May12

Nor’easter blew out power for 5 hours

Posted on Monday, May 12, 2008 by Dianne

We just got technology back at 4 pm-it was gone from us since a little before 11! What a pain! It’s too rainy and chilly to do anything outside, and a bit dark to do anything inside! I did go through some bags in my bedroom and condensed them. I had been in my bedroom all day Saturday doing the winter to summer clothes switch-a-roo. So proud to be on my 3rd bag for Goodwill donations. Sean did add stuff though. I never have enough room for my clothes in the armoire. I take pretty good care of them (line dry many things) so I have them for years!

We did take mom out to a Chinese dinner which is usually a ‘no-no’ for me, but I got out voted 3 to 1! The restaurant smelled funny, like they had had a water leak-wet rugs. I think we should have left and gone to the Jewish deli place across the shopping center, but mom reminded me we didn’t like what we had there one time. Mom goes to this restaurant a bunch, so we stayed and shared ‘Seven Stars around the Moon’ for two. It was nicely presented (Sean has a photo on his camera phone) and was pretty good, not too much of an MSG taste. They had the shrimp butterflied and cooked with bacon-quite yummy. We also stopped briefly in a Dollar Tree and AC Moore and I got a magazine and few little gift items and things. Mom wasn’t feeling well, so we dropped her off and came home, but hit a new Target where Sean and I looked around for a bit and shopped. Oh, the entire day my left knee was so sore! When I came home (after Baskin Robbins) I used the heating pad and it went away! Amazing.

Today I did a few ATCs by the light of a little lantern. I wound up some music boxes! It was too quiet! When Sean came home from a Longwood Gardens job interview (which he says sounds good), we played Trivial Pursuit, but just answered questions without using the board part. I called my mom as she had gone to the hearing dept at the hospital and she had water in her ears’ tubes which may be causing her hearing loss to be moderate to low. She needs to go to a specialist now.

We are waiting on Bri for dinner (McDs). He brought us pizza home for lunch as I wouldn’t dare open the frig. I only ate one slice as I was feeling the affects from out dinner last night.

Here’s hoping for a gorgeous day tomorrow!

May11

Happy Mother’s Day

Posted on Sunday, May 11, 2008 by Dianne

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To all my friends who are moms or provide motherly guidance and love, I hope you have a wonderful day today. We are all going down to my mom’s and go out to dinner someplace. Mom’s had a rough time lately and she needs lots of love.

Thanks Jeannie ma for being there for your diadsiegirl!

About 1975 (I was in 10th grade) and yes, my hair is still styled similar to this! Mom still lives in the house behind us. I’m now taller than her, but she was 3 years younger than I am now in this photo-yikes!

And here’s one from today of me being motherly with my college boy Sean:

<—-please click on the link, especially today, to help give ladies free ta-ta exams-or mammograms! : )

May10

Photo Hunt-Anything!

Posted on Saturday, May 10, 2008 by Dianne

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

Ancient tree sequoia, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

This was taken at Longwood Gardens on April 25th. I thought it was interesting to see this as we don’t grow Sequoias in PA.! the info said it started growing in the year 312 and was cut down in 1914. Interesting!!

May9

Stinkin’ chilly

Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008 by Dianne

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Don’t ya hate when the temps go from 72 to 52? We ended up getting the rain and got a good dose, not as much as was forecasted. It was enough to ‘uproot’ two of my metal plants stands causing the newly planted pots to go spilling out. I didn’t do any gardening, just investigating different things. Lots of seeds are coming up-Rose Campion (yeah Zoey), lettuce, zinnias and marigolds. I did get a Canna lily for my in ground little pond. I didn’t know they could be used as such.

Sean was kind enough to drive me to a book sale in a barn (I was kind enough to make him a big spaghetti dinner) and I got a small selection of mostly cookbooks (like I need them). I have to get serious about my book collection-I got a book on decluttering too! ; )

BTW, decided to save up for an Amazon.com contraption-the Kindle! I do a little selling on eBay and have a little toward it. I like that you can take it anywhere and have something that only weighs 10 oz too!

We finished watching Juno, which was a cute movie. I can see why both Ellen Page (Juno) was nominated for an Oscar and the screenwriter Diablo Cody winning it.

