Photo Hunt-Creative Saturday, May 26, 2012

Close-up of wavy videos, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

I think what I love almost as much as seeing the flowers and plants in early March at the Philadelphia Flower Show (especially if it’s been a cold winter) is the ‘creative’ aspect of the show. You’ve got to make me go ‘oh’ and ‘ah’ when I see it to be spectacular. The theme of the show this year was Hawaii (and I was thrilled my brother invited my son and I to go, but alas we aren’t speaking again…). This was an exhibit near the entrance called ‘The Orchid Wave’. There were flowers of course, but the blue part was a video of sea turtles and fish swimming over your head. I will see if someone made a video of this.

Pretty darn spectacular to me.

Sorting and stuff Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Wednesday night already! Wow! The week is going by quickly. Monday I was changing out my winter to summer clothes-a job I regret as I have so much of everything. Letting go of stuff is hard. I made myself try on long sleeved tees (I prefer 3/4 inch more) and many were shrunk up in the front. A certain brand ‘Basic*Editions’ from a Mart with K were all this way. I am happy to say I filled up a big bag for charity, but I still have too many summer tops. If I don’t wear them yet again this year, they aren’t going in storage, but in the charity bag.

I got out in the yard and took some photos too. The Clematis both have been outstanding this year

Near the pond

Sean gave me this lovely chair seat for Mother’s Day. Brian and Sean went to get it in Delaware last night at another Wally World. Brian assembled it for me today. They are really comfy and because you have a leg rest, they are like a lounger. The table is nice, but the textured glass is upside down and will be flipped.

We have a few huge boxes in our living room-one had a new toidy in it and the other has the new vanity in it. Brian and Sean will do the toilet tomorrow. I think 52.5 yrs is a long time and our old one can be disposed of now or used as a planter-lol! : )

I have a little more planting to do. I haven’t bought mulch yet, but there are a few areas that look better with it.

This is what’s going in soon! : )

Rose photos Sunday, May 20, 2012

The 100s of roses were just starting to open. I feel that we will have to go back and see them again in June or July.

Taken at the Bond Rose Garden, Scott Arboretum on the campus of Swarthmore College, PA.

Photo Hunt-Magical Friday, May 18, 2012

Long shot of rose garden, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Brian, Sean and me took my mom back to the Scott Arboretum on the campus of Swarthmore College (Penna). to see their spectacular and magical Bond rose garden.
From a website-
Yet by far the crowning jewel in this already impressive collection is the shockingly gorgeous Dean Bond Rose Garden. Housing 650 roses of more than 200 types, it was established in memorial of Elizabeth Powell Bond, the Dean of Women at Swarthmore. It’s now tradition for graduating seniors of the college to pin a rose on their gown for commencement.
We’re going back in a few weeks to see them in further bloom!

Here’s an Artist Trading card I made and had to keep, but I did make a similar one to send my swap partner. My Grandmom Ruth use to call babies ‘baby birds’ so this reminds me of her.

The one I sent my partner:

Mom and Me at the arboretum Thursday, May 17, 2012

Mom and Me at the arboretum, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

The fellas and I took my mom back to the Scott Arboretum on the beautiful campus of Swarthmore College. It was really a sight to seen as it was breathtakingly beautiful. The roses smelled delightful too. I have some of my own roses, but I find them difficult to take care of and grow. I tend not to trim them at the right time. Then they get black spot, etc.
As you can see it was a sunny day in the middle 70s, though not humid at all. I will add more photos soon.
The students all get a rose pinned to them when they graduate.

~By the way, I had a sore elbow, so I had a band on it and forgot to take it off at the arboretum.

May Blooms and Victorian Flower Swap Monday, May 14, 2012

This is the front little walking path under my very tall, messy, shedding and kind of half ugly evergreen tree.  I am wishing it wasn’t there anymore to tell you the truth as it was allowed to get too big. I guess I’ll have to live with  it for a while.

I still get some lovely irises coming up, but I think many aren’t blooming as they need to be separated. I’ve done it before and it’s not an easy task. I know there’s about 15 varieties hiding in that garden.

Brian dug up another round garden, which I may have mentioned and recycled some old plastic fencing. He’s not sure how sturdy it will be, but hopefully it will do it’s job of keeping critters at bay.

I really like the Victorian cards I sent off. The hostess was inspired by old seed packs, and I found some cute images on a Flickr group. I hope the people I sent these to aren’t expecting seed packets, because that wouldn’t be original.

Back to gardening… I have lots of seeds to put in soon. Of course we are expecting rain and I may be delayed. That will give me time to figure out what goes where. I want to try pumpkins and watermelon this year. I have plenty of room for them.

Waiting on the weather…again Thursday, May 10, 2012

It’s been a rather slow week here. We’ve been getting April showers in May. The most exciting thing I did was go food shopping…and go to the dentist….and go to TJ Maxx where I got a little retail therapy in. We finally got some health insurance which eases my mind somewhat. Of course that’s an added expensive.

When I went out to get in the car to get the chip in my front tooth fixed I found this fella sunning himself:

We’ve been seeing a few of these garter snakes in the yard this year. I’ve also seen a bunny, which I prefer to see. Brian took this for me.

Our snowball bush is mighty bushy this year:

This is way too big as are most of our trees and shrubs. Here’s a Mt. St. Helen’s azalea we planted in place of the hedge:

It’s quite striking, isn’t it?

We have so much to do inside and out. We haven’t had a chance to go to The Home Depot for the new vanity and toilet I’d like to get too. We tend to drag our heels on things like that. I think if I had new things I’d revamp the bathroom decor! I sure know how to add glass tiles from doing them in the kitchen.

