Category Archives: yard

Jul11

Lilies and a toad

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Lilies and a toad, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Took these photos Thursday night after a long day of gardening. Bri found the little toad in the grass and he posed for us nicely. (That’s Bri’s hand) The only lilies that aren’t mine are the white ones on the bottom from my last visit to Longwood Gardens.

Update Fri.afternoon-I’m going to get my eyes checked out in an hour. Actually the right has been getting really red off and on for about 3 weeks. The only drops that help are Clear Eyes-which may be giving me rebound red. Seems it started when I put hydrocortisone too close to my eye for a rash on my nose. Who knows?

I think my gums at least look better. See what middle age has in store for you!

I did finally figure out a virus software issue. We have one that not a lot of people have (Panda), it was recommended by a friend whose husband works with computers. It was giving me an error message in the virus protection area. I scanned the computer umpteen times and it was ok. Finally got it in my head to go to client downloads and there was a newer version and it worked. The dang thing needs to be renewed in a month anyway. I just love dilemmas like this-oy!

Jul9

Trying for happy things

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Live Happy ATC, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Just having some fun with ATCs the last few days-I sure needed to do something distracting. This one was a bit challenging, but the fun part is making something cute out of it.

I have to use a rinse for my gums, which I used before and if they aren’t better in a few weeks, I have to go back. Also got one of those rubber pointy things to gently push along that area so the medicine gets in there.

Since I was out, I went to Wally World and bought some more plants to fill in colorless spots. I bought a few different color marigolds which will last until the frost and some Coleus for near Bri’s hot peppers that are under the evergreen out front.

I talked to Karin, a mutual friend of Char’s. She was in disbelief. Char had just sent her husband a birthday card and them a 1st anniversary card. We are just puzzled. Kar had talked to Char many times on the phone. She was in tears a few times. I believe she will call Char’s CL husband soon.

‘Hurricane Schwartz’, our local weatherman, said it is going to be less humid tomorrow, so maybe I’ll plant my new things to spruce up the front.

Jul8

Photo cards

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Last night I ordered a bunch of blank cards to put my photos on. I tried Cafepress.com, but only sold a few things to friends. I figure etsy is a better audience. I may manipulate the photos a bit, adding poetry verses (maybe my own?), we’ll see. I still would like to ‘make’ items for etsy too. I hope you go see Barbara’s Quaker birds there (Mainly Stitching). She really came up with a new original idea. As soon as the blanks come in, I’ll print out some photos and post a few on etsy.

Remember the mystery bird from a few posts ago? Looking through my bird book, it sure looks like a Phoebe to me. I thought it could have been a Pewee, but they have definite white on their wings and not as much of a contrast on their noggins.

Not too much new. I had to take a rare nap today (for like 10 minutes as the phone woke me up) as I had a caffeine induced wakeful night. Darn that Coke!

I’m trying to finish up a stitching project, but my eyes have been really bothering me lately. I think it’s the catkins from the Chestnut trees. I have to use drops to clear them up. I also need to visit the dentist as my gums around a few teeth look like they have craters in them. I have a lot of dental work near the gumline (fillings) and using an electric toothbrush seems to have eroded that area. I hope it’s a quick fix. Bri said he had to get skin grafts on his gums one time. No thank you. I have to go out in the hot, hot weather tomorrow and my van’s air needs recharging-ugh.

Jul7

Grass between the cracks

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The above is a joke to me. I was indeed leaning over pulling grass out of our brick sidewalk out front. We had just had a torrential downpour which loosened it a bit, so I got quite a bit pulled. Bri had to comment about using weedkiller instead of doing it the old-fashioned way. I do it both ways, bud. Anyway, I was thinking while I was doing this, ‘are you going to blog about it’? ; )

I had to go to the grocery store later in the day. It was so humid, you could cut the air with a knife, plus we had a few downpours. I hate humidity, the plants outside love it. They all look like they spent a week in a greenhouse, they were so perky.

I decided to place my two water plants in the deep part of my little pond. I think that them being in the waterfall part was really making the water green. They had some major roots and were meshing together.

Sean is doing well with his internship. He’s been working on a map of the Delco river systems (I think this is what he told me). It’s neat he’s working out of my hometown too.

My kitty has been a rascal-you’ll have to check his blog over in my blogroll called Cosmo Capers.

Speaking of blogs, I decided to switch the blogroll up a bit-deleted some, added some. I have such a long list of bookmarks that I need to do this. Also deleted about 1,600 emails (I kid you not) from three email accounts, two I rarely look at. It was all junk mail!

Jul4

Ka-boom!

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The above is in our driveway. Sean bought a big package of fireworks. It started to rain right as they were finishing up ‘their show’.

