Milkweed seeds, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
I hope these seeds are the grandparents of the ones I just brought in that are tangled in the bittersweet I found on a geocache hunt down a back road in Lancaster. I guess I need to take a photo of that display also. Seed bursting from their protective coverings are a sure sign on fall.
Philadelphia is a city full of murals. There are so many talented people out there. Brian and I ran across this one near Jeweler’s Row when we were looking for a geocache and attending a tour a few months back. It’s honoring President Lincoln…very fitting as the movie about him is coming out.
I need to live up to my blog name. I have worked on these for a week or so. Some aren’t even finished, but I thought I’d share. I like the lady with guitar a lot.
I’m trying to utilize rubber stamps that I have a ton of too.
Photo Hunt–Seasonal
This was taken last year at Longwood Gardens in mid November-
Look at all the leaves on the tree then!
My father-in-law got his power back after 4 long days. On Tuesday we had called PECO and they said it would be until 11 pm Friday. We found a hotel room for him right away and Brian went over to take him to the room. He wouldn’t budge out of the house. 4 people and two policeman could not make him move out of his cold, dark house, so there he stayed with a dying cellphone. Talk about stubborn. Brian will have to make him promise if something like this happens again, he will heed to his wishes of being safe in a warm room. The man is 89 years old and a bit frail. This made us all stressed out and tense all that time. I would never do that to Sean.
Sean posing in the whiteness, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
One of the last big dumps of snow we have gotten which was the end of January, 2011. We use to have a snow blower, but now the guys rely on pure muscle power. Seeing the snow makes me feel a bit cooler in the heat of August.
Scary old redwood tree, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
This is a spooky looking tree located in Longwood Gardens. In my head I can see little creations or nymphs in those crevices. In fact, this would be so neat lit with the Bruce Munro
exhibit at the gardens right now. Longwood should so do a Halloween display!
American Country Music Awards 2011, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
I try not to miss an opportunity to snap a photo of my favorite singer of almost 40 yrs when he is performing. James Taylor was singing along with the Zac Brown Band on the 2011 American County Awards and looks like he is really enjoying it.
We stopped off in Ocean City, Md on the 21st on the way home from Virginia. It was in the 90s-hot time to be traveling. I was doing some geocaching. Here was a ‘virtual cache’ of me with the island of Assasteague behind me at the inlet area.
Nothing tastes as good as my Grandmom Ruth’s recipe for chili con carne. I use celery and ground turkey with a sprinkling of cinnamon and lots of chili powder (love).
Bathroom update…I did a really stupid thing and could have saved myself a ton of time. The glass mosaic tiles came yesterday and I decided to put them up. I by mistake ordered a multi-color sample and that was glued securely on cardboard. The other two colors were on brown paper. All I really had to do was put the adhesive on in the space, cut the squares, ‘while still on the brown paper’ and push them into the space. I knew the 3/4″ squares wouldn’t need to be cut at all. So why I took them off the paper is beyond me! It meant I had to stick 100 squares on ‘individually’. So that being said, it was messy and I had a lot of cleaning and scraping today. I need to grout it now. Brian bought me the adhesive and we were in Lowe’s today to get grout and lo and behold, they sell adhesive and grout! Why he didn’t get that a few days ago.
Here is what it looks like without the grout. And guess what? Bri is hooking up the sink and it’s going to be even harder for me to grout this! I can’t get to the bottom row at all now unless he unhooks the pipes for an hour.
I got the shower curtain up and the hooks were a little tricky. I noticed Sean knocked two off the pole after showering last night. I hope they work okay.
Update-the sink is installed! Can’t wait to put the white grout in those mosaics!
It sure is more modern! Not sure if we can get rid of the soap and toothbrush holders without hurting the tiles.
I did get to work in the pond garden and got some pretty filler plants like Ornamental Pepper, a pretty raspberry color Salvia, bright yellow Lantana and a few other plants. They should all fill in nicely around the pond. I noticed if I stand where the gazing ball is, the shape is almost heart shaped!
A few of my gardens are disappointing so far-the Sweet William/Asian garden. It’s not a good year for them. My woodland garden was pretty when the Bleeding Hearts were blooming (and they bloomed a month or so!) My Nicotiana looked nice, but the Salvias never took off and are getting nibbled even though I used insectide soap on the constantly. I will probably pop a few marigolds in there.
Last but not least, I couldn’t resist to pick a yellow rose to enjoy. It smells wonderful!
Close-up of wavy videos, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
I think what I love almost as much as seeing the flowers and plants in early March at the Philadelphia Flower Show (especially if it’s been a cold winter) is the ‘creative’ aspect of the show. You’ve got to make me go ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ when I see it to be spectacular. The theme of the show this year was Hawaii (and I was thrilled my brother invited my son and I to go, but alas we aren’t speaking again…). This was an exhibit near the entrance called ‘The Orchid Wave’. There were flowers of course, but the blue part was a video of sea turtles and fish swimming over your head. I will see if someone made a video of this.
Pretty darn spectacular to me.
Brian, Sean and me took my mom back to the Scott Arboretum on the campus of Swarthmore College (Penna). to see their spectacular and magical Bond rose garden.
From a website-
Yet by far the crowning jewel in this already impressive collection is the shockingly gorgeous Dean Bond Rose Garden. Housing 650 roses of more than 200 types, it was established in memorial of Elizabeth Powell Bond, the Dean of Women at Swarthmore. It’s now tradition for graduating seniors of the college to pin a rose on their gown for commencement.
We’re going back in a few weeks to see them in further bloom!Here’s an Artist Trading card I made and had to keep, but I did make a similar one to send my swap partner. My Grandmom Ruth use to call babies ‘baby birds’ so this reminds me of her.
The one I sent my partner:
Collages & Creative Goodness 