Happy Mothers' Day

A special Happy Mothers' day goes out to my little girl as she spends this day without her hubby there to help.  I'm told that 9 year-old Zoe fixed grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone (with mommy supervising, of course) so that mommy didn't have to cook.  Way to go, Zoe, I'm so proud of you !

 My son-in-love, Tim, always spoils my daughter as she deserves, but is now deployed once again, so I especially wish that I could have been there for her day.

As far as my mother goes, she passed away in 1988.  I was able to put together a small bouquet in a glass vase to take to her gravestone.  The bouquet included roses, daisies and bachelor buttons.  Her stone was easily recognizable from the road, as the Irises growing behind it were still in bloom, towering over the stone.  Daddy's daisies were also in full bloom.

I can hardly believe that just hubby and I went through that much ice cream this past year !

On the homefront, with this strange Spring we're having we're expecting a frost tonight; so, I dragged every ice cream bucket and leftover potting container I could find to cover the new little plants.  I put a few English Pea seeds and a few watermelon seeds into one area of the garden today, too.

Anyway, sending love and good memories out to all the moms today.  Be sure and stop to smell those red roses !

I guess I have a cold !

It looks like the cable company hasn't pulled the switch on the internet connection yet, so I'll post again.

Just the other day, I was trying to remember what it felt like to have a bad cold.  I heard that my daughter and son-in-love were suffering from sinus attacks, and it made me realize that I hadn't had more than a runny nose in a LONG time.

Well, yep, you guessed it........I've got it now.  This is the first time I've been sick like this since we moved into this home, I think. ( I am truly blessed !)   Full-blown (pun intended) runny/stopped up nose, sinus headache, postnasal drip, slight cough...........phew, what a night I just had !  I'm starting my third day with this mess, so hopefully if it is a cold, it'll be gone in another 4 to 7 days.

In the meantime, my life is easygoing enough, praise God, that I can take naps when the sleepiness from my own naturally-produced antihistamine hits me.   That's usually around noon, it seems.

A family member helped us to bring home a couple of sheets of lattice to finish the rear deck area.  Now we need to wait on a pretty day for painting.  Trimming the old pieces last time was such a joke, balancing them on a wheelbarrow and a lawn chair !   I'm thinking of pulling out my 6 foot craft table and using it for support this time.........I totally forgot about it before.  That should make the job some easier.

The plants in the garden look good except for the cucumbers.   The leaves on them have turned pale and I don't know that they'll survive.  No sign of any sprouts from the okra seed.. UPDATE:  I did a walk-through in the garden, and I counted atleast 14 of the okra seed sprouting !  

 I did plant some Marigolds and some mint in different places, hoping to deter the deer.

No internet for awhile

My package price went up, so I'm dropping internet service to offset the raise in price.  I'll miss journaling, and I'll miss checking all the blogs that I like to keep up with.  

Seems like I do this about every year or so, so it will be interesting to see how it plays out this time. 

I can still check in at the library, so, bye for now !

Thank you, DEE !

Atleast, I think it was Dee, of Dee's Doodles, who sanely suggested using stakes and string to give me straight edges for laying the concrete border in my long flower bed !   I took her advice today, and it worked out really well !

I'm finally resting, but hubby and I started at about 9 a.m. this morning, measuring things off, driving stakes, and using red acrylic yarn for our string.

 By working in spurts, with a rest inbetween, he was able to put a few borders at a time in the wheelbarrow, and deliver them to the flower bed.

  We made quite a team today, I tell you !

The pieces are all in place, but darkness fell before I finished pushing the dirt back into place around them all.

I think that this is going to look quite nice.......I'm excited, and thankful for the strength to do it and the good working comraderie !  Praise GOD !

I want to make a note here that hubby had his quarterly bloodwork done today.

Blooms !

  Anyone who knows me has to know how I love blooming things !   God's creation at it's finest ! 

My Knockout Roses started blooming on Thursday, I think it was, and they are waist high with the most gorgeous full blooms.  

 My deep purple Irises led the way down the front of the trailer-home,

but were quickly followed this past week by these taller, bigger, more ruffly medium purple blooms.   Now THESE are my favorite of my Iris, and somehow I just have to label/mark them so that I know which ones they are when they're NOT in bloom.

These ones that I always call burgundy started blooming down at the end closest to the porch.  I don't care for this color in my yard, but with the 7-9 blooms all at once that were on Mama and Daddy's grave this week, they were quite beautiful.

Wow, this is alot prettier in a photograph than I ever noticed in person !

  Hubby likes this coloration.

I used a few of the concrete borders to shape up this flower area where my Deep Pink Hibiscus has been growing for a year and a half.   I made it big enough to add this Mexican Bush Sage that I just bought.

 It is supposed to become a bush and bloom every Autumn (of course, the nurseries get them to bloom early to show us what we're buying).

       And, here's a shot of the garden once it was planted.   I still have room for 2 more partial rows.  I may want to put in more okra.

We did it.......the garden is IN !

 I'm sorry about the lack of pictures of the actual garden work.  Had a problem with the camera, but wanted to be sure and document today's momentous progress !

This is the only shot I got of the garden before the card needed reformatting.  And since the wedding photos are on it, I couldn't reformat right now, or I would wipe them all out ! 

I couldn't figure out why I had so much trepidation about this garden all Winter long, and it finally hit me today.....I've never made a garden big enough to need walking rows !   Before it was always a patch with a fence on one side for climbing things, and reaching distance on the other side.........maybe 4 ft x 12 to 15 ft.

This plot measures 21 feet x 21 feet !   With hubby's supervision, direction, moral support and encouragement, I tilled, loosened soil for rows, made a plan, purchased plants, planted plants and seeds, erected tomato cages (one of THE most difficult jobs of the entire DAY), and made hills for planting the cukes and squash.  IT IS DONE.

I have one small section that I may fill with potato eyes if I can get it dug a little bit deeper.   And I have most of 2 rows still open for anything that I might want to add later.
I wound up with 8 tomatoes, an entire row of Okra, 6 hills of cucumbers, 6 hills of yellow squash, 4 bell peppers, and 4 banana peppers.

Now comes the concern about deer eating everything I've put into the ground !   I have no fencing or any other deterrent.  I am praying.

In other news, my niece, Mandy, Allyssia's mommy, got married yesterday evening.   I hope they live well and happily together and for Christ.