| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 02:44 pm: |   |
LOL, ROFL, LOL, ROFL!!!!!!! I am almost in tears from laughing!! See, this is what I am talking about. Most people (I don't think) would find this sort of thing as funny as I do. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 02:45 pm: | |
It sort of reminds me of Mad Libbs... |
Yes!
Yes, I'm sure we are in a very small club. Must be something wrong with us. HAHA! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 04:38 pm: | |
I was so mad when it happened b/c my sisters & I and a cousin were going to spend the night at my aunt's house for a slumber party. I was so excited about going ever since we had been invited. After the sledge hammer incident, my mom was afraid to let me go b/c she wanted to keep a close eye on me (even though my aunt only lived 2 blocks away...in the same house I live in today)! I was so upset! The next day I found out my aunt cooked liver (YUCK) & onions and MADE them eat it for dinner! (What kind of crazy aunt feeds KIDS that??!! I mean, I'm the crazy aunt these days, but I at least take the kids to fast food restaurants or else buy them junk food/candy-- no wonder they  me, lol). I was sooo glad I didn't get to go to my aunt's after hearing that! |
That is so funny and so is the way you tell it! But ya know, it sounds a little fishy to me (oh my, did I just say fishy?! LOL)... Maybe everyone knew how much that slumber party meant to you and they were all instructed to make it sound like it was really awful so that you wouldn't feel so bad about having missed out. Either that or you were abducted by aliens and they implanted that liver and onions story in your head so that you wouldn't remember the abduction. They can do that, you know. Hahaha! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Wednesday, October 24, 2007 - 05:08 pm: | |
You know, it wasn't until a few years ago until I thought of that. It was always just a funny memory for so long until one day, out of nowhere, that thought hit me .
You just proved to me you are a mother! Only a mother would say such a thing! lol
Do you mean because I type exactly as I would as if I were saying it, or do you mean funny as in I cannot type proper & tell a story?! (I ask because my sisters were telling me a couple of months ago that when they read my emails, it is just as if I were there talking to them, telling the story. If that is not what you meant by funny, I am sure you meant the latter...I gave up on writing a long time ago even though English was one of the subjects I actually completed 4 levels of in college & actually did well at, lol. I don't try much anymore)
If you are reading these last sentences, congratulations! I realize the paragraph above was a mess to sort through! |
October 24, 2007 (Wednesday)
I didn't get any gardening done today. (Duh! LOL.) I did take some more house photos and some pictures of the bicycle in the barn, though. I also saw that someone (most likely me) really needs to rake the leaves around here. Something broke off six large branches up one side of one of the pine trees beside the driveway. I had noticed one on the ground yesterday, but didn't discover the rest of the damage until today. Could it be raccoons? A bear? ... All this laughing today and I still have a headache. I think my endorphins are broken. Except for that and the dreariness, it was a great day.
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Hahaha, so funny and dying laughing again! I personally think you type and tell a story just fine. Your completion of four levels of English tells me that at least a few other people have thought so, too.  I think maybe it's funny because you not only tell the story as it happened, but you also throw in what your thoughts and feelings about it are/were along the way. That must be choice (A), typing exactly as if you were saying it. Thank goodness for that! Otherwise, you'd be typing what someone else was thinking and that'd either make you schizophrenic or telepathic! (Shouldn't you be going home by now? HAHAHA!) |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 09:30 am: | |
Well I don't think I can tell a story worth a darn. I get to rambling and then you mix in where I throw my thoughts/feelings in there along the way & I think people just get totally lost reading my "books" (or they have to re-read it 5x before they start to finally get what I am trying to say)! See, there I went again!
That is a great fall picture of your house... but you missed a couple of spots of orange. HAHAHA  |
I know, isn't it awful?! Well, if my husband puts the clapboards up to the right of the chimney, it won't be quite as bad. I hope! I should have just painted the Tyvek. HAHAHAHA! |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 12:18 pm: | |
No, it's not that bad DJ, I was just messing w/ you b/c you've commented on it so many times. I really do think your house looks great even without that section finished.
