It's all about color

I'll finish this June out with a splash of color. All photos taken this month.

Gaillardia. Chosen for it's rust/orange shade. I like orange against the dark gray of my house color. Also chosen because it is a perennial and low maintenance.

I believe this "goatsbeard" chose me. It appeared in the landscaping and I left it there.

Hydrangea. Chosen for it's large bloom and color. I like blue, but I am still experimenting with the aluminum sulfate to get the right shade. I killed the new hydrangea this year by adding too much of the chemical and nearly did this one in. This one tripled in size this spring. I will add another one next year and keep trying.

Sigh. I know it is psychological, but really. Why is it I can jump straight up out of bed at 6:00 A.M. on a Monday morning while on vacation, but can barely drag my body out of bed if I have to go to work? Just the nature of the beast, I guess. Well, it looks like another day of thunderstorms here in eastern Ohio. Not like we have had much rain. And it isn't like my yard is a soggy mess. I have not had the chance to mow. (Mentally kicking myself). Little voice in Peruby's head, "Really? What about the flooding in the mid-west? You want to complain about your little bit of soggy ground?"

On second thought, nope. I'll be fine.

My hydrangea

My hydrangea bloomed a lovely lavender color this year. This one is only halfway done. I chose it because Sable decided to provide the deep black background when I shot this frame. She walked behind the plant just as the point and shoot Canon (famous for their delay) decided to finally capture the shot.

No quick action shots with a point and shoot digital. Miss the moment and it is gone.

Strange weather this week-end. Sun, rain, sun, rain, wind, rain, sun again. I hope it gets it all out of it's system by next week-end.

My daughter started her aquarium with a half dozen platies and a loach. She told the pet store to cancel the rope fish if they could. They said it wouldn't be a problem to sell it to somebody else if one came in. It would be too difficult to start out with a rope fish. And, the aquarium at 10 gallons may be too small. She has them named and gets enjoyment out of watching them. So far.

I bought Peru a new cage. She was due for one. Her old one is still good, I'll use it as a backup. This is all the start of our vacation week at home. Clean and straighten up.

Leave me alone

Titten was much happier when I took pictures of her after turning the flash off. First day of vacation. 10 days. One week til my party. I've had some cancellations this year. Oh, well. I guess I won't get the big turn out that I did last year, but it will still be a good time.

I watched The Bucket List. It was good. I like Morgan Freeman, Jack only recently do I appreciate his talent. For my daughter I rented Fool's Gold. How many times did Matthew get hit in that movie? I mean really? I place Kate Hudson (and Matthew, for that matter) right up there with Sandra Bullock. They play the same silly character over and over again. Rerun, rerun, rerun. No range. Don't stretch. Well, at least you know what you are getting with their movies. Light fun. No big surprises, there.

Clover field

Clovers in my back yard before I mowed this past week-end and before the heavy rains came.

The restaurant

A huge wind/rain storm came through while we were dining at the above restaurant. (Photo courtesy of my sister). A good show because we had a window seat. The show was much better than the food. I had flounder stuffed with crab meat. I didn't care for it. And the side dish of corn was gray in color and looked like it came straight out of the can. This happened to me a couple of weeks ago with green beans.

Why can't the local restaurants take a cue from the chains and fix the mixed vegetable medley with squash, zucchini and snow peas? Even fresh broccoli would be welcome. I am guessing that unlike chains, they do not have a clue to how many customers they will get in an evening and it would be too costly, I suppose.

Well, with storm after storm rolling through today, it was headache city. Nothing major, just annoying as all get out. I would be doing something, cruising along and then "boom" that jab of pain in the side of my head. Ugh. After 38 years of headaches (regular headaches for me started at 10 years old, migraines at 12) it just gets to be so old.

Four Years

Today marks four years of blogging. Sometimes I go back to see what was happening in my life a year, two years ago today. It gets pretty wild sometimes to look back. Wow. I have kept a journal on and off since 1986, but have not seen my notebooks in months. I have no idea where they are.

I am trying to battle a bit of a migraine today. I have dinner with family tonight out of town. They don't know about my blog, or if they do - they don't mention it. I check my stats now and again and it doesn't look like they are reading it. I don't share it with them.

