Jun10

A little gem

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Look what I found in the kitchen garden window last night:


Brian had given me this orchid a few years ago. I think it’s bloomed at least 4 times now. It must really like the window. I don’t give it any special treatment and look at the reward I get!
This is probably the last day of the heat wave-yes! I haven’t been going out as my van needs to have the a/c recharged. Now that my brother is going to fix my mom’s car, I can ask him if he can do it soon. It must have a leak as I think this will be the third time now in less than 5 years. I need my air to function. : )
I have to keep a watch of my gum on the bottom middle as it looks inflamed. I think I hurt it with either the electric toothbrush or dental floss. I’ll have the dentist look at it if it isn’t better in a few days. I never had gingivitis and I don’t want to start getting it now. Ugh.

Jun9

View out the window-pond garden

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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.

Jun9

June or August?

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The heat got turned on full blast two months too soon! Eek! It’s horrible. We’ve been holed up inside and only venture out after the sun goes down like vampires. Last night, Sean helped me water things, proclaiming that his dear old ma had a lot of flowers. : ) I will say we ate well on Sunday. First we had scrambled eggs and bacon, then Bri ran out (we needed a few things at the store) and picked up a taco pizza-that was yummy. The same place that made the cheesesteak pizza we had a few weeks back. They are a new place nearby, but I think they need to advertise their ‘gourmet’ pizzas. For dinner I had oven roasted red potatoes and pork tenderloin. And to top that off, Sean took me to Brusters and I had a turtle sundae! I’ve been sweating a lot-calories are getting burned, I swear!

Not much else is new. My Uncle Don turns 85 on the 12th and not sure if we will have a get together. There is so much family tension. Mom needs to have her starter replaced. My younger brother usually works on the car, but something is up-I guess he is so busy! I would love him to charge my a/c in the van one of these days. Poor guy!

Hopefully the heat will break by Wednesday. Bri can’t understand why the air has to run so much. It’s midnight and still around 80!

Thanks to Missy for her link to the peony page. It said my peony may need to be reset and divided. Makes sense to me!

Jun7

Photo Hunt-Bad Hair

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PSHunt
Grab the Scavenger Hunt code.Photo Theme. Join the blogroll. Visit participants.

So let me explain-That’s me above, 3rd grade-Mrs. Allison’s class at Sandy Bank Elementary School-1967-68. My great aunt Edna decided to give me a home perm-left it on too long-fried my hair! They tried to make it curl on the ends. My grandmom added insult to injury by adding a clashing red bow to my hair. (Mom was probably at work). Seems this was the year I got yelled at in class for chewing my hair too! The pink and green dress was one of the only things my father picked out and gave me in my entire life. I also went to speech class and that was a little humiliating. But, I do remember being one of the only kids in class to be able to draw Snoopy and got many requests to do so. I photoshopped the first one to take out some signs of age and to fix the colors. The second one was just for fun. See, I still like to be artistic. : )

Jun5

I’m so proud!

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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.

Jun5

Anniversary wishes

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Family06.jpg, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Happy 26th to my brother Dave and MaryAnne, pictured on the right with their two tall sons. Brian and I met at their wedding as Bri is M’s 1st cousin!
And belated happy 15th anniversary to Ken and Colleen which was on May 22nd. She is next to me and Ken is above our mom.
Ours was the 24th in April.
So far the married ones are doing pretty good staying together! : ) My parents were divorced. Colleen’s mom and dad were married over 30 yrs until his passing. Bri’s parents were married 46 yrs. M lost her dad when she was about 11. It’s interesting to see where we all got our trust and patience-guess it was learned! ; ) I couldn’t find photos of the separate couples, but the above is my almost my entire family, minus my Uncle Don who turns 85 on June 12th (planning a little picnic for him-hope it pans out).

I have my mom here for a few days and she’ll go to my uncle’s in the afternoon. I’ve been getting her to eat regularly which is something she doesn’t do at home. Made an excellent pasta dish with sauteed veggies like eggplant and zucchini and topped with hb eggs, parmesan and feta. It was enjoyed by all.

Jun3

Cousins

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My sister-in-law the hair stylist, gave my noggin a makeover today, so Sean and I got to see my niece and nephew too! Sean hasn’t seen the kids since the end of December. As you can see, my nephew really has grown.

And this little cutie that is somewhat my ‘mini me’ because her dad and I resemble each other.

She was eating some crackers here.

Mom came back with us and will be here a few days for a change of scenery. Her car needs a new starter, so she is hoping my brother will fix it for her soon.

Jun2

Magical mystery tour

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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.

Jun2

Tomato tepees?

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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!