Beautiful Day

Nothing to jot down did take some pictures though.


Caroline's poppy

Caroline's "olas" (gladiolas). You can't really see the spikes in the middle of the picture, but they're getting ready to bloom.

Joe Pie Weed getting ready to show off.

My first oriental lilies to bloom, I can't remember the name and Caroline usually steals the tags to play some sort of kid game with it. I love the pure white with the magenta speckles against the green of the leaves.

I rearranged my bedroom and found this little dress that Brett purchased for her so she could attend civil war reenactments at the fort I worked in and at which Brett volunteered. We figured it could be paid family time for me. When Caroline spotted it in a box not yet unpacked, she immediately had to have it on; it is obviously a bit small, but it still looks cute. She also has Giraffy with her checking out the flowers and bugs.

Sunflowers getting ready to bloom. I thought the way the sun was hitting this one looked really cool with the squiggly leaves in the back ground and the bright spiky ones in front.

The Whole Picture

She LOVED feeding them and was quite upset when she couldn't pet them; fortunately, her dismay only lasted seconds when she found some water to play in. She brought home a little stuffed giraffe called "Giraffy" (how original) that she takes with her everywhere.

Amazed by Nature

Cute little bee on the dark purple day lily

I was amazed by this one, a bi color alternating petalled (petaled?) day lily.

Just take a guess as to what this is? Cheryl you already know.

Caroline with her first hand capture of a butterfly. It looks like she is squashing it, but she was amazingly gentle with it.
Caroline's amazement at what nature has allowed her to take a close look at; she begrudgingly let it go after this picture. She was SOOOOO proud of herself for catching it.

Harvest Moon Cone flower

Harvest Moon Cone flower with bee

Cut purple cone flower

Now to my amazement...upon closer inspection of the cut purple cone flower I noted an accumulation of pollen amongst the stamen of this one. If you look closely at the Harvest Moon Cone flower with the bee you will note the lack of pollen. Seeing this, I was stunned yet again at how everything in this world is truly interconnected in some way.

This and That

Been hunkered down for a bit trying to concentrate on not smoking, it's been a month you know!!! Soooo, I decided to treat myself with some of the money that we have saved by not smoking for a month. I know 30 days in the scope of everything is a whatever to most everyone else on this planet except maybe two of us (Cheryl and Mo). I digress a bit with the pats on the back to both of us...back to my little shopping spree. I went to this store that carries items made in and imported from Mexico. The craftspeople making these items are mostly family members of this young lady so it makes me feel good that I'm paying the sometimes high prices. Whatever, let me justify my expenditure how I want. Anyway, my gardens now have a spinny thingy, a gazing ball, another butterfly, and a lady bug. As a thank you for patronizing her store and referring people to her, she gave me a pottery and glaze flying pig. The kicker is I've been looking at these pigs for some time and they are almost 40$ and she just gave it to me. I don't know where the karma chit for that came in, but thank you!!!

Pig, pig, can you find the pig?

OK, the gardens, I have decided to start a day lily collection and currently have about 6 varieties and hope to build it with enough varieties to bloom through out most of the growing season up here. I don't know why this came to mind, I guess it's just a little different or a brain blip due to lack of nicotine. I'm not making a science of the whole deal, the only thing I'm really paying attention to is bloom time and secondary is color. The other gardens are doing well and as I find plants that are a bit different I find a place to put them.

Caroline is quickly nearing two and a half; it seems that every 4-6 months she has a REALLY horrible spell and then lulls me back into a sense of security. I'm learning to build walls against hurt feelings already. She recently told me she didn't want to come home with me and that she doesn't love me. Now, I know she truly doesn't understand that she has been hurtful except by my reaction, thus, learning to build a wall seems like a good idea; although a very transparent one, just a little buffer that I'm sure will get thicker and thicker as time goes on.

I think I'm getting a tad punchy so to all have a GREAT evening!