flowers — Page 270

Flowers and Frustration

December 31, 2013 at 8:44 am by Claudia

All of the potted impatiens that I brought in from the porch are still thriving. I think there are about eight pots scattered around the house. Most of them are tucked in corners of the living room, den and bedroom – usually on the floor because I don’t have anywhere else to put them.

They’re doing surprisingly well!

impatiens

I’m glad I didn’t let them succumb to the freezing temperatures.

It’s really hard, almost impossible, for me to deliberately leave a potted plant outside when I know a hard freeze is on the way. So, for a while, I shuttle them back and forth, day and night, until the moment that I know that daytime temperatures are going to stay cold.

Then they move inside.

I’d like to have an extra room or two. Oh, who am I kidding? Or three or four. One of them would be a room for the plants, with big windows and lots of light. I’d keep it on the cool side and I’d be able to stash all my outdoor plants there for the winter. They’d thrive. I’d put a big old comfy chair in there, where I would sit and read, surrounded by flowers.

Oh, and I’d like a greenhouse.

Is that asking too much?

Yesterday’s ‘adventure’: I spent over 2 ½ hours on the phone trying to reach someone at what will be my former health insurance company at the end of the day today. This company automatically changed my old policy, which had been canceled due to the ACA, and sent me a bill for a much more costly policy. All I wanted to do was cancel it.

Every time I tried, the robotic ‘menu’ would not give me an option to speak with someone about canceling my policy. There were all sorts of other options, some of which I tried but took me to a dead end. I would finally get a hold of a human being only to be told I needed to call another number, which would then take me to another dead end. This went on and on and on. Of course, I tried pressing O several times. That didn’t work. Finally, after 2+ hours of this nonsense, I reached a supervisor who said she would try to transfer me. I begged her not to connect me to the main number but to a person. She put me on hold and after a while, returned to say that she finally got through but got a message that Member Services had closed for the day.

Unbelievably frustrating. She did give me a tip or two as to how to dodge all the ‘options’ and get through to a person. I’ll be trying that in a few minutes. Wish me luck.

Is it too much to simply want to be connected to a person? Why do we have to hear a robotic voice endlessly loop through all the menu options? Surely it doesn’t require a Ph.D. to realize there should be an option to speak with someone in Customer Service?

This is the kind of thing that drives people crazy, including yours truly.

Have a safe and wonderful New Year’s Eve. We’re not big on celebrating or watching the ball drop. We plan on staying home. And I can pretty safely bet that we’ll be asleep before midnight.

Happy Tuesday

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Acceptance: On Feeling Blue

October 28, 2013 at 10:01 am by Claudia

rosehips2

I woke up yesterday morning feeling blue. I didn’t feel like talking very much. I was very quiet. I wasn’t motivated to do anything but read. And all day long it continued until the late evening.

Sometimes you just feel blue. There isn’t always an obvious reason for that sad, quiet, keep-to-oneself sort of feeling that can shape an entire day. You can try to snap out of it, of course. You can try your best to be sunny and bright and energetic. But I am convinced that we all need days like that; days where you can’t necessarily explain why you feel this way, all you can say is that you do feel this way.

I try not to back away from my blue days. I try to remain open to that mood change. I try to embrace the slower pace, the quieter day, the sometimes unsettling feelings that are evoked. It is what it is. And while I certainly know there are people that suffer from a kind of depression that is all-enveloping, even crippling, and often require some kind of medication, the occasional ‘down’ day is entirely different thing.

The occasional blue day is a sort of rest for the weary. A day to be a bit more introspective than usual. A day to think and ponder and be still.

rosehips

There is an element of mystery in a blue day. It isn’t always easily explained. But after some thought, I had an idea about what might have contributed to that blue feeling. It was a predominately gray day, with periods of sunshine, the heat was on, there was a sense, to me, of winter’s impending visit. Despite my attempts to protect it, my garden had officially died that morning and all my flowers were brown or black or wilted.

Flowers, plants, green growth – they were disappearing, saying goodbye. Their season was over. I saw a Monarch butterfly about five days ago and last night I found myself wondering where he was now. Was he flying to Mexico? Was he already on his way south? Have the Canadian Geese left for good?

No more flowers for the bees, for the butterflies. All gone.

And it was, as it often is, rather abrupt. One day flowers, the next – none.

I am passionate about gardening, about growing things, about seeing my gardens all around me. They fill me with joy. Coming to this inevitable point of the year means that all of that is over for a long while. It means shorter days. It means winter is on its way and I find that I like winter less and less the older I get. I need light and flowers.

So there you have it. I needed that blue day to come to terms with a seasonal change that I have no way of stopping. I have to allow myself a period of mourning. Mourning will give way to acceptance. All is well.

Happy Monday.

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Battling the Elements

October 23, 2013 at 9:32 am by Claudia

And so it begins. My little battle with the elements.

Every year around this time, give or take a week or so, the temperatures start to drop. We had a frost warning last night and will have one for the next 3 nights. Am I ready to say goodbye to my flowers?

No.

Late afternoon found me outside with my pruners, cutting some flowers. I knew I couldn’t possibly cover everything and I couldn’t begin to contemplate seeing them brown and wilted.

vase

Zinnias and cosmos.

hydrangeas

Limelight hydrangeas. This is what happens if you leave them on the bush until mid-October- you get a gorgeous intensely pink blossom. Oh goodness, I love this color, especially in combination with the McCoy vase.

hydrangeastop

I’ll leave them in this vase, sans water, to dry. It couldn’t be simpler. I know you’ll see other tips about drying hydrangeas but I simply cut them, stick them in a vase and let the drying happen naturally. This pink will fade a bit, but it will still be lovely.

For contrast, I cut these hydrangeas from the same bush about 10 days ago:

sathydrangea

The blossoms were a mix of pale green and a lighter pink. I like to cut them at different stages to get a beautiful mix of colors. Love, love hydrangeas.

Once it started to get dark, I covered the Chicken Wire Fence Garden with three cotton sheets, thanks to the advice of my friends on MHC’s Facebook page. Then I brought in all my potted plants from the porch, as well as my hanging plants. This is what it looks like in our living room:

pottedplants

We don’t have a mud room or a laundry room or an enclosed porch. They spend the night just inside the door and the big, big hanging plant lives on the bench in the kitchen. Crazy, but true.

So far, so good. I don’t think we had real hard freeze as the leaves haven’t suddenly fallen off the catalpa. The Chicken Wire Fence Garden survived for another day. Tonight promises to be a couple of degrees colder. Cross your fingers.

And so it will go until the temperatures lock in to below freezing lows. Then I’ll find myself giving in to the change of seasons.

But not yet!

By the way, despite all the warnings about impatiens and a fungus that could kill them (and did with my barrel impatiens last year) I had no problems at all. They did really well.

(I loved all the library and bookmobile memories you shared yesterday. Thank you so much!)

Happy Wednesday.

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Flowers and Frustration

Acceptance: On Feeling Blue

Battling the Elements

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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