Spring Flowers

This morning's Facebook status update:

"For as nasty and awful as central Pennsylvania is in the winter, it is equally as beautiful and lovely in the spring. Now if only winter wasn't 6 months and spring wasn't 1..."

This is our second to last spring and I'm soaking up all the beauty I can,

for permanent residence in the Las Vegas desert is in our near future.

I've already started reading up on how to garden in Vegas and well, it's not as easy as it is in Pennsylvania.

In PA, you plant something, nearly anything you want, and it grows.

It's not so easy in Vegas with a lot less options,

so I'm enjoying planting what I want and watching it all grow and bloom.

Those little spriggy things shooting up between the tulips will soon be big, bushy peonies. I can't wait.

I also love watching this little flower grow and bloom. She is my orange-haired wild child.

Luckily, I get to take her with me.

Friday Photo: Show-and-Tell Sisters

Ruby was the "star" in her classroom this week and got to bring in something for show-and-tell every day.

Monday: her microscope
Tuesday: her button collection
Wednesday: her ruby necklace
Thursday: a wild peacock feather
Today: her sisters

And get a load of my peony bushes.

I love them.

There ARE Some Good Things About Pennsylvania

Peonies grow genius here.
There are 50+ more in my yard about to pop.
Eat your hearts out, my dry and dusty people of the desert.

Tid Bits

1. A win-win situation:

Do you think this onesie is as funny as I do?

Do you think this tutu is cute and have to have one?

These two things are my most recent buys. My old pal Beth made them. You can purchase them, along with a lot of other cool things, from her etsy shop. Her man recently got laid off, so they're paying the bills by selling her creations, which is pretty scary for their family of four. So if you're in need of a baby/child gift (or even if you're not), check out her shop--it's called "love, september." I'm pretty sure you'll find something you'll like and I'm pretty sure it would help their family out big time. Everybody wins.

2. A Pink Thumb:

It's around this time of year I start thinking "Maybe Pennsylvania ain't so bad." In my head, I have horrible grammar. I planted pink calla lilies like these in my yard yesterday, among a bunch of other plants, vegetables, and herbs. My stuff from last year has also sprung up; it makes me happy, so happy that I look at them and think "Me likes the spring, me does."

3. Happy 31st to my hunky monkey who has an obsession with his facial hair,
can bench twice his weight, studies every night while his girls crawl all over him
and dances like everyone is watching.

Go's birthday was Thursday. It was filled with Thai food, Patagonia garb, t-shirts, red licorice, black licorice, running shoe shopping, singing and homemade cards. It was fun.

Well Gee Willickers, Ma!

I just went out and picked some thyme out of my yard to put in our main dish tonight. This is the first "harvesting" I've ever done out of my own garden. It was wonderful. I felt so self sufficient-- stepping out my front door, walking a couple of feet, and bending down to pick the sprigs. I just stood there for awhile, looking at my precious little thyme sprigs, totally amazed, like "Wow. I actually grew something! And it thrived! And it smells divine!" Then I went back into my house and took off my bonnet and petticoat.

A Step Up From Last Year

It's planting time again in PA. Last year, (almost exactly to the day!) I stupidly planted pansies, an annual that doesn't last very long, so this year I learned my lesson and invested in some perennials. As you can see, our pink blossoming crab apple tree and boxwood bushes have grown like champs.

What I'm planting this year:

-Peonies!
-Hostas!
-Phlox!
-Lamb's ear!
-Rosemary!
-Sweet Basil!
-Lemon Thyme!
-Roma Tomatoes!
-Cherry Tomatoes!
-Jet Star Tomatoes! (Because the Ringgers chose this one and I trust them completely in everything they do, and this includes tomato plant selection)
-Jalapenos!
-Strawberries!

My thumb really, really wants to be green. It's trying it's very hardest. I guess the way to learn to garden and grow things is to actually try. Oh and you can bet they'll be updates. You are so excited right now.

Five Things Totally Unrelated

1. A Classic Conversation with Ruby
Ruby: Mom, some people don't have kids.
Me: You're right.
Ruby: Why?
Me: Lots of different reasons, I guess.
Ruby: Like what?
Me: Some people just can't, some people don't want to--
Ruby: Because they don't want to tell kids what to do and boss them around all day long?

Hmm...