Stripper turned award winning screenwriter

I have to switch my winter clothes to summer. Sean tossed a few Space Bags out of the attic. I don’t think he gave me all of them. I usually have a bag for Goodwill in the room as I need to downsize clothes too.

Bro #2 is bothering my mom again. He had calmed down, and then he started rummaging through another bedroom again and just not being nice to her. She had calmed down, now she’s upset again. The word ‘bipolar’ comes to mind.

Have a great weekend!

May8

Nice to have my pal back

Posted on Thursday, May 8, 2008 by Dianne

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Sean asked what I wanted for Mother’s Day and I said we could go over to Walmart and look around their garden center. They do have a ton of nice plants, even perennials at a good price. I happen to spot yellow flowers, my favorite color in blooms, and it was a Hibiscus! He said he’d get it for me. I looked around a little more and only bought a few other plants. I think I have enough. Now I will wait for some clearances! So I got a few more things in the store and when we checked out, the hibiscus was only like $5.44, so I got two! Not sure what the other color is, but it will be a surprise when the flowers start to open.

He headed over to Blockbuster and one of his choices is ‘Juno’, which I thought was interesting. I asked if we could run down to Lowes to see if they had any more decent hanging baskets and he agreed. They didn’t have any that I liked, but I bought another pond plant and a few other plants that I didn’t have. (what did I just say above about buying more plants?) We stopped at Wawa to gas up the van-$35 only brought it a bit over half full. We went in and got hoagies and ate them as soon as we got home as we were starving! And to think I was happy I had lost 3 pounds. ; )

Bird Alert!!!! Brian has spotted (and I have seen for a second) a hummingbird twice now! I’m so jealous! The first time was on one of the new hanging baskets that has the big flowered Dianthus in it.

They just showed a story on the news about a place in Vineland, NJ that was getting renovated. When the guy went to tear down the tin ceiling, 100s of vintage photos came tumbling down, all in relatively good shape, but unmarked-so they don’t know who the brides and grooms, etc. are. It use to be a photography studio (of course). What I could tell, they looked like they were from the 30s to 50s.

Here’s a Mother’s Day Quiz. I got 6 out of 10, so see how you do!

May7

80 degrees!

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 by Dianne

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I’m a little light-headed from spray painting a lot of my outdoor furniture today. I have more to do, but need the paint. It’s $5 a can, I bought two hunter green cans of it and was able to spruce up a large settee, two Adirondack chairs, a foot bench, a little table and a little child’s Adirondack chair! Not bad!

I took some photos earlier, before Sean arrived home safely around 4:10. He got stuck in traffic 10 miles out of State College, but it was smooth sailing from there. He had a nice oven roasted pot roast and veggies for dinner.

I had this mosaic planter/birdbath and put it on top of an over turned flower pot and added a bowl I had. It’s amongst the mums which are wilting a bit from the heat.

Here’s my seating area near the holly bushes. I just sprayed all the furniture (and repaired some broken areas on the top of them) earlier. You can also see the four planters with an assortment of Coleus, petunias and lobelias.

This is the garden I worked on all day yesterday. This is what I see when I come out the front door. The little flag is blowing! I have lots of cats in there in honor of Mr. Cosmo.

This is the Amaranthus that looks like a Summer Poinsettia. I hope they get big!

The Nicotiana is in the garden out front too!

I wanted to show my friend a Lily of the Valley flower and since they are coming up in the fairy garden, I used one of the fairies to display it.

This is of the same flower on one of my new blue dishes.

This is a bit blurred, but I liked it-these are Johnny Jump-ups.

When I was spray painting the furniture, one of the Philly News NBC10 van drove down my road. I have never seen any news people around here. They had a news story about my county earlier, but not this area. A 19 yr old Annapolis female Naval Academy student, from Kennett Square was found unconscious in her room and later passed away . That may be the reason they were near her.

Another tragedy-a Philly policeman got killed as he drove up to a supermarket that had just been robbed (there is a bank in the place I think) to stop the get away car. He hadn’t even gotten out of his vehicle and was shot about 5 times. He was about to celebrate his 40th birthday this week.

