but it was empty) and lots of swag.
It was way cool!!!!
We then headed to New Castle and were stumped with a few caches on where to park for them. We had to resort to just picking and choosing off the phone. We did find one near a piling after a bit of a search. The piling was in water and we didn’t feel like falling in. So we took a photo. The cache owner said you have to sign the log, but we can’t be running down to New Castle hoping that the water receded. Finding it was hard enough!
See what I mean? It was mucky all around this area too. You’d need some of those thigh high boots, ‘just in case’.
We snagged a few others and headed to the farmer’s market. We were looking for something to bring home for dinner and found a half of rotisserie chicken and two sides, so bought 3. We had enough chicken for a sandwich the next day! Wow!
Pretty mural near the walkway of the Delaware River
Battery Park coastline near the walk.
The next day was Saturday. We were sitting around and I remembered that a big craft warehouse place in Lancaster County was closing. The discount was up to 60% off and we decided to take a drive there-it would take about an hour. Of course I was again itchy to grab a few caches. We stopped at one called ‘Ghost Train’. It was on an old wooden train bridge. Brian made the find! So proud he saw that one as I was going away from the structure.
We didn’t get to the sale until 4:30 and the place closed at 6:00. I did power shopping. I picked up mostly some Christmas decor and a few Christmas gifts. I got a few things I want to embellish too.
We were going to a smorgasbord, but about 5 lines had 30 people each waiting to get in. And they all will get in and touch all the serving spoons, you get my drift. We ended up retrieving a few caches, one at a tiny cemetery and the other in the parking lot of the restaurant. We had to leave and come back as a full tour bus was right near where we needed to look! They would have wondered why those people were messing with the lamp skirt. Ha ha!
There is a smaller restaurant under the smorgasbord and we ate there. The cheesesteak was a mess! They cut all the way through the bun and piled all this marinara sauce on it. I had to cut it up to eat it as I couldn’t pick it up.
There is a 40k square foot gift shop-it goes on and on! I found an owl wind chime and some Burt’s Bee facial cleanser I needed.
I asked Brian to stop one more time for a cache as I have always wanted to see it. It was an old grist mill in the heart of Amish country. It was getting dark, so I turned on the handy phone light app and although it was 20 feet off, we did find the ammo can.
We had a pretty fun day and found 10 caches in two days!
I think Longwood Gardens will be my next blog post. Sean and I went on Sunday. I have never seen such a variety of tulips in such an array of colors. Here’s a sneak peak!
On the 23rd, Brian and I met my mom and brother over at Longwood Gardens. I bite the bullet and renewed my yearly pass. I say this as I was wondering if I could do the walking there after the past few months. Actually this is bazaar thinking on my part. I ‘need’ to go there for my gardening, flowers and photo fixes. My brother just bought a pass too! He will be bringing my mom out here now. That’s pretty neat.
Brian went along too. As we were walking in, a lady ‘waved’ a ticket in front of his face and said ‘do you want a ‘free’ ticket? Before I could say anything, he said ‘no’! He said he figured I will get a free pass for him via my membership, but still, you have to pay attention to what someone is offering. 😉
It was a nice display and mom said she liked it better than the flower show.
(Brian took a lot of photos too, I can’t remember which he did and I did, so we both will take credit for these).
This was so pretty to walk in to see from the blustery, but sunshiny day:
Yellow is one of my favorite flower colors.
I mean ‘wow’!
I’m a big fan of true blue flowers too! Who doesn’t love these Blue Poppies?
I think these are African Daisies or mums?
Did I mention I like Chartreuse too? Maybe this is a bit more lime color.
Warm colors are nice too.
I like this one for the demo effect-look at the gardeners’ hands. LOL
And what they were making:
Oh I could show you 80 more photos or more! I will be uploading them to Flickr. You will see them in my sidebar there.
A nice man took this on Brian, my mom and me.
Mom has been a bit worn out from her long walk and standing a lot, so I hope brother will push her around in a wheel chair sometimes. Can’t wait for them to see the rest of the gardens!
In the next few days, I’ll share with you our daytrip to Crystal Cave and Roadside America!
This gallery contains 22 photos.
My brother asked if I wanted to go to the Flower Show down in Philly this year and I said fine, but I wanted Brian to come along too. We were going to take the train down from my hometown, but we would have a half hour wait and it would be 2 pm by […]
Collages & Creative Goodness 