Fertilize Friday 8/6/10

Our wonderful host Tootsie always has lots of fun new projects she's working on. Be sure to check them out as well as all the other gardeners.


I'd given up on this Dahlia, but then when I put it in a more secluded spot to rest and it came back in full force.



Loaded Rose of Sharon



I love how the sweet potato vine rambles everywhere.... we keep picking it up and draping it somewhere else. Very colorful as you approach the front porch.



When I drive up the driveway I love looking back at all the colors. The hibiscus and holly hock really stand out for me.... or maybe I'm just looking for them lol



The Moonbeam Coreopsis and Russian Sage really make a nice color combo. I've got to learn how to shape the sage a little more, it's just falling over and has a weak looking base.



The Moonbeam Coreopsis flowers for the longest time in our area, beautiful little blooms.



There are two hibiscus plants now and they are both producing 'big' beautiful blooms.



These are the three hollyhock plants that came into bloom. Love em!



Isn't this a beautiful colored hollyhock?



I've waited all summer to see this wave petunia overflow like this, and the neon sedum are about to bloom.



After seeing all the garden art posted at Tootsie Time last week I thought I'd share mine too. This first bird house was given to me by a friend last year for my birthday. MM attached it to an old bathroom sink and anchored it to a log. I had to clear away the petunias to see the birdhouse lol



I received this cute birdhouse from a friend this year for my birthday.



Lots of rustic birdhouses.


There are a couple of tree faces.. cute in a whimscal way.





I put a few of these out early in the Spring to give the garden 'something' to look at while we waited for the plants to come up. Now they are mostly hidden.


There's usually a family in this one.





This glass birdhouse sparkles in the sunlight. You can also see the edge of the garden gate. Just your garden variety cyclone fence gate, but I've tried all year to get a clematis plant to grow on it. Maybe I need to rethink that idea since they keep dying.


The top one on the shepherds hook is full of birds. They chatter all day long and are not intimidated by us being on the porch.


More whimsy with the silhouette cat and kittens.











This red birdhouse is getting more rustic with the years, and I went through a phase of having little statuesque kids. I used to tuck them into the plants on the deck, but now I just have a few on the deck so they sit around the edge.


Girl with her kitty.


My daughter calls this the headless one because she lost her head and I glued it back on ... not quite straight, but it does the trick.

Nothing like a boy with his dog.

Colorful wind chimes that I received for my birthday last week. I have them right outside my kitchen window so I can see them sparkle.

Another aging birdhouse.....


with an occupant lol. Peanut was over on Tuesday and said 'look Papa, a frog.' She had to go point it out because it was so inconspicuous.


Peanut also has her own way of playing 'goofy golf' (or whatever name you have for it). She finds she does her best when she goes up and carefully places the stringed balls on the ladder rungs. lol I think we have a winner!


My niece gave this idea to label the plants with their names on rocks. I still need more flat rocks.

A long post, I know. Hope you enjoyed it. I'm looking for some old barn wood to make little signs that I've seen.

Jeanne Robertson Video

You're going to enjoy this. Laugh out loud funny!!





I'm still laughing.

Great Weekend With Kids

This is my idea of a perfect weekend. We went to our son's on Saturday and I'm afraid I don't even visit with them much (my bad) I want to spend all my time with the girls. Muffin loves to dance with Barney.... is that cute or what? She really gets into it.



In this shot you'd think that she's sharing her soothie with Punkin.... lol nope, that's Punkin's soothie being tested by Muffin lol. Good thing Punkin doesn't care.


Not sure if she always wakes up this happy, but it was a lucky day for me :) Look at all those teeth lol


I think Muffin enjoyed the bag as much as her new quilt lol. She was playing peek-a-boo. The kids tell me that she has to have the quilt on the floor... if they pick it up when she's down for her nap she drags it down and puts it on the floor again. Glad she likes it so much.



Then on Sunday we were invited out to see my niece that is in from CA. On the left is my daughter with Peanut in front of her. Next to my daughter is my niece from CA holding her son whose twin is the little girl on the right side of the pool. The other two boys belong to my other niece who lives in the area.


My niece with her twins. They will be two on the 14th of this month.


Peanut showing the duck that she fished out of the pool with the bubble wand.


So that was my weekend. Smiling, dancing, fishing, peek-a-booing kids. Did you do anything this weekend?

Fertilize Friday 7/30/10

Be sure to check out all the other gardens at Tootsie Time. She's our host for this fun meme.

This coleus is getting huge!!! I've got to water it twice a day because there is so much foliage and the pot is only 10 or 12".

We've got a ripe tomato.... we've been eating off the cherry tomato plant for a couple of weeks, but this is the first larger tomato.

YEAH!!!! We've got a holly hock!!! Three that are planted in more sun are doing much better than the three that are more shaded.

Coneflower are still looking pretty.

