Apr30

Gardening to oblivion

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I’m a tired pup tonight. I did a mountain of yard work yesterday and today as the weather permitted (maybe a little too warm and a bit windy).The weeds were invading so much and I just didn’t have the stamina to pull them, so I used the weed whacker. I do rake and hoe the area afterwards. I swore I pulled up the invaders last year, but there they were again. The weeds mimic a spreading plant called Snow on the Mountain. I also get that stuff that looks like ivy with the little purple flowers. My kitchen garden/herb area was horrid. It looks 85% better now, meaning I’m not finished in there yet.

While the guys tossed a football after dinner (a little too close for comfort) I hoed the weeds around my roses in their new bed. They are looking good! I got Bri to hoe around my little box hedges in my iris bed. I had moved the huge hollyhock away from the garden across from my front door (I want a tidy look there not a towering plant). The hollyhock was divided into three plants and they all made it! I just hope they don’t get that rust on them like the mama plant did last year. I gave my perennials a drink of Miracle Gro too!

Still so much to do, plus 2-3 beds at my mom’s. She is complaining about how overgrown the lilies look. Her look better than mine, but I can divide them up and bring some here. My lily bed needs attention too.

My crush from high school, then and now. I downloaded the slideshow from my classes’ website and found this photo. I won’t type his name as I don’t want him to see that I have him on my blog. ; )

Soccer star and middle aged

Off to la la land.

Apr29

Time flies

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In 4 months Sean will be headed up to University Park. It doesn’t seem possible! The two of us were sitting next to people we know from church (by chance) at a restaurant on Friday called ‘Cheeburger, cheeburger’. They have two sons, one of whom graduated with Sean and their other son was about to graduate from high school. We were talking about empty nests. The younger son then ate the 16 oz burger and made us laugh a bit and forget that childhood truly does fly by.

I didn’t do much yesterday and today I am home from church with the sniffles. I am pretty much finished the following ATCs one of which is my grandmom Ruth (see her marriage license below) and me at about the age of 1. That is my Uncle Don’s house without all the trees way back in 1960-61. I didn’t care to go there as my aunt would stick me in a playpen for hours on end (so I’ve been told). I don’t look too happy here, do I? This was at a time when my mom was expecting my brother Don, and me being the baby already here, well I guess she needed a babysitter once in a while.

Time Flies
The clock face came off of a CD of images I purchased at eBay. The ‘fly’ in green came from an online image generator where you type in the word and you get an image like this back. The bird is from an old book and is a Cape May warbler. I added zinnias (also from an old book) to the one of my grandmom and me as they were her favorite flower and I still grow them. They are easy to grow and I recommend them!

Speaking of Uncle Don, he had good blood work and will probably be headed back home after 3 months in the nursing home.

Apr28

Photo Hunt-Rare

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My grandparent’s marriage certificate from 1921, though my grandfather spelled his name with one ‘l’:

Marriage license

My  above mentioned grandparents were married until his passing in January, 1960. I was only about 8 weeks old, so I never knew him. My ‘mom-mom’ was in my life until 2000, when she passed on at almost the age of 97.

Apr27

Hello down there

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Sean was checking out the weather on the web and went to the aerial view section and actually found our house and road…

Overhead shot

Not sure if I did this before-my house has the black rectangle around it. That looks like our old light gray roof too! Most of our yard is to the right. The road parallel to our road at the end of our property was actually moved so our yard looks bigger now. Before the development on the hill, this was all farmland. And down that ‘new’ road is another housing development. Within the last 6 months, another home was built to the left of the last house on our side in that green patch of land. The ‘house’ across the road and down a bit is a water pumping station. As you can see we don’t have too many neighbors right around us, not counting the new houses.

My allergies are kicking up big time. I think I ate something that didn’t agree with me either and my plans for today went down the drain. I did go outside to do a little more raking around my irises and to walk the cat. I need to get some groceries. Sean is taking off tomorrow as he had one class (next week is his last week until summer session). Maybe we can go out to lunch if the weather isn’t too stinky.