I think we’ll get busy with the gardens again tomorrow and Saturday. There’s always switching clothes from winter to summer too. That’s an involved job too!

A job that is never finished Monday, May 7, 2012

Brian and I were out in the yard Friday and some of Saturday. I did more Friday and then did a little of this and a little of that on Saturday. Today I am zonked and having some lady issues, but we both think I overdid the leaning over and using the edge tool. I love that half moon shaped tool. It can make a sad looking weedy edge look lovely in a matter of minutes.

We now also have two corral gardens! The second one didn’t cost us a penny as Brian moved an old plastic fence we had in the old garden. We like the round gardens  as they are easy to maneuver the mower around them. The one from last year will be used for zucchini, watermelon and other vine plants so they can spread nicely. I can’t have tomatoes and green peppers in the same area as zucchini, etc as it’s too hard to get to them through the vines and big leaves. The circle is nice again as we plant the veggies around the perimeter of it. We don’t plant more than 10-15 of each kind anyway.

I replanted a border garden I have under my Japanese Maple tree. I needed to add more Sweet William/Dianthus there. I also decided to add more ferns behind the flowers to fill in the space directly below the tree. I have plenty of ferns, hostas, vinca vine and Lily of the Valley this year. A pal from high school is coming for some of the Lily of the Valley and Hostas. I edged that area, under a hedge and down the side of the house. Then I planted flowers in front of our huge evergreen where I already have Bleeding Hearts, a ground cover, ferns and a Clematis. I added burgundy Salvias and pale pink Nicotiana . I have my squirrels decorations in there too. (I know, I know-where are the photos? )

And then I started on the fairy/gnome garden. It’s getting taken over with ferns and Lily of the Valley there.  I added Snapdragons and other tiny flowers. I will have to write down the names of them.  These are from my camera phone…. before the garden was planted

With a few flowers

This Clematis must have 30 blooms on it right now. I should get a couple more plants for this garden as they love it there in my Lily garden which is about a 1/4 cleaned out-oy.

I am hoping my PT Cruiser’s tire is finally fixed. It was getting flat in 3-4 days and we just kept adding air to it. We had it at the service station thinking it was a valve, but it wasn’t. I was reading on a Facebook fan page for PTs where a lady left the same message about her tire losing air. A man said to have it rebeaded, so Brian took off the tire today and just had that done. I think the rim gets fixed. So between the $38 valve and the $23 rebeading, I better not need a new tire!

A new collection Saturday, May 5, 2012

Right before our anniversary last month, I was in a gift shop browsing around. They happen to have a 25% off sale on Vera Bradley quilted items. I know they’ve been around a number of years, but lately I’ve been eyeing up their smaller bags as I just can’t handle a big purse anymore. Sometimes I’ll take two purses on trips, the big one with all the cosmetics, etc and the little one to use for shopping. So I saw the chartreuse, black, gray and white one and decided to get it. I love it and it’s little compartments for my phone and wallet…well I didn’t have the wallet until I found it on eBay! I also got the other ones-they all have names-I know the red one has Scarlett in there.  I’m waiting on an eyeglass case for eBay.

They were a fraction of the price of the ones in the store and they were new with tags! The little one in the front has my MP3 player in it and I’ve had it a few years.

That’s my back massage chair. And they are all machine washable. I have enough right now, but I like the backpacks, but they are up there in price.

Made this ATC for a ‘feather’ challenge. I happen to have an old rip off calendar and Elizabeth Denison was intriguing to me. She had to ‘make do’ with accessories, and she used feathers! Another swap bot lady sent me the sweet little feathers as she saw on Swap-bot I was in that challenge and she was sending me a ATC also.

I got two ‘gadgets’ in the mail yesterday. First an ‘extender’ so our WiFi could get to the bedroom part of the house. It took a bit to set up as the software wouldn’t work right. I had to get my laptop to find the device and it did. I can use my iPad in the bedroom-look at movies in bed, i.e.. The second was the Magellan eXplorer device. I had to become a premium member of Geocaching.com and I think my phone app is easier to read. Plus I had to go download local caches from the website. The phone app finds them for you! I think I’ll have to try it to get use to it, but I’ll need my glasses on as the screen is a bit tiny. If my pal Carole can find around 150 with hers, I hope to find at least 10 to begin with.

And some of my gardens are shaping up nicely. So many weeds to contend with!  I did a lot of work on Friday and did a bit more today, but I was very achy. I moved some ferns from the fairy garden and dug up Lily of the Valley slips. They are taking over! They bloomed so early, I didn’t get to enjoy their scent that long.

Check out this gorgeous petunia hanging basket. It has Pink Lemonade and Picasso petunias in it  and  is close to 3 feet wide. It was $22-around here-easily $35.

Below there is a Mt St. Helen’s Azalea which is new. Brian cut down the one hedge and I think we’ll gradually cut out the rest as they are old and are more brown than green.

I really am not going to garden on Sunday, but we will have something on the grill. I cooked last night, but couldn’t tonight.

Photo Hunt-Zap Saturday, May 5, 2012

Dancing Coke sign for people with birthdays, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.

Almost two years ago, the three of us went to a Phillies game. It was about 92 degrees and we had to sit in the sun. Not a pleasant experience, but I had water and also my mist fan. So about an hour or so into the game, it started to get breezy and then the sky got dark. There was lightning and we are glad we didn’t get ‘ZAP’ped. It started to pour and we got drenched and had to run to the car and drive home that way. We came home to find water pouring in where the pump is-never happened before. We had to scramble to get rid of it and clogged up the sink in the bathroom down there-still that way.
Anyway…thought you’d like to see the video board at Citizen’s Bank Park.