Muffin With Dolls

We had a real nice visit with our son and dil this weekend and couldn't believe how much Muffin had changed. It's been a while and between my sinus infection and her little illness we just couldn't get a time together. Until this weekend! They've gotten a lot of little things to get her used to having a new baby around, crib, highchair and lots of babies. Very good idea in my opinion!! Punkin is coming in about a month and there will be some big changes for little Muffin. From the way that she plays with her little dolls I think she's going to be a GREAT BIG SISTER!!



I love when she gives the little doll a kiss before putting her in the highchair.... oh yeah, that's the same doll that she then grabs by the hair and yanks out of the chair lol.

I've found that I have a lot of videos that I just don't get around to posting about, but some day when time slows down a little (like that's ever going to happen) I'll go back and post about those. Isn't Muffin just adorable?

Fertilize Friday 6/25/10

I've been checking in on our hostess for this meme, Tootsie Time, a lot lately, and she is doing amazing things over at her place. Be sure to check it out and see all the other, much more talented, gardeners.

My view as I leave for work every morning.... I love the array of color and flowers. This picture really doesn't do it justice.


The front porch pots are doing well. They get little sun til late in the afternoon then it's really hot.


The bee balm and cone flowers are tall and stately.


I've had this day lily for as long as we've lived in this house (close to 30 years) and never knew it had this beautiful color flower. They were growing in the front (very shady) yard around the well head and provide a great cover, but never bloomed. MM took a few shovels full and planted them out back to fill up our hillside and surprise, surprise. Love the color.


Never get tired of looking at this sink :) I'm learning that different flowers need to be photographed at different times of the day. If I try to snap this picture in the early hours it's just not open enough. On the other hand the pumpkin and zucchini are best in the early morning hours.


A couple of daisies lost in the buttercup (weed!), I didn't know really.


My soil and growing conditions are perfect for coreopsis and I'm growing lots of them now.


As single blooms the coneflower is beautiful.


We planted this bee balm in late 2007 or early 2008 and this is the first year I've been around to see the blossom. Very dainty.


The marigolds that I have as a filler this year are doing pretty good. A few have what my brother called 'blight', but I just haven't had the time to go out and treat them. (actually I didn't fertilize this week either shhh)


And finally we have a family of robins nesting in our trumpet vine wall. This is the second nest of them. The first nest got destroyed by something. Anyway, I think I can see three little beaks, but there could be more. It's hard to get a picture and they were really squawking when MM took this picture.


So, what's growing in your garden? This meme is a great way to document the progress and then check back on to see what was blooming, when, last year. Lots of fun seeing a lot of great ideas from other gardeners too.

UPDATE: Okay, so I felt guilty about not fertilizing and got out there real early this morning. And of course, being early I could photograph the pumpkin and zucchini.

Zucchini


Pumpkin


Okay, I'm really done now :) Just trying to keep it real.

Quilt for Punkin

Ever since I found out I was having another granddaughter I've been working on a quilt just for her. Not that she will need another blanket (they have about one for every day of the year!!), but I wanted to do one just for her. It's basically the same pattern that I've made about 30 of, but the backing is different and it's just for her.

I try to do different texture fabrics for different things. The duck is a soft fleece and has satin bill and feet, the lion's mane is a loopy kind of texture, you get the picture.


I really liked the backing, it has puffy animals and the words that name them.


And look what MM managed to get a picture of. It looks like three little beaks to me, but there could be more hiding down in there. They are robins and mama was not happy that we were even on the deck. We do try to stay away, but just wanted to see who our new residents were.

Fertilize Friday 6/18/10

Things are really starting to pop. Lots blooming and lots more budding up. Be sure to link in with Tootsie Time who is hosting Fertilize Friday today.


The wave petunias are still going strong in the bathroom sink. (edited note) I came home for lunch and this really comes to life mid day. Didn't have time to snap another shot.


Who knew that the deer would attack the neon sedum? Got all the buds from the back of the plant.


