Still growing

I have approximately five moonflower plants growing. According to past posts they are full bloom by the first week in August. The shortage of rainfall this year may delay that, I don't know.

I transplanted one from the front of the house back to the west side of my house. That is where the original twelve or so plants were when I moved in. Fingers crossed that they build back up again.

I am not entirely positive how I am keeping them going. Just pure dumb luck. This one is in the front of the house and is from seed.

It is pouring the rain outside and lightning. My dogs will not budge off the back porch. You are not supposed to shower during a thunderstorm. It has been like this for 35 minutes. I am supposed to be getting ready for work. Headaches have been horrendous this past week because of the weather.

Things that I know for certain trigger my headache (whether migraine or cluster or tension):

strong smells especially clorox or most any cleaning product (hence why I do not clean often)

and perfume/cologne

bright lights

stress

loud sudden noises (fear of balloons)

stifling heat and/or hot sun

change in air pressure due to storm activity

lack of sleep or too much sleep

sometimes onions

hormonal changes

physical exertion - sometimes walking the dogs can be a pain, especially in the heat

laughing or coughing hard

too much caffeine or  caffeine withdrawal

Anesthesia side effects

multi-vitamins

skipping meals

dehydration

too much alcohol (naturally)

There are probably more, just can't think of them right now. I think the storm may be slowing down. Nope here it comes again. Sigh.

Post 1705

The lilacs are not the only thing blooming this week. My neighbor must treat his lawn with something because he does not have any of these that I can see. Harrumph!

I missed the marking of post number 1700, so 1705 will have to suffice.

Met some family for dinner tonight here.

Have a bit of a headache even if I only drank H20. I'll take some medicine and retire soon.

I receive a new recipe in the mail about once every two months or so. It comes in a postcard from my real estate agent. What has it been, seven years or more since I have seen this woman? How long will I keep getting these, I wonder? This recipe called for jicama. Never heard of it. I had to look it up. The dish does not sound good to me at all. It is called Grapefruit Vinaigrette salad. I don't believe I have eaten a grapefruit since I lived at home back in the early 80's.

Blah. I think I'll pass.

I have to think "What in the heck does a "grape" have to do with this sour fruit?" I researched and I guess the grapefruit cluster on their branches like a bunch of grapes. Okaaaay.

I have picked up the book "The Blind Side" that the library held for me. I started the first chapter. As in the movie, it starts out explaining some football moves. Not a fan. While there I picked up about seven books on managing people in business. I like to read it to see what people do wrong. Ha ha. Actually, with the first book it is more about realizing how I am under my own version of self deception.

Poppy pod

One set of poppies will be blooming shortly and there are about 15 pods on the plants. I hope at least 10 bloom at the same time. Big bright orange blossoms. My peonies are coming along also. My azaleas were great this year.

I can barely move. Did a lot of yard work today. Put another hydrangea in the ground and flooded both my older plant and the new one with the the sulfur that will hopefully make them very blue. I'll take pictures if they bloom.

I have notified all family and friends that our town is setting off fireworks on Saturday the 5th this year and to mark it on their calendars. I want them to make it if they can.

My daughter and I watched "Boys Don't Cry" this week-end. I don't really like movies like this. I do think that Swank did an outstanding job portraying a boy. It bothers me that there are still folks that treat others so cruelly.

Hey there country bumpkin

How do you like my green pumpkin?

We can all thank our lucky stars I didn't pursue writing songs, eh? I didn't plant this vine. It grew of it's own free will. I do put pumpkins on my patio in October, so a seed must have found its way to the ground and nature took its course. As nature will do. It has taken over the front of my patio and threatened to take over the side. It is currently in a war with my newly planted moon flower on the East side of my patio. The moon flower is not giving way.

A few more little pumpkins have started here and there, but they die off. Probably because I keep sweeping the vine up and out of the yard, thus crushing or twisting the vine. I am surprised this one got as far as it did. I don't see me having a great bounty for decorating with.

I missed an opportunity to go with family to Amish Charm today. From the photos my sister sent it looks like they had a lovely time. I am still hacking (coughing) pretty hard. Today I did what a lot of folks believe in. I sweat out my cold. I mowed the grass, I raked, I swept and I am exhausted. I was sweating something awful. And the good clean air that my lungs did breathe, couldn't have hurt me any, either. I took my time. It took me twice as long to mow. But, that was mostly because it hasn't been mowed in so long.

Tomorrow my daughter is getting her red part in her hair re-colored. Oh, I know. I went up and down and inside out trying to figure out what I was going to do. I even did "this". Oh, I am wicked. But in all reality, her hair looks horrible. It does not look like the picture in the above link at all. (I planned to take a recent photo of my daughter's hair and post it, instead.) Fact is, I have not gone "live" with that URL yet, anyway. Since they made the remark about her hair, she has been washing it in very hot water in an attempt to get the red to fade quickly. The end result being, it is a very faded red color.

So, we go tomorrow to see what damage control the hair stylist can come up with and a more "natural" shade of red. However, I am still amused at how the Administrator came up with the color "fuchsia" for her hair. My daughter wishes she could have fuchsia in her hair! The salon won't do those "wild" colors. They can't guarantee the color will remain. They actually call that red a natural color. Whatever, I am tired of the subject, as I am sure so are you.

The kittens are adjusting very well. They still need to learn a few fundamentals. Stay off the dining room table. Do not get under my feet when I am walking. Do not climb up my living room curtains. (Already snagged, sigh). One day, when I do not have any pets, I am going to have beautiful carpet, beautiful drapes, beautiful furniture, nice smelling house.... aw, who am I kidding? I am the cat lady.