My daughter fell asleep with a movie on. Woody Allen. Scoop. I caught it in the middle and have been watching it. I have never ever liked W.A. He plays such a bumbling idiot, but not in a funny way. I don't "get" him.

I guess I'll finish the show. Okay, it's over. Ha, ha.

My daughter has decided to spend her part of the "stimulation" check on a tropical fish tank and fish. We got the tank kit yesterday. The water has to acclimate and then we add fish. Three at first. She has ordered a rope fish. I am not keen on this, as I am not a fish person. Oh well.

Stormin' Norman

The neighbor dog ran over to visit Sable this evening. This was the best shot I got of him. Sorry about the slobber. He was in constant motion and it was dusk. Norman is not fixed. Sable is. He made a couple of advances and she let him know what was what.

He is huge. I've seen him several times across the street in the back of his yard, but up close I was just "Wow." And to top it off, he has 40 more lbs. to put on his owner said before he is full grown. Wow wee!

She finally got him settled down, we put Sable inside and she took Norman home. The neighbor on the other side came out with her dog and Norman went stormin' over there. She had (and I kid you not) a pink poodle. I was very tempted to walk over and ask her if I could get a picture, but they were a good distance away and I didn't want to traipse through my neighbor's yard. But really? A pink poodle? Then again, why not?

Stretching it

A few weeks ago, I caught this from one of our local schools. Schools are hurting. Is this what it is coming down to? One person to manage 5 libraries on 10 hours a week? Two hours at each library. Good grief!

Speaking of libraries.

I went to the library on my lunch hour. I like to test my web pages to see how they look from a foreign computer. I have a large monitor at home and I won't pull up my personal web pages at work, so it interests me to see my pages with a small screen. Like the library uses. Sometimes we have no idea our page looks gray instead of purple, etc...

I signed in and sat down at an empty PC. We were almost elbow-to-elbow. On my left sat a man and on my right sat a young lady. She was click-clicking away. I got down to it. I pulled up my sites and checked them for LINK errors, runaways and off-color pages.

A young man came up behind the girl and startled her. She began yelling at him "So nice to see you have time for me!" Then they started to whisper. After about 15 seconds the overwhelming smell of cigarette smoke hit me. Remember we were elbow-to-elbow. They continued their conversation, trying to whisper but sometimes it grew louder. I fidgeted in my seat. The guy to my left got up and left.

To my right, the girl got up and the guy sat down. Cigarette smoke enveloped us. The girl stayed behind him and yak-yak-yakked. I cleared my throat. I fidgeted some more.

I had finished my job, so I signed out and left. As I walked away I saw her sit down in my chair. I made a remark to the librarian, "Libraries aren't what they used to be. It's kind of noisy." She looked up, "Noisy?" "Yes," I said and walked over to the magazine department.

One way I decided to save a few dollars was to stop all my magazine subscriptions. I didn't have a lot - only two. But Readers Digest made me feel like a criminal. They kept saying I was overdue, blah, blah, blah. I wasn't receiving any magazines, and they should not have sent any to me past my subscription date which I have no idea what it was, but I thought if you don't renew they bug you a couple of times and just stop sending the issues. I should have saved all the notices of "Delinquent Account!" that I received from them.

I was thinking of subscribing to the Large print edition when I start back up again, but now I just think I will read at the library. Because of their notices.

I grabbed the latest issue, shoved puzzle pieces away from my area and sat down. It was 65 degrees Fahrenheit in this part of the library. Maybe because there was nobody in here. They were all at the computers, I don't know. The magazine reading area is butted up against the video/cassette area. While reading all I could hear was slamming plastic DVD/video covers as browsers pushed them against each other looking for a movie. Holy cow! Slam, slide, slam!

I kept reading. Freezing and reading. Then a complete cackle of laughter broke out from the front desk. It was the librarians and a customer laughing up a storm.

Well, this library isn't what is used to be. That is for sure. I'll try a couple more in the area hoping to find one that will take me back in time to the good ole' days when libraries were a place of quiet reading, research and peace. But, I won't hold my breath.

A sigh of relief, but what the heck....