I love the color of the sunset coneflowers.


BeeBalm is looking good. Will the deer get the buds off of this before they get a chance to bloom? Hope not. My MM heard that strong smelling soap keeps deer away lol. After the woodchuck or whatever carried off the last soap I'm wondering how successful that will be.


The first few blooms on the moonbeam coreopsis. You can see that it is loaded with buds.


This little beauty is at the side of the house, and avoided detection when I moved everything. Good thing too, because all of the ones that I did move got eaten by the critters.



I love this view that I see every day as I back out of the garage looking back on the side garden.


In the front the Crazy Daisies are opening.


I have to laugh because I'm always saying 'look at all those buds' then a few weeks later it's 'yeah, the deer ate all of the ...'. Anyway, that's my offering for this week's Fertilize Friday. I truly enjoy all the beauty of my yard and working in it is pure pleasure for me.

Peanut's Ice Cream Disappears

We had Peanut overnight Friday and into Saturday afternoon. Friday night we went out to an ice cream place for dinner then to the playground. The child only eats about every third day and I discovered that this wasn't one of them. So she had a few bites of her chicken and potatoes and then waited for us to finish before going to the playground. After about an hour at the playground I was hot and tired and we went back to get an ice cream. I told MM to just get 2 (one for him and one for me to share with Peanut). Just like I thought, she would take a few licks then go off to play ring around the rosy or something then come back for a few more licks. This went on til we finished our ice creams and got in the car to go home. On the way home she must have been contemplating the evening and it dawned on her that she didn't finish 'her' ice cream. All of a sudden she starts babbling about Mimi eating her ice cream and it was 'her' ice cream to eat all gone. I grabbed the camera and tried to get her to repeat her complaint. The first go round was cuter, but this is close.



It was so funny because you could just see the wheels turning .... wait a minute??? ... you ate my ice cream all gone!!!

Missing Solar Globe

So here's a weird story for you. A few years back I bought these interesting solar globes. During the day they are just pretty color globes and have a solar collector on the stem. After dark they glow and the lights change colors. Very interesting.


I heard somewhere that animals don't like the scent of bar soap so I hung a bar of soap in a pretty little gauze bag from the solar collector.


Thursday morning I was outside from 6 a.m. to about 8 a.m. and did lots of work and picture taking. Everything was there and fine. At lunch time the whole thing was missing and the globe was on the ground about 8 feet from where it had been standing. My MM came in and asked me what had happened and I said I was just about to ask you the same thing. Strange!! So he calls me in the afternoon and says he found the stem and soap way back under the spruce trees. It appears that something grabbed it by the soap pouch and dragged it off. Whatever it was did a good job at chewing most of the soap right through the bag. Guess this animal wasn't turned off by the scent!


Anyway, I've got the stem with battery back and the globe in position and everything works great again.


So what do you think it was? MM says either a ground hog/woodchuck or maybe a raccoon. Any other suggestions?

Fertilize Friday 6/11/10

It was hard this week to fertilize, we had a lot of rain and it seemed to always start at 5:00 p.m.. Got it done though and things are looking good. A lot of things are just ready to pop.... when will they pop? I'm linking in with Fertilize Friday hosted by our wonderful Tootsie Time. Check out all the other beautiful gardens linked in, I get a lot of great creative ideas to work off of.

Not too much new this week. Lots of buds just waiting to pop.... what are they waiting for?

The veggie pots are really taking off. This zucchini is looking real healthy.



The wave petunias in the sink are coming along. Couple more weeks and the sink will be covered.


This buttercup is just loaded with blooms and buds. The third year's a charm.


I love lavender. I've never really harvested it, but I still enjoy it.


After seeing hollyhocks on other blogs last week mine is not very far along, but it's really looking healthy. I have high hopes for these.


The azalea that looked half dead earlier is the only one still blooming. It all seemed to come back fine after a skeptical start.


