Category Archives: yard

Sep1

Pooped pups

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Bri and I decided to go to my uncle’s house and do the yardwork today as it was suppose to be the coolest of Bri’s three off. Uncle Don has a very steep yard and dragging branches and clippings up to the back yard was a workout! His front hedges along the also steep front steps were so overgrown, no one could get up them. To make matters worse, in the garden at the bottom, some kind of viney weed with prickers had taken over a rock garden. Bri even used the hedge clippers to try and cut through it. We did the best that we could, I think it needs some Round Up weed killer to finish the job and the garden needs to redone. He also had a million and one sticks and branches of all sizes all over the backyard. We did the best we could with those. A lot of them were right near the neighbor who brings my uncle milk and bread. His yard was immaculate. I think if I knew my neighbor was in a home for 8 months, I would have cleaned up the area of yard near my house just to be a little helpful. My mom was trying to rake, but she suffers from what yard work she does. Needless to say, we are achy and very exhausted. UD did treat us to some Chinese food, but I wanted a large raspberry iced tea from McD’s, I was way more thirsty.

Even though we were dirty and a little rumbled, we went to a neat book store a few miles down the road. We got a little lost, but found our way there. It’s so big-they must carry 300+ magazines. I bought a few-a Cloth, Paper and Scissors magazine and a Better H&G Halloween issue. Bri bought a book and a few magazines but is too tired to look at them.

Sean enjoyed his first college football game at PSU! He’s in row 10 in the student’s section, so I guess that’s good. The home team won 50 something to nothing! Sean didn’t apply enough sunscreen and got a little burnt on his neck-bad boy!

; )

No photo hunt this week-but about 3 o’clock we were both dirty, but no one took our picture!

So I think the rest of the extended weekend will be more relaxing. Our own yard and bushes need a trim too.Yikes!

Some pals and I are playing with our Windows Movie Maker and I threw together the Fenwick Island one on the top of my Vod Pod list. I need to find a longer song, but it’s not bad for a first try.

Aug29

Touch of Autumn

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close up sunflower
I realized that I haven’t taken too many flower photos lately. I wasn’t thrilled by what I saw around the yard-2 feet tall weeds! I thought I had kept on top of them, but the heat and rain really caused an uproar. I was out tonight pulling weeds, even from the back patio! The ants were not happy. I’m not going overboard, but I will get the gardens/yard presentable. Since I have to pay for online photo storage soon, I am going to start and use Flickr for my photos here. I can upload at their full size too. I love the colors in this sunflower!

On one side of the house, we have a yellow jacket nest in a window well area. They really fly in and out of it quickly, and I’m afraid to even walk by. It’s also near my fairy/gnome garden and glider, so I haven’t really been near that area for a while.

I had a craving for a brownie sundae, so Bri took me to Baskin Robbins tonight. I can’t remember the last time I ate ice cream. I’ve been good and have cooked well balanced meals all this week.

Sean called and said he went and checked his car and started it up. It’s a good distance from his dorm. We are hoping he gets brave enough to start and drive around soon. I have a care package almost ready to mail. It just needs his favorite goodie-7 layer cookies.

Aug27

August, 1989

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My post was getting ‘eaten’, so 3 is the charm. This was taken when Sean was almost 3. He was about to start preschool and had some ‘training’ issues, not too bad. He loved to follow me around in the yard, so busy. He changed a bit as an adult. : ) This is one of my favorite photos of us. Please note that I was not the incredible Hulk mommy. I had to take the photo of this photo at a funny angle to avoid the camera’s flash.
Dianne and Sean

I miss you like crazy, I miss you like crazy, ever since you went away. Every hour of every day…the rest is a love song.

Aug12

The Coleus experiment continues

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I’m a little bleary-eyed from tweaking my nature photos for the Cafepress.com store. I was also going through my Flickr photos looking for good ones. I needed a break, so I went outside and noticed that my little coleus plants had really taken root and needed their own pots:

Baby coleus
I love the crimson red ‘stained glass’ one. I also realized I didn’t have any from the lime green or frilly one in my windowbox, so I clipped some to root. The mama red one needed to be topped, so I stuck what I pinched in more soil. I’m giving some to mom, but I want to try and overwinter the young ones in my front window.
Here’s a hanging basket that I recently planted with some coleus babies in it:
Newer hanging basket
Sean bought me a new weed whacker today! It’s a Craftsmen and can that sucker trim! I wasn’t up to doing it today, but it should cut the time I spend trimming in half. Bri used my old one yesterday and lost the spring that held the spool in place.