And my dinner:

Baby back ribs, coconut shrimp, a little drumstick, red potato salad, tomato with EVOO and fresh basil, green bean salad and cucumber salad. We had brownies for dessert. It would have looked nicer on a pretty plate. After we ate outside (just the 3 of us), it started to drizzle. Mom is over my Uncle Don’s for a few days.

Jul2

My Coleus variety 2008

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My Coleus variety 2008, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Thought you’d like to see all my different coleus. The colors and leaf variety are all so different. If you click on the link, it will take you to flickr and you can see the different names of the plants.

My etsy shop and eBay store has been updated-eBay is loaded with very inexpensive, but nice lots of cross stitch magazines and leaflets. I’m trying to clean out my one stash area before I clean out the things I was saving for myself. Please check them out! Links on right—–>>>>>>

Jul1

I saw a camel today…

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I really did see a camel! I was coming home from CVS and turned on the east end of my road. This lovely farm always has a few donkeys, horses and even alpacas grazing in their fenced area, but I never, ever thought I’d see a two humped camel amongst them! There was no one behind me, so I did a slow cruise to check him out. Someday I’ll take my camera and get some shots if he’s still around. I’m not too crazy about being by myself on our road and getting out of the car since it’s a bit in the sticks.
I had felt rather silly just about 20 minutes before when I parked the wrong way in 15 minute parking in the next town. The meter guy was standing there, just a young fellow and was looking at me with a bit of a smirk on his face. I had parked ‘that way’ every time I parked there since the wintertime. Here I had to turn around and ‘face the flow’, it’s a small side street, but you have to follow the rules.
My van was making a loud chirping noise off and on when I was out and it appeared to be coming from the right side-like it’s done in the past. Brian sprayed the belt that seems to be troublesome and he took it for a spin tonight and said he didn’t hear anything. We want to take it to Penn State in August, so I hope we can finally get it ‘squeakless’. : )
I decided to order Sean’s favorite pizza from the new place-the taco one. It’s really good! It actually tastes more like an appetizer than a pizza.
My brothers wanted to talk to mom tonight and she was up at #3’s house for 3 hours. They want to continue to clean out her house and fix it up. That’s what it was all about. Interesting. And thanks for including me and our older brother. I’m my mom’s main shoulder and I try to make her happy.
I’m not that crazy about July and August. My gardens tend to start to bug me in more than one way-the real bugs and the weeds. We’ve been getting ‘yelled at’ by a catbird (and it’s mate) for the last 4 or so days. They must have babies nearby. It’s really annoying and makes going out very unpleasant, even for Cosmo the cat. I’ve been staying holed up more in the house and making some paper crafts, that I will share here.

Jun29

We ♥ Commerce Bank

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Sean and I went out for a few hours this afternoon. We had to exchange some trousers I had bought as a gift for him. We also had two huge bags of coins that we have saved for many months. Commerce is open on Sundays and they have a free coin counting machine. So we guessed we had $124.00 (they ask if you want to guess) and after all was said and done-we had $197.00! Yes! We split it up and I saved Bri $50 (Sean got $100 since he will be driving the most for his internship) and then we went to Macy’s. Sean got an extra pair of trousers and a few shirts in another store-from the coin money! We then went to a shopping center where Old Navy and Michaels is-I went to Michaels and Sean to O.N. I picked out some things there and went down the clearance aisle and I started to chat with a nice lady there. She asked if I had ‘a coupon’ which I didn’t. It was for after 4pm and for 25% off your total purchase. She had an extra and gave me one. I thanked her and headed to check out and saved $10!

We ate in Friendly’s and shopped a bit in Trader Joe’s then headed home. I called my mom and she had talked with brother #2 and they may be seeing eye to eye again. I seriously hope so. He tends to get mean about things that he doesn’t agree with. I still am not crazy about being chummy with him as I feel like I don’t know him anymore and he talked about me behind my back that night he horned in on our ‘girl’s night out’. I wish mom hadn’t told me he thought I looked fat. He had said that to my face when we went down to visit him in Florida in 2002. Nice isn’t he? I’m not having high hopes about this, but at least, and I’m praying, he’ll treat her nice and with respect.

Anyway, here are some yard shots for your enjoyment. They sure make me smile. : )


This is what I call my herb bed. The Roma tomatoes are taking it over. There’s basil in the front along with fennel and cilantro.

My favorite lilies are blooming too! I missed the first blooms a few days ago.

A pretty hanging basket with pinkish daisy like flowers and portulaca

Look how big the butterfly bush is! You can see the rain gutter there. Not a ton of blooms, but we cut it back a lot last year.

Sean got a B- in his English class he just finished. My boy’s not a writer, so he was happy.

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!