2. May's Amazing Ability to Play By Herself
Ruby has to be no more than 3 feet from me every second of the day. By 4 pm, I start to go crazy. If I say "Why don't you go down to the basement and play?" She starts shrieking, drops to the floor and acts like I just said "How about you walk across these shards of glass?" May, on the other hand, loves to play alone. Many times I'll realize it's too quiet; I'll search the house and find her in some weird corner, playing with a spatula and a shoe. Today, I found her on her bed playing with her magnetic dress-up dolls.


3. A Movie Scene
Yesterday, I watched a great scene with Meryl Streep from Marvin's Room. She's so good. I found the script online. She plays "Lee."

Lee: You mind if I smoke?

Therapist: Yes. Thank you for asking.

Lee: How about if I blow it out this way? (turns her head and mimics blowing smoke out)

Therapist: There's no smoking on this floor.

Lee: (whispers and starts to light her cigarette) Okay, I'll be real quiet.

Therapist: It's good to see you here, Lee. May I call you Lee?

Lee: Sure.

Therapist: We've missed you other days. So has Hank.

Lee:I'm sorry. I wish I could visit more often, but you know...You're not a nurse, are you?

Therapist: I'm a psychiatrist.

Lee: You're the one Hank talks to.

Therapist: I'm in charge of his therapy.

Lee: You know he lies. He told his school counselor that I beat him. So, see what I mean? You're thinking, ''I wonder if she does beat him?''

Therapist: You think I think that?

Lee: Don't you?

Therapist: Do you want me to think that?

Lee: What do you mean?

Therapist: What do you think I mean?

Lee: What do you mean, ''What do I think you mean?''

Therapist: What do you think I mean by, “What do you think I mean?'' We want you involved in Hank's therapy to visit more often.

Lee: Doctor, can I be honest with you? I have forced my way through school, and I'm about to get my degree. And I'm picky now about the kind of guy I'll go with. And I keep... used to keep...
a realy clean house. Hank makes fun of my degree in cosmetology he terrorizes any guy I go out with. This last one, Hank made fun of his being on parole he made fun of how he holds his liquor, of his Pinto! Hank cost me a potentially good relationship. And as for my house... Hank is not something I can control. What's the point of visiting?

Therapist: He says he misses you.

Lee: I'm here . So let me see him.

So then she goes to see Hank (who is played by Leonardo DiCaprio) and he is strapped to a bed and is sedated to the point of slumber. She's eating from this bag of M&M's and keeps turning around to offer the therapist some, it kills me. She ends up just putting a small pile on his chest "for when he wakes up."

The whole scene is incredibly sad and funny.

4. Our Front Yard Visitors
They came a couple of hours ago and they're still there.

5. Sprouts
For Easter, My MIL sent the girls these little plants you grow yourself; they're grown in egg shapes. Aren't these little sprouts cute? I showed them to Ruby and you would have thought I said "And from now on we're having ice cream cones for breakfast, lunch and dinner!" But then I said "Ok, so now go play," and her excitement was shattered and it was back to visions of lacerated feet.

I'm waxing mathematical. Mums the word.

Yard update because I am SURE you've been wondering: before I left on my month-long trip, I pulled out all the pansies. They were great for a couple of months, then it just got too hot for them to be happy, so out they went. The Black-Eyed Susans stayed, much to my neighbor's dismay I'm sure, but I didn't have enough time before I left to pull them out. I was too busy sitting around thinking of other things to do besides pack.

I came home a couple days ago to find my pitiful little yard overrun with leggy Black-Eyed Susans and weeds. I found Mums for a buck each and decided to thin my Black-Eyed Susans, weed and plant the little Mum plants because that's the only thing around right now that I can plant. Do I like Mums? No. Do I like Black-Eyed Susans? No. But think back to sixth grade math. We know that if we multiply two negatives, it yields a positive. Or something like that.

My mystery plant overfloweth

Allright, I'm confused. I don't think this is a bush anymore. The stalks grow up individually and they do not all stem from the same little "stump" above ground, like bushes do. I see no signs of this thing flowering, like I thought it would. I'm starting to think that perhaps my mystery plant is indeed a weed. It sure has grown as fast as one. Though, at the library the other day, I was checking out a hydrangea bush and the leaves are very similiar and the stalks, too but there were some differences, so I think I can rule out hydrangea, which makes me sad because that was on the very top of my list of hopefuls. Seriously, what is this thing?

