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I don’t know if he is giddy from the heat or just acting up for the camera. Thought you’d like to see how he spends his early Friday evenings lately. Sean cuts around the house and Bri gets to do the long and bumpy part of our 1.4 acre lot. The yard ends right about where the truck is. That weedy thing to the left use to be where our garden ended (that’s part of a fence). We decided to go smaller to save work.
I’m thinking about the former classmate of mine that passed away as it was her funeral today-31 years to the day that we graduated from high school. As I was reflecting on that, I see that news journalist Tim Russert had died suddenly at the age of 58. I always enjoyed watching him as he was really excited about reporting, especially the elections. He did get to see his son graduate from Boston College this year.
I know election coverage won’t be the same without him. My mom had just bought his book about his relationship with his dad, ‘Big Russ’ to give my uncle for his birthday. Ironically, my grandfather passed away at the age of 58 also.
Sean’s ‘gal pal’ Kat is graduated from high school tonight. He’s been gone for a few hours to the graduation. She is going to Penn State, but another campus and yes she has a steady boyhood, much to Sean’s chagrin-no he really sees her as a friend. He’s going to her grad party tomorrow night and got her a nice frame with ‘2008’ cut out in the mat so you can add photos under them.
Here’s some more surprises:
I knew I had planted this Clematis out front, but what a neat surprise to see it had really grown and was blooming! I had to untangle it from the bleeding heart there and take a trellis from another area of the yard. It’s a pretty white with a lime green accent.
The Red Hot Pokers are having a good bloom year all around. Here are some next to the pond and gazing ball. I also have the original next to the house in the back and more in the yucca garden.
Here it is up close. It’s a rather unusual bloom isn’t it?
The Sweet peas are coming up well. They are in my herb patch plus in Sean’s garden.
I know I show you a lot of close ups, but here is what I call the Lily/Grass garden. The Lamb’s Ear really has spread well. I have a clematis and moon flower where the supports are. The lilies are situated more in the back. The grape arbor has been here the entire time we have lived in this house. It use to provide us with dark purple grapes, now it has a disease. I’d love to cut it down and plant a variety of azaleas here. The veggie patch is way to the right. And those are Queen Anne’s lace a wildflower next to where I am trying to grow wildflowers. I do see flowers, but I am seeing lots of grass too. I can see why people put a block like newspapers in an area they want to garden to smother and kill the grass, etc. there. You really can’t just rototill it and hope for the best.
I found this Blue Moon delphinium at Lowes the other day. I love true blue flowers. I tried to grow it before, so we’ll see.
And last but not least, for Zoey:
See that little grayish green clump there-my only Rose Campions from the seeds Zoey sent me! They are right near the above plant.
Have a great weekend. I have a funny photo for Photo Hunt tomorrow, so watch this blog. : )
View out the window-pond garden, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
This seems to be the best view, through the dining room window! It’s another scorcher. Schools in the city and surrounding suburbs were closed around noon.
The Canna lily in the pond’s waterfall is blooming! The portulaca looks good as do the purple petunias. The Red Hot Pokers are about to bloom too. The only think that bothers me is the Creeping Charlie taking over the stones. I have added some perennials on the end such as Lupine and English Daisies. I don’t believe Pentas are perennials. You can’t see some of the garden next to the gazing ball. I have some pineapple sage and salvia there.
First my lettuce!
Had some in our shrimp salad boats (hot dog rolls) for dinner tonight. Lots more left too.
And where I snipped it from, the garden in an old tractor tire:
I didn’t pull it out, I snipped it with my kitchen scissors. I plan to do that again before our heat wave arrives as it may bolt. I also have nasturtiums in there. I have nasturtiums everywhere! I just found two more packs of them and decided to add them to flowerpots and in the ground all over the yard.
Then I assembled this cross stitch flat fold for my friend’s upcoming birthday (I don’t think she reads my blog). She’s from Birdsboro, PA and I thought this was perfect. It took me about 3 weeks (exclusively, but not that many hours each evening). It’s a The Prairie Schooler design. Shrinking the photo made it look a bit distorted:
Here’s the backing material. I am glad it matched the design so well as I had bought it years ago!
