Growin' Fruit

Hi,
I thought I'd take a break from the Sherman Garden pictures to show you what's growin' in my yard.
I planted some strawberries in one of those hanging planters with the holes on the sides.  I suppose the squirrels and birds might get 'em before me but at least the snails and slugs won't.  Here's the first flower taken a few weeks ago!

I also have a small apple tree that is planted near my backyard.  When I moved in last Sept. there were apples on the tree and nobody on the property came to get them so before they rotted off the tree, I picked them and made an apple pie!  This pic is from last week, it was budding out and now it's in full bloom and the flower buds are such a pretty pale pink.

Planted some peppers, cilantro, basil and parsley in the backyard

Strawberry and Upside down cherry tomatoes

Picture from last week

Look!  It got ripe and I ate it before the squirrels or birds got it!

Patio type medium sized tomato plant, hopefully won't get too big!

Got any big plans for the holiday weekend?  I'm taking the three days, gonna relax a bit and think of those people that risked their lives and died so we could have the freedoms we have here in the USA.  Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful time whatever you plan to do.

Plants and Paint

Hi there,
I couldn't open my right hand all the way when I woke up yesterday morning.  I have tendonitis in my middle finger!  That hand has been stiff a bit lately with all the scrubbing, painting, gardening and yup, that's the hand I hit with the hammer several weeks ago.  Monday night I left the shop on time, got home and worked planting some more plants and then came morning and the inability to make my middle finger go straight.  So I got up and ran it under hot water and rubbed it and then it began complying with me to open and close.  No worry.  Just gotta give it a rest.  Not painful during the day or anything.  I did work Sat. afternoon and Sunday in the garden so I've just overexerted it is all.  Here's my progress:

The ivy geranium are filling in and blooming now!

Here are the Lilies that I planted exactly a year ago and they are blooming like crazy this year.

                                   Cute!

            Cuter after being painted! 
These are the thumb screws to the blue bathroom fixture.  They hold the glass pieces on.  Amazing what a little paint can do!  
                  That's all folks! 

5 Down More to Go (Grow)

Howdeeee,
Just a quick update and a few photos of what I did last holiday wknd.  I got the bathroom cabinet finished and planted 2 clumps of Bird of Paradise shrubs (that have been in pots for 10 years) for a total of only 5 plants in the new garden so far.  I worked again to get all the roots out which took time and then had to deal with moving some of the potted plants onto the porch to avoid the extreme summer sun.  The rest of the plants are much smaller and will get planted faster and I hope to get most of them in tomorrow. 

Here is a before pic of the bathroom cabinet.

Can you believe the previous owners put the same tile on the walls, around the sinks and then onto the floor?  Way too busy looking and I think this particular tile would look good on an in-ground pool, don'tcha think?

I tell ya, I'm working with what I've got to make this place sell-able.  Some "after" pics coming soon.  I haven't crocheted in weeks now.  I'm not that motivated.  Seems I just want to focus on getting this house ready because I can't stand living like this much longer.  Plus my hands are tired from all the scrubbing and pulling roots and all that.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you're all finding some time to relax and enjoy your summer!

Mom's 80th Birthday!

Photo by Levi Brown

It was my Momma's birthday today.  She is 80 years young.  We are planning a party for her sometime this month.  It should be fun!  I didn't get to be with her today but I'll see her soon.  This isn't her cake but it sure looks like it could be with all those candles. 

I decided to take the 3 day weekend and get as much done as I can in the garden and at the hottest part of the day I plan to go inside and do the refinishing of the blue bathroom cabinet.  I can't believe that I purchased the refinishing stuff a year ago!  There isn't much left so I did buy the correct amount, thank goodness.

This stuff works great.  I highly recommend it if you have some wooden items and don't want to strip 'em and sand 'em and all that.  This stuff goes right over existing finishes and I'm happy with the way the cabinets look.

Hope you are gonna have a relaxing weekend!  Take care...

More Plants the Merrier!