May7

Deadline-June 1st

Posted on Wednesday, May 7, 2008 by Dianne

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I say that every year, I want to get everything cleaned up, planted and mulched by June 1st. Since it is now May 7th and I have made a nice dent in the work, I may reach my deadline! It seems I need deadlines. I just started another birthday gift which is must be sent out a few days before June 10th. The two gifts are for non-stitching friends. I had started the one for July and figured I should do the one for June right away. I had planned on making 2-3 gifts. They are small and are from The Prairie Schooler, so I think I can get them finished by their deadlines.

It’s about 77 in the shade right now. Too hot for me to garden. Sean should be on the road now. It will be nice to have him around, but he should have a busy summer. He is still up in the air about his internship and needs to get a job. Most internships pay you.

Yesterday I worked on the garden across from the front door that happens to be under an evergreen tree. I think I raked up the equivalent to two wheelbarrows full of pine needles! FYI, mums love to be planted in this condition and I mentioned in an early post that mine had naturalized nicely. I planted Snapdragons, Nicotiana and like a summer Poinsettia and even mulched it! So I have my herb/tomato bed to plant, do a few more pots and hanging baskets and some maintenance in the other beds and I should be finished before bug season! I do have a gazillion Rose Campions coming up in 2 of the 3 places where I planted them. The wildflower seeds from eBay did nothing so far.

Sean will be getting pot roast for dinner. I bet he hasn’t had that too often. In three months he’ll be living in an apartment. Hard to believe!

Another Wa wa wee wa moment (I believe it’s the March 08 issue of MSL-special gardening issue):

Martha Stewart’s 90 x 150 foot veggie patch!

May5

Spending the day

Posted on Monday, May 5, 2008 by Dianne

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…with someone you love and someone you are weary of, sorta sums it all up for me. Brother #2 was at my mom’s when I got there today. Ended up going to see his new apartment on the second floor of a 1908 house in our hometown. The steps to the place almost go straight up and then curve-typical old house, very dangerous. The place on the outside needs fixing up. The apartment has big rooms-he fit his king size bed in there! The kitty was hiding, but I made up with the dog. That Dalmation has a white face and black ears. He looks like a mime and his name should be Marcel Marceau!

I did talk to the cat and he closed his eyes a few times, he’s really a true scaredy cat. We went out to dinner and then walked around stores! And he told me not to take mom shopping a few weeks ago! He was buying things though. I’m pretty sure he has a job about 30 minutes away. I am trying to warm up to him, but all that sadness and hurt has made me a bit numb to him. He has a photo of the two of us, in bad shape-and it’s so cute-he’s about 2 and I’m 3, hanging on the wall with other old photos.

The last place we went (I was doing all the driving) was Home Goods. He bought a big red glass jar for his dog’s cookies. Mom bought two perfume bottles. I bought a mosaic candle holder that looks like it is a beehive, plus a mini covered clear glass cake dish with hand-painted bees and flowers. Will show you soon!

May4

A May day in PA

Posted on Sunday, May 4, 2008 by Dianne

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Just took some photos a bit ago. Sometimes I fix them in Flickr after I post here, so you can look at all of them there if you wish also.

It was simply gorgeous, around 70 with a slight breeze. Who could ask for anything more? I decided to continue gardening.

Here’s an ATC I made a week ago. I used an image form a catalog for the background. I call it Seeds of Friendship:

I was wearing overalls today, but shorts kind. Gotta feel like a real gardener!

See how high up the lilacs are? We need to do some serious topping on this shrub!

Look at the dear Dogwood flower!

I potted these up a few nights ago. The African Daisies are near the pond.

This is the shady side of the house! Now, who can tell me what is happening here with this azalea bush?

Here’s where I planted a bunch of wildflower seeds. I hope they come up!

It is behind where my lilies and grass garden is.

Here’s a garden that is a bit more prolific growing! Mom gave me the pansies around the perimeter. The Bleeding Hearts are just starting to drop, but the Barrenwort is going strong (heart-shaped leaves). The hanging pots were purchased at Loew’s last night. One is Dianthus, the other is a variety.

Had to show you an iris! It’s Raspberry Blush.

And my new water plant. Will have to go look at the name of it. See the baby waterlilies there?

My friend the catbird (or child of catbird) came back yesterday. He (or she) was serenading me the entire day and most of today. The only thing I don’t like are the droppings all over the chairs. Speaking of chairs, I bought two cans of green spray paint to spruce up my plastic furniture. I may need more!