Apropos of Nothing v.17

Pix, there's a baby thread: http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1116559/

Welcome back- how was your vacation?

Yeah, I found it after I posted. It was a 'duh' moment. Vacation was superb. We're working on a 'spot adventure' thread with photos, then I'll post. Fabulous. Want to go back. Want to LIVE on vacation. I'm still having a little bit of a tantrum at being home.

Looking forward to the photos! :)

Yes Sofer - sing and procreate. Actually, procreate means to reproduce. So just pretend to procreate.

I had to keep it clean and make the connection with frogs. I don't think they get away from the little "pollywogs".

LOL

I have polywogs in my ponds.

Judi, Glad that the wedding went well... looking forward to seing pics!

Same goes Pixy... I know the feeling of not wanting to be OFF vacation!

Sounds like you had a good day Pony, even if it was a bit long.

Bea, your picture makes froggie love look so romantic!!

Cool on the tadpoles Willow!

To put a little cute factor in the day, Phoenix became an auntie yesterday!!

One more pic.... Neal (the guy I got Phoenix from who still has her sister Sage) says he feels like had a bitty herd of spotted cows rather than puppies. No brown ones in this litter at all.

Very cute! Tempted?

Lordy NO!!!! Phoenix is finally settling down into a radically hyper dog rather than a puppy terror, but the "memory" of puppy terror is way too fresh! Besides, these have a bit more shorthair in them, which is where the true terror part comes from. They will be awesome dogs and I will adore them from afar.

That looks like a spotted tornado waiting to happen. :)

That little passel of pups is certainly cute as buttons. I got a very sweet phone message from my 11 year old granddaughter over the weekend, begging me to adopt an oh-so-cute free pug or bulldog (I forget exactly) puppy she found somewhere - to of course keep at my house, which would make her so very happy, and she would take care of it every time she came down, etc. Good sales job, but (a) I have a dog, (b) I don't want a puppy, and (c) I'm not overly fond of dogs who make noise when they breathe. I had to nicely decline.

Why didn't granddaughter adopt it to HER house?

Ahh, because Dad said no -- but it would be OK if Grammy got it (note to self: kill son).

LOL

Pony, What is the next step up from a tornado, cause I guarantee that's what those little beauties wil become!

LOL here too Bonehead! Rather than killing the son, sounds to me like Grammy needs to get the sweet thing a puppy for Christmas..........

Puppies!! Dangerous territory for me . . .

Self control self control, self control!

As long as I don't see them in person, I'm okay. But if I'm in the same room then all bets are off. ;-)

HEY GUYS i GOT LUCKY AT EMERALD DOWNS! One bet and I won 400 bucks at the horse races tonight. I gave it all away tonight. I felt good!

Lady luck shines on you! Giving it away ensures good luck again. What a fun thing!

Enjoy Steve!

I once bet on the proverbial 'old gray mare' much to the derision of my fellow horse betters. She of course came in 1st place, and was absolutely gorgeous, like stainless steel. Don't often see gray thoroughbreds for some reason.

My SIL and nephews left early this AM for their journey back to CA. (my brother had to work) It sure was good to see them since I have not seen them in 3 years. The 16 year old is 6'3" and towers over me now. I was getting a kink in my neck looking up at him. We had so much fun hanging out. I just received a copy of my Nieces ultrasound today of her first child which will arrive in Feb 2011. That was so neat that she sent it to me. Cool that they can do them with digital now and you can share them with family.
My wrist is feeling good and my back has not bothered me for over a week now...so I think I am good to go with getting things caught up. Yeah!

Tracy is home! Tracy is home! Tracy is home! *happy dance*

Those puppies are so cute! That's a bunch to take care of.

I had to run to town today to pick up dog food (we buy thru a co-op) and stopped at Wight's. I got a half wine barrel and some carrot seeds, a red wire basket planted with lettuces and with a ceramic chicken statue, Japanese blood grass, Persicaria Dimity, 3 pansies, and 2 rhodochiton purple bell vines. The best part, all of them, plus a couple other things from the 'nursery' in the backyard, are all in the ground! Going out now to run irrigation to them.

Wel, the carrot seeds are not planted yet. Have to get dh to drill a hole in the barrel so I can run irrigation up thru it.

Well done, Gwen! I only managed to putter a little today. The last couple of weeks have worn me out.

I have been very bad, and have reclined on both the front and back porches reading. I can't put this book down. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson. It has some dark and disturbing parts, but I am caught up in the mystery. I stopped reading only to water the vegetables.

I still need more plants to fill the left one with, but here's how the new beds look now. :)

Wow, pony - and just think - now that Tracy is home, you can get him to go plant shopping with you, and he can lug all the plants out of the back of the truck for you. How nice is that.