Howdy,
Lookie, lookie what I got this morning.  I got into town early so I dropped by the 99cent store and I got these plants for only for 99 cents each.  I think that this is Spanish Lavender.  They've already bloomed but that's ok.  I've never grown this type of Lavender before and I've only had some in pots and they don't really like it here very much.  I know that they like full sun, moist cool roots but not real dry hot air.  They really like the weather in the northwest; they have prolific Lavender fields up there.  SO... I have the perfect place in the new garden for them where they will get some shade at the hottest part of the day.  I also got 3 hot pink mini roses to go with the other 2 red ones I got awhile back.  I chose only one pot of the Inpatients a white one, to go with some others I have and they will get planted in the shade.

Oh and I got a small box of thin mints when I was there and I've eaten half the box already.  What could be more fun that flowers and chocolate?  Well except yarn I suppose.  Yum to the tongue but not the waistline.  I know, I'll burn off the calories working in the yard this weekend, yeah right.  Bye for now!

Transplanting!

Yay, I got the largest plant that I'm going to transplant, a Strelitzia Nicolai the common name is Large White Bird of Paradise transplanted where the tree used to be.  It grew by seed right next to the fence and came from my neighbor's plant and I didn't know at first what it was but I dug it up several years ago and put it into a pot.  I decided to plant it instead of take it with me when we move.  There are 2 reasons for that: One- It must've been a healthy seedling because I read they are not real easy to grow from seed and since it grew in that garden originally,  I'll let it stay there.  Two- I don't know how much (if any) garden I will have upon moving since it will be a temporary home :(. 

Here's what it will look like when it flowers someday:

This is what it looks like now:

It can grow to about 20ft high.  They are usually planted in clumps, several of 'em but this one will have to make it's own babies!

Here is the beginning hole:

Here are all the roots I had to remove from just that hole and I wasn't finished digging yet!  These are the roots left over from the Umbrella plant and Italian Cypress tree that was removed a few months ago.

Look at how many roots from just 4 small holes and 1 larger one:

Pulling out all those roots really tired me out yesterday.  I could have gotten so much more planted if it wasn't for those darn roots.  It was also very warm and a tad humid to be working outside.  BUT it has to get done.

I did get the Purple Heart plants (Tradescantia pallida)

And a couple Large Angel Wing Begonias (Begonia Coccinea) transplanted, too.

In their new home:

Hopefully they will like where they are now.  I used some worm castings and some chicken manure mixed with some potting soil to amend the existing soil.  That should give 'em a boost so they fill in faster.

It felt really good to shower off the grime of the day and then I had corn for dinner yup, just corn.

Have a lovely week!

Dirt Pictures

Hi!  Betcha read it dirty pictures????  Did ya?  Well I don't want to disappoint ya but it really is pics of dirt.  It's my yard, in fact it's where I need to plant all the potted plants that have been waiting to be put into their new home.

It seems I didn't get as much done as I would have liked over the last 3 day weekend but I did make progress.  I always think I'll get more done.  Is that beating myself up???  I got one side planted with the ivy geranium that I had dug up back in...I think it was, Jan. or Feb. before we removed the trees.  It took awhile to transplant them since there was a bunch of dead stems and leaves to remove.  I really hope they take over quickly so it fills in nicely and covers up the ugly cement like it used to do.  We still don't have a date to list the house yet.  It's a beautiful day out right now and tomorrow is supposed to be perfect so I plan to chisel away at the cement piece so it can fit like a puzzle back in it's place to edge the garden and then I can overturn the dirt and add some topsoil that I got from OSH and begin transplanting!

Over the years, the massive roots from the trees we took out, moved the concrete and I couldn't get it to fit so I need to chisel off about 2" or so and then it should fit!

OK, blogger is driving me crazy, it doesn't want to upload the pics to the post agggrrrrr!

Here is the one side that is all planted now with geranium, yeah!

I've been trying to create a pattern for a crochet daisy flower and I think I have it now so I hope to be able to post what I've been working on soon.  Gotta go before blogger raises my blood pressure!  

Hope you are all having a relaxing day and enjoying life! 

3-day Memorial Weekend

Oh my, I'm so glad it's Friday.  Yeah, I'm taking the 3 day wknd to get more stuff done so we can get this house ready to sell.  I haven't got enough sleep all week long and today, well, I'm crabby.  Stayed up real late moving all my clothes and stuff from the closet to the other room and put away all the dresser top stuff into temporary boxes and moved it all out with the help of my son.  That was Tuesday and the painters started in the closet and then yesterday, prepped and painted the walls and took down those damn vertical blinds that I've wanted to remove since we first moved there.  I slept in the other room since my bed and furniture was in the middle of the room and covered with paper and plastic.  Hopefully they are all done and I can get things put away over the 3 days.  I got some cheap mini blinds from the store last night and will put those up tomorrow, too.  What would I rather be doing?  Relaxing and having an umbrella drink and maybe read a good novel and sleep.

