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Post by Phalon on Apr 27, 2006 22:16:12 GMT -6
Yesterday was my day off; it was really a pretty one. I had to stop and sit on a bench while roller-skiing to tighten my boot lace. I'm glad I did - I never would have noticed Jack-in-the-Pulpits everywhere if I hadn't stopped; they are such a cool little plant. The False Solomon's Seal is coming up too.
Later I went shopping at my favorite little boutique downtown. I had to return something I'd bought on a whim the previous week - it just wasn't me - and ended up with a sleeveless dress in pretty floral print instead. Jeans and t-shirt most times, but spring - the turn of the weather from cold to warm, and everything starting to bloom just makes ya gotta do that girly thing every once in a while. Too melodramatically sappy? I was in that kinda mood. Used restraint though, and stayed away from the jewelry....though Mother's Day is coming up soon; maybe I'll treat myself to something to go with the dress.
What I really need are new tennis shoes, but that's way too boring.
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Post by Phalon on Apr 28, 2006 5:56:53 GMT -6
Get off your aspen and celebrate your trees today; it's Arbor Day. Oooo, that was a sassafrasy demand, wasn't it? I need to learn to be sycamore tactful.
I'm weeping; willow you forgive me?
Auntie Elm, Auntie Elm. There's no place like home.
Ok - glad I got that outta my system. Gotta to work now, and sell some trees.
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Post by Siren on Apr 29, 2006 21:00:50 GMT -6
Let's get to the root of the problem, Gams. Leave off with those punishing puns. You're making an ash of yourself. I'm seeing red, bud. Just fur that, I'll spank the sapling out of you!
No worries, my bark is worse than my bite.
We had a wonderful, blessed rain for much of last night and this morning. Thus, the breeze during my afternoon bike ride was a banquet of fresh smells: the wet earth and grass, honeysuckle, roses, and other flowers. Our spring was delayed by the drought, but it's glorious now!
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Post by Phalon on Apr 30, 2006 8:08:02 GMT -6
Pfft. What a birch, Siren! No, no...I was aspen for that sapling, I know. I pine needle to leaf the punning to those that can do it without being a hawthorn in one's side. I wood if I could, but just can't stop sometimes until I'm plum tuckered out.
You must have sent that rain this way! A nice, gentle one has been falling since last night. A bitter sweet thing: it's my day off, and I had much I wanted to get done outside. We so desperately need it though - the drought last summer and the incredibly mild winter are taking it's toll. It's stormed here off and on this spring, but hasn't done much good; they were short lived and not enough.
A good day to catch up on some of the things I've been meaning to read. Or perhaps catch up on the housework I've been neglecting. Sigh. Such decisions.....yeah, right.
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Post by fallenangel on May 1, 2006 19:45:44 GMT -6
Watched the weather today.For once I hope they are wrong .Rain in the forecast,not that we probably dont need it. But,,the grass and garden need to dry for a day or two.
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Post by Siren on May 2, 2006 17:31:00 GMT -6
I hope you got a bit of a dry-out, yinyang. Too much of a good thing isn't always a good thing (unless it's ice cream or sex - and really, how could one complain about those?).
Did a major cleanup in my boring and neglected backyard. Trimmed back some limbs and de-rubbished the flowerbed. Even planted some purple jew. Such pretty stuff. I hope it takes. My cannas were fighting to poke their little heads through some old leaves, which I cleared out. I swear, those cannas look like they grew an inch today, in gratitude.
Am planning to dig out and replace the dirt in one flowerbed in the front yard this week. Am thinking of planting a lilac bush there.
Got a beautiful birthday gift from my mom: a large planter full of various flowers and vines. Looks so pretty on my porch. And I retrieved all my porch plants from my mom, who wintered them in her garden room. There's an arrowleaf, and a purple jew, and a spider plant now, along with the rose moss and petunias and waxy begonia I just potted recently. The porch looks so much better!
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Post by Phalon on May 7, 2006 7:14:59 GMT -6
It's been beautiful spring weather here the last few days; cold but plenty of sunshine to make up for it.
The ornamental pears and cherries are have finished their show; dogwoods, redbuds and crabapples taking the stage now, with the rhododendrons next up.
My azalea in front of my porch is just starting to open - it'll be a mass of fuchsia colored flowers in a couple days. For someone who does not care for the color pink that much, I sure have a lot of it in my garden. The shocking pinkness of the azalea though, is tempered by clumps of white narcissus in front of it - not cheery like the yellows, but gracefully tall and slender with at least two blooms per stalk. Thalia is the variety; I love this one. It blooms late and lasts forever. In front of them is a low growing sedum with bronzy-yellow foliage. The combination of the three is pretty.