I’ll model my new outfit soon and have one of the guys take a photo for those who wanted to see it. ; )

Apr26

Celine and Elvis

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Hey did you see the American Idol gives back special Wednesday night? Not only was it an important show, but it had the cool ‘performance’ highlighting Celine Dion singing with Elvis (from the year she was born-1968). It was pretty clever. I think it’s available for download on the AI site. While you’re there, give a few bucks to help poor people-it makes a difference. I bought a bunch of the One.org white bracelets last year and Sean was wearing his today.

I had an uneventful day-did some cleaning. Yeah, stop snickering there. I am influenced (though I am not that bad, goodness me) hooked on that BBC America show ‘How Clean is Your House‘ with Kim (the lady with the I Dream of Jeanie hairstyle) and Aggie- who takes swabs of different areas in the dirty houses before they get cleaned. That’s the part I like the best as unfortunately, it scares many of them back into reality. The lady last night had such a dirty frig that Aggie suggested she ‘chuck it’ for a new one. Take the how clean is your house quiz here. I passed, thank goodness! And here are some videos with the ladies’ helpful cleaning hints.

Sean was a good guy this afternoon. He took his mom mom to the doctor so she could get a cortisone shot in her hand-for the second time in a year. She has a painful swelling in her right hand. She can’t get it in her head not to use the hand and I even saw her trying to lift a box at the book sale a few days back. I’m glad Sean was with her.

I forgot to tell you that someone was trying to report my one debit/credit card as lost and the company that issued it closed down my account, though I had to reapply for a new one. I had just gotten the new card and now I have to wait for 2-4 weeks for the replacement. I don’t want to say what company it is on my blog, but you can write to me if you want to know. I believe I used the card months ago in either a Marshall’s or TJ Maxx-one of the stores that had card #s stolen. It had to be one of them as I usually only use the card at the post office. You never know.

And just for fun…

The queen and king

Apr25

Solar power

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I did a little shopping in Big Lots earlier and you guessed it, I bought two new solar power lights for around the pond. They aren’t the ‘yellow glow’ kind, they are the blue LED ones which look neat. I also got a ball that floats in the pond as the one I have now doesn’t work anymore-it lights up at night too. I saw the manager and since I looked spiffy (I’ll explain why later) I told him that Sean was going to be free in a few weeks to work. He said to tell my boy to give him a call. I looked nice in my flowing peasant skirt and orange top that I found in a bag next to the closet. The weather has been so warm, I had nothing summery that is where I can get my hands on it. Mom got me the top last year and it even has beads and buttons that hang down in the front-I looked like a modified belly dancer!

We’re trying to decide where to stay for my friend Karin’s wedding in June. It looks like midtown Manhattan! I’ve never been to NYC, so I am excited and scared. It’s not going to be cheap, but the place where we will probably stay is within walking distance of so many places, especially the cruise ship where the wedding will be held. We were thinking of staying in New Jersey and getting a cab-but that’s about a 14 mile trip and would cost the same as staying right in the city. I have to book the place soon or we’ll get in a jam.

Update!!! We are staying here! It has parking garage near by and it’s about 1/2 mile or so from the ship. I was looking at the map and Allentown, PA, where I’ve been before is parallel to this area (like an hour away or so like us to Philly).

I must do some more yard work one of these days. I can’t do it in all this warmth and in clothes I don’t want to sweat to pieces in.

Squirrel and hyacinths

Apr23

Spring captured!

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My new gazing ball with the pond behind it
My new gazing ball
On this warm day, I spent some time clearing out dead branches in this evergreen so I could hang my bird feeder up again
Bird feeder in evergreen
A red tulip about to open…it’s suppose to be a giant one, maybe so…
Red tulip about to open

And finally…my viburnum bush is opening up it’s heavenly scented blossoms
Viburnum bursting open

Apr22

Florida weather

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Thank you very much O’ creator for bringing back my gardening mojo (sorry Barbara I stole that one from you). I didn’t actually garden today, I went to a book sale and then my hometown’s Super Sunday main street sale. When we arrived at mom’s she ushered me outside to present me with a ‘journey’ diamond necklace-you know the swirly ones you see in the tv ads? She said that it was a special Macy’s had. It’s really pretty and she got one for herself too. Wow!