When I painted my house there was one little spot about 4" x 4" that I missed. I needed a ladder to reach it, but didn't own one tall enough. I kept putting it off until about a year or two later when I finally got to it! |
At only 4"x4", I might have thrown a paint-sopped sponge at it and hoped for the best. LOL. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Thursday, October 25, 2007 - 01:34 pm: | |
lol, not if you know my luck. It would have bounced off the light or porch roof & onto my head or in my hair or something like that for sure! |
So funny! That would be my luck, but I usually have paint in my hair after painting anyway. It would just be another case of "things always get worse before they get better". Haha! |
October 25, 2007 (Thursday)
The clouds broke up and the sun came out. It's definitely cooler and the trees are more bare. I noticed the dogwood leaves, what few there are, have turned a beautiful red. My son noted the crabapples all over the driveway. I saw one creamy yellow butterfly, very small, flitting about the pumpkin field. I was afraid the dog would eat it, but the butterfly disappeared into a sprouting tree stump. I was glad for that since I had been thinking that the butterflies seemed to have already disappeared for the year.
October 26, 2007 (Friday)
I pulled up all of the tomato plants, cheese pepper plants, eggplant plants, squash vines, and watermelon vines. My son loaded rocks into his wagon while I did that and then loaded some more while I raked and shoveled up the tomatoes that had fallen off the plants. I decided not to overwinter any of the veggie or fruit plants from the sq ft garden. My thought is that next time around I will grow toms in gallon pots or hanging bags and maybe overwinter them in their pots/bags at the end of the season. I will dig up the Glads and Pompon Dahlias when they die back. Now, what to do with all of those rocks... I have dumped them on the driveway so that I can just scoop them up with the tractor once I decide where to put them. I don't want weeds growing up through them, which will happen either sooner or later with the way fall leaves congregate among the rocks around here. Maybe I just need to make a reverse rock quarry. ... I am now going to update my "what's blooming" list, but transition it to a "what is making an impact now" list. Seems much more meaningful and useful at this particular time of the year. I have Rudbeckia, Purple Coneflower, Forget-Me-Nots, 'Happy Returns' Daylilies, and many other things blooming sporadically, dotted here and there throughout the landscape, but not enough to bother considering them useful in the fall garden.
WHAT IS MAKING AN IMPACT NOW
Cornflower 'Jubilee Gem' blue
Cosmos 'Seashells Mix' pink, dark pink, and white
Dahlias heirlooms and pompons (heirlooms would be doing better if I had staked them)
Nasturtium 'Empress of India' red
Nasturtium 'Glorious Gleam' shades of orange and yellow
Marigold 'Harlequin' yellow/burgundy
Snapdragon 'Black Prince' maroon (finishing up)
Tassel Flower coral/red (finishing up)
Tithonia orange (some in color, some dry)
Weeds: wild Asters (various types in white and various shades of lavender)
After lunch, I began inventorying my seeds. That consists of looking at a spreadsheet of what plants I have in the landscape, what seeds I have ever bought, and what seeds I have previously self-harvested, and then comparing what seeds I currently have in my mini fridge to what is noted on the spreadsheet. I went through two bags of seeds from the fridge, and between that and my memory of what has no chance of ever being a seed source, I managed to update 192 items on the spreadsheet. Along the way, I found several types of seeds that I had never even entered on the spreadsheet. I can only imagine what must have distracted me from doing that the first time around. I also found a couple of plants to cross off as dead. Now I'm down to 98 other items on the spreadsheet left to compare to what is in the mini fridge. Not too bad, even if I do find some more undocumented seeds in the fridge. I have one unidentified self-harvested bean. It doesn't look like Black Valentine and I know it isn't Scarlet Runner Bean, so I wonder if it is Fortex or whatever it was I grew a couple of years ago. Or was that just last year? I thought I gave those all away. This is why I keep a journal now. Everything is beginning to run together. |
October 27, 2007 (Saturday)
The rabbit scratched me when I took him out to clean his cage. I know he didn't do it on purpose, but it hurts like a cat scratch. ... It rained most of the day. We had 0.9" of rain, including all of the rain and sprinkles we've had since the last time I checked the rain gauges. We saw a double rainbow when we left the grocery store.
