Good Choice

Gretta begged to go out this morning, and since I had to pass through the kitchen on my way out I grabbed a vanilla yogurt...good choice
Because...
I found a big handful of ripe blackberries. Into my activia they went....Yummmm
For about two weeks we have been picking scant handfuls, but today by far was the motherload...there are still more to come as you can see.

The picture I took of the blackberries in my yougurt container was focused on the ground and not on the blackberries so I'm not posting that one.
For the past 4 years I have battled the blackberries, trying to get rid of or tame them...last year I gave up and what a reward. I should have dug up the amaryllis....a year or so ago I had the bright idea to have a little circle area with them multiplying in there, whoops.
Somewhere in that gardening diatribe is a spiritual lesson I'm sure but the allegories are slow coming this morning and I should be monitoring Emmett's solar system lesson to make sure he is staying on track.
The tee-pee also has been given over to the blackberry plants but the honeysuckle is winning right now.

Even though I don't like periwinkle, I planted them anyway this year. My hope is that they will spread their seeds and I won't worry about watering them. I always forget to turn off the hose when I put out the sprinkler and then a lake forms and the landlord comes by and wants to know what's going on so I don't water anymore. The oak hydranga are in beautiful bloom right now and I took a picture of them too....oooh, oooh and my hosta, my hosta! I thought they were killed in the freeze this past winter but no....they live!

What kind of Flower are you?

I am an Echinacea What Flower Are You?

"You are a health conscious person, both your health and the health of others. You know all about the health benefits and dangers of the world around you."

This quiz was so random....and health conscious I am not! Yesterday I ate a whole box of strawberry malted milk balls. I don't know what has happened, I don't have any motivation to exercise even though right now I have highblood pressure and more than ever I need to get moving! A few years ago my blood pressure was almost too low, I don't know what has happened. I have walked twice this week and that's it.

I hope you do the quiz too so I can see what kind of random flower/attribute they pick for you!

T-Pee 2008

This morning I put the sprinkler in the middle of the t-pee and a Cardinal couple came over to enjoy the water. I tried to take a picture but the 3x zoom just doesn't cut it on something small like birds. If you look on the right hand side of the t-pee there is a bamboo sticking out and the female is perched on the end.
I planted all sorts of seeds around the t-pee this year, beans, peas, moonflowers, morning glories, cypress vine and two other plants I can't remember. Oh, and I also have honeysuckle (I think) that I dug up from the back of our yard. I should take a picture of the back yard honeysuckle. After three years it is finally wrapping itself around the pitiful fence section I built for it.
I have no idea why part of the post is underlined and part isn't...clueless I tell you.

Old Mother Hubbard

We left yesterday morning to drive to Hendersonville, N.C. to celebrate my step-mother's 70th birthday. The whole affair was a surprise that my dad and Martha's best friend put together and Josh and I were pleased to be part of the festivities. After we had eaten there was a chance to get up and say a special memory we had with Martha or something nice which none of us were prepared to speak on. Not that we didn't have anything to say, we all had plenty to share but to get out coherently without tears was the challenge. Martha's daughters and grandchildren all said something and I felt it was only respectful to add my two cents in as well. Ironically one of the things that I said she has shown us was to hold our tongue...guess I didn't learn that lesson very well. But she has always been a good listener also and so my bumbling tear choked words were appreciated in the end. Martha has also been a good example in gardening. She is nothing like Old Mother Hubbard who had nothing in her cupboard, and couldn't provide for her dog. Martha has a beautiful house and a beautiful yard. Josh and I took some pictures of her nice flowers this morning before we went to the Fireside Pancake Inn for breakfast. So much for the weight loss last week. Susan invited me to walk tomorrow night and so I do believe that is a good course of action. She took care of the kids and animals for a short dash away from home in 4 years by ourselves. I didn't worry a bit which is good because of course they behaved marvelously (Elise only had 1 meltdown not counting the one at Susan's church this morning). My mom took the older two to the City Swim meet they qualified for yesterday morning. Mom said he came in 4th but Stewart said 6th so we'll see... We picked up the latest Harry Potter in Columbia, S.C. on our way up when we stoped to get gas and I have read 1/3 of the book out loud to Josh. I was glad I read was reading it with him because I had forgotten so much and he hadn't. Don't know if we'll be able to read out loud at home, we tend to fall asleep at home. I'm tired will be glad to have nothing to do tomorrow. No house to clean, no trip to plan for, no meals to make...guess I'll still have to do that because my cupboard is full not bare.

