flowers — Page 79

Day Ninety-Three

June 14, 2020 at 9:39 am by Claudia

This morning. A gorgeous coolish day.

Also this morning:

The discovery that deer have chomped on our oldest – and biggest – hosta. Darn it! Time for my deer spray. Maybe I can save the rest of it. That big gap of dirt should not be showing.

I suppose it could be the groundhog but my money is on the deer.

We mowed like crazy yesterday, so we are tired today. But it looks lovely out there.

A scene from the porch:

The daisies that Don picked for me? Let’s just say…they stunk. Don first noticed that they smelled like manure. Every time we passed them in the kitchen, that aroma wafted our way. So I put them in a sturdy vase and found this place for them on the porch, where they’re still thriving several days later.

It’s a “take it easy” day today, though I have to wash the sheets and vacuum. By take it easy, I mean no mowing, no major work in the garden. I’ll make up a batch of deer deterrent and spray it on all the hostas. Hopefully, that will keep our little friends from dining on my plants. It’s not as if we don’t have all sorts of other green things for them to eat on this property!

Stay safe.

Happy Sunday.

Day Ninety-One

June 12, 2020 at 9:45 am by Claudia

One of only two peonies this year. I usually see five or six times as many blooms. The peonies, along with the lilac and the bridal veil spirea all suffered from that late frost we had in MAY, of all things. The other plants seem to be fine. But it really impacted these hard workers.

All that being said, this flower is beautiful and the scent – as always – is heavenly. Don leans down to sniff them when he returns from his morning walk.

Yesterday was crazy – torrential rain and high humidity. I stayed inside except to water the porch plants and take some pictures.

The hollyhock that I planted last year in this galvanized tub came back this year. It’s right by the kitchen door and throughout the winter it stayed there, exposed to all the elements. But some of the leaves never died and I kept seeing new leaves – even in the midst of late winter. Hollyhocks are biennials; they take two years to complete their life cycle. As the weather got warmer, this plant shot up and has three stems.

I don’t mind saying that I’m thrilled, especially since it was in a pot and ignored throughout the winter.

The same thing happened with my lavender, which looked, after being left on the porch throughout the winter, like it was a goner. Closer examination this spring showed a tiny hint of green, so I put it back on the bench on the funky patio. I cut back the part of the plant that had died and waited. Now it’s green and beautiful and growing tall.

You never know, do you?

I saw the groundhog this morning but he had run away by the time I came back with my camera. Also saw a catbird bathing in the birdbath.

A good way to start the day!

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

Day Ninety

June 11, 2020 at 9:37 am by Claudia

We are in the middle of a torrential rain as I write this. Wow. It’s been humid for a few days and it rained all night long, but this particular line of storms is very intense. Hopefully, on the other side of this, the humidity will drop.

More info about Cheers: one of my readers says the entire series is on Hulu. So if you’re watching it on Netflix and have Hulu, you’ll be able to keep on going. (We don’t have Hulu.) And Don’s episode is in Season 6, Episode 7: The Last Angry Mailman. Don made a couple of appearances on Frasier as well and has known Kelsey Grammer for years. They were in a couple of plays together in Los Angeles, right when Kelsey first started appearing on Cheers, and Kelsey also had a relationship with the Old Globe. Small world. I think it was Cheers – I’ll have to check that with Don – that Don was filming right after we moved in together and the guy who warmed up the audience called me to ask me questions about Don and I was speaking live on the set. Weird, but funny and that was, of course, his goal.

Both Don and I love Cheers, of course, but after watching it in this way – start to almost-finish – we’re convinced that it was at its best when Shelley Long was still on the show. She left after year number five. Another little story: I saw Shelley years ago, live, as a member of the cast of Second City in Chicago. This was before Cheers. That cast was full of people who eventually went on to SNL. I remember thinking Shelley was brilliantly funny.

Did a lot of work on the puzzle yesterday, but boy, is this one hard! (Of course I say this about every puzzle.) But it is true – this one is harder than the previous one, the Mucha. Two more puzzles (from Galaxy Puzzles) are arriving in today’s mail. One is a Van Gogh. Apparently, I’m a glutton for punishment. And the other is a beautiful vase of flowers done by an artist that I can’t remember at the moment.

I’ve been sleeping erratically this week. Last night it seemed as if I didn’t sleep at all, but I must have. It was one of those nights where you wake frequently, so it seems as if you haven’t been sleeping. In the middle of the night, I asked Don to hold me and that helped a great deal. I slept in and I’m grateful that I did. Who knows why? It’s been a momentous and tragic two weeks in this country, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, Don and I are feeling a bit restless as we hit the three-month mark in our self-isolation – all of that certainly takes its toll.

It will pass.

The rain just stopped and I can hear a tree frog in the distance. I think we’re due for more later in the morning.

Hey, I don’t have to water the seedlings today! I may have to check on them, as this rain certainly pummeled them to the ground.

Reading Maigret Defends Himself, one of the later books in the series. I’m not reading them sequentially. Today, more work on the puzzle, maybe some work on the dollhouse – we’ll see.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

Day Ninety-Three

Day Ninety-One

Day Ninety

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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