Watching television last evening, an AMBER alert came across the screen. My blood ran cold. Two little girls (sisters in fact) were missing. Believed to have been abducted. The above photo is NOT either of the girls. It is from my archives. As close to the 7 and 8 year-old range that I have in my files. That is the age of the sisters.

They are safe. But it was close. After reading more on the story this evening you just have to shake your head. The father left them with this guy who is 35 years old and he had been drinking all day. They had been swimming in his pool. He took them to a friend's house gave them pizza. Threatened them with a gun.

The police caught up with him and chased him in the woods or through a field. The girls are safe. The guy is in prison and a trial is set. A big sigh of relief. But, what in the heck? You just want to choke that father. No comment on what I want to do to the abductor. I am torn. I hate to wish pain and suffering on another human being, but sometimes I say "He'll get his in prison" and other times I cringe thinking about it.

Honeysuckle, honeybee

The pictures of a bumblebee didn't come out quite as well as this one I had of the honeybee. I think that is honeysuckle. There is honeysuckle in the hedge along my alley, and it smells quite nice. Years ago I went to Florida and coming out of the motel room one evening and taking a walk, I smelled the orange blossoms. How sweet and heady was that smell.

The other evening before the rains, I could smell the sweet and heady smell of honeysuckle. So, I needn't be envious of Florida and their evening scents. Ohio has it's own. The honeysuckle. Always planted near the outhouses along with the lilacs. Where the outhouses used to be, rather.

I had a free week-end and I thought to myself "I can finally focus on getting some serious cleaning and straightening up around here." First thing Saturday morning I hang the flag out for "Flag Day" and after coming inside I notice that my left muscle between my shoulder and neck (I think it may be the trapezius) is stinging and burning. I strained it again. For a couple of hours (along with Advil) I moped around and cursed the day. Then I got angry. I moved furniture around, I vacuumed, I cleaned, I straightened up. My neck was hurt anyway and I was bound and determined not to let this "free" time go by.

Edit: 8:50 p.m. As fate would have it, I happened to catch a Nature show later this evening on this bee about CCD.

From the album

The way we store photos now, on hard disk and not in an album. I don't know. It makes me think I should print them out and create albums and place them around on the coffee table when company visits. Because nobody jumps on my computer and just browses through my images.

I post some for folks to see but you never know.

I don't have a lot of fashion sense. This can be seen way back in 1972 (I would have been 12) when I actually thought that green socks went with this outfit? And WTH? Was I wearing the shorts backwards?

And this horse? She was my sister's. I never fully trusted that horse. She was the type that could work the bit between her teeth and take off with you. No amount of pulling on the reins could stop her. My horse riding days came to an end when she ran home with me trying unsuccessfully to stop her. She took the turn too fast and I landed under a pine tree. Unhurt but SO embarrassed. The neighbor had to bring the horse over from next door. My attempts to stop her made her go down the wrong side of the fence.

I'd been showing off. There were a few boys riding their bikes and I had to nudge Queenie into a canter to pass them up and she just wanted to go home. Everybody saw me take the dive.

I never really got on a horse again. A couple of trail rides (so my daughter could ride) but that was all. I know the old adage "You have to get back up on the horse" but I didn't care. My love affair with the horse pretty much ended that day.

Little mushrooms

I got the mushrooms last week-end as a gift. They go well with my gnomes. My patio will be full around the edge before very long. I have a few more in the house that I need to move outside.

I've been watching the news about the storms and flood in the Midwest. The horror of the boy scouts, the evacuations in the flooded cities. As I passed a gas station today I was wondering if a lot of the service stations would be going out of business. It seems so.

Sigh. I am reminded of the Anne Murray song. "I really could use a little good news, today."

Western Salsify

Well, the corner of it's puffy seeds, anyway. I know it is a weed, but I still like to take pictures of it. If you click on it, I uploaded the 1074 x 845 pixels picture. My camera takes the photo in a 2592 x 1944 (5.0 mega pixel) format. I usually change the size of it before I upload it. Usually I just post it using the 800 x 600 image size.

I've had this camera since 2003. My daughter's is a 7.1 mega pixel (waterproof up to 10 feet and one hour and drop proof up to five feet). I've considered purchasing another camera, but I am still having a good time with this one. And, I don't worry too much about if I knock it around a bit. It's been knocked around.