October 28, 2007 (Sunday)
We have a frost warning tonight, so I brought the rain gauges inside. I figure if I hadn't done it now, I'd end up forgetting altogether and then they'd freeze with water in them and break. I might take them out again to measure any big rains we get, but overall I think the first stretch of overnight freezing temperatures, like this week, will be my signal to bring them inside each fall. ... Things to do today before nightfall: retrieve cotton plants, Cardoon plants, hot pepper plants, Moon Vines, Chilean Jasmine vines, Heliotrope plant(s), and the Begonia basket; gather seeds from remaining Utrecht Blue Wheat and Monarda citriodora; bring in Moon and Stars Watermelon and giant Kleckley's Sweet Watermelon; and I suppose the Leeks can wait a while longer... I need to verify that. If I have any time and energy left after all of that, I might plant my lily bulbs... I still don't know what to do about the garlic or I'd get that over with, too. ... Okay, I retrieved the following plants: 2 cotton, 2 Cardoon, 3 hot pepper (1 Tabasco, 1 Anaheim, 1 Jalapeno), all of the Moon Vines (3?), all of the Chilean Jasmine (5 or more?), 2 Heliotrope, the Begonia basket, and both 'Glorious Gleam' Nasturtium baskets. I also brought in 4 Chinese Foxgloves. I gathered seeds of: wheat, Monarda, Ambrosia, Hyssop, and Veronica. I think I accidentally mixed some Hyssop in with the Veronica. Oh, well. I brought in 2 Kleckley's Sweet Watermelons and the last Moon and Stars Watermelon. The largest Kleckley's weighed 60 pounds. WHOO-EEE! My notes indicate that they typically only weigh up to 40 pounds. After the weighing in, I gathered four more watermelons which my son and I then fed to the chickens. ... Things to consider doing before nightfall: cover Lime Fizz Iris to maybe prolong their growing time, either cover or dig up and bring in some 'Empress of India' Nasturtiums. ... I threw dried leaves and a pile of spent flower stalks on top of the Lime Fizz. I'll probably be pulling Black-eyed Susans there for the rest of my life. I also brought in two of the 'Empress of India' Nasturtiums. They say these things are compact, but what I thought was four or five plants turned out to be just the two. It's 54 degrees outside, but my fingers feel frozen! ... The Heliotrope looks droopy. I suppose I should whack things back a bit. I don't really expect anything to survive indoors for the entire winter...
(I combined two other pics of the watermelon harvest into a collage. The collage gives a better idea of just how large the melon is. Drop me an email if you'd like to see... I'm just dying to share! The collage is of a more personal nature; otherwise, I'd just post it here. But don't be shy! ) |
October 29, 2007 (Monday)
Brrrr. The coop says it was 20 degrees last night. It is 42 degrees right now, but the frost is everywhere, even on the roof of the coop. The Harlequin Marigolds still look happy, but the Tithonia took a real beating in the cold. Almost all of its flowers snapped their little necks and are now drooping to where I can actually seen their pretty orange faces. So sad. Time to console myself with a stack of pancakes, some maple syrup, and a cup of hot tea. ... I tucked the chickens in and saw that they have picked their watermelon rinds clean. Good birds.