And this is what my MM (Maintenance Man as I call him) has been working on. He ripped up the old (really old) walkway and put in new brick pavers. I think he did a FABULOUS job!! He's going to work on the lighting around the porch and walkway and staining the porch then I'll be putting some pretties by the front steps.


So are your daisies as loaded as mine? The day lilies are also ready to shine. I've missed the beebalm blooming every year so far.... hope this year I get to see it. And I'm anxiously waiting for the neon sedum to bloom. What's blooming in your garden?

When Lightning Strikes by Kristin Hannah

Romance author Alaina Costanza is propelled backward in time to the Wild West by a lightning bolt and comes face to face, not with the hero of her work in progress, but with its villain, Killian. Sexier than she'd imagined him to be, Killian is in the midst of holding up a bank in a town Alaina knows only too well, for she created it. Certain that she's dreaming, Alaina soon realizes she's trapped in a world of her own making-with a man who refuses to keep to the script she's written for him. Unfortunately, Hannah takes this promising premise and, after a hilarious first few pages, goes nowhere with it. Alaina's tough-talking, wise-cracking jibes quickly wear thin, especially since they're centered around 20th-century references that miss their mark with Killian. The author misses a golden opportunity to make the most of her setting and plotline by ignoring the history going on around her characters. Surprisingly, Alaina, author and history buff, never once comments on 19th-century life or costumes, which would have intrigued historical romance fans much more than the uninspired love story offered instead.


I've got to agree with this review. I had a hard time finishing this book. It just didn't hold my interest which was disappointing since I've loved all of her other books so far. There are a few more books floating around here that we've been passing around so I'll look forward to them hoping that they are like the previous books that I've read and liked.

Oil Cleanup!!

Wish I knew how to put the actual video on my blog, but this is the best I can do. This is a 'redneck' solution to the oil spill and it really makes sense!! Can any of you think of a reason that this wouldn't work? If not then lets get this clean up started!

http://www.wimp.com/solutionoil/

Fertilize Friday 6/4/10

Well, it's that time again to give all the plants a little special boost. I'm linked in with a wonderful hostess over at Tootsie Time. Check out all the other beautiful gardens, I know I will.

To begin with we were gone from Thursday thru Monday and it was very very hot!! When we got home we then had days of downpours!! Of course my peonies had to bloom while I was gone, but I still got to see them when we got home. This peony gave me two sets of blooms last year so I'm hopeful.



Here's an individual shot of this beautiful plant. Don't know that I'd ever seen a bicolored peony.



The sink is coming along, but really needs a lot more attention being a small container.



This peony is more of a rose color.



This is the first year that this 'buttercup' took off. I got a few plugs from a friend about three years ago. I moved it this year and it's coming up in both spots. I remember her saying it was quite invasive.



This lavender got transplanted last fall from the side of the house to it's new home out here in lots of sun.



The third peony bush. Think I'm going to split my three plants this fall.... any suggestions on how to do this successfully?



The first of many little day lilies. There are tons of buds.



I tied up the Salvia Blue Hills from the heavy rain. Guess I should have tried to hide the twine :(.


I think I bought about 6 of this coreopsis sunfire. They are growing like wildfire - hope then spread out.


Here's a view from the front by the 'garden gate'. I know the clematis will be big some day, but I want it now. The other things are coming along real nice.



Here's a view from the side. The three peonies are plants that really stand out right now.



A larger view of the buttercup with more corepsis behind.



Just have a few roses right now, but they are beautiful.



And this wonderful little trooper amazes me. I transplanted it from the side of the house - it grows about 2 feet high and has a beautiful orange cluster of flowers. When I transplanted it last fall I forgot about it then I went to plant more daisies and this ugly tubor was there... couldn't figure out what it was so I just threw it aside. That night I remembered what it was! I got out there right away in the morning and planted it and started watering and watching... Yep!, it made it. Don't know the name, so for now it's 'the amazing trooper!'.



So that's it for me this week. I love this time of year, because every day brings new surprises. Can't wait to see everyone else's progress.