My garden across from the front door is looking good. The large plant is coreopsis:
Mom suggested floating the fallen begonia blossoms (from the heavy rain) in my different birdbaths:
Peonies are so gorgeous and last such a short time, but unfortunately, both my shrubs had one only bloom this year. Any ideas why? The leaves are healthy!
And last but not least, a cool plant called ‘Spiralis’ surrounded by portacula:
Yes, we are expecting a heat wave starting Saturday-ugh! Got to be expected. I am sure it will boost seed growth. I did weed out my seed only garden of zinnias, etc. and I see more of them all then I thought. Whew.
Sean will cut the grass tomorrow. I asked him to get out the weed whacker to do a few areas. He bought it for me, but it’s for a taller person, or I just can’t handle it well. I loved my little Toro one that I had for about 15+ years and it just fizzled out.
You can bet I couldn’t wait to get outside tonight and see my new mushroom lights change color. I know these are blurry, but trying to hold that heavy camera wasn’t easy.
Earlier, Bri hoed some dirt in the garden and I planted some assorted gourd seeds. Some were red and green colored-interesting. I think the company colors them to differentiate seeds that look so much alike.
Yeah-I finished a cross stitched piece! When I assemble it into something, I’ll share a photo.
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!
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!
A first rose in my rose bed. Last year deer had eaten every bud!
And the last of the irises to bloom: Night Owl
Aren’t they gorgeous? I collected all the tags in the garden as I had a feeling I didn’t see one called ‘Sailor Blue’ or something like that bloom. Will have to write to where I bought them. I do plan on separating these in the fall as they are getting crowded. I will save some for anybody who would like some. I’d like to trade too! Easy peasy to grow!
Although my allergies are the pits-started in the movies last night, (I used Flonase for the first time since I had my eye pressure retested-it works well!) I guess I’ll go to my mom’s. It’s to beautiful a day not to. And I can’t stand weeding in the heat with all the mosquitoes. Who can?
Got the twine, clips and bamboo poles in the mail today (fast), so guess what I’ll be doing tomorrow? Yep, see the photo in a few posts below. I hope I can figure out how Martha and her pals did that with her tomatoes!
The LOST season finale is on tonight!
I’m pleased with the way my pots with the coleus, petunias and lobelia are taking off. No signs of critter munching yet. We have noticed a lot of caterpillars around the yard (they fall on us too!) I got that little wrought iron birdbath at a discount store last Friday. It was missing some bolts and Bri had to find some that would work with it.
This is the garden where I have mostly Sweet William-Dianthus. It is suppose to be a biannual, so I add a pack of them each year. I have little Asian lanterns in there too. That tall, stalky thing looks like Freesia, but it only got like this last year, so I hope the orange flowers make an appearance this year!
I like geraniums in pots and plastic ones at that. I think the tighter they are, the more they bloom. The back of my houses needs some TLC and I’d like to start off painting that railing. I think I painted it red about 21 yrs ago!
I decided to put all ‘3’ hibiscus plants in one big pot. They were really pot bound. It should make an interesting display! They are full of buds!
These are delicate Japanese Irises near my little pond-in the background. The Canna lily I bought does not like it there (see tilted), so I think I will pot it up.
Another shot of that gorgeous Nemesia. And that is a telephone pole in the background.
Thanks to Gary over at tribe.net for animating this for me! He’s a wonderful photographer in California and good at animation too. It’s not working unless you click on the picture-grrrr!
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Today it reached 60 and was so chilly. I went outside and ‘high tailed’ it back in again! I do have things to do inside, no problem. My allergies were in a tailspin and I saw Bri looking for Claritin. Sean cut the grass around the house for the first time in a while and Bri finished off the long part. We’re still trying to get the yard work under control. If you could see the pile of debris you would wonder where it all came from!
Tomorrow seems like it’s going to be a repeat of today. Oh, more clutter control will be under way!
Reached my ‘half’ birthday today-oh joy!
Collages & Creative Goodness 