The book sale had been on since Saturday and things were picked over. I spent too much ($2 for one hardback-how dare them!), but found fairly new books for crafting and some older musty books for cutting up for my paper crafts. My creative writing teacher from high school was there as a volunteer again this year. I didn’t speak to him as he seemed more interested in tidying up the books and I didn’t want to make him or myself feel old by bringing up the fact that my 30th high school anniversary is this year. Eek gads!

The main street sale was a bust. Mom got some applications to adopt a few kitties she saw up in town at booths for animal rescue. She was just going by seeing them in a cage and cat carrier. She wants a pet so badly, poor thing. The kitties were so pretty-the boy Leopold was white and Kyra the girl was almost white with a little calico thrown in.

We ate at a good Chinese restaurant this time. Sean was along (opps-forgot to mention him) and he drove us around. Nice when they get to that age.

I will be doing a little digging tomorrow. My irises have spread like wild fire! I am thrilled. I think of digging them up in the fall and adding them to other parts of the yard, sharing with my mom and maybe selling them myself. : )

Have a fine week-maybe I’ll finally get to Longwood Gardens to see the orchid display.

Apr22

Flower shopping!

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The weather is warm and sunny! What a delightful change. Time to get outside.

On Friday I did a lot of debris clean up from my yucca bed, the pond area and my woodland garden in the front yard (under the evergreen tree). All with a green plastic rake. I felt like I worked twice as hard doing everything. Saturday there was a ‘Community Jamboree’ at the township park and I decided to check it out since the magic words ‘yard sale’ were included in the description in the newsletter. (By the way, I think many of my pals know I love trivia stuff and the newsletter also mentioned that the road I live on has only been paved since 1930! I can’t see this it as a dirt road with all the dips and curves it has.) So the jamboree was a big nothing-mostly people trying to sell their kids old clothes. I did chat with a few nice people, bought a raffle ticket from the KHS girls and headed down to one of my favorite greenhouses. Unfortunately, the greenhouse is under new management and I didn’t care for the new owner. I had a 10% off coupon and could use it if I spent over $25. I decided to grab one more of their outrageously priced plants (though it is hard to find) and he told me I was ‘defeating my purpose’, I guess from spending more to get the discount. To show him up, I picked up a garden pack, so that was actually going to be free. I also asked him if he planned to get snapdragons in (they were very understocked) and he said ‘I was told not to order them’. I just couldn’t believe that. I told him I love them. I won’ t be shopping there again. I decided to see if our local Ace Hardware had flowers and they did-snapdragons too! The flower packs I bought are a bit on the small side, but I’ll nurture them with Miracle Gro. The Ace place had the expandable rack I’ve been looking for! I was so happy I didn’t have to go all the way to Lowes or order it online.
I stopped off at Wawas for hoagies and headed home. After lunch, I got the pond up and running after bending too many times to bail water.

We went to church, Ruby Tuesday (for their salad bar) and Kmart to take back some slacks that were too big. I bought some 75% off florals and Easter things and also a gazing ball. It’s artisan glass with mostly blue swirls. You know you’ll be seeing a photo of it.

Sunday we are going to the 2nd day of a book sale in my hometown (probably very picked over) which is also hosting a sale along the main street.

Apr21

Photo Hunt-steps

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I like this photo as it was before Mom was hurting everyday from sciatica and she looks more like she always did. It was taken on a day trip to a New Jersey shopping area-Smithville Village. We later went to Caesar’s in Atlantic City.
Mom on steps in NJ

When we went to Orlando a couple of years ago, we went to a Titanic exhibit the last day and this is a replica of the ship’s grand staircase.

Steps of Titanic replica in Orlando, FL
And just for fun…

The Part of You That No One Sees

You are compassionate, caring, and soothing.
You like other people to depend on you…
In fact, you don’t feel right unless you are helping someone out.Underneath it all, you feel the burden of everyone’s problems.
Without your guidance, you fear that many people’s worlds would fall apart.
You like to feel in charge, even if it brings you a lot of stress.

What’s the Part of You That No One Sees?