On the other side of the front walk is the fothergilla. Another of my favorites; it looks good all season. Springtime means blooms of white; little puffs that look exactly like little fluffy bunny tails. In summer, the roundish, slightly scalloped leaves are a fuzzy, mossy green, turning to orange, red and yellow in fall.
The backyard is full of blue forget-me-not. I didn't plant this; it migrated from my backyard neighbor's garden. Forget-me-not: there are many legends regarding it's name - everything from a young man falling into a stream and drowning while trying to pick a bouquet of it for his lover, to God passing over the tiny flower the first time around while naming plants, and promising later that it would never be forgotten again. I believe though a more appropriate reason for the name is that once you have it, you can't forget it - it spreads everywhere, indiscriminating between garden and lawn; it doesn't care where it grows. No worries though; I let it grow wherever it feels; pretty blue clumps in the lawn add interest and look nice with the dandelions, (eye roll).
Spring means the influx of tourists - sometimes it seems the out-of-state license plates outnumber our own. The "city people" are returning in droves too, opening their summer homes for the first time since fall. And the boats! The marina which is filled with ice in winter; small ice-burgs that make me always have an itch to see if I can walk across them, hopping from one to the next, is now filled with yachts. They arrive on large semi-like flatbed trailers with those "wide-load" signs on the rear, and clog up traffic as they enter town. I like to read the names on the back of these monstrous boats, imagining the stories behind them.
Off to ski here in a few; trying to beat the tourists who'll clog the trail much like their wide-loads clog the streets.
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Post by LMV's Old Account on May 7, 2006 18:55:32 GMT -6
*hums* so how is everyone? My hayfever is getting better, i no longer feel like a sneezing lunitic
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Post by Siren on May 8, 2006 21:37:02 GMT -6
So, does that mean you're a non-sneezing lunatic now, lmv? Interesting that your dogwoods are just getting going, Gams. Ours are always blooming at Eastertime. And you mentioned azaleas. In Muskogee, OK, they host an annual azalea festival. It's a spectacular display, with every color of blossom you can imagine. Here's a link to the city of Muskogee site. Look at the top for a banner with a photo of some of the bushes. I wish I could find more photos. www.cityofmuskogee.com/Template0.asp?pg=54
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Post by LMV's Old Account on May 8, 2006 22:13:54 GMT -6
sneezing....no lunitic...yes!
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Post by Phalon on May 10, 2006 23:08:48 GMT -6
Glad for your sneezeless lunacy, Chere. Insanity is always better if one can do it without a box of tissues.
Siren, those azaleas in that header - beautiful! That hot pink fuchsia color - that is the color of mine, which is in full bloom now. It's the one plant I baby in my yard; they are border-line hardy here.
Tomorrow evening is the Spring Orchestra Concert - the fifth grade through high-school orchestra performances, something LX informs me of tonight because she's been carrying around the flier in her backpack for the last week. She also tells me, (only because I asked), that for this concert the musicians, (and I'm using that term loosely in regards to my fifth grader first year violinist), are to wear something other than jeans, t-shirts and tennis shoes - the only thing she deems appropriate clothing in addition to being the only thing she owns due to a growth spurt these last few months in which she's outgrown everything she had other than jeans and t-shirts. Argh - to both my do-everything-last-minute daughter and that last run-on sentence.
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Post by mabd on May 15, 2006 1:26:51 GMT -6
We've hit spring big time. And the kudzu isn't out yet so I'm delighted. Well, I would be delighted save that we have 3 possums fighting the feral cats for the food we put out (for the cats). I really, really do not like possums.
And out at the farm, the beavers are again busy. We cannot convince them to move their dam 15 feet downstream. We've been fighting them for years. We tried the old candles-in-the-pie-tins trick. That only resulted in us having to watch them smoking tiny cigarettes and asking each other if "it was good for them." Then we tore down the dam (in the summer) and tossed in some angular PVC piping -- it was supposed to make the beavers abandon the dam. It didn't. Seems like these beavers are rather fond of Bucky Fuller's designs. We even built a scarecrow and played music at them. They asked for a mirrored spinning disco ball.
We could kill them, no wait, we couldn't, but they could be killed as farm pests. But we can't trap them, even with a have-a-heart trap.
Sigh. Back in town. Got buzzed by a wild turkey and some blasted fool now has a boy thingy who crows most of the night. And the baby possums now attack the broom when we try to get them off the back porch.
