Thanks Nola

Well would you look at that. Nola at Alamo North gave me that nice little bloggy gift. The "You Are My Sunshine on a Cloudy Day" award. I found it just after I posted about the Blotanical awards. Thanks Nola, I love it.

Now my understanding is that all you do is pass it on to five other bloggers with no other strings attached. Again, this is hard because I really like a lot of bloggers. Here are five that always make me smile.

My nephew Jack at Just Jack. He is the cure to sad.

PGL at Perennial Garden Lover Her comments are always sweet.

Flower garden girl at Woody and Herbaceous. I was glad when she returned to our blogging community. Her creations with flowers are beautiful.

Cindy at Rose Haven Cottage A sweet talented girl.

Dee at Red Dirt Ramblings who I consider my blogging mentor.

There are so many more who deserve this. I am still lovin on the rest of y'all too.

Deb.

2008 Blotanical Awards

I spent a little time trying to make my selections for nominees for the 2008 Blotanical Awards. Blotanical is a site that has hundreds of members who blog about gardening. I have put the little award badge over there on my side bar. This is about as political as I will ever get on this blog. Saying that, picking my favorite blogs on Blotanical to nominate is HARD. There are so many gardening blogs I love to read. Then there are a few categories, such as African blogs, that I don't know a thing about. More research is needed. Unfortunately, this post will not likely feed in to Blotanical any time soon because of a technical difficulties. Anyway, if you visit here and are also a Blotanical member, isn't this fun?

What a Mess Part II

This is what the deck looked like after I robbed it of a few plants to dress up the front porch.

Stuff was just strewn all over the place. The potted plants had weeds. How embarrassing.

The umbrella sedge was blown over and showed its' overgrown roots.

This situation took some creative pruning.

Took about thirty minutes to clean up my mess. I had to spray the deck off with the water hose. It was too damp to use the blower. If it is dry tomorrow I will get the blower out and really clean the it off.

The Rain is Here

The rain is here. So I am stuck inside.

I think I will clean up the mom wall. This is where I put papers from school, art work, gardening articles, and apparently a picture of Mamala with her girls. There really should be a better way to keep up with my kids stuff, but I have yet to figure it out. Any suggestions?

That Wasn't Very Smart.

I almost electrocuted myself this evening. Yesterday, I cleaned up a big mess on my front porch. This motivated me to clean up a few more messes. Our deck is a mess and so is the tiny backyard the Monkeys play in. Our vacation, the rains that followed for ten days or so, and the mad dash and craziness that comes with getting three children back to school caused me to neglect it. It needed mowing bad. Really, it could have been baled. We had a small Memorial Day party at Mamala's house this afternoon. The boys and I arrived back home with just a little bit of daylight left. I told the Monkeys to pick up their toys and I went to get the lawnmower. It is a really little bit of lawn. It takes about ten minutes to mow it.

I have two lawnmowers. One is an old fashioned push lawnmower the other is an electric lawnmower. When the grass gets too tall, I have to use the electric machine. So I set up the lawnmower with an orange electric cord and proceeded to mow.

There are all kinds of kid accouterments in that yard; trampoline, swing set, log cabin playhouse, and the dog trough. Yes, Abby needs a dog trough not just a water bowl. This is pretty much a lawn mowing obstacle course.

I started mowing and was trying to get it done. Gustave is supposed to bring us rain tomorrow, so I needed to get it done tonight. I was just about done and it was just about dark when it happened. I ran over the extension cord. Sparks flew. Monkeys fled in a panic. Tailless cats jumped from the deck to the roof. The dog looked at me like I was retarded. I unplugged it and we are all fine.

Moral of the story: Do not mow in the dark. Has anyone else ever endangered their life doing yard work?

Blue Butterfly

Look what bloomed for me today. This is Cleredendrum ugandense or blue butterfly bush. It is not hardy here in zone 8a. This one is grown in a container and overwinters in my greenhouse. The bush is about four feet tall, but I have read that in areas where it is hardy, it can grow to 10 feet. This little flower makes me happy.

What a Mess

Things have gotten out of hand. The Monkeys have been allowed to run amok and their stuff is everywhere. My front porch was a disgrace.

Skateboards, roller blades, and socks were everywhere. That's right, I said socks. Someone took their socks off on the front porch and left them there. One of my containers was knocked over and broken. The plants looked pitiful. There was a table I found on the side of the road and brought home. Don't know why it was upside down.

Now isn't that better. A little paint, a broom, and a few more plants from the back deck and the front porch looks a lot like a gardener might live here.

Please ignore the black paint. I don't know what they were painting and pretty sure I don't want to.

Maybe this is too much of a good thing. Our good neighbors really filled this compost up. The bunnies are getting nervous. I am going to create a dry shade garden behind our back fence. I will take some of those grass clippings and use them to start the new beds. A four to six inch layer of them should make a nice mulch. When the time comes to plant, the soil should be perfect.

Tomorrow, I take on the deck. Believe it or not, it is worse. Anybody else have a mess they need to clean up? Please share, it will make me feel better.