And an opening bud on the hibiscus. There are lots of buds....

This planter got moved from the front porch. MM is planning on staining it and the plant had to be moved. Don't you love how the sweet potato vine is taking off lol

Love the color of this wave petunia.

My Rose of Sharon looks so different than the others that I've seen. I think it's something like a double ... something something lol.

And, of course, the trumpets will be blooming for a few months now.

Had to throw in a picture of Punkin sharing her soothie with Muffin. Yes, Muffin gave it up months ago, but it's nice to see the Punkin doesn't mind sharing lol

So, that's my offering this week. The gardens are suffering greatly from the neglect, but time is just escaping me. What's a person to do?

The Rally 2010

In all the excitement of going off on vacation we started out by heading to the hospital for the birth of Punkin FIRST. Vacation started a little late, but I was thrilled that we had a baby before we had to leave. It was the best way to start a vacation!!

The Rally is a Good Sam Rally and the 2010 rally was hosted at the Kentucky Expo Center in Louisville. Talk about a fabulous facility!! That's totally an understatement. We were parked out by the Six Flags Ferris Wheel in section 'R'. I don't think anyone had a bad parking spot. All activities were held indoors and were cooled to a very comfortable level.... it was in the high 90's and low 100's outside!! We were parked in the 'dry camping' section meaning you had to run on your own power. Usually they let you run the generators from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m., but because of the extreme heat they lifted all restrictions. Before we left I checked for a 10 day forcast and it said rain every day but Friday. What do they know? We had 5 minutes of rain on Thursday!! Since we decided to commute to the center by bike it was nice that it wasn't wet.


All evening entertainment was held at the Freedom Hall. Again, I don't think there was a bad seat in the house. The first night we were entertained by The Monarchs. Thursday night was Bob Newhart (funny), Friday brought us Tanya Tucker, we skipped out on Saturday night and Sunday night was a Rally's Got Talent.

Tanya Tucker's performance was very good and she still has the 'stuff'.


I forgot that there was one thing going on outside.... rv's from the 50's!! I remember as a child we camped every summer in a TENT!! I was always envious of the people in the trailers. They looked a lot like the ones that were displayed in the parking lot outside. Their owners were actually camped out there.


This is the Tin Can Tourist used at Camp Dearborn in Milford MI.

I don't think the Airstream every lose their value.

Loved all of the bumper stickers on the back of this VW Bus. 0 - 60 in 11 minutes haha I think I was behind this one several times back in the day.

The old Shasta

Didn't totally understand this sign on a new Prevost. Is it $1,950,000 new and then take 50% off, or is that $1,950,000 the 50% off price? Didn't ask, because it really didn't matter, either way I didn't have $1,950,000 or half of the $975,000. What can they possibly put in there to make it worth that?? And who the heck is buying them??? Do they drive them themselves or have a chauffer?? To enter you had to take your shoes off. Can you imagine if you actually used it and came in off the beach with sand on your feet? lol

This rig was parked across from us during the rally. Just imagine, you can take your car, your kayak, and maybe your motorcycle. These are made to order and are very cool.

There were tons of classes (seminars) going on all during the rally as well as events being put on by Good Sam and Coast to Coast. Good Sam had a Find your Match game going on through Friday. You were given a number at check in and then had to find someone else with that number 'your match'. There were actually 4 of each number. MM found all four of his, I found one of mine. If you found a match you got a bag that said "I met my match in Louisville". The more matches you found the more entries you had in a drawing held on Friday afternoon. The prizes were worth seeking a match. They had matching fold up bikes, twin chairs that had foot rests that came up, a couple of generators, an rv cover...... lots of big prizes. We actually won a year's renewal on our Good Sam Club membership, not a generator, but worth close to $100.

That was going on in the East Room. The Seminars were all up and down two hallways and in the other big open section they had all the new and used rigs for sale and vendors selling all kinds of stuff you never knew you needed lol. I talked with two couples that bought new rigs, and I heard that there were a lot of sales. That's always good to hear because more dealers will keep coming to show you more rigs.

Churchill Downs was staging the HullabaLOU event over the weekend. They had multiple stages preforming at the same time. In one section of the Expo parking you could hear the music.... not by us :(. The big names that I can remember were Sara Evans and Kenny Chesney. Louisville has a LOT to offer. Beautiful town.

We pulled out Sunday afternoon and headed to Fort Wayne IN for the night to kind of shorten the drive home. We stayed at the Johnny Appleseed Campground. It is a city park that is so serene and peaceful that you'd never know you were a half mile from the center of the city.... the coliseum was backed right up to it. We're going to start looking for more city and county parks as we travel. They are definitely hidden gems.

We had a great time and love to go to rallies. We always meet lots of interesting people to visit and share stories and travels with. Next trip ... going back up to the Upper Peninsula. Can't wait. But for now I plan on getting in as much baby time as I can :).