Category Archives: yard

Oct1

I survived the ‘monsoon’ of Sept. 30, 2010

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What a night we had last night. It rained so much, we think the well over filled and it was like someone turned on a faucet next to the water pump. We must have baled 50 gallons of water from that area around 1:30 am-1:45 this morning! The flow would lessen when someone flushed the toilet. It did stop and we all fell into our beds. Because we kept up with the sweeping, etc. we probably saved having much more water to clean up today. Bri had to go get a wet vac this morning as our old one sprang a leak. What a blessing they are. And I am glad most of my things are stored in plastic bins, but I have to move items to make sure all is well. We are all very tired tonight.
I did go take a few photos around the yard. Look at this pretty rose that survived all the rainfall!
I swear the trees even look perkier from that massive drink!
Here is what needs to be cleaned up in the side yard, those prickly Chestnut tree burrs! Yikes. And then the leaves will be next. Bri said he can’t believe it’s the 24th year of cleaning them up.
Messy Chestnut Trees-a squirrel's paradise
And my card for today was made mostly from things that were sent my way. I made the hook from a paper clip.
Hook, Line and Sinker 4" x 4" Collage Card
Hope to hit a church flea market tomorrow as it’s only open until 2.

Aug24

Variegated Nasturtiums

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I took this photo a few weeks ago and this particular pot is just taking off well with it’s display of jewel tone flowers. I’ll have to go take a few new shots of the different ones. I think the variegated leaves are so interesting, like milk was spilled on them. And how easy is it to plant nasturtiums-you poke your finger in the dirty, drop in the seed and cover!
Our veggie garden is finishing up and mostly presented us with cucumbers. We only got 6 zucchini and a few cups of green beans. I see one spaghetti squash. And we have had at least 3 dozen tomatoes, but tossed a lot down the hill too. I asked Farmer Brian if he put down any fertilizer and he said ‘no’. We used Miracle*Gro a few times, but there is nothing like good old manure to sweeten the earth.
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On Saturday we went to a surprise party for my sister-in-law Colleen who hit 40. She’s the youngest of the in-laws and looks great for her age. She was very surprised. I gave her the cutest piggy watering can from good ol’ JoAnn’s with a gift card from Home*Goods. I think she got lots of them, but isn’t it fun to pick out what you really want or like?
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Heading back down to my hometown in the late afternoon. Sean is off and is nice enough to drive me as my van is still iffy with the transmission. It’s a 48 mile round road trip and that’s when we had a leakage issue before. I said we could stop at Tar-gay and the California*Tortilla for dinner.
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Finished the main design on my birthday gift-1 down 8 to go, but the small motifs can probably get finished in a night or two. I’m doing good!

Aug13

A Cicada

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A Cicada, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

These are very prehistoric looking, but also the ‘Mad Max of bugs with the ‘armor’ he is wearing. You mainly just see their left behind casings/skins which was near this one on a stalk of a flower (he was gone within a short time after I took his photo). He’s rather cool looking with his long translucent wings and beady green eyes. The story goes they hibernate under ground for up to 17 yrs. We are hearing lots of the shrill male Cicadas making noises now-and they are very loud!
From Wikipedia… (Someone told us the shrill noise made them blown themselves up! Sounds like a big brother passed on that info!)

After mating, the female cuts slits into the bark of a twig, and into these she deposits her eggs. She may do so repeatedly, until she has laid several hundred eggs. When the eggs hatch, the newborn nymphs drop to the ground, where they burrow. Most cicadas go through a life cycle that lasts from two to five years. Some species have much longer life cycles, such as the North American genus, Magicicada, which has a number of distinct “broods” that go through either a 17-year or, in the South of the USA, a 13-year life cycle. These long life cycles perhaps developed as a response to predators such as the cicada killer wasp and praying mantis. A predator with a shorter life cycle of at least 2 years could not reliably prey upon the cicadas.

Cicadas live underground as nymphs for most of their lives, at depths ranging from about 30 cm (1 ft) down to 2.5 m (about 8½ ft). The nymphs feed on root juice and have strong front legs for digging.

In the final nymphal instar, they construct an exit tunnel to the surface and emerge. They then molt (shed their skins), on a nearby plant for the last time and emerge as adults. The abandoned skins remain, still clinging to the bark of trees.

We had some much needed rain yesterday and my flowers are happy. I like the gardens now because they are doing what they are suppose to do now-thrive! I’m finding many things are being munched by insects though. And the butterflies this year have been abundant which makes me happy too!
I’m having some neck issues, mostly when I lift heavy things or when I start to stir in the morning. I think it’s arthritis from a long ago injury. Just have to live with it and use good ol’ Icy Hot!
Tomorrow night is the Sir Paul concert! Can’t wait!