And can I just add - I am mightily impressed at your clean up of the extra project material. I'm putting this on my list: clean up after you finish. I have a tendency to miss out on that bit - I'm just wondering how your lawn area looks so well 'swept' after all that, and you've removed all the extra concrete bits, pots, tools, wheelbarrows, waterbottles, clothing, hose.... mine, hmmmm, doesn't come that neat for several weeks (do I hear DH chuckling over that timing?), okay, a tad longer, after the finish - finish, okay, DH is now walking away, asking if I would like an espresso which is cover for his rather superior, all knowing, reality check of my concept of finish - so okay, my projects have a tendency toward the 'knock-on' school of gardening: new area means revamp 'finished' area, which means add on restructure any restraint in expansion area which.....okay, so I am adding 'make projects descrete as opposed to all encompasing' to my list of changing my style of gardening - because, actually Pony, I'm looking at that large expanse of lawn behing your tree, and thinking about your expansion plans of have multiple beds and paths, and thinking how nice it would be to push that bed out the other side of the tree into a long lozenge shaped bed, and you have those nice foxglove seeds maturing in the bed near the house, and wouldn't it be nice to have a lovely sway of fgloves.........okay, I'm now adding to my list of gardening technique "do not covet thy neighbours garden until you buy it".

Well, done pony, good concept, nice execution, good finish. Happy planting.

Thank you very much, Laurie! :)

I wish I had a satellite camera- what you can't see is that the two beds I just built complete a ring around the tree. I built the other half last year. I'm very pleased with the way it looks now. :)

And I must confess- you can't see it in the photo, but there is still a small pile of concrete sitting in the yard. As soon as I get more cardboard, I'll be adding another small bed off to one side. ;)

Pony, that looks fantastic! Especially knowing how much work went into it - but it looks so natural, as though it had always been there.

It's been too hot to do much of anything outside. We have the irrigation going on part of the garden. After I fed the chickens, geese and baby chicks this morning I picked some peaches; I'll have to trim the brown rot off some of them but it was still a nice haul. However, I was dripping wet when I got back inside. It's going up to 100 today. Last night when I went to bed at 10 it was still 87, and it was 81 this morning at 6. All we have to look forward to is a mere 89 on Tuesday!

Judi, I could not get into that book. I bought it and tried to read it at least 3 times. The movie was great, but I had to leave a few times, I'm sure you can figure out those parts! Now that I've been the movie, I'm going to try the book again.

Laurie we central Europeans (Germans) "MUST HAVE GROUND CLEAN" after every project. It is all in the genes. That small stretch of water kept you Brits enjoying your gardens. We had to fight every week against the huns next door.

Wow, Gwen! What a haul! And already planted, too? Go girl!

Pony, that is looking excellent! You should never have revealed the little cement pile just outside the frame. Let us glory in the concept that there are people who are creative, yet tidy.
I evidently do not have a drop of central european blood in my body.. that's unfortunate. The words 'clean up when you are finished' simply bounce off of my energy field, finding no place to land. If only there were a wee dram of German in me!! My daughter had a recent guest - a young German man- who stayed at the house for a couple of weeks. He is: always on time, always well-mannered, incredibly clean, tidy and good-smelling, and completely overlooked the 'creativity' that is my house. What a sweet child! He can come back anytime. Maybe I could get him to participate in cleaning up after me! I'm sure it would relive him quite a bit as he was too polite to say anything out loud! LOL! Oh, plus he spoke excellent English, allowing me to wallow in the stereotype of the lazy American who speaks only her own native tongue. Excellent, organized brain! Thank God he went home before we could get on each other's nerves. We will miss him fondly..

Now about that book - I liked it. Loathed the movie. Positively loathed it. I cannot see spending good money to have violence thrust in my face in that way. In a book, I can skim those parts and focus on the underlying mystery. I think we've discussed our relative views of this book and its author (may he rest in peace) on another thread, but I'll post here that I recently overheard a conversation between a mother and her young adult son in costco. He mentioned he had seen that movie and his mother asked how he liked it. There was a long, decided pause as he formulated his thoughts and I noticed he had quite a faraway look in his eyes as he thought. He finally said, "I guess it was okay. There was a very violent rape scene in the movie. It was very disturbing.". He looked like he was going to cry. I wish people understood how traumatic things like that are to the human psyche. I feel that image will haunt this young man for a long time. And I see very little value in that.

Well, it is a fairly tidy pile, if that's any consolation. hehe. It won't be there long- as soon as I get more cardboard, I'll be building another small bed with it. :)

Nice work, Pony. I think my Irish half is dominant, must try to channel my German half more often. I start out neatly (e.g., placing weeds in a trug as I go) then soon just start tossing them behind me in my haste to get to the next plant. My husband (Scottish) just sighs and goes around after me with the lawnmower trailer.

Heat break while harvesting cilantro - yum my hands smell delicious. I'm trying the freezing strategy this year -- anyone had luck (or tips) for this? I'm just taking off the leafy parts and jamming them into snack baggies, squeezing as much air out as possible, rubber banding, and tossing in the deep freeze.