Bleeding Hearts

I took these pictures of some of the bleeding hearts in my garden on a rainy morning awhile back. I really like how they turned out and I enjoy the many places that the bleeding hearts turn up in my yard. The purple flowers in the background are a variety of lamium, also known as dead nettle. I think dead nettle is a terrible name for a flower, so I prefer lamium. I'm learning the names of lots of flowers here lately since I've started working at a local nursery and garden center. It has been a very busy time. Between that and my job at school, I just worked a 19 day stretch, had yesterday off and now have a 12 day stretch in front of me. It's not seeming like the greatest idea at this point, but I do get paid tomorrow, so we'll see how I feel then. I don't want to get into a long complaint about our financial woes, but suffice it to say that we need the money and then some. ha We got our college kids moved around this weekend, so that is the other reason for my complete exhaustion. CS moved into an apartment so that he can continue working at his internship this summer and CG moved home and will work here. TB keeps busy with baseball, school, taking naps, and mowing lawns. It has been a beautiful day here and I'm really looking forward to more of the same.

Flowers

Here's a couple of pictures of the flowers on my patio. We have a concrete patio out the back of our house with this brick wall all the way around. It makes for a nice place for flower boxes and pots. They have really done well this summer. Usually by now they are looking pretty dead. I guess starting out with some better fertilized soil and the right amount of rain and sunshine has made the difference. I've just never had geraniums that looked like these-kinda cool. I planted more impatiens this year since they do better in the shade than the petunias, but both are doing well, so it was a surprise.

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It will be kind of a busy day today. I'm getting together with my friends to do some sewing this morning. Haven't decided if I'll actually sew or just bring along some cutting and handwork projects. I have to be to work at noon and everyone else has the whole day, so by the time I get there I won't have a ton of time. My new machine is great, but it's heavy and not very portable, so I don't know if I want to drag it along. TB has his first home football game tonight, so I hope the weather will hold. It's been really nice so far this week and seems nice this morning. After the game we'll get together at a friends house, mostly the same group from this morning plus husbands. It's great to have friends. It will also be nice to have the first week of school done. It's had it's ups and downs, but overall been okay.

Harvest Time

Well, it's almost harvest time around here. The crops haven't done so well this year though and the produce will be enough to garnish approximately one side salad. Oh for a sunny spot in which to have a real garden. It hasn't been a good year for the food plants on the patio. I've only had enough basil to make pesto once and my regular tomatoes (all two of them) are still green and show no promise of supplying enough for even a BLT. On of these years maybe I'll go back to having a garden plot in the country. I did that many years ago when the kids were little and it was a disaster. The deer ate all of my beets at the moment they were ready to be harvested. The kids ran wild resulting in one really bloody accident involving one hitting the other over the head with a glass bottle. The weeds had a heyday and very little produce of any kind was harvested. One funny memory was that there was a port-a-potty at the garden. Little TB thought it was the coolest thing ever and needed to visit it every time we were there. I'll have to remind him of that. Ah, those were the days. File under "what was I thinking?!!".

100th Post- Weather, etc.

Well, today's my 100th post. After much thought, I've decided not to do "100 things about me". I hope no one is too disappointed. Maybe I'll save that for the 200th. Anyway, I've enjoyed the blogging thing more than I thought I would and I plan to keep plugging along at it. I appreciated everyone who visits my blog and if you're a lurker, today would be a great day to say "hello". I think I flatter myself that I have any lurkers. I'll also solicit any constructive comments for my blog such as "no one cares about the weather, so quit talking about it all the time" or "quit referring to your family by those stupid initials". I promise I can take it. As an aside, I actually deleted a blog I visited quite frequently when the person went to a new format to be more private and started calling her kids and husband by the stupidest names I'd ever heard. I'm shallow that way. :) I also decided to post a picture of myself for my profile that I don't hate, at least for a few days. I had just finished my diet, was tan, and happy because I cropped Joshua Bell out of the picture. Actually maybe I should just put the picture of Joshua Bell. We went to his concert last summer and it was fabulous by the way. Have a great day and enjoy the weather!!!

PS. Here's week two or three of the greenhouse.

My Professional Greenhouse

Well finally I have a profession; I'm a professional gardener as is shown by the fact that I own a professional greenhouse. Don't worry, I'm not starting out with too much overhead. My business sense tells me I should start small and grow from there. (Pun intended) Seriously, I can't believe it was only a few days since I planted these seeds and they've already started to grow. I talked to a gardening coworker and he tells me his petunias already have four leaves, so I'm a little behind, but I think I'll catch up by planting time. I have petunias, impatiens, and allysum and I also got some basil and oregano seeds last night to plant. I wish I had room for a real garden, but our yard is much too shady for anything but a few container grown plants. I hope these little ones will make it!

Whew!!

Boy am I ever out of shape from sitting around all winter. Today was fairly nice, and there's a big storm in the forecast for later this weekend, so I thought I 'd better get some yardwork done. I spent about 2 1/2 hours raking the yard and I'm totally pooped! TB helped for a little while, very begrudgingly I might add. 16 year olds just don't see the point in raking the leaves and dead grass up from the yard. I have a ton of work left to do throughout the spring, so I guess it's a good thing I got started. I'm considering focusing on a small area at a time and trying to get a little done each morning before I go to work. That's my intention every year, but it doesn't happen too often since I'm not much of a morning person.

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In my continual quest to save money, I started some flowers from seed this last week. I got a little "professional greenhouse" that holds 72 little seedlings. I planted my seeds, so now I'll just have to wait and see if anything happens. I figure if a few of them actually grow to a point I can use them outside, I'll have saved a lot of money, so we'll see. I'll post a picture when they sprout and you'll see why "professional greenhouse" is a massive exaggeration.