A Birthday and Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

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A favorite author of mine, Gladys Tabor, said in one of her books that May was a magical month.  I can agree with that, but it is also a busy month.  There is a lot to do outside and inside as well.  Errands to run.  Special occasions to celebrate. 

Gardening begins in earnest, especially flower gardening.  I finished up planting my perennials Thursday and transplanted a few May Night salvia.  I hope they do well.  The perennials I planted in the new extended bed included a couple of Cone Flowers, Shasta Daisy, Bee Balm, Coreopsis, and the transplanted Salvia along with the Cat Mint I'd already planted a week or so ago. 

Yesterday was the day to go through the stacks of papers piling up in the kitchen.  Does this happen to you?  Tell me I'm not the only one.  :)  I don't know why I let them accumulate before I go through them.  It took a while to get through it all as magazines I hadn't gotten around to looking at would sidetrack me for awhile.  I get free subscriptions to a couple of magazines and I found about 5 in my stacks that I hadn't looked at yet.  

The rest was mostly junk mail that I need to shred or burn.  We are bombarded with credit card offers and, of all things, hearing aid advertisements as well as other stuff we don't want or need.  I don't need credit cards and though my hearing isn't as good as it used to be, I'm not quite ready for a hearing aid.   

I love river towns and count myself fortunate to live near several.  Above is the Missouri River and it is quite full now.  The weather people are saying we may get some severe weather in the afternoon and evening as I write this.  

They say we may see baseball size hail and 80 mph winds along with possible tornadoes.  I'm praying they are wrong about of this.  To my Missouri friends and others in the path of these storms...please stay safe!  

Our dear daughter had a birthday this week.  Happy Birthday, Kim!  We took her out to eat and Kim and I had the grilled pork chop with a salad and loaded baked potato.  BG had a ribeye and his beloved french fries.

The first photo was a shot of the sky when we came out of the restaurant.  We went back to her house for dessert.  Her assistant at work had made a cake to share with all the teachers and Kim brought the leftovers home.  It was so good!  She had 2 beautiful bouquets of flowers on the table that she had gotten, but I forgot to take a photo.  

Our son will be coming in for the weekend.  Hope he gets here before that bad weather starts.  He just returned yesterday from a week of work in California and was so glad to get back home.  We'll be glad to have our family all together for the holiday weekend and we're planning on grilling, card playing, movie watching and just relaxing.  And if the weather is nice, some patio sitting and enjoying the beautiful outdoors. 

I haven't been to the cemeteries yet, but the flowers are in the car and ready to go.  In our area, we decorate the graves of our loved ones as well as those who gave their all in service of our country.  May we never forget.

God bless each of you this Memorial Day weekend...stay safe!

Love,
Cheryl   

Flower Gardening and Stuff

I have been having fun watching the flowers grow.  Each day I can see a change.  We've had more rain, so I haven't had to water much the past few days.

One of my favorite flowers is called Angelonia which I discovered a few years ago.  It is the purple flower in the back of the pot above.  It is sometimes called Summer Snapdragon and comes in other colors such as pink, white and mauve.  

I like it not only because I think it's pretty, but it has a high tolerance for heat and humidity which we have in abundance during the summer in MO.

That it is low maintenance is another plus.  And deer resistant, too.  It needs sun but will tolerant some shade and it will bloom all summer into fall.  Love that. 

I have been watching the birds as well as enjoying the flowers when I sit on the patio.  Not sure why, but the goldfinches have become scarce.  I haven't seen many at the feeders in several days now.  The robins, cardinals, bluebirds, blue jays, and many others are still around.  

I was excited to see the first coneflower bloom.  It is one of my very favorite summer flowers.  I hope I do a better job this year in keeping them dead-headed.   Also my Stella de Oros.  

I was reading up on transplanting the Stellas and found that the correct spelling is the above instead of Stella 'D Oro which many use including myself in the past.