Somedays I feel like I must have a screw loose. Oh, wait, I do. And in 3 hours I'm having surgery on my arm to remove it (and some other bits o' bone. Don't ask. It is a very absurd story involving trifocals, middle-age woman sport-car disease and a 12 inch fall...
Maeve
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Post by Phalon on May 16, 2006 0:17:48 GMT -6
Maeve, sounds like you're living in the midst of Wild Kingdom there - not to exclude the one inflicted with middle-aged woman sports car disease. Is your surgery the result of yours or another's infection? Is it curable? Will I soon feel the urge to start driving something other than what I do....something red and shiny and really, really fast?
Hope the surgery went well, and the recovery, quick.
I almost stayed dry today; the fifth straight day of rain.
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Post by Phalon on May 16, 2006 6:15:18 GMT -6
Still raining....
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Post by fallenangel on May 16, 2006 7:50:44 GMT -6
I loved that story about the beavers.I could picture them sitting there smoking their little cigarettes. Hope everything went well Maeve.
Wonderful weather here 70s.
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Post by LMV's Old Account on May 16, 2006 17:46:19 GMT -6
SNEEZES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Phalon on May 17, 2006 10:36:01 GMT -6
Again, Chere? I thought you were over that hayfever stuff and had the sniffles no more? Let me rummage around in my Mom's purse for some tissues. There. Better?
My day off today; I've been lucky these last two - Sunday and today. The only days without rain in a week. Sunday was cold and windy, but today - today is beautiful!!!
I've been out all morning enjoying it - roller skiing and working in the yard. Gotta get it all in today; tomorrow's forecast and that of the next few days....
....more rain.
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Post by LMV's Old Account on May 18, 2006 23:56:10 GMT -6
takes the tissuesz handed to her by the motherly figure *smiles, sniffles* thankyou*
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Post by mabd on May 19, 2006 11:46:56 GMT -6
Hey, Thanks for the nice messages. You'll (I'm sure) will be as excited as I am -- all of my loose screws (and other odd bits o' metal) are now safely secured in a specimen jar which sits proudly on one of my bookcases. Course now I can only type with one hand, er, okay, one finger. Dang beavers are still there. It will take us years to reclaim what they have flooded. It is like Wild Kingdom, but if the town says it is ok to keep horses in your backyard, you just know it will be alright. And we do have "culture;" our town is home to Georgia's oldest symphony. It really is a strange town. Even Sherman didn't bother it on his walk to the water...the town knew the Civil War wasn't about them. Now if the pollen would just lighten up so that everything wasn't covered in yellow-green dust. And yes. It was a really red, really fast sports car. But it was in park at the time. Maeve, male seed painkillers
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Post by Siren on May 19, 2006 21:08:09 GMT -6
"a thingy that crows" - that got me, Maeve. LOL!!
Beavers can be an issue here, too. A neighbor of my folks' had a young ornamental tree, maybe 4 inches around, cut down by a beaver in her front yard. And he had to come a good 30 or 40 yards from the creek to do it! And here in the city, we spotted a cottonwood right by the road, probably 14 inches around at least, that a beaver had felled. I must admit, I'd like to have seen him at work.
Sorry about the sore arm Maeve. I'm glad it didn't stop you from making those great posts. ~Siren
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Post by Mini Mia on May 19, 2006 21:59:49 GMT -6
I have raccoons that try to shove their heads through the screen in my kitchen window. I try not to leave the window all the way up when I've gone to bed or out somewhere... cause I don't want to have to try and chase them out should they manage to get inside.
The other day a member of my church told me she found a raccoon eating her half-alive kitten on her back porch one night, so now I fear for my cat should one get inside.
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Post by Phalon on May 20, 2006 0:08:05 GMT -6
<biting tongue> Being good, I will refrain from making any beaver comments.
Raccoons: they can be mean little critters. Actually not so little. It was a raccoon that blinded our beagle in one eye. A sweet live-and-let-live type dog, he didn't care a thing about whatever wildlife happened to stroll into the yard - he even shared his doghouse with a stray cat the neighbors and us used to feed, (who eventually became the neighbor's house pet). One evening though, he entered his house to find a raccoon inside. Never corner one; the raccoon will come out winning. Poor Tucker - surgery was required to save the eye, though he could not see out of it after that. Walking him, I had to pay attention to what side of the street we were on - if his "bad eye" was towards the road, we were fine. It not - he'd run into the mailboxes at the edge of the yards we passed.