Aug10

Coordinating

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I think this pot goes so well next to our brick red shed. I plant nasturtium seeds all over in the various gardens and this year they just aren’t taking off. I am hoping when this ‘7th’ heatwave passes (and maybe is the last one for the year, but who knows) will help these particular plants creep, crawl and flower. The other plants are a deep ruby color Nicotiana and a lovely coleus. These plants are doing pretty good this year, though the coleus had a rough start.
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Sean had off so we went down to a mall in Delaware that they are redoing. It looks a lot like one of the biggest malls on the east coast-the King of Prussia mall. The Christiana Mall now has many high end shops. I head right to the sale tables-lol-like in Anthro*polgie. I got some cute things-like travel style rubber stamps, a cute big cup and bowl of the same design and a gift for someone. We ate at the Cheese*cake Factory. I will tell you that I would have been happy to go just for the huge plate of nachos for $5 and the fancy drinks for happy hour. I ended up bringing 2 of my fish tacos home (thx to Rachael*Ray for getting me hooked on them).
Have to share what was just on the news-Sean was pointing out that a town they were showing was where a pal lives and the soldier who came home to the town had the same name as him Sean Collins! LOL

Aug9

What’s wrong with this ATC?

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And why do I have to do another one?
It was a Geisha girl theme and we were to add an Asian symbol and a fan-opps-I added the ‘pearl’. The problem, as someone commented on Flickr, was that the symbols I so carefully stamped and embossed are Chinese and of course Geisha girls are Japanese! Geez. And one of my favorite movies is ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’. I even carefully glued the gold thread around there. Back to work!
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Lazy weekend…read, started a design as a birthday gift, but the future recipient is being a little nasty to me for some unknown reason. I call to see how she is and she asks what I want. I don’t think that’s nice. I bet you guessed who I mean.
Brian trimmed the hedges along the front of the house plus the forsythia near the road. Our hedges on the right were nibbled by deer during the big snow and now they are brown with a bit of green-like an Obama chia pet! (ha ha-and I’m not being unappropriate, there are Obama chia pets). : )
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Wally World is giving Sean some lousy hours until 10-10:30 at night. He’s going to ask to only do that a few times a month. He doesn’t go in until 2:30, but still that time of night is very boring. He may have lead from his uncle-he needs to get that squared away.

Aug5

Follow the stepping stones

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Stepping stones to front door, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I like walking on these stones and need to get a few more as beyond them the ground is worn down to where the path ends (going the other way). I just mulched today near the brick sidewalk and it looks so much better. Two bags of mulch down, one to go, but my roses need a bag too.
Another very sticky day. I really mess with my sinuses going in and out of a cool house to the outside. It’s nice to cross some things off a list too! I’d like to do more inside now. We have a few a few pipes in the basement with leaks-just small ones, but they are 50 yrs old too. A friend on Facebook was telling me how he fixes his 80 yr old pipes.

Jul26

Bad Thunderstorm rolled in Sunday

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Big storm went through here in the afternoon on Sunday. I was going to have Brian cut this grass which is in the center of a circle garden (most of the flowers on the perimeter got eaten) but the 3 inches of rain and 50 mph winds knocked it down. Got a lot of water in our basement. We were at a Phillies baseball game while all this happened. Many roads were washed out and we had to come another way home. We didn’t have power after we were home for almost 4 hours. We were using the broom to sweep the water in a hole in the floor in our basement. After the power came back, Bri used the wet vac and put fans around. I have to move things and toss any cardboard that got wet. We haven’t had so much water in our basement for 23 yrs!

Jul21

Having fun paper collaging

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Crowabout #88 Fairy Challenge, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

During these definite ‘dog days of summer’, I stay where the air is cool, since we are paying heaps of $$$ for it lately. Best thing we ever did to this house. I am in a few Flickr and Swap-bot groups and I trade with people every week. This little wooden plaque was a challenge I don’t have to trade at all! Every week on Flickr, the group coordinator offers up a sheet of photos/designs. We are to use at least 3 from the sheet. On this one I used the pink blossomed tree and stream, the moth fairy, Hummingbird, fairy sign and red leaves. I added a row of butterflies and a skeleton leaf I added glitter to. I think this turned out cute.
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Our garden is giving us mostly Cucumbers! The Zucchini are all flowers and the Green Beans are just giving us a few beans. The tomatoes are good but a bit on the small side. I swear something is tunneling under the garden as a Green Pepper and Tomato are wilting-they are near each other. All that dry and now all this wet! Mother Nature is playing a game with us. I shouldn’t complain as I have had some nice Roses and Daylilies, but you can’t eat them!