The other coneflower bloom looks like a boo boo occurred.  It looks like it was meant to be two instead of the one.  

About transplanting Stellas and also some salvia that are getting choked out by some knockout roses - I read that I could still transplant in May before it gets too hot or wait until fall.  I will try it this week and hope they will take off in their new location.  Some said that the salvia will pout if moved in the spring, but will usually come out of it and do well.  

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My thoughts and prayers are with those affected by the terrible bombing in Manchester.  When will this ever end?  

Also, two of my blogging friends have recently lost their fathers.  My heart goes out to them and their families.  It is never easy to lose a parent regardless of their age.

    

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We had a nice, lazy weekend.  Everyone was tired and ready for some down time and we rested for the most part.  BG and I went to my daughter's for supper one evening and played a game of Phase 10.  I always tell them I'm going to win, and I did.  :)

My laptop was taken back to the computer doctor.  I haven't been able to do any photo editing in PicMonkey, it was always telling me that the Adobe Flash plugin wasn't working or crashed and also my mouse would freeze and I'd have to turn the computer off and reboot.  It was driving me crazy.  And that meant I needed to clean off my desk where the desktop is if I wanted to get online.  Well, I do have my iPhone and tablet, but I hate trying to type on those tiny little keypads.  ☺

I talked to the computer doc yesterday and he said I didn't have any viruses on it but my laptop is just getting old and he doesn't know if it will last much longer.  He tried to sell me a restored laptop the last time I was there.  Which was just a short time ago.  I really didn't want to think about laptops right now as I have no clue what kind to get.   

Supper last night was simple.  Goulash and a buttered slice of bread.  A new favorite bread is Sara Lee's Artesano.   We love it.  For those who still eat white bread, have you tried it? 

Happy Tuesday to you!

xo Cheryl

A Busy May

The flowers are mostly planted, the back patio cleaned and the storage shed was cleaned out over the past weekend.  Our daughter helped her dad with the shed while I was planting.  

We had a little scare when BG tripped in the shed and fell out onto the concrete narrowly missing the back of the wagon that was backed up to the door.  He has a nasty bruise and scrapes on his arm and he said his knees hurt, but otherwise he is okay.  He's a tough guy and kept right on working.  He wanted to get the job done.  Such a fall would have sidelined me for a good while, I'm afraid.   

Our son drove in on Sunday for Mother's Day.  He brought me the gorgeous orchids and daughter gave me the vase full of candy with beautiful roses.  I haven't had orchids before so I welcome any advice on how to keep them healthy. 
 

Last year I had 2 tall black pots on each side of the large window on the front patio but ended up giving them to our daughter.  I looked and looked for another pair this spring, but couldn't find a matched set so I ended up buying a couple in light tan and Kim spray painted them black for me.  They turned out nicely.

It hasn't been all work and no play since I was here last.  Kim and I drove to the Big Town one evening for a little shopping and stopped in at the Olive Garden.  We had salad and breadsticks and split an order of Shrimp and Chicken Carbonara.  So good!  

I also had to go to the Big Town this week for another eye injection.  The good news is that the doctor told me my eye was much better but the bad news is that I need to go back in 2 months for another injection.  I have a feeling that one still won't be the end of it.

After the appointment, I drove to the Mall and ate lunch at the Cafe Court and then browsed around in Barnes and Noble while waiting for my dilated eyes to clear up a little better before I started home. 
 

We have had a lot of feral cats come and go at our house.  I snapped a pic of this pair while looking over the retaining wall on the back patio of our walkout basement.  We named them Ginger and Butterscotch even though they are both males.  They are a funny pair, very loving to each other and you rarely see one without the other next to him.  

I see the patio is getting dirty again in this photo.  The wind has really been blowing hard the last two days and the debris ends up on the patio.  Those are a few of the pots I have in the back.  