My friend Gret and I are doing an artsy challenge-do one collage page a day in a book. She’s a few days ahead of me, but it’s fun! The pages aren’t huge, but you really have to think about what you what to do. Mine today:
Bee work
The bees, wording, zinnia and elves are from a 1952 kids science book.
And last but not least, a neat shot, worthy of my new store, maybe?
Hugging bees
Keep my friend Barbara in your thoughts and prayers. She had a sad thing happen to her lately. Big hugs.

Aug10

Flowers amongst weeds

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When I way checking out the front garden the other day, I noticed this:

Lime & purple clematic
I hadn’t seen it this year or for a while! What a neat Clematis plant. It sure looks pretty around the bells.
And as a new purchase back in May, 2005.
When new-5/2007
I’m a little inspired (a little) to weed one of these days to see what else is hiding from me!

Aug8

Squashed it is!

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The green beans, my little zinnias, mini sunflowers and most of my squash are gone. : (

However, I did pick 6 more squash, so the count is still growing. I will check again in a few days, but there are so many fallen apples, I’m a bit afraid that the stinging critters will go after them. Mr. Groundhog should be in hog heaven if he ventures out to that part of the yard. When I retrieved the squash, I had to walk on the big, thick stems of those plants. It breaks my heart to see it that way. I wonder if I could replant and get an early fall harvest? We have nice weather until the end of September or beginning of October a lot of times. That of course would mean doing a big clean up and we are going to the beach next week for a few days and the following week is the drive to PSU.

Both guys went out to cut more branches down after a spaghetti dinner, so they were pretty full. When they came in, they got a banana/pineapple/guava smoothie in a new smoothie maker! Sean gets 20% off at work, so he picked one up for us.

I’m in a cleaning mood still (gasp) and did half the family room before doing a few baskets of laundry. I seem to put off the book end of this room all the time. I just start sorting out my books and end up reading them.

Hopefully we can see my mom tomorrow and maybe go to BJs so Sean can get a few large items he needs for college. The time is growing so near now.

Aug7

Crash!

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It’s so darn muggy! When I got up it was 80 degrees outside already. I wanted to mail off a birthday card to a pal in Ireland and was filling it out when the UPS guy brought my new flip phone! It’s pretty cool and Sean has one almost just like it. With a rebate of $50 it will be a freebie. It pays to call up your provider and see if they have any specials. They would not have accepted the rebate if I had bought the phone at Wally World and some other places. Yes, it’s magenta!

My new phone

So what’s the title up there about? I happen to look in the direction of the vegetable garden and the fairly good size apple tree there had fallen over directly in the green beans and yellow squash part of the garden, the area I take care of! Bri may have a hard time cleaning it all up, but maybe we’ll be able to save the garden. I don’t know if my ‘count the squash’ contest is still on as it literally got squashed last night! The tomatoes are fine. The tomatoes are visible in the foreground and the my part of the garden is under the tree. We only have a chicken wire mesh fence. I kinda know why it fell over. This and the two pear trees next to it are suppose to be dwarf trees and were not kept trimmed back correctly. It’s not like I didn’t remind ‘someone’. The pears are hardly producing anymore and he won’t cut them down.

Fallen down

Another angle of the apple tree

My uncle needs someone to put his a/c units back in the windows of his house. If he can’t find anyone, Bri and Sean will have to go over and help him. I’m hoping someone will do it today.

Update late Tuesday-Bri and Sean went out after dinner to clear away some of the tree. Sean couldn’t stand the horrible humidity and Bri wouldn’t give the trimming up until over an hour later! He came in looking like he had been in a downpour-he was drenched to the bone from perspiration. The veggies are pretty well squashed. I reached in and got 1 MORE SQUASH! ; ) I think one in the far corner didn’t get ruined. I came in and made strawberry smoothies. Thanks again to Carole for the idea of freezing the berries on a tray first. It took a while with ice and strawberries (live and learn-like put a few in at a time instead of dumping them all and making the motor run weird). I think I need a new smoothie maker as the one we have is letting off an electrical burn smell. Sean can pick me up one at Big Lots.

We watched a movie called Disturbia. It was really scary at the end! One of the characters was played by David Morse, a resident of Penna. I still think he was the best in St. Elsewhere (doctor show from the 80s).

The lady who came to help my uncle today put in the a/c units (they are small ones) for him and cleaned like crazy too!  I hope she comes several times a week.

Please check out my new link to a cool art e-zine. I’ve been visiting there a lot lately!

Watch out for spammers who use your old blog entries to comment. I wrote to word press about it and finally just ended up taking off this particular entry they were using all the time. I deleted about 10 comments today and some were a bit obscene. I just removed my archives from this blog to see if that helps.