Apropos of Nothing v.12

I am hoping the weather isn't too awful tomorrow so I can plant my new dahlias and my cute little rhodie. We're having dinner with Tracy's family at 6:00, so I have the whole day free to do as I please. :)

Well enjoy tomorrow Pony, and dinner with the family. Happy Birthday!

Thank you. :)

Happy Birthday Pony! Glad you had a great Birthday Eve Day. Have a Great Birthday Eve Night, too.

Happy B day Pony. Traci is the best! I wanted a truck liner for my truck for 10 years but I thought it would be best if I put it on just before I sell it. That way it stays clean and not all scrached up with all the rocks I get.
Today I finished my 3 month project of my rock wall and steps. Put the moss on today and I think it looks good.

Sofer - it's beautiful. Lots of hard work!

Wow. That doesn't look good, Steve... it looks GREAT! Dang! I wish it was easier to find nice rocks like that here.

and when you do find them, they need to be the kind that place themselves so your back doesn't have a fit.
And then let me know where you got them...

Steve, that looks awesome! What a lot of work, though. It's going to be even better when the moss gets filled in.

Pony, how could you ever have doubted him? He always plans surprises for you. That is very cool.

Laurie, that was a wonderful idea! I've been considering putting some of my plants out on the road for passers by. Last year someone put a wheelbarrow full of huge Solomon's Seal tubers out by the road with a 'free' sign on them. They are now snugly in the ground in my yard. They were huge!

Apropos of nothing, yet another nesting creature! It's so strange! Today when I was leaving the house, a huge bumble bee was buzzing around the office door and then flew into a hole created by a fold in the fabric of our dog's bed! Don't ask me what the dog bed (actually more of a dog 'throw' with fleece on one side) was doing folded up on top of the umbrella basket by the office door. I'm not responsible for that part. But this bumble bee entered the hole and was beginning to build a nest there! I am so glad I caught her in the act before she had really taken possession of that particular area. I don't think it's a good place for a bee nest. I hope she found someplace else.

I believe the robin decided on a better location for her nest. Likely there was too much activity under the rose arbor. Duh! Silly robin.

I believe the juncos have fledged. Yesterday I saw one baby flying and hopping around the garden just outside the greenhouse door. Momma junco was close by. Maybe I can claim my geraniums now.

I always forget to put the birdhouses out until it's way too late. I guess I'll just leave them up from now on so they'll already be there when the time comes.

Kayte these rocks are like that but different. Karen and I go up in the mountains on our weekend and have a picnic somewhere driving the back roads. While there these rocks just seem to float into the truck. When we find a large group we feel connected to the area and visit it often, it is a time for us to discuss the next project or the design of the garden change. The dogs love to run a-mok while we collect these pieces. The whole trip is special. But when I get to use my right brain to place and create the word "Christmas" comes to mind. It is so enjoyable. As a diabetic I have to keep moving to keep as healthy as it lets me and rock work is the best.
Laurie you have given me an idea when I retire of something purposefull to do. I shall plant seeds and grow plants and sell them at the farmer's market, roadside, and even to expand it to pretty little flowers in pots to give to passer-bys and make their day a little brighter.
Melissa you are so observant as you live. To see all of the things that others miss and with such detail. "into a hole created by a fold in the fabric of our dog's bed! Don't ask me what the dog bed (actually more of a dog 'throw' with fleece on one side) was doing folded up on top of the umbrella basket by the office door...". Your dreams must have great detail and design.

Laurie what a perfect thing to do with all those little seedlings that don't fit in your garden. And I'm sure you made a lot of other people happy with their new acquisitions!

Pix there are several big bumble bees cruising around my garden as well - I had no idea they were probably looking for a place to nest. How interesting.

The sun is out today! I will plant the artichoke I just got. I've never grown one before so this will be an experiment.

Steve, You ROCK!!! It looks great!

1Pony, Enjoy this most specialest of days. Your DH is a keeper!

Steve, I love the way those rocks just seem to 'float' into your truck! LOL! Now there's a dream I could get into - rocks floating into postition. If we can expand that just a tad to weeds that pull themselves, etc, that would be great!

thank you all for the encouragment. I do love the rockwork and even weed pulling. It is the harbinger of spring that weed pulling allows. We pull as we walk and talk in our garden. By June it is all done. Seems very simple to me. But mulch is my best friend and keeps it easy to do. Log pulling and placement is a simple job also, it is like lifting a finger to do.

MY GOODNESS - busy as bees you lot have been!!!!

Thank you all - and for once I do have a photo I can post (dh's blackberry comes in handy) - apologies for the appearance, but it was 5:30 in the morning. It really was fun, and I do encourage all and sundry to do the same - absolutely brillant - small but brillant, one of those moments when everything seems to come into alignment.

Steve, you are amazing. Just amazing, and delightful. And Pix, you lucky duck to get a wheelbarrow full of Solomon seal - well done! Did you get to borrow the wheel barrow to get them home?

I am off for a hot bath - and lucky girl, it is a national holiday tomorrow, May Day, voted in by the labour party to show their solidarity with the communist block - aren't we lovely little eccentrics (its also the day that all the undergrads throw themselves into the Isis river from Magdelane bridge, goodness knows why - but as we all know, its really another day in the garden! Now, rocks, yes, hmmmm.

Sofer you do magic with rocks.

Laurie that is so cute. What a nice area to have a stand.

Thank you ww - Those are the t shirts we get to wear so we don't get arrested on the way to the Moonwalk start, although a lot of the women just come showing off their decorated bras! It seems to be glowing in the photograph - odd.

Sofer, you are so fortunate to be able to have easy access to rocks. More and more in Washington I find the back roads blocked by gates and river access blocked by giant boulders. Thirty years ago when building our house, I actually called the DNR to ask if it was OK to 'harvest' rocks. At that time, they actually laughed at me, and said I could load as much as I wanted as long as no equipment was used. We found a great spot close to home where we could drive onto a large rock beach and stuck river rock all around the house below window level -- slow work, but good project for our 'poor years'. I'm guessing I would likely be fined and/or tossed into the clink today. Beautiful work you are doing. I'm envious.

Wow, you all are very inspiring this morning. Love the rock wall Sofer and the pumpkin/sunflower sale Laurie (kind of like a grownup lemonade stand - fun!). I, on the other hand, had one of those days in the garden yesterday where I think I probably would have been more useful if I had just stayed out of it. Ever have one of those days?

I was trying to clear some enthusiastically spreading Bleeding Heart away from my coleus and managed to snap the top off of the coleus in the effort. Then I continued on to clearing space around a Hydrangea and snapped off the stalk of the one allium that was trying to open (pictured here in its last moments). Sigh. I did salvage the Bleeding Heart though and potted it up for Michael's plant sale. And since I was apparently bent on destruction, I spent the rest of the day pruning a rhodie that is marked for removal. Got it limbed up about four feet - only ten feet to go!

Kymmco, I totally get those days where I do more harm than good in the flower beds. So frustrating.

Pony! I believe the sun just came out in your honor! Keep up the good work, birthday girl ...

Is DG breaking ground with its verb-izing today?

Georg Joseph Kamel, German botanist, died in Manila, Philippines. He botanized in the Philippines as a Jesuit missionary to the islands; the genus Camelllia is named for him.