Old Macdonald had a farm

Psalm 65:11 You crown the year with your bounty, and your carts overflow with abundance.

We are so surprised at our first crop of beans.

This post was supposed to be for yesterday but I was fooling around with the header and then the phone man came to "fix" the phone. When he left the phone was working however by the time Josh got home there was no dial tone. Southern Bell will again send someone out today and work inside the house. Lovely. Yesterday was a good day. Josh was able to go with Elise and to the dentist to see if she was going to lose her two front teeth from rolling out of bed several nights before. Even though the x-rays made her cry she let them take all the x-rays needed. Meanwhile the dentist was chatting it up with Josh about his multimillion dollar home on Riverside that he completely refurbished and how the building inspectors need to be allowed to do their job without the preservation society getting in the way. We go back in a week to get more x-rays to see if the teeth/nerves are healing. After the dentist we picked up 6pairs of shoes we won off freecycle. Three different sizes, for three different boys. I did spend some of my Internet time yesterday looking at Laura's photos from Mexico. Wow, 18+ pages on Flicka. What a wonderful trip she took. Yes I am envious. That is a whole nother blog in of its own. For some reason Phil.4:6 comes to mind. Instead of anxious it apply better to my mind to read envious. I guess the ious ending is what triggered the reference. We have company coming tomorrow, it is time to clean. Dirty walls, mop the floor, vacuum the ceiling fans. Oh, and today is library day too. Hmmm, we better get busy.

How does your garden grow?

No silver bells or cockle shells but our garden teepee grew greener while we were on vacation! The hydranga turned pink and all the plants I dug up from the neighbor's yard are still alive and look like the might just be happy in our yard.

Garden Thief

The doctor that owns the house two doors down is going to tear the house down and build a new one which means all the plants around the home are going to get plucked up and die. I have been lusting after the plants since we moved in but especially since it has been vacant for a year. The boys and I went down to see the excavator uprooting trees and I got up the nerve to ask the guy if it was okay if I dug up the plants around the house. 5 wagon loads later, I have a hundred plugs of border grass, 3 Hibiscus, one Crepe Myrtle, two Azaleas, a gardenia I think, lots of Crotuns, 3 Hydrangea, a cool bush of unknown species that has little pom poms of white flowers. The excavator guy calls me Garden thief. Today he tells me that he pulled up a little tree and will bring it down to my house on the excavator if I have a spot that he can get to. I put my cheap Chinese labour to work (John-Thomas, Stewart & Yohanna). Boys like to dig holes so why not work it to my advantage. Actually somehow I have tricked them into thinking it is their garden and I am letting them have the tree. Mark Twain would be so proud. Stewart started a "garden" a couple months back with the left over plants from the terrarium he had to do for a school assignment. He has been very proud of his garden and wanted a bigger spot. Yohanna wanted to join in the fun as well and had asked for a spot so when all these plants were available I told them they could have them for their garden. Genius. I added some candy that had been stashed away for such an occasion as added bonus to their hard work under the noon day sun. So I figure with two days of 3 hours each of yard work I haven't need to walk or work out and am staying on track for weight loss. Next week though we are going to Josh's dad's so I will be sideswiped on my progress and posts! AAAAGGGH I hope my garden theifdom will not wither whilst I'm away. The teepee is growing great, at least that is established and won't need any extra watering.