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!

Aug20

Photo Hunt-Numerical

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Wow! This was a tough one! I was thinking rows, puzzles and then figure pages in a book go by page number. The books here are wonderfully illustrated bound editions of St Nicholas magazines (I haven’t looked at them for a while, but I believe that’s what they were) from over 100 years ago. They aren’t just about Christmas either. The illustrations are mainly etchings. I had owned a previous version and mainly bought these to copy and use in my collage work. They haven’t been put in a proper place yet, still in the box-shame on me! I got them for only $10-told my hometown library people I’d take them off their hands for a lower price (I think they were first marked as $22-25).

Inside one of the books:
St Nicholas Illustrated 1894-fashionable young lady
About Pennsylvania:
St Nicholas Illustrated 1894-Pennsylvania

Aug17

Harvest Angel Doll

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For a Flickr group I am in , we were to make a paper angel doll and put her on a spool. I started with stamping the face on a clock ‘face’ (another requirement) and decided it would be fun to make her a harvest angel. I had just purchased the feathers from JoAnn’s and added them as a head dress or hair. The body is a bit stout, but I also did the ripped paper requirement there. Sean had bought corn from work and I dried some husks from it a bit in the microwave. I cut out wing shapes and glued on the husks. I have neat copper embellishments, so added some for her necklace, skirt hem and around the spool. My finishing touch were the squash seed buttons! I think I’m going to have to make another one for me! : )

Aug15

Oh what a night!

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Totally messed up a good photo, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Few legends are born that you get to see in person. Sir Paul McCartney was part of a group that changed music on so many levels. He was part of a song writing duo that produced hit after hit. They arrived on the scene just when we needed them. I was 4 going on 5 in 1964 when the band played Shea Stadium in New York. Within a year or so, my older brother was playing their hits. When I turned 13, I absolutely loved the lp ‘Band on the Run’ and Paul! So imagine me at 50 and my husband a few years older getting to see a legend this close?
I was misty-eyed when he sang ‘Jet’-why this song, it was near the beginning of the concert. Sir Paul is a young 68 and his fellow guitarists are 55 and 51!
Paul and guitar band mates

I thought they were in their 30s they were rocking so well! Hearing so many hits by both The Beatles and Wings (and solo I guess) was a dream come true.
So this concert was definitely meant for us to attend. The place was packed-thousands of people-and I look to my left in a section over, and there is my friend and maid of honor standing there! I hadn’t seen her in years, though we talked on the phone a few months ago. And she isn’t a computer person, so she didn’t know we were going to the concert. During a break in the second encore (when Sir Paul signed a lady’s back as she was a breast cancer survivor and you know his first wife Linda wasn’t) we went over to see my friend Linda. She was so surprised! We took this photo before we went to see her as I was afraid I’d miss a chance to talk with her.
I spotted my friend from college in the crowd!

The couple next to her had left, so we stood next to her for the remainder of the show and she got a few hugs and we got to see the big screen we couldn’t see where we were sitting. I took some videos and spliced them together and will burn a copy for Linda and share here too.
The most exciting part of the concert-the piro-techs for the song ‘Live and Let Die’. If you know the song, there is a very loud part-fire shot out of the front of the stage in about 4 cyclinders! It was awesome! You could feel the heat from our seats! And the fire came out twice.
He did lots of tributes-to his first wife Linda, John Lennon and George Harrison-he played a ukelele for George-Something in the Way She Moves.
The concert lasted almost 3 hours! No intermisson! Over 25 songs and two encores!!! I thank Sir Paul for waving the Pennsylvania flag, but not for people handing out brochures about how badly chickens are treated before the show-ugh.
We had to wait a bit to get out of the parking lot, but when we did, we saw a white stretch limo-wonder who was in it?
Great photo from Brian
We were a bit ‘behind’ the scenes, but I’d rather be 75 feet away to grab a photo like this then way in the back of the place where they had to look at the big screen. We couldn’t see the big screen where we were, just a few smaller ones, but who wanted to look at them anyway?
Bri found this video that showed our section of the audience. We are marked with an orange arrow (we are both in black t-shirts) and my friend was behind the guy in the blue shirt a little over on the right. Cool!
Our point of view of the concert!

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