Garden Mode

I guess I've hit my garden mode for 2009. While we don't need any new beds (since I have enough trouble taking care of the ones I already have), I am always on the lookout for something new to plant, especially if it's unusual. So far this year, we've stuck with the basics. One bed at the driveway needed foundation plants so we put in 6 small boxwoods. They're advertised to get 2' high x 4' wide and that should be perfect for that site. Nelson dug up my balloon flowers that were already in that bed. They had never spread the way I wanted them to and without cutting back a couple of times, they got so tall they flopped over; very unattractive. I did replant 3 of the balloon flowers and hope they'll do well in their new home. I put them in a bed with peonies; that bed needed some color after the peonies finish blooming anyway. The balloon flowers will have the front porch to lean on so the height shouldn't be a problem there.

We also planted a pin oak tree and then realized it's directly under our power lines to the house. It will have to be moved to another site; good thing we realized it early enough it hasn't rooted into its site yet. We'll move it and plant 3 new loropetalum shrubs one evening this week. I've now got to remember to water these new plantings every day until they get established.

A friend gave me a big box of white iris that I got finished planting today. Now to find something to go in the very middle of that bed; maybe a crepe myrtle bush or something similar.

I could talk plants forever; I never get tired of looking and planning. What we really need now in our yard are trees for shade. We've been very lucky and blessed in that most everything we've planted has done really well and our landscaping looks very nice (even if I do say so myself). I want to add more things with color; there is alot of green since the front of the house has several evergreen shrubs as foundation plants. While they look nice and add greatly to the overall look of the property, they look dull in my opinion. My peonies feed my craving for color but they don't bloom long enough.

I'll share some photos as I get them tweaked for the web, some are below. My clematis is absolutely breathtaking. I can get rather dull to listen to when I get started on flowers and plants. Enjoy the photos and have a great week!!

My new toy

Though my new toy is much less expensive than Nelson's new truck, I think I'll have alot of fun with it anyway. I got a Wacom pen tablet to help with my digital photography tweaking and I got it set up tonight. I'll use it on the desktop PC rather than the laptop because of the room needed. My tv tray doesn't have enough room for the laptop AND the pen tablet lol. It will definitely take some practice to get proficient with the tablet but I think I will love it soon.

Busy day at work but my first day filling in for 'the boss' went fine. I didn't blow anything up and as far as I know, all went well. I hope the rest of this week is as smooth as today turned out to be.

Watching Dancing With the Stars and I don't know who my favorite is. I wanted Ty to do really well but Gils is probably my pick to win. He is so good and makes it look so easy. Melissa is great too; it's tough to choose. Glad I'm not a judge.

Nelson and I got to do some yard work before the rain started Saturday; I got a few plants thinned out to take to a friend. I hope to get some more thinning done later this week. One of the salesmen at work has been bringing in irises the last couple of weeks and they are so beautiful. He brought some yellow ones today that are absolutely breathtaking. I'm not really partial to the color yellow but they look so great mixed with other pastel colors. Now I'm wanting some yellow irises :-) It's a good thing I've got a big yard to plant things in.

Maybe next blog I'll have something really great to talk about. Or maybe I'll have some examples of the fantastic digital creations I'm sure to produce now that I have a pen tablet haha.

God Bless You

Men and their toys

Nelson got his 'new' 2006 Tundra yesterday; he's thrilled with it. He says it's better than he expected. Working at a car dealership keeps me in contact with alot of 'experts' and those who've seen the Tundra say that we got a really good deal. It does ride very well and looks sharp too :-) Here's a photo of Nelson with his new toy:

I'm glad he's so happy with it and that he found one that turned out to be a good deal. He has been wanting a Tundra for a long time; he says this is his last truck purchase. We'll see about that though haha

For the past two days we have been so busy at work that it's been simply exhausting. All the strange, odd, off-the-wall requests and characters have popped up over the last couple of days. I get home so tired that I can barely think; it's not a physical fatigue but a mental one. I feel like my brain needs to 'defrag' and get a RAM extension. My supervisor is off next week and I'll be handling some of her duties as well as my own. She has been training me for about 3 weeks now on some of the more particular aspects of her job and I pray that I've learned it well enough to do her proud. She's the best supervisor and a fantastic teacher; she explains things well enough for me to catch on but she also lets me learn by doing it myself which is the best way for me to learn something.

