Flower Power – Monday April 5, 2010

I bought some flowers to use on the tables for Sunday Easter Brunch. I decided to have some fun with them and well, I did stay up real late on Friday night doing some editing. The wisteria just started blooming recently and is so fragrant. Too bad it is also so pesky.

We had a sunrise service at a nearby lake and it was beautiful outside, watching the mist on the lake and the sun occasionally peaking through the fog. The mosquitoes were out in full force but thankfully they must’ve been about ready to head to bed as they didn’t bother us much.

We had a lovely service of special singing, a short message by Joel, sharing time and more special singing and then we headed to our dining hall for a breakfast of pancakes, breakfast casserole, fruit slush and cut fruit, and pastries.

I had a vicious sore throat which Advil helped to keep manageable until I could finish my food committee duties and the go home and collapse into bed. Slept 4 hours, I did, but I still managed to come down with a full-blown flu.

Anyway, I was pretty tickled with these and after my Gerber daisies mature, I can try some with different colors. The flowers were actually orange but they look more like red here.

Gerber

Pansies

Pansies 2

pansies 3

tulips 3

wysteria

wysteria 2

Have a great day!

Monday April 5, 2010

Spring keeps springing and today I’m home with the flu. Yuck. I’d actually rather be working. Somehow I managed to miss the bugs coming around over the winter but not now.

spring 2010 12

spring 2010 11

The other evening we went to a “plant farm” as their names says. They have millions of plants that they ship out to retailers, plus you can go through their greenhouses and handpick you own plants.

This is a picture I took last year we were there:

day 27a

This time we went earlier in the spring than last year. So we hope we got the color flowers we wanted. And we only had a little over an hour to shop. Not enough time for that place.

After we left we decided to take the dirt roads home. It was supposed to be a 30 minute drive home but it ended being a bit longer than that. We apparently turned the wrong way once and took the scenic route home. And no, we don’t have GPS. We are so twentieth century.

But we did pass this place which we found to be quite interesting. Way out in the country, by a big field.

scenic route 1

Seems the tables are turned on the cows of Chik-fil-A. The chickens are getting their revenge.

scenic route 2

And I have no idea what this means.

 scenic route 3

We did find out way home before the sun set and we lost east from west. No really, we weren’t that lost, just out a slightly different direction that we thought we were headed.

Yesterday we spent the day outside. I got the outside of the windows cleaned which was neglected last fall and even maybe last spring. It was amazing how much cleaner they were this time vs. before our grass came in and the dirt didn’t get blown around. I still had the dilemna of how to get the windows clean that are surrounded by flower beds and wouldn’t be safe for a ladder.

I checked at our local hardwares stores for a squeegee window washer but could only find a squeegee. So I bought a deck brush and safety pinned a rag to it. And I found a squeegee for the shower and taped it to a broom handle. It looked, well, like a red-necked contraption but it worked. Very well, in fact.

redneck window wash

Plus I needed the deck brush to wash our pollinated carport.

Lois got her butterfly garden started. And I have a tiered planter that I want to try.

spring 2010 16

And we planted more vegetables. Our broccoli plants are pretty much history. The cabbage is hopefully developing heads.

Spring 2010 14

The brussel sprouts, a new venture for us, are getting small “buds” on them.

spring 2010 13

The kale and kohlrabi are coming along well. The lettuce is at it’s prime. The garlic and onions are beginning to mature. We planted tomatoes, squash, and 3 kinds of peppers. We also started an asparagus bed, another new thing. Hopefully it will work, if not, we’ll know in a few years.

Our garden is looking better than last year, probably in thanks to adding lots of lime, a must for this area, and an all-natural bovine by-product thoroughly mixed in last fall.  We also used some mushroom mulch, a tip we learned from Clarita who had absolutely gorgeous plants last summer.

Now if we could find a really effective way to get rid of the bugs and weeds.

Sunday April 4, 2010

Spring keeps springing.

 

The other evening we went to a “plant farm” as their names says. They have millions of plants that they ship out to retailers, plus you can go through their greenhouses and handpick you own plants.

This is a picture I took last year we were there:

day 27a

This time we went earlier in the spring than last year. And we only had a little over an hour to shop. Not enough time for that place.

After we left we decided to take the dirt roads home. It was supposed to be a 30 minute drive home but it ended being a bit longer than that. We apparently turned the wrong way once and took the scenic route home. And no, we don’t have GPS. We are so twentieth century.

But we did pass this place which we found to be quite interesting. Way out in the country, by a big field.

scenic route 1

Seems the tables are turned on the cows of Chik-fil-A. The chickens are getting their revenge.

scenic route 2  

And I really don’t know what the sign on the left means.

scenic route 3

We did find out way home before the sun set and we lost east from west. No really, we weren’t that lost, just out a slightly different direction that we thought we were headed.

Yesterday we spent the day outside. I got the outside of the windows cleaned which was neglected last fall and even maybe last spring. It was amazing how much cleaner they were this time vs. before our grass came in and the dirt didn’t get blown around. I still had the dilemna of how to get the windows clean that are surrounded by flower beds and wouldn’t be safe for a ladder.

I checked at our local hardwares stores for a squeegee window washer but could only find a squeegee. So I bought a deck brush and safety pinned a rag to it. And I found a squeegee for the shower and taped it to a broom handle. It looked, well, like a red-necked contraption but it worked. Very well, in fact. That tip for improvisation is free.

Plus I needed the deck brush to wash our pollinated carport.

redneck window wash

For some reason the pinned rag reminded me of occasions long ago when we would babysit and ran out of disposable diapers and my mom would pin towels on the the babies. Hey, it worked and the kiddos still had a good time.

Lois got her butterfly garden started. And we planted more vegetables. Our broccoli plants are pretty much history. The cabbage is hopefully developing heads.

 

The brussel sprouts, a new are getting small “buds” on them.

 

The kale and kohlrabi are coming along well. The lettuce is at it’s prime. The garlic and onions are beginning to mature. We planted tomatoes, squash, and 3 kinds of peppers. We also started an asparagus bed, another new thing. Hopefully it will work, if not, we’ll know in a few years.

Our garden is looking better than last year, probably in thanks to adding lots of lime, a must for this area, and an all-natural bovine by-product thoroughly mixed in last fall.