October 30, 2007 (Tuesday)
I would like to put the veggie patch and cut flower garden in raised beds, but I know that is just wishful thinking. So, I am going to harrow today, I think, and then I am going to mark out the beds and plant the lily bulbs. In light of that plan, I must remember to not harrow up: Hollyhocks, Rhubarb, Veronica, Mints, and Horehound. So sad... I guess I will be uprooting the remaining Cardoon, hot peppers, cotton... :-( When I collected Ambrosia seeds the other day, I noticed how it has been spreading seeds EVERYWHERE. Maybe I should put the pond there to avoid pulling Ambrosia seedlings for the rest of my life. ... I did the harrowing, at least. Hahaha! I transplanted one clump of Mint and pulled the rest since it was all the same. I transplanted one weed, an Aster. The Leeks are safe, too, as are the other plants on the list of what not to harrow. Now here is something interesting to remember for future years... Frost survivors: Cardoon, Cilantro (my husband thinks it is Parsley; I did not plant any Parsley this year, but I did plant Cilantro there), Hollyhocks, some of the Cornflowers, Snapdragons, Foxgloves, Sweet Peas, Coneflowers, Black-eyed Susans, wild Asters. Their foliage will make good cover for things that get trashed... Frost victims: Tithonia, Marigolds, Cosmos (just the flowers, so far), Tassel Flowers, hot peppers (but of course I knew that would happen). I had been thinking that I wouldn't grow tall things in my front flower beds next year -- maybe keep the Coneflowers and Susans pruned short -- but now that the Tithonia is gone, which I thought was really too tall to try there again, I think it looks too flat and empty out there. ... I saw a giant bumble bee just as I was coming in for the evening. It still had many flowers to choose from, but I bet it was looking for the Tithonia. So sad. I should grow some in pots next year to prolong the bee fest.
October 31, 2007 (Wednesday)
We had another good frost this morning, but it turned into a pretty nice day. Perfect for trick-or-treaters, if we'd ever get any.
November 1, 2007 (Thursday)
Wow, the thermometer said it was 60 degrees when I went to take out the trash this morning. I banged on the thermometer just to be sure (I know, how scientific!), but I could tell it was probably right just because of how warm and humid it seemed (also very scientific). I discovered the mailbox had been bashed overnight. Oh, well, I am not surprised, despite the fact that I didn't actually hear anything last night. ... I felt a couple of droplets on my face when I was out at dusk. That was odd because I didn't think anyone had said anything about a chance of showers or rain for today. Saturday, however, sounds like an entirely different sort of day, with the winds from the tropical storm whipping through the area. Tomorrow I shall get those lilies planted somewhere by the path to the coop. ... Most of my Cornflowers looked much better than I remembered from the previous frost. I love that brilliant splash of blue. It nicely counterbalances the wild Pumpkin orange of the house, which looks even more wild with these very pink sunrises and sunsets we've been having lately. I cannot wait to see the Pumpkin in winter.
November 2, 2007 (Friday)
Another frosty morning.
November 3, 2007 (Saturday)
It seemed to rain a lot and then when I thought to go check the rain gauges to see how much rain we had, I remembered that I hadn't taken them back outside for the rain. Oh, well. Maybe I will make midnight of October 31st my official end of the rain gauge season each year.
November 4, 2007 (Sunday)
I planted the mixed Oriental Lilies, finally. I was so confused because I found 13 in the bag and thought I had ordered 25, but I see that I had only ordered 12. I planted them between the Lime Fizz Iris and the big Wisteria beside the path to the chicken coop. I almost took them out to plant in the sq ft garden, but then I remembered that I'm considering moving the berry patch into the new yard and turning that whole field under.
November 5, 2007 (Monday)
I primed the two end walls in my office and then went into the kitchen to watch the local weather report. Force of habit. So much a force of habit that when they said rain was on the way, I thought, "Oh, no, I just painted! No one told me earlier today that it was going to rain." Then I thought, "Oh, wait, I only painted INSIDE." HAHAHA!
November 6, 2007 (Tuesday)
It is raining today.