My brother, Jerry, called tonight and we talked for a long time. He'll be here tomorrow with his family for a weekend visit. They'll be staying at Mom's tomorrow night; I'm looking forward to visiting with them. I've missed seeing my nephew and niece, Thomas and Kristina. I wish the weather outlook was more positive for a sunny weekend and nice temperatures. It's supposed to start raining after midnight tonight and go thru the entire weekend according to one forecast. Oh well, the plants need rain and I'll be glad when my peonies bloom in all their gaudy glory.

My clematis plant is covered in blooms now and a few irises have already bloomed or are blooming now. My peonies are loaded with buds and I fervently hope they don't get beaten down by a heavy rain so their blooms will be the show-stoppers that I know they can be. I absolutely LOVE my peonies; I call them my babies this time of year. I babied them the first couple of years after planting and it was well worth it. They're established now and are so gorgeous when they bloom. They'll be blooming soon if all goes well and I'll definitely post photos of them here.

Been facebooking some but not as much as when I first signed up on there. I just don't have the time to keep up with all the networking sites and have not even been to Twitter to see what all the buzz is about. My daughter-in-law sent me an email tonight asking me to 'twitter' but I haven't decided yet if I'll even try it. Between work and life in general, I feel like I've already got enough to keep up with.

We hope to see Sara and Sam this weekend, probably Sunday afternoon. I'd love to see the other 3 grandkids but we need longer than a weekend for a trip to Huntsville, AL. I'm glad they're there though and not still in Okinawa. I sure do miss seeing them; it's been several months now since we saw them.

I've rambled enough; will wish all of you a good evening and pray that God blesses you in all you do. Until next time...

Dad's New Toy

Daddy got a new toy a few days ago; something he has wanted for a very long time. A John Deere riding lawnmower. It is very nice and I'm amazed at how quiet it is. Nelson said the steering handles just like power steering. Our Craftsman is great and we're happy with it but it doesn't steer quite that easily. And it's a lot louder. It works well though and it's paid for so I'm thrilled with it haha.

Nelson's Tacoma needs a new motor; if it's not one thing, it's another. That saying is sooooo very true. We just got a couple of items paid off and now it looks like we'll have to have another vehicle. Oh well, with the Lord's help we'll make it just fine.

I had to work half a day today and it was so slow; I only had three customers the entire morning. I'd much rather be busy so that the time goes faster.

We have no plans for Easter other than having lunch with Mom and Dad. I guess it will just be us with no grandkids. Nelson had to work today and we decided we'd just stay home this weekend rather than go visiting the grands. Weekends aren't long enough to go see the Alabama crew; we need to take a 4 day weekend and make a trip over there. I'd love to do that but there just aren't any weekends that work out that way.

Have a wonderful, blessed Easter!

New inspiration

I got 2 CD's with vintage images to use for collage work, scrapbooking, ATC's, whatever you want to use them for. They each have over 1000 images and I already have tons of ideas that I'll probably never have the time to put into action. I just finished a really cute photo album/scrapbook that I gave as a gift to a friend expecting a daughter to be born in May. It turned out really well and of course, I forgot to get pictures before I gave it away. You'll just have to take my word for it; it is really cute :-)

Trivia question for the day: What Sesame Street character passes the time gabbing with his pet goldfish Dorothy?

Answer here

God Bless You

Movie Day

I've watched several movies today while doing laundry and cruising YouTube for Photoshop Elements tutorial videos. It must have been Vin Diesel day on one of the channels because they showed 'A Man Apart', 'Pitch Black', 'The Pacifier' and 'The Fast and the Furious'. I didn't watch that last one but caught most of the others. I'd seen bits of all of them before but never had seen the entire movie. I really enjoyed most of them and was able to get all the laundry done too.

Nelson and I watched 'Quantum of Solace' tonight; the new James Bond movie just released on DVD. It was okay but not as good as some of the other Bond films in my opinion. I liked 'Casino Royale' much better.

My brother and his family are coming to Mom's tomorrow to visit for awhile and I'm looking forward to seeing all of them. It's been a while since we've had an extended visit. He actually dropped by my office Friday for a few minutes and brought me two John Deere caps I'd asked him to get for me. The caps have a logo showcasing JD's 100 year anniversary and are collectors' items. I got one for my boss, Cannon, and the other for Nelson.

I bought one of those Trivial Pursuit daily calendars when WalMart had them marked down to $1.00. I'll share some of the questions (and the answers) here to add something interesting to my blog. I should work harder to build up interest in my blogs and gain some readers. Just don't have time to do all I want to get done.

Saturday Trivia Question: What power did the Care Bears team up to deploy against bad feelings?

Click here for the answer.

Have a great weekend; God Bless You.