After the rain

I took a walk after the rain last evening. We had quite a storm north of us, we managed to get a soaking, some winds and that was it. You know how everything smells so clean and fresh after the rain. I read somewhere that the rain washes the air. Gets the impurities out of it and leaves it clean and fresh. I never thought of air that way. Since I couldn't see it, I didn't think it needed washed. Of course I have used the expression dirty air and clean air, but never thought that what I couldn't really touch needed washed. But that is a lovely way to put it and it sure fits when I smell how clean and fresh it is after the rain.

My dog did not co-operate very well on her leash. I was a bit nonplussed. I couldn't figure out why. Now, she didn't take off and she came to me each time I let her off the leash to do a bit of roaming, but she wasn't as loyal as she normally is. I guess she is subject to her funny moods as well as the rest of us.

I found some lovely aromatic flowers in my neighborhood. More types of flowering trees than just the flowers themselves. One I am keenly interested in was what I would guess to be a magnolia bush of some sort. It wasn't a tree. It wasn't over five feet tall and it bushed out from the bottom. It smelled heavenly and had beautiful yellowish magnolia flowers on it. My research tells me that it may be a "sweetbay magnolia" (magnolia virginiana). Now, I need to order one and get it in the ground.

The photo above is some sort of twisted vine that is growing in my neighbors border hedges. They held the raindrops well and gave me ample opportunity to practice my macro shots. I have been toying with the idea of purchasing a new camera. Mine is scratched up and worn a bit. It still works well, but I want another to supplement what I like to do. My nephew purchased a Canon SLR (I think it was the 30D). I never was one to copy, I am looking at the Nikon SLR line. I have been very happy with my Canon (except for the delay between pressing the shutter and the actual taking of the picture - infuriates me!). I want to branch out and experiment more. Money is the main obstacle at this time, so I will begin saving for my treat.

Summer looms ahead. I know it has a tendency to go very quickly. I have a party tonight (my delayed birthday get together with wonderful friends). My 4th of July bang is approaching quickly and other than catching up with a few friends we have no travelling plans. I have a dinner on Monday evening and I plan to go early and capture a part of a lake I don't get to photograph often.

I did catch Night at the Museum. A forgettable flick scantily reminiscent of Jumanji. Although it was very nice to see Dick Van Dyke and Mickey Rooney. Bill Cobbs has been a favorite of mine, also. I want to see Wild Hogs, but other than that - not much movie watching is planned.

Edit: And if you read my post on Wednesday (The good, the bad and the ugly) there was an accident at the construction area of route 93. I felt that it was a dangerous setup. That road is so twisty and so busy it just felt like something was going to happen there. You know the saying "An accident waiting to happen." That was how it felt when I drove it.

Clearly More!

Bonus Packs

I buy 'em. Every year, I buy 'em. Do I plant them? Not always. Sometimes I forget about them, sometimes I plant them too late and they make an effort to grow. I love orange flowers. I used to grow the huge red tulips. Now, I think I will get the orange ones. I thought I ordered orange ones from some nice ladies that sold flowers door to door. But, you can't tell from the bulb. They came up bright yellow. My house is dark, dark gray. Not a color I would have chosen, but the house suits me inside.

My Mom had one of the most beautiful flower gardens in 1975. When I was fifteen. She was out there everyday weeding it with great care. She always had plants in the house. I go through phases. When my daughter was born, I received a dozen beautiful green plants. I lived in a great big farm house with a huge east-facing window. The plants flourished. When my daughter was five I moved to a small cave-like apartment and all the plants died. One by one. I need to get some more and start over now that I am in a sunny house again.

When I was young, my Mom planted about twenty different trees on our property. She and my oldest brother did. I remember a Chinese elm, Russian olive (it never produced olives that I saw), good ole' Ohio buckeye, blue spruce, weeping willow, and a Catawba (Indian cigar) tree. We had two huge sugar maples in our front yard. One was struck by lightning and died. The last time I was visiting the old house you could see where there was the beginning of a new maple tree there. The old tree died back in the late 70's I think. Before we moved there in 1966 there were other trees there such as hemlocks, locust, apple, pear, pines, and an old cherry tree.

Of the bushes I can remember forsythia, lilac, roses, trumpet vine, and a honeysuckle vine. There was another bush by our back porch that the humming birds loved. It has soft pink and white blooms on it. I'll think of the name sooner or later. One year (I think it was '75 also) my Mom had the most beautiful red rose bushes on white trellises. I think that is the plural form of trellis. I'll have to dig through the old family album and scan those pictures in. Deep red roses. She also was fond of wine colored Irises. There's another one - plural of Iris? Patriot hostas.

Around our house when we first moved there were some green loose-leaf bushes. They had tiny white flowers that would bloom in the summer and when you shook them the flower pedals would fall off like tiny little white dots. Hundred of them. I used to pretend that it was snowing when I shook them. I can't find that bush on the web, either. (It was not the snowball bush! Way too big.) Not the asters, these didn't have yellow in the middle. Not snowsprite, trillium, azalea or white moth. The border bushes grew about four feet to six feet tall, had very dark green leaves that were tiny and not shiny. They were not a full bush, but that was probably because we never trimmed them.

Hah! I found the other one! I 'googled' plants that attract hummingbirds and found it on the second hit. Weigela bush. That bush was outside of our back porch and the bees and birds loved it. I love honeysuckle but I despise trumpet vines. Big black ants love trumpet vines. Our trumpet vine would find a way into our kitchen window at the back of the house. We are talking twenty feet up off the ground. It grew between the wooden slats of the window and bloomed inside the kitchen this one year. I think we have a picture of it somewhere. But, I hated them because of the big black ants. And they are hard to manage. Once they take hold, they take over.

I have not checked my hydrangea, yet. I am afraid to.