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Anniversary weekend away

Category: Life happenings | Posted: Tue May 22, 2007 1:28 am

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After giving Amanda last minute instructions that were actually repeats of the instructions we had given her a couple of times already Friday morning, we left home a few minutes after 1 on Friday, got back home about 5 minutes later because Randy forgot his pocket stuff.
Realized later that we had forgotten the camera but by that time we were too far away to turn around. Oh well.

The BnB was really pretty, the two acres it is in the middle of has lots of trees but very few flowers since neither of the owners have time for that much gardening. They use the grounds for weddings so the plainer the landscaping the better.

Saturday we wandered thru several antique/junque shops in downtown Denison and then went to Sherman to do the same. I lived in Sherman from the age of 9 thru 18. We found the houses I had lived in easy enough but the downtown area is so different, it seemed strange to wander around there remembering what it looked like 43 years ago.

Saturday night there was a wedding at the BnB, we sat on the patio at the back of the house and watched. The couple couldn't have been older than 20-21 yrs old. They stayed at the BnB Saturday night and we got to meet them at breakfast the next morning. They looked even younger up close, but they were a very nice couple and we sure hope they have a fun and long life together.

We left Sunday about noon, stopped in another town on the way home and wandered thru more shops.

I didn't ask to stop at any garden centers even tho we did pass a few really nice looking ones.
But I did get some cool garden stuff.

The ladder is about 18 inches tall, don't know where it will go yet. The white buffalo isn't going out back, Bears and Buffalos are my favorite animals.
The gnome has a spooky looking face but I liked him anyway.




These two I found at 50% off, couldn't resist them either. The birdcage is going to hold a wave petunia, probably in red. The copper tea kettle was just too cool to pass up.



At a shop on Saturday we had seen a kerosene can that had Bluebonnets painted around the middle, then Sunday we found this can that I can paint myself.


One of the last shops we went thru had these three wood spools of thread, the thread is not that old so I think it will be perfect to use as the warp on my small loom.


And the window is something I have been hoping to find for several years...at a decent price at least and found this one for only $10. I plan on painting some of the glass panes and I will probably knock out a couple of them to hang a couple of things in
then of course it will go into the garden.




Last edited: Sat Jul 07, 2007 3:41 am

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A guiltfree buying trip to Calloways nursery

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed May 09, 2007 5:56 pm

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This was a really fun trip, not that all the other trips to garden centers haven't been fun, but this one was almost free!!

I had a coupon from Calloway's for 25% off one plant and the birthday money from Randy's folks. So the total cost of this trip was $3.50 When I checked out I asked the young man if I got to choose which plant the coupon was used on, most of the times coupons can only be used on the cheapest one, but he said yes so I chose the Spiderwort of course.

Buying a rose bush had been my original plan for the birthday money, but they don't have the ones I want so I wandered around for a while. They had gotten a big shipment of plants since I was there last week too.

Last week I had found this gorgeous succulent and planned on going back this weekend to get some, good thing I went back today because there were only three of them left....now they are mine.


This is all three of the Aeonium hybrid 'Zwartkop', they are such a dark purple that they look black and the Tradescantia x 'Sweet Kate'..aka Spiderwort. You can barely see some of the blue flowers already open.





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A "Mile(age)stone" was hit today

Category: Puttering Around The House | Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 12:02 am

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I have never owned a car that hit the 100,000 mile mark. Several years ago we bought a 1978 Mercedes Sedan with well over 200,000 miles but then a Mercedes is supposed to last almost forever. Before we sold it, we had reached at least 250,000 before the odometer quit working and got a Grill Badge from Mercedes Benz.
When the transmission went out we decided it was time to buy a new car instead of putting more money into a used one. So January 2nd, 2001 we bought a brand new Mitsubishi Galant just off the delivery truck, it had only 1 mile on it. Today it rolled, clicked actually since it is a digital odometer and not the rolling type, 100,000 miles. We took it out for a drive so we could get these pictures when it happened.

Since Randy faithfully changes the oil and filter every 3000 miles, it should last us many more miles.






