Happy Birthday Grampapa!!

Hope your having a great one!!

thanks, pix. is that your valentine rose?

No..one Hubby bought me since it will be a while before it blooms!

Best wishes on your birthday, gram. Sure is a cold one, isn't it?

These were at a "bake-off" contest we had at work this week. Seventeen entries, and over the course of two days, I tasted them all! Wish I had one today to offer as a birthday cake,

Happy Birthday Jan !! I hope the year is peaceful, healthy and filled with roses and a cottage garden!

I'd sing Happy Birthday to You - but as neither cat has akkked in more than a week - I think I'll just wish you a very happy birthday instead.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Dear Gram
Happy Birthday to you
And many more!!!!

Ahem! There I hope you enjoyed it! Hope you had a great day!

Happy, happy birthday, Jan :-)

cheers,
Seandor

thanks, everyone. I had a lovely day. my son and his family came and even brought an extra granddaughter for me. my youngest gd (almost 13) brought a friend, same first name as her, friends since pre-school, and they look almost exactly alike. same height, hair and eye color. same smile. it's eerie. so I was just calling the girls Rachel, Rachel and not Rachel. They gave me 2 'Sarah Bernhardt' peonies for the new cottage garden.

son and older gd (not Rachel) cooked dinner. they brought my favorite cake (Nancy, not homemade like your table of treats...from Wegman's...which ain't bad)...yellow cake, lemon filling, chocolate buttercream icing. I had another piece just a little while ago.

ps Dawn, you have a beautiful voice LOL

Oh gram I am so glad you had a nice day! Life is so short sometimes and you really need you love and cherish everything you have. I love your board name because it has always reminded me of Grandpapa - even though yours is grampapa hehehe. I think it is cute!

Grampapa hope the rest of the year is just as good as the first day. Your gonna love retirement. You still won't have enough time in the day to get everything you want done, but the pace changes, and you'll find you will have a little more time to stop and smell the roses. Best wishes.

Dawn; Have you considered american idol? :)

Happy Belated Birthday Grams!!! I hope this was the best one yet!

Happy Birthday! Your day sounded womderful!

daiseycat, anita & ckk, thank you! I've been absolutely lazy this morning. too much b'day cake! it's a beautiful day here and I should be working in the garden. just got a call and I'm getting company again today. so nothing's getting planted today. I did pot up 15 dahlias this morning, so I'm not a total garden slug.

Looks like I was asleep while you were enjoying your birthday company, cake and gifts. So I guess I'll be the last one, for this year, to wish you a very happy year filled with all the things you love most.

Pirl

Gram, Happy belated birthday neighbor!!
Glad to see that you're retiring, and your plans are looing great and going well!
I have been playing catch up with reading, but I didn't want to miss sending you extra good wishes...aw, just make it a Happy Birthday Week!
Jackie
(Pirl, I am the last one to the party, as usual, lol.)

We don't even get a piece of cake!

pirl, jackie, thanks for the good wishes! I always try to get at least a week's worth of celebrating out of my b'day LOL would you believe me if I said the cake wasn't very good anyway?

Hmmmmmm...........well.......maybe. I'm willing to be a tester for next time.

Jam~a~Gram - I missed your birthday on technical difficulties. I hope you had a great one!

LOL Jan, nope I don't buy it. All birthday cake is good, especially when it's your own. :)

Al, I absolutely did have a great one. how's your new pc working?

I'm later than late. Hope it was a good birthday and if your weather is going to be as great as ours today I know what you'll be doing!

LOL same as you!

Good grief, I way missed your birthday Gram. Well,

Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday to you,
Happy Birthday dear Jan,
Happy Birthday to you!!!!

Here's a flower photo cuz I'm so late. Hope you had a good one!

Harper

Harper, thanks much! love the tulips...yellow is my fav color in the spring

Oh, goodie!! I love yellow in the spring too. When I first moved in, I HAD to plant some forsythia bushes. Now their bright yellow is so rewarding. I'll send a pic of them blooming with my cherry tree.

Harper

Happy belated, Jan!

Thank you Victor. nice to have you back!

Harper, my neighbor very kindly planted a forsythia on the back corner of her property right next to mine, so I didn't feel I had to have one of my own LOL she has lovely flowers and I hope she enjoys mine as much as I do hers. we have much the same taste. She also planted a black knight buddleia shortly before I was going to, so I switched to a different color. it allows me more variety ;0)

Gram, I thought your rose garden hardscape was fantastic. I can't wait to see it all grown up. I'm sure your neighbor will enjoy it as much as you do. How great that you work together. I wish my neighbors gardening tastes matched mine. Last year my neighbors topped off about 15' of a 40' spruce tree bordering our property. Needless to say, the tree doesn't look so good anymore.

Harper

Harper, we don't really work together, just happen to have similar tastes which works out nicely. they seem to be a very nice couple, about our age, but I am reluctant to get too chummy. we can't be very social because my DH is disabled and can't really get out at all. plus if you find you don't care for someone and they live right next door you're stuck.

So true!

Grampapa
so true on the neighbor thing. Ouch I think of my neighbor who was going through a tough patch with her husband who was meeting with the entire group of women around us to boo-hoo her way through it. Needless to say, they stayed together, but she gives me kind of an upset stomach with the way she was so open about all their problems. I wouldn't tell her anything because I know it doesn't even make a pitstop before its out her mouth again.

Of course, she isn't a gardener unless you count the 6-pack of dry impatiens around the mailbox every year. so that's probably the underlying cause.

I find it highly annoying to have to check that "she" is not outside, where she can spot me, before I go out to garden. Some people have perfected the art of being a royal pain.

I hear ya, pirl. that is exactly what I want to avoid. I want to be, if I can, a pleasant acquaintance of my next-door neighbors. quick chat when we meet. talk about our gardens, commiserate about bad weather, maybe even sit and have a lemonade outdoors...that's it.

I'm chuckling here at the image of pirl checking out all the windows to make sure the coast is clear before going out!! The next door neighbors little girl is the one I hide from. I like to be outside in peace and quiet and listen to Mother Nature, not possible if the little Miss is out. "Miss Celeste, what are you doing?" "Miss Celeste watch me do a sommersault." " Miss Celeste why are you pulling your flowers out?" "Miss Celeste why are the dogs barking?" "Miss Celeste my Mommy & Daddy sleep in the same bed but aren't married....are you and Brian married?"
I don't mind answering a few questions and having a chat but that is way to much info for me!!

I agree, Jan. It can't be so one-sided that only "she" is doing the talking and still has no idea I have a grandson who was born last year. She talks but doesn't give anyone else the chance to and wants the position of martyr while she's alive: not possible.

I should buy her the tee shirt - "It's all about me".

Agreed, pixie. We have twin girl screamers, five years old, a block away and they can jolt me out of my peaceful gardening frame of mind with their endless screaming.

pirl, she would probably love the shirt and not get it at all.

Oh, man, Pirl and Pixie. I feel for you. I have a neighbor who mows his lawn, uses his leaf blower and chainsaw at the crack of dawn on Saturday mornings. He loves to watch me garden. I feel like I'm on display for him. I just keep planting tall bushes, slowly encasing myself in my own yard, creating a buffer between me and the neighbors.

Here's a pic of my other neighbor's yard as viewed from my back deck. You can see the trampoline and swingset are falling apart. Their kids are teenagers now. There's a circular dirt track in their backyard that the kids race their quads around and around, stirring up dust. Ugh. Those trees aren't growing fast enough. In general, they're nice people, but I don't want to get too chummy like you said Gram.

Harper