Maeve - damned those fast parked cars. Glad for you that you've got something to show for it other than stitches. Quite a conversation piece, I'm sure, that specimen jar will be.
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Post by Mini Mia on May 20, 2006 9:26:50 GMT -6
Being blind in one eye myself, I quite understand running into things. I figure that someone who is always bumping into people and things walking, shouldn't even attempt to drive, so I do very little of it. I don't much mind less traveled roads, or ones I know pretty well, but other than that driving makes me very nervous. I got my drivers license because my parents kept pushing me to get them 'just in case of emergencies,' yet they don't understand why I have to have someone take me to town and such. What am I suppose to say if I 'bump' into something or someone? "My parents made me drive."
Hmmm . . . . Let's see -- she falls up & down stairs, she trips over things, she runs into things . . . . Ya know what? That girl needs to drive instead of walk. That'll work.
Nope. I don't see how anyone could think I should drive a car.
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Post by Phalon on May 23, 2006 0:04:05 GMT -6
You've an excuse. I'm still searching for mine.
I bought my annuals to fill the flower boxes that sit on the stairs to my front porch. Most of the front garden in subdued colors, I like lots and lots of color in the boxes. I usually go for reds, purples, yellow and oranges. This year though, I bought a hanging basket filled with variegated wax ivy and nonstop begonias - huge tangerine-colored blooms. I liked the combination of orange and the fucshia color of the azalea, so did my boxes in the same: orange marigolds, copper millon bells, dark violet-red million bells, yellow million bells, (I love these flowers), pink nictoiana, orange and burgandy coleus, hot pink dianthus....what else? I think that's it. A shocking mix, but actually quite pretty - in the flats anyway. I'm not sure how they'll look in the boxes; they've sat in the bed of my truck for the last two days due to frost warnings.
But this weekend!!!! It's supposed to warm considerably. I may actually get to wear short sleeves, and (gasp!!!) shorts! No way - it is always cold Memorial Day weekend here; it's a tradition.
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Post by fallenangel on May 23, 2006 11:38:12 GMT -6
Well Im afraid Spring maybe on its way out here again.Back in the 90s and dry.No rain in sight this week.We went to the river last weekend and swam. Probably will again this weekend sometime.
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Post by Siren on May 23, 2006 17:42:10 GMT -6
Swimming in a river - boy, what good memories, yinyang. I haven't done that in years. We used to swim - make that wade and wallow - in the North Canadian when I was a kid. Years later, we floated the Illinois, and swam in a beautiful river in Texas. My college-age cousin climbed to the top of the bank, and with repeated trips, cleared a place for us to slide down into the river. There was a rope swing there, as well. Grand fun! I've always wanted to swim in the Guadalupe. But we're so busy when we're in San Antonio and Gruene, Texas, I've never had the chance.
I've gotta get busy out in the yard too, Gams. Bought a hydrangia, and some annuals to put around it. I waited too long to buy snapdragons, and had to take some pretty sad-looking leftovers. I hope they make it. Snapdragons are one of my favorite annuals. Such vivid colors.
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Post by LMV's Old Account on May 23, 2006 20:05:33 GMT -6
LOOKS AROUND* sneezes herself backwards, welll hey there yingyang how have you been, long time no see does a dance*
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Post by mabd on May 24, 2006 23:05:05 GMT -6
Siren, You know, somehow the word I used, the obvious "c" word, got magically changed. I wrote the phrase "a boy thingy (c*ck) that crows all night"... still, glad I could make you LOL -- that makes my day. Course most of your posts do that. Mini-Joxcee/Maxi fun, I think being blind in one eye has given you skills I envy. Like being computer savvy, silly, and smart -- often in one sentence. Phalon, speaking of beavers, which we weren't, the OB/GYN who birthed me was named Harry Beaver. No kidding. First time I went to see him was when I was 18. First thing he said was: "I see you've grown." Course, I was po'd cause my growth rate seemed unfair. Still does. I was 24.5 inches at birth (sorry, mom. oh, wait, do the dead read what you post too?). I only grew another 41 inches and now I'm shrinking. And a real question: tell me about the agrelius beetle, please? Maeve
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Post by mabd on May 24, 2006 23:13:01 GMT -6
You know, somehow the word I used, the obvious "c" word, got magically changed. I wrote the phrase "a thingy (c*ck) that crows all night" ... day. See, see, it did it again. and it turned my : + ) into a , which I don't like.... grumble, grumble... Maeve
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Post by Mini Mia on May 24, 2006 23:18:56 GMT -6
Some words & symbols are censored, and change into something else.
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