Here's a couple pics of the house the other morning.

Here's the Mandevilla Vine Flower that I transplanted from the broken pot last weekend.  I tied her up to her new trellis.  Looks like she's gonna live!  I'll transplant the ivy geranium all around to fill in the rest of that garden space.

The mystery plant from my earlier post is:

Gladiolus!  They are blooming so early this year.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The End of the World?

Howdy!  One of my customers reminded me this morning that some doomesdayer predicted that today would be the last day for us all and so far it's been pretty much the same as any other Saturday for me, how about you? 

However, I keep seeing a bit of continued moral decline in our culture.  On some days I want to take down my gift box display behind the counter and list the 10 Commandments.  I don't care what religion anyone is, it's just that if we all followed those 10 (come on people, you can do anything else just not those 10 things) and we would all be able to live happily together as they are actually more like laws of "getting along" if you think about it.  Here's a couple of things that have happened recently here where my shop is:

What we found when we came back after the New Year's weekend.  Some gang members tagged our van that was sitting in our back parking lot.  We used some special remover on it but it took some of the gray paint off, too.  Someone also tried to remove the van's registration tag but I cut into it with an exacto knife when I put it on month's earlier so if someone ever tried to steal it it won't come off in one piece and then they can't use it.  So ha, ha on them!

When I opened the front door of the shop this past Monday, I saw that someone (that is crazy) stole the 15 year old dirty mats from in front of the Acupuncture's doorway as well as mine.  Two door mats??  Really?  Of course,  I called the Sheriff's Dept. on both of these incidents so they would know what is going on in the neighborhood.

On another note, I've been bra shopping and it has been horrid.  Even at Nordstrom, there isn't a bra that fits right.  I tried on every bra they had in my new size and came home twice with bras that I eventually returned.  So until I can fit into my other bras, I'm going to continue to wear my soft ones and lose more weight.  I've been doing good on my diet.  It consists of eating less carbs, more protein and basically eating everything I want except eating less of it.  I have tremendous will power when I put it into action.  So mid section menopause chubbiness, watch out, you are going to disappear! 

This afternoon and tomorrow will consist of continuing the garden planting and to de-clutter the kitchen and refinish the floor board and maybe I'll get to sewing the little curtain that will go above the sink.

 
Here's a couple pics of the rose tree my mom and I planted about 19 years ago.  Every now and then I cut off a couple buds and they fill my backroom with a heavenly scent!



Wherever you are, I hope you have lovely weather and can get outdoors and enjoy some fresh air!

It's Planting Time!

Howdy!  Whatcha been up to?  I didn't get any pics of Mother's Day since my batteries died before the first take.  Of course my sis and I stayed up way too late yacking away and then had to get up early to make brunch for what family was coming down to celebrate the day with us.  After peeling back our eyelids, we got busy and turned out a nice meal.  Great seeing everyone who made it down.  But no pics :( .

Just been working away at the shop and this wknd I hope to get all the soil turned over and plant most of the plants (finally) in the bare places where the trees used to be.  I've hardly had a chance to crochet, boo, hoo.  I stopped at OSH and got some top soil this morning before I opened the shop and so I'm ready to go!  I still need to do the baseboard in the kitchen and refinish the blue bathroom upstairs, oh and also sew that little curtain above the sink that I still need to do.  But I really want to get the plants in so they can start growing and looking good for curb appeal while the house is listed for sale.  Also it has cooled down and it's always more pleasant to work in the yard without sweat on the brow!

A few things my nice customers surprised me with for Mother's Day!

Guess what's gonna be blooming soon?  Blogger sure had it's issues this week didn't it?  I wasn't able to post or go commenting but it seems to be working fine now.  Have a great weekend!

Almost Spring!

After the rain I took some pix of the garden.  Those are the two garden places that I need to fill in after they are finished with the house painting.  I love how some rose bush leaves are red at first and then turn green. 

Hope it's looking more like spring wherever you are!