It's also been very hot lately.  I discovered just how hot the other day when I went to the doctor and the a/c in my car wouldn't come on.  It just blew hot air.  I have an appointment this morning to get it fixed.  Then later in the day I'm getting a much needed haircut.  That's one appointment I'm happy to have.  

And that's pretty much the story of my exciting ordinary life the past week or so.  A lot has gotten done outside.  We planted 2 raised bed gardens and that is probably all we'll do.  The deer usually devour everything we plant, so we've cut back on the veggies.  I do hope they leave my tomatoes alone, we always look forward to home grown tomatoes. 

Happy Thursday to you!
xo Cheryl

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day

to all the sweet mother's everywhere!!

And Happy Sunday to everyone!

It's been a busy week and weekend again here

and I will be back visiting next week.  

Comments are closed as I know you are

busy, too.  Enjoy your evening!

Love, Cheryl

It's a Bird...it's a Plane!

Our weather has been nice and sunny since last Friday.  I think rain may move back in tomorrow but we've been making hay while the sun has been shining.  Getting a lot of yard work done, that is.  And planting flowers.

We spent a lot of time at our daughter's house helping plant and mulching around the house and flower gardens.  My own flowers aren't quite finished yet.  

I bought some new perennials for a flower bed I'm extending, but the soil needs to dry out before it can be worked good.

The front of the house is done.  All I did there was put up a few hanging baskets and planted red geraniums in the black pots.  Most of my flowers go on the large patio in back.  

Our son came in for the weekend and we spent a little time sitting on the patio while awaiting the charcoal grill to get going.  I had fun trying to snap the goldfinches in flight fighting over a seat at the feeder.  

I don't remember ever seeing so many goldfinches at once and at one point I counted at least 3 dozen awaiting a turn and several were on the ground looking for dropped seeds.  I'll be buying another feeder when I'm at the store.

My son and I had fun watching the planes overhead and he would ask Siri, "what flight is above us"?  This one was coming from St Louis headed to San Francisco. 

This flight was from Baltimore headed to Las Vegas.  We all agreed that while it is fun to be able to find out this information, that it might not be so wise at this time in our troubled world.  

Back to birdwatching...this goldfinch might be a juvenile.  He sat on the clothesline for the longest time.

   Coming in for a landing...

I'm heading out to Wally World in a few minutes, so I'll be by to visit later in the day or tonight.  I've been meaning to post and visit way before now, but flowers and other chores have had my attention lately.  Hope your day is sunny and bright!

Happy Tuesday to you!
xo Cheryl

Flower Shopping and Rain

We've had so much rain lately and it's back again today.  However, we finally saw some sun yesterday so my daughter got off work early and we headed out around 2:30 pm to get some flowers for planting this coming weekend. 

So many beautiful colors and varieties to choose from!  I saw a few flowers that I don't remember seeing before, but I usually stick to buying those that I know will likely survive our hot and humid Missouri summers.   

One hardy flower I've discovered in recent years and like is called Angelonia.  It comes in various shades, I bought a few in purple.  I also love Calibrachoa, which some call Million Bells.  

Except for the Calibrachoa hanging baskets, most of the flowers in the trunk of my car belong to my daughter.  Mine took up the back seat and we had a good laugh as we were trying to find room for a few new flower pots and a few other needed items.  I wanted a few other flowers but we simply didn't have room.  

I've been looking for lemon grass as I've read it keeps mosquitoes away and I want to get a few nice geraniums for the front pots.  We plan to get some new mulch in the truck this weekend.  Also, I'm debating on a few more perennials to expand a flower bed.  What fun it is to plan flower gardens!  Did I mention recently that I might downsize and not plant so much?  I think I've changed my mind.  ☺

We had a fun afternoon as we enjoyed the sunshine and beautiful flowers.  I was limping badly by the time I got home and worn out, but I am always happy to take a little road trip to shop for flowers.

Happy Wednesday to you!
xo Cheryl