Mystery plant

Yesterday Melissa had a great post. It was filled with drama, intrigue and mystery. I posted a comment that the blogworld needed more posts like that one and vowed to come up with something mysterious for my own blog. I have kept my promise:
Three of these plants popped up in my little flower bed about a week or two ago. They are fast growing, have strong purple stalks and green serrated leaves and I don't think they're weeds. It's the start of a bush of some sort, perhaps it will flower one of these days. BUT I didn't plant it and it wasn't here last year when we moved in. I have no idea where it came from. Ah, intrigue. I have tried to solve a botanical mystery such as this before: When I was growing up one summer, some very mysterious tomato plants were planted in our backyard. I know my Mom didn't do it because she doesn't garden and my brothers wouldn't have done it. It had to be my Dad but whenever he was questioned, he would smile and claim he had nothing to do with it. Even though he never admitted it, I know he did it. The fact that he still to this day will not fess up to planting those tomatoes is something I find hilarious. Whenever my Dad gets bored with life, he does something wacky, like plant a bunch of tomato plants in the yard in the middle of the night and plays Phantom of the Garden. Maybe Go thought he'd follow in my Dad's footsteps and play Phantom Gardener. Anyway, can anyone tell me what type of plant this is? It is a mystery that must be solved. I know it's no murder mystery but hey, this is as intriguing as my life gets.

The hate-mail has been significantly less!

BEFORE



AFTER

Hi, my name is Annie and I have an ugly yard problem.

I have just finished steps 3 and 4 of the 12 step program.

The Twelve Steps of the Ugly Yard Anonymous Program
1. Admit we are powerless over the barren ugliness of our yard - that our yard has become unmanageable.
2. Come to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity = the Lowe’s Garden Center.
3. Make a decision to turn our will and our gift card over to the care of the Lowe’s Garden Center Guy as we understand him.
4. Make a searching and a thrifty and informative inventory of the Garden Center at Lowe’s.
5. Admit to Lowe's Garden Center Guy, to ourselves and to our shared-wall townhouse neighbor the exact nature of our wrongs.
6. Are entirely ready to remove all these defects of the ugly yard (i.e., the cinder block, the extension cord, the 10 yr old moldy bird feeder.)
7. Humbly ask Go to help me move the bag of topsoil so I can get to work.
8. Make a list of all persons we have harmed by them having to look at our ugly yard, and are willing to make amends to them all by improving it.
9. Make direct amends to such people wherever possible, such as our neighbors and to Go for throwing out his back after moving the 100 pound sack of topsoil.
10. Continue to take inventory and keep working, if yard still needs a little work, promptly admit it and go back to Lowe's.
11. Seek conscious contact with Lowe’s Garden Center Guy as we understand him, seeking only for knowledge of his will for our yard and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had an aesthetic awakening as the result of these steps, we will try to carry this message to other owners of ugly yards and to garden to the best of our ability in our future yards wherever they may be.

The Neighbors Must Hate Us

Before this picture was taken, a cinder block was removed, as well as an bright orange extention cord that was buried halfway underground for some reason. The people that lived in our townhome before us were very classy. Also removed was a patch of white rocks that they used as a litter box of sorts for their huge Husky. Nice. All they were missing was a cushionless couch with a couple of springs popping out of it, a three legged dog, a spit bucket and some old car batteries to complete their look. Those daffodils, etc. along the side of the house are my neighbor's. I wish they were mine. Also, those spikey bushes of his will bloom beautifully in a couple of months, even though they look pretty bad right now. Whatever, it's better than dirt. I have major yard envy.
When we moved our walkway was lined with Black Eyed Susans, a flower that I don't love but tolerated. The ones in this random picture look a lot better than the ones that were in my yard last summer.

About a week after we moved in, something happened and they got black spots all over them and died. I labored for hours pulling dried sticks out of the ground. So in the pic up above is what our front yard has looked like since then when it wasn't covered with snow. I know. Ew.
I've been anxiously awaiting spring so I can plant stuff - bushes, flowers and a tree. Spring has arrived my friends. What shall I do with this space? The possibilites are endless. Actually, that's not true. It's pretty much limited to the amount on my Lowe's gift card leftover from Christmas. So we'll see what we can scrape together. Stay tuned with Adventures in Gardening. I have no idea what I'm doing.