November 7, 2007 (Wednesday)
I forgot to recover my Lime Fizz Iris last night and they were frosted this morning. Oh, well, we'll see what happens. ... I cleaned out the coat closet. I originally planned to clean out the old baby room and make it into the new Parrot Parlor, but I forgot that the window needs to be repaired and there really isn't anywhere to move things (craft supplies and baby toys) to except the guest room and I'm not sure if I'd just end up moving it all back into the old baby room when Christmas guests arrive. LOL. So, anyway, I found 28 cans of paint in the coat closet. Six were primer or ceiling paint, but the other 22 were all different sorts of colors (Pepperberry, Nectarina (I wonder if that was a typo on the lid?), two shades of gray, GREEN, a bright yellow, Glacier Blue, Tibet Blue, and some other shade of blue, a couple shades of khaki, Antique White and at least two other cans in the cream family, Garnet, some shade of jade... so many colors I can't even remember them all), some of which I don't even remember ever buying and wonder what I had in mind for them. Makes me wonder why I was so afraid of Pumpkin. I guess it had just been so long since I had painted any other odd colors around here that I had just sort of lost my nerve, not to mention that I probably forgot that I had ever done such a thing, although I do notice the bright yellow every time I walk past it. I walk past the Nectarina a couple of times a day, too, but it's over my head so I don't really notice it, except to love it when I do notice it. As I was cleaning out the closet, it occurred to me that I could just move some of the old baby room stuff into the closet rather than into the guest room, but after I put everything back into the closet that I had to, I really didn't have any room in there for anything else... I decided I kind of liked the open space in there. I wonder what else I have around here that I might be in the mood to move to the basement or toss out? I just love this type of cleaning. ... Wow, I just spied zillions of Starlings in the front yard. I wonder what flower seeds they will steal from me and what sort of wonderful weed seeds they will leave for me. ... Now that I see the pictures enlarged on the computer, I wonder if maybe they were Grackles instead.
November 8, 2007 (Thursday)
We have a serious frost this morning. The Sage bushes are trimmed in white, the poor Cardoon are heavily laden with frost, the Rhubarb leaves have collapsed to the ground, the Black-eyed Susans wear frosty ringlets about their seed heads, and everywhere the weeds are contorted with the agony of a good hard freeze. I stood in the silence for a long while, taking it all in, in the frigid 34-degree air. I felt no breeze and heard no sound but the occasional swish of a dried lifeless leaf falling from a tree. Only one golden-leaved Maple and the garnet JM stood in splendor in the surrounding yard, while the trees in the back forest huddled together, dotted with color. Now, as I stand at the window and feel the warmth of the sun shining in, I hear the caw of crows and see the blue flash of Jays. The frost lingers in the shadows. Now begins the stretch of frozen days. |
| Flowerfreak Posted on Friday, November 09, 2007 - 08:07 am: | |
LOVE your Nov. 8th post. |
Thanks! It was an interesting moment, literally frozen in time. A little shocking, a little sad, but very pretty just the same. Even the poor chickens' water was frozen yesterday morning, so now is when I begin to go out to the coop with a pitcher of hot water every morning, unless I remember to bring the other fount in for the night, which of course I didn't do last night.  |
November 11, 2007 (Sunday)
I dug up all of the Dahlias today. They are drying in the dog room and hopefully I will remember to store them someplace safe in the basement before my husband throws them all away... again. The Glads are still nice and green. I wonder how long it'll be before they are ready to be dug up and put away for the winter. Too much longer and the ground will be too frozen for me to dig them up anyway. I saw lots of tiny new bulblets growing around the base of two of them. ... I guess it was Thursday that I moved everything out of the old baby room / craft room / storage room and into the guest room and back landing. That evening my husband grudgingly helped moved the parrots and their cages/perches into the new Parrot Parlor (i.e., the old baby room), which I think I will call the Polly Parlor because it rolls off the tongue much better. Then maybe on Friday I cleaned out what had been the old Parrot Parlor... moved book boxes to the attic and hand cleaned the Cockatoo powder off the floor. I brought the plant shelf unit back out of the barn and set it up in there with the light fixtures. It must have been that night that I brought the hot peppers, Christmas / Thanksgiving / I'm-Gonna-Flower-When-I-Wanna Cactus, two Nasturtium baskets, Lotus bowl, and Chilean Jasmine in and set them up on the shelves. Maybe the next day I carried the Chinese Foxgloves up there.