It's beautiful weather in the Tuscarawas valley. Still on the warm side. I need to mow, but had company this evening. By the time they left, I was out of the mood. No energy, I mean. So, I took the camera outside instead. Sable loves it when I get my "Crocs" on. She knows that I am not going away, but I am going OUT.

Before the rains

Yes the blooms were spectacular this year, but the rains came and beat my peonies to a pulp. The blooms were visible two, three days at the most and I didn't get many photos of them.

More rains brought in a cold front along with a doosie of a migraine this morning. I awoke at 6 a.m. and discovered the electricity was out. The wind was blowing. I stumbled around for a few minutes and then realized that I did not feel very well.

Stupid weather.

Heat drains me

A picture of the beautiful lake where I spent last evening. It was still over 80 degrees Fahrenheit when I arrived at the party. Yet, they felt the need to start a fire. Ugh. I moved my chair back as far as I could while still being a part of the group. Across the lake the pavilion had a band playing. They played a mix of Jimmy Buffet, Elvis, Alabama with a bit of The Electric Slide and The Macarena entwined into the evening.

My daughter went to a graduation party. It was way out in the country. I picked her up at a little bit after midnight. She wanted to stay all night. That would be 5 boys staying and 2 girls. I nixed it. She was a bit upset, but since she is 17, Mama still has the power.

I have about a half a dozen gnomes to add to my collection. My plants need all the help I can dig up. And, my collection of cosmetic bags has tripled. It is a strange collection. Some folks have a thing for shoes, some penguins, some folks like to collect dolls. Me? Cosmetic bags and totes. Who knew?

My daughter went with friends to see "You Don't Mess with the Zohan." Me? I'll pass on Sandler. I don't recall liking any of his movies all that much. Not enough to spend money on.

And this billionaire is reminding me of the book I just read about Charlie Wilson. Corruption.

My air conditioner can barely keep up with the heat. It is draining. A "do nothing" day. I worked out in it yesterday and Friday. My arm will barely move because of all the weed eating. I don't normally do that. Growing up I mowed the grass, but didn't have much experience with weed eaters and trimmers. I have a slight fear of them. I tackled the weed eating yesterday. Things were messy around the sidewalks and now they are nice and trim. But my arm is paying for it. And the humidity. Yowza. I'll try to tackle my fear of the electric trimmer next week. I bought the tools but I have never used them. My sister ran the weed eater for me before and a friend did, but nobody has used the trimmers. I use safety glasses, but I wore short pants. My ankles were stung quite a bit to say the least. I also broke down and purchased a pair of Crocs. I've seen folks wearing them and had no idea how comfortable they really are.

My Grand Niece

Since my sister is her "Grand Mother", I get to be the "Grand Aunt". I like that. I always thought it was "Great Aunt." Here is the little one making a face at whoever she was going to throw the ball to at our Memorial day cook-out. She was quite the entertainer that day.

I saw her on Thursday night. We had ice cream. Her mother and grandmother (my niece and sister) were preparing for a garage sale for the week-end. I took a couple of boxes out to contribute to the sale. In the paper the next day, I read where some crazy guy held a young girl at gunpoint at another sale just around the corner from where were were. It happened earlier in the day. I was there in the evening. The young girl had a toddler with her at the sale, also. Fortunately, her grandfather was sitting in a secluded room of the house and came up behind the gunman and wrestled the gun from him. The story is quite moving.

We knew nothing about this story until last evening. My sister is finishing the sale today with her little granddaughter, but the guy is in jail. Tucked away. But scary to say the least.

I got the grass mowed last night. When I mow I wear headphones to drown out the awful noise of the mower. I hate loud noises especially the droning of the mower. At one point I heard the most awful screeching of tires. It brought neighbors out of their houses. I ran to the front yard certain to see some poor animal mangled in the road. I was so glad I tied Sable to the dogwood tree before I began mowing. My cats were all inside. I never let them out.

