New Day

Okay, I am not a political creature. I don't belong to one party or the other. I have voted in every election since 1982. Well, there was that one where I didn't see any options that I could support. But anyway, wasn't today exciting? Regardless of which "side" each of us may be on, our citizens seem to be invigorated and ready to get down to the work of fixing, yes I said fixing, our mess. I feel hopeful. I hope you do too.

Talking In My Sleep

Apparently, the three month long crunch of holidays, parenting issues, volunteer overload, and having a ginormous extended family have finally caused me to crack. According to his report, this morning, Manly Man had to deal with this when he arrived home from work and tried to go to bed.

He found me on his side of the bed being very possessive of "his" pillow.

Him, "Could you give me my pillow?"
Me, "No, I have to take a picture of it for the master gardener website."
Him, "Could you move over a little?"
Me, "NO, can't you see I'm typing?"

He finally got me to roll over, but I would not give up the pillow.

I don't remember anything.
Enjoy this little view into my subconscious.

Do you walk or talk in your sleep? You know you really want to tell me.

My Imaginary Garden

In my last post, I admitted that I have an imaginary garden. When I am trying to fall asleep, I ponder on it and make plans.

My imaginary garden has no weeds. The flower beds are all in full bloom and are perfectly mulched. There are no lost tools or toys in the imaginary garden. In this garden, I do not trip and fall down.

Here are a few items that are in the imaginary garden.
1. A really comfy beautiful hammock. It is strung between two beautiful deciduous trees. It is in the shade in the summer and in the warm sun during the winter. I read and nap in this hammock.
2. A pond with a fountain. There are healthy plants and wonderful fish swimming around. The sound of the water is charming.
3. There is a boarder of roses and pomegranate trees between our home and the neighbors. Because we are good neighbors, there is an archway we can walk through to visit each other.
4. There is a sweet little ornamental grass plot on the corner of our yard. A very large bolder is the center piece of this little area.
5. In the side yard there is an old wheelbarrow planted up with blooming annuals and flanked by an antique rose bush.
6. Every fence is covered with blooming vines in this make believe landscape.
7. There is a native dry shade border out back. These plants live under my passion vine.
8. A very sweet little garden shed complete with window boxes and flower beds is in the back corner by the vegetable garden.

The birds are singing, the butterflies are floating, the cats are sleeping under the rosebush, and the Monkeys are perfectly behaved.

Tell me about your imaginary garden.

Light Therapy

 

Winter is hard on many gardeners. Cold, wet, dreary weather just don't make for a happy Debbi. Add multiple family stresses and a flood, and I am pretty much a basket case. A basket case that cannot break down because, well who would raise the Monkeys if I broke down. It seems my little salt lamp is helpful, but just not enough.

Yesterday, was pretty and I was able to spend about an hour in the garden. Today was just as lovely. I was in and out of the house all day. After a while, the sunshine made me a little sleepy, weird. In my imaginary garden, I have a wonderful hammock strung between two deciduous trees. It is in the shade in the summer and in the sun in the winter. This imaginary hammock would have been perfect for today. As a alternate, I decided to layout on the Monkey's trampoline. I must have been a sight laying out there, but boy did basking in the warm sunshine do wonders for my mood.

Here is a hint. Trampolines and garden clogs can create quite a static charge in a middle aged woman. The shock when I touched the metal frame was painful and LOUD.

The rest of the afternoon in the garden was very enjoyable. There is one thing that is puzzling. Where are all the songbirds? I have put out seed and I actually cooked homemade suet for them, but very few have shown up. I am beginning to get worried. I did see some bees buzzing around some broccoli rhaab blooms and hen bit flowers. Their wing sounds were very pleasant.

Did you notice the picture? Abby got all excited and knocked over my plant stand. Somehow she broke a plastic pot. Goofy beast.

Anybody else missing songbirds?

Bottle Tree

 

 

 

 

While my coworker and I were looking at pictures of bottle trees on the internet doing really important official library research, I was inspired to do a little garden decorating to liven things up. I rebuilt my pot teeter-totter (obviously don't know what that thing is really called) and made a mini bottle tree out of a dormant hardy hibiscus. There are at least two other hardy hibiscus that I can also use as bottle trees so this one may get taken down. When I was stacking the pots, I noticed that some sedum was growing in the bottom of the lowest container in almost no soil. Now I know for sure that sedum is not only tough, but stays evergreen for me here in north Texas. I am going to get out a bunch of my empty pots and plant sedum in them over the next few days. Maybe I shouldn't, I don't want to have to buy more containers when spring gets here. What the heck, I can never have to many containers.

After work and a birthday party, I was able to do about an hour of gardening today. The temperatures soared back up into the sixties and the wind was finally quiet. My battery feels all recharged and stuff. If it is pretty tomorrow I will spend all day out there.

Hope you have some pretty weather too.

Like Christmas Just for Me

 

THE SEEDS ARE HERE, THE SEEDS ARE HERE!!!!! Monica over at Garden Faerie's Musings started an snail mail seed exchange and I was first on the list. Thanks Monica. I will spend my free time this cold cloudy weekend researching the seeds you sent me, making my selections from your stash, making cute little seed packets, and raiding my seed stash to add to the exchange. Tuesday, I will mail the package on the Illinois.

This was one very good day. The school finally admitted that Baby Monkey has dyslexia and are going to provide the focused reading class he so terribly needs. After that good new, I went to a master gardener meeting. We planned our trip to the state convention in Marshall, Texas. After that meeting, a group of us stayed and prepared the winter newsletter for the mail. After that, Hilde and I went to help to another volunteer organization with the plans for a new family shelter. Of course, our job was to do what we love the best, talk about plants and plan gardens. To top it all off, Manly Man took me and the Monkeys out to eat dinner at Fat Catz a restaurant in a neighboring town. The menu is Cajun and Creole. Manly Man had fried shrimp and crawdads. Middle Monkey had a shrimp Po boy sandwich. Baby Monkey had mini corn dogs (there is one in every bunch). I had the most incredible Cajun crab cakes served over crawdads in a Creole lemon sauce. I was in heaven.

Hope you had an awesome day as well.

If you are a blogger involved in the seed swap, leave me a commment and I will link you up on my sending the seeds onward post the first of next week. I am pretty sure Tina and Frances are on the list.

GBBD JANUARY 2009

This will be my saddest post for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day yet. Still it is fun to play. Thanks again to Carol of May Dreams Garden for hosting.

First is a fuzzy picture of a snap dragon. I waited until after work to take my pictures. Therefore, you can now imagine a crazy lady out in 34 degree weather, after dark trying to take pictures of flowers while the wind blows. I am nothing if not a dedicated garden blogger or maybe I am just cracked.

 

Second is a shot of my echeveria potted up with hen and chicks. The echeveria is winter sad, but I like the way the hen and chicks look. Their color seems more intense in the winter than in the summer.

 

Finally, a shot of a very sad amaryllis. It was purchased after Christmas and the stress of being in that box is obvious. I will plant it outside in a few weeks. Hopefully, it will give me a pretty bloom next August.

 

Happy Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Stay warm.