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It all starts with a list

Category: FRED - the garden | Posted: Wed May 02, 2007 7:23 pm

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1. Make a list of plants required for the beautification of specific areas of the garden.
2. Take list with you to the garden center.
3. Remove list from purse and read it to remind you of what you came to get.
4. Find have to have plant, put in cart
5. Read list again to remind you of your mission.
6,8 and 10 Repeat step 4
7 and 9. Repeat step 5
11. Accidently loose list while picking up the 5th must have plant that is not on the aforementioned list so what do you need that silly list for anyway.
12. Bring home plants, sneak them into backyard. Oh darn, I forgot that Randy reads my blog entries. Hi, honey.
13 and the funnest step of all....find new homes for the plants and dig in.

Todays newest arrivals to my garden are..
4 red Petunias....now planted in the wheelbarrow
4 Alchemilla vulgaris - Lady's Mantle...planted in front of the Iris that are in front of the picket fence.
2 Double Hollyhocks - Golden Yellow...planted in front of the Fig Tree.
2 Coronette Snapdragons - Solstice Gold tricolor..planted in front of the other three snapdragons.
1 Eustoma grandiflorum - Bluebell....planted in the faere dish garden with the clover that wintered over.
4 orange Cosmos that are going along one side of the bloom house
4 Fiber Optic Grass - Isolepis cernus....will be planted in front of the Cosmos
4 Ajuga - chocolate chip....haven't decided where they will go yet.





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May the oneth

Category: Random bulletins from my brain | Posted: Tue May 01, 2007 6:03 pm

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I know that as you get older the months and years just seem to fly by, but I am not 'THAT' old yet so why were January, February, March and April combined only a week and a half long?? I just hope that May thru August, the hottest months of the year for us, go by as quickly.

This summer I really do not expect to have to whine about the drought killing my plants like I did last year. We have had more rain in the last 4 months than we did in all of 2006. The lakes where water for the cities come from are back up to their normal levels, all except the largest one which is still 6 feet below normal. So even tho we will still be on watering restrictions, I will be able to water everything sufficiently.

I will, however, still complain about the temperature I am sure because I really do dislike summer. Summer is my least favorite season since I do not tolerate the heat well. The good side to a hot summer is that I will get more indoor things done....like reading, knitting, soap and candle making and maybe I will even learn to use my spinning wheel, for all of these things can be accomplished with the curtains closed to block out the sun and the AC on the 'icicles hanging from your nose' setting for maximum comfort.

Sunday evening when the kids were here for my birthday, I took Lisa on a tour of the garden then Kenny and Randy brought out the wine and joined us for some time sitting and enjoying the view. Lisa kept looking at the TipsyPot I have and asking questions about it's construction. She sat there studying it for a while then remembered that she has several different sized clay pots in the shed. I will try to get over there this weekend to get a picture of the one she will probably build on Saturday. She also has a coffee cup totem she made after seeing mine that I have to get a picture of too.
Kenny wandered the yard looking at everything, just amazed at the lack of actual lawn. He comes from a non-gardening background and is not used to yards that have anything other than grass in them.

Nicky, the 7 yr old, loves to wander around the garden. His favorite flowers are Dandelions so I have to remember to leave a couple of them at the side of the yard when I am digging the others up. He liked the purple Scabiosa in the wheelbarrow because it looked like purple Dandelions. I showed him the two pumpkin vines that are really starting to take off and waited for what I knew was coming next....he started jumping around, clapping his hands and licking his lips. He loves pumpkin pie without the crust, me too. So I make pumpkin pie for everyone else and a big bowl of crustless pumpkin pie for the two of us. I don't expect Lisa to have the time or dog/child free space to grow a pumpkin vine so I think I need to see about putting a third plant out there so he can have all the pumpkin he wants.

I had shown him a few weeks ago how to rub certain plants with this fingers and smell his fingers ....lavender, mint, rosemary and the lemon balm in particular. So he was instructing Lisa on the proper way to do it when she came out. She really liked the lemon balm, I gave her some cuttings to use in making a pitcher or two of tea and I will dig up one of the smaller plants for her to plant in her yard.
Last winter I designed a Harry Potter garden for her but we just never got the chance to get it started this spring. I think next October she and I will have to designate a weekend specifically for doing that.

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