November 13, 2007 (Tuesday)
It rained last night and sounds like maybe it is drizzling again a little right now. Last week's (last Thursday's?) original forecast of snow flurries had been changed to rain showers. I don't think either one of those ever came to pass. I can do without the snow as long as we get some rain now and then to keep everything from drying out like it did last winter. Unlike last winter, I get the feeling we'll get snow long before January this winter, but who knows. I just have to remember to mulch if the snow stays gone for too long again.
November 14, 2007 (Wednesday)
It was VERY frosty this morning. The frost was way up high... up on the tallest of the weeds and on the chicken coop door handle. I don't think the Cornflowers or the Standing Cypress liked it one bit. ..... I have started sorting through my recipes to figure out what to make over the Christmas holidays. I think Christmas dinner will be a ham, Boston Brown Bread, Boston Baked Beans, Skillet Cranberries, Sweet Potatoes, and Pecan Pie. That should make everyone feel thoroughly full and sick, but at least it should turn out just as nice as the Cherry-Glazed Pork and homemade Cranberry Sauce that everyone has enjoyed in the past. ..... The chimney repair crew will supposedly be here tomorrow. I should do some cleaning now, but I think I'll try out an old cookie recipe instead. Hee hee.
November 20, 2007 (Tuesday)
Hmmm, it sure has been dull and uninteresting around here. We went to the nursery yesterday, but of course they were closed. Or were they? Their sign said they were closed on Mondays, but there was an "OPEN" sign beside that sign and they had their "OPEN" flag flying beside the road, but it didn't look like anyone was in the shop. Typical New England business. LOL. The chimney repair crew still hasn't shown up. I suspect they won't be here any time soon with this being the week of Thanksgiving. We are getting flurries this morning. We had about half a dozen the other day, but today we have a light dusting on the rock wall, the chicken coop roof, and the barn roof. I have dragged out my electric Christmas candles. Everyone else is doing it, so I figured, "Why not?" I don't know where my screws are, though, so I'm going to have to pick some up at the hardware store so I can screw the candles down to the ledges as usual. ... My husband has been sick for three weeks now. Luckily he took this week off. He went to the emergency room Sunday night when his eyeballs turned pink. I think he picked up some sort of tick disease. We are waiting for the rest of his blood work, but everything so far has checked out okay (blood tests, x-rays, and whatever) and none of the doctors can figure out what is wrong with him. The head of infectious diseases has been brought into the loop. My son and I are not sick, so that's why I think it has something to do with that tick he had... otherwise, I'm sure we would've all been horridly ill by now. ... The chickens have been spending most of their days inside the coop. I open the popholes, but they are not interested for the most part. A hawk landed on the rock wall near the chicken coop this morning as I was going to let the chickens out. I stopped to watch it for a while, then continued on my way. It eventually took off and I leaned around the front corner of the coop to see where it was going. It looped around the coop and flew almost directly over my head. Very cool. I love to hear the soft flapping of their wings. ... So far I have made Burgundy Berry Pie, Cranberry Sauce, Russian Teacakes, some sort of Oatmeal Bread, and a Pumpernickel Bread. I have the ingredients to make homemade Egg Nog Ice Cream, Pecan Pie, and Date Bars. I think I'll either add cranberries to the ice cream or make a cranberry sauce for it. Mmmmm! After yesterday's Teacake binge, I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. I felt better after removing a layer of clothing, but decided to head for bed to escape the lingering sensation of being squeezed to death. I've only consumed one Teacake so far today. Hahaha!
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