The entire road in front of my house was covered in smoke. Folks were standing on their porches looking around. I caught a glimpse of the old pick-up truck that laid the rubber. This young boy had stopped at our house to visit my daughter a week ago. She had not returned his call. I guess he was leaving his calling card. I just shook my head. She was at the movies with two other guy friends. I thought to myself and I "partially" quote Sugarloaf here, "You ain't bad kid, but I've seen it all before. Don't call us, child we'll call you."

Elder Gnome

Elder Gnome says, "Eh. Your hostas did well this year, but I've got bad news for that hydrangea behind me to my left. Well, I don't think he's gonna make it." "And put a small potted marigold in my basket, would ya? I'm a little off balance here."

Okay. This week-end E.G. I'll give you a flower of your very own.

Under my poppies

With my head lying in the grass - ick. I shot this poppy from underneath. I shared some sky view with a spider that I was trying to keep out of my hair. He (or she) was hanging off of another poppy and the breeze kept blowing it back off course and it would swing dangerously close to my hair. I have a photo of the spider, but it didn't turn out all that well.

The heavy rain beat the tar out of my poppies, so they don't look like this any longer. They lost most of their bright orange petals and lay half beaten down close to the ground. I hesitated about posting a photo of my poor hydrangea. The newest plant I purchased looked great for about 5 days and then it scorched. I believe it was the aluminum sulfate. I overdid it. I feel too bad to post it's photo online. How embarrassing.

My nephew just called me. He is off to Micro Center to purchase a new scanner and hard drive. I don't have a store close to me (well, not Micro Center) but I can order online. It is probably a good thing that I don't have a store like that close to me. I could browse for hours. At least at home I get sidetracked.

I purchased myself a little treat today. Melissa Etheridge's Greatest Hits "The Road Less Traveled". Back in 1988 I worked a data entry job on a midnight shift and this radio station kept playing Melissa over and over again. I had just returned from my life in Virginia and ended a long-term relationship. I was ready to move on. I also purchased "Eagles:The Very Best of". One of my very favorite songs is "Seven Bridges Road."

My daughter sits at her computer listening to her music and I have my headphones on listening to Melissa. We make faces at one another every now and then. At least we aren't separated with each being in their own room. We are both out in the family area. When she wants to talk I take my headphones off and listen.

We are having a great time with her driving everywhere. She had a job interview yesterday. She got her first taste of a young manager asking her all kinds of questions about how passionate she was about her shoes. My daughter wants a job for the summer. This shoe store wanted a passionate tennis shoe professional. Today we went grocery shopping. She saw a classmate and we talked and joked for a few minutes. He was just a doll. She left the store with stars in her eyes. I said "See? It's still raining men."

She rolled her starry eyes. "I don't want a boyfriend, Mom."

That is A-Okay with me. I just want her to feel good about herself and to keep on smiling.

Okay, back to my music. "Baby you can sleep while I drive..."

All apologies

With sincere apologies to all parties, tell me if the above photo (at a quick first glance) does NOT look like Michael Douglas hugging Dakota Fanning? Well, it DID to me. LOL! I thought maybe it was a prison movie of sorts with the blue clothing.

No? How about that feathered-back hairstyle from the 70's ala Angel-fashion?

Fruit Pizza

This is from last week-end. The black things are blueberries, not black olives! Even though an olive is a fruit, I did not even think of putting them on this pizza. We have strawberries, kiwi, mandarin oranges and blueberries. I didn't even add the raspberries. It was overloaded as it was. I used the sugar cookie crust and the pie was gone in no time.

I am in a situation at work where I have to take the high road. Again. Since I work with the schools, we have started our summer hours. We knock an hour off the end of the day and go home an hour early. The organization that I work for staggers their hours. Some folks work 7:30 to 3:30 and some work 8:00 to 4:00.

Since our office has two workers, I always worked the late shift. My co-worker logs in from home to make it look like she is at the office at 7:30 and she strolls in at 8:00. Most of the time after I arrive. She still leaves at 3:30. I still stay until 4:00.

She is the ultimate kiss-ass. She doesn't care who knows it. She brags about playing up to the boss. She makes me ill.

So, it is the high road. I will feel better about myself. I will work all my hours and not cheat the organization OR my co-workers. The ones who also work their full shifts. Hey, I'm feeling better already.

Miserable

Do these kids look like they are having any fun?