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!

Sean and I went to my mom’s with the intention of putting in a shade garden under her lamp post and next to her driveway. It was a bit of a belated Mother’s day gift, in addition to the other things I already gave her. Anyway, it turned from about an hour project to a 3+ hour one! Mom’s neighbor, who is a gardener herself, came over with clippers and tripled our plans. She was cutting down Japanese maples and branches; dug up daylilies and moved them next to a shed and replanted them! My shade garden did get pretty much finished (I forgot my camera).
First we stopped at a nursery and picked up 2 bags of top soil and some impatiens (light pinks and lilac-I wanted white, but they didn’t have any) and begonias. When we got to mom’s, Sean dug out orange daylilies (different ones from the ones I planted last year) around the lamp post. We dumped in the topsoil and then I started planting-first the barrenwort wild hyacinth(?), and hosta I brought from here. Then the impatiens and begonias. I dug about 10 pounds of stones out of this bed-it is next to the driveway! Mom started digging out daylilies in another garden and Sean took over. Sean worked really hard and I am so proud of him. I hope our work gets my mom outside more as she’s been staying in bed a lot lately.
After Wendy’s, we hit Boscov’s garden center (like the one I went to last week with the great prices and plants) and we loaded up on much more for mom’s gardens. I got some white bleeding hearts and white astilbe for the shade garden along with red salvia, and other colorful shade loving annuals. They will go in next visit.

Glad to get home as we are both exhausted and I have a swollen gland in my neck-I get it off and on and it feels weird. I think I’ve had that problem all my life and finally figured it may be from allergies. I took Claritin too and may use a spray of Flonase.

My ‘hippie boys’ won The Amazing Race-woo-hoo! Remember my previous post about them? They beat out the jerks who everyone called ‘the frat boys’ even though they stated at the end that they were college drop outs. They couldn’t figure out the flags from the countries they had been in, (to get to the finish line first)in the right order and that’s how the hippies won as they were smart fellas.
Off to take a much needed shower. Ahhhhh…

These are the three projects in my rotation. The top is A Walk in the Woods by Cross-eyed Cricket (stop cringing at my narrow borders. I think I picked up the wrong piece of evenweave when I started this one. I have the edges securely sewn). Then the blue is Cape May, depicting the local seashore resort in New Jersey that I love. And then you see Rachael’s RR which is nearing completion for it’s June 15th (or before)send off to England. I definitely have some embellishments for that in mind.

Sean and I have been watching King Kong the new version from last year. There is a lot going on in this one and the special effects are good. We have an hour left of the three hours. Sean saw it last year in the theatre with his friends. Not recommended for young kids.

You know this is my niece Tori, right? You should by now. ; )