A Saturday morning with some rainy days ahead means more mowing and weed chomping today. I’ve decided I’m going to use ‘Weed Chomping’ instead of constantly wondering whether it’s ‘whacking’ or ‘wacking.’ Henceforth: Weed Chomper, Weed Chomping.
Anyway, the weed chomper’s battery ran out of charge rather quickly yesterday, so I’ll finish the job today. We mowed the front yard yesterday in the midst of seemingly lower temps but actually very high humidity, which left us dripping. Dripping, I tell you.
The garden is so pretty at the moment. The phlox is blooming, the bee balm is hanging in there, the rudbeckia is gorgeous, the coneflowers are in every garden bed, with a few that have self-seeded in interesting spots here and there.
In the bed on the side of the house, the butterfly bush is starting to bloom, along with the liatris, daylilies and coneflowers. All in all, a very pretty time that I hope will stay just as it is through my best friend’s visit on Wednesday.
By the way, I refuse to use BFF or any of that sort of thing. If I can’t use the entire word, I’m in trouble. And I’m an official Eschewer of Emoticons. Yes, I have weakened as to the use of hashtags, but other than that? Words are important. Hopefully I can find a way to write here in this space and on Instagram that describes the way I feel at any given time, without resorting to a smiley face. I don’t mind others using emoticons at all. I just can’t do it. But you can use them here to your heart’s content!
Ask any of my longtime friends: I was on record as a Detester of Smiley Faces in the seventies. Oh, yes. I couldn’t stand them; indeed, so much so that my friends loved to send me anything with a smiley face on it just to see my reaction.
My beloved McCoy Pottery made a piece with a smiley face.
I don’t want it.
Claudia: Eschewer of Emoticons, Detester of Smiley Faces. Uses a Weed Chomper.
I have a neat giveaway coming up next week. Stay tuned.
Speaking of giveaways, the winner of a copy of The Branson Beauty is ChrisK in Wisconsin! (I choose the winners of these giveaways through Random (dot) org, which generates a number, you guessed it, randomly. Chris, congratulations! Send me you address and I’ll forward to TLC Book Tours.
Happy Saturday.
Oh yes the smiley faces….how I detested those. I’m with you on that one.
A fellow Detester of Smiley Faces!
Love your garden!! I may need to plant a butterfly bush next spring! I have one McCoy smiley face mug and it’s cracked which expresses my feelings exactly. Don’t use emoticons often but I do love the heart one’s!!!
Enjoy your weekend.
hugs,
Linda
Butterfly bushes grow very tall, Linda – so they’re pretty darned striking!
Love your flower garden. This is the best time of year for flowers here, too…sweet peas, daylilies, and hostas are going nuts. And I just found several microscopic morning glory buds! Can’t wait for the blooms.
So jealous! I planted my morning glories a bit late (they’re in the Memorial Garden) so I think I’m going to have to wait until August until I see buds.
Keep the flower pictures coming Claudia, they always brighten my day. We had a good sized oak limb come down during the night so we had some wind and didn’t realize it. Beautiful day here, hope yours is too.
I’m so sorry! I hate it when I lose limbs off my trees. I hope nothing was damaged?
No damage, we knew it was broken but it was so high in the tree our pole saw couldn’t reach it.
Good!
I can go either way on emoticons. I mostly use them with my kids, because a scowling emoticon speaks a thousand words, when I’ve repeated myself one too many times using real words.
I now have a good spot to plant a butterfly bush — wonder if I can plant one yet this season or should wait for spring?
Hope you are enjoying your weekend, Claudia.
I can totally understand using them with kids! As to the butterfly bush, I’m not sure when you can plant them, but I bet a garden shop would know!
Oh I wish I had a better understanding of the English language and write posts like yours, finding more words to describe for instance how beautiful your garden is. Instead, I keep using far too much emoticons in my Whatsapp messages, first of all because I feel the need to ensure that the person I send the message to receives the right feeling I want to communicate, secondly because it is made so easy to use emoticons – and they keep adding new ones all the time! Just one little “<3" (this is supposed to be a hearth on it's side) and well, you send your love! Nevertheless, I totally agree that words are very important. Hugs, Susi
I understand the need for you to use them entirely. After all, you’re communicating in more than one language and I, sadly, only communicate in English! But I’m going to start refreshing my French soon and then maybe I’ll be able to communicate in French and English!
Well, if nothing else, I AM random!! Thank you!! Just finished the first Louise Penny this morning ~ Still Life. Fun to know there are many remaining. And now another for the TBR pile which could actually be used as a coffee table it is that tall!! Thank you so much!!
The same thing here. The temps broke 2 days ago, but not the humidity, really. And it is supposed to be really bad again this week. Happy Summer!! (no emoticon).
Lucky you, to be discovering Louise Penny and get the chance to read them all, in order. She’s amazing. And she has a new one coming out on August 30th! Huzzah!
hahahahahah I had just used :D at the end of my reply to your comment. Not a smiley face- a big mouth face – me
I adore Bitmoji’s on my phone. DD and I have so much fun with them and since they are personalized to match your own features , very personal. We all march to different drummers.
I totally understand! I don’t have children and Don doesn’t use them and I don’t text all that much…which might explain it! You go and use any emojis or :D or whatever you want in your replies. I don’t mind at all!
Claudia: Eschewer of Emoticons, Detester of Smiley Faces. Uses a Weed Chomper. Hilarious!
Vicki: Refuser of texting!
Ha!
xo
I understand how you feel about emojis, but I have to admit, now that we WRITE our feelings so much more than we SPEAK them, I feel the emoji is sometimes essential to clarifying how a message is meant. To me they’re really just glorified punctuation. They’re overused FOR SURE, but are really necessary sometimes. At least in my mind. Especially when I might be disagreeing with the person or public to which I’m writing. I just leave a smiley or wink to make it clear “still friends, right?” I often like to leave just a teeny bit of “artwork” behind as a bit of a personalized signature, and I think a lot of people use emojis for that as well. Although when I do e-mails I have a collection of pretty images I’ve collected for that. For e-mails however, I sometimes leave a favorite quote behind too, which was somewhat of a tradition among the faculty & staff at the university where I worked. People would finish off messages by popping their “automatic signature” in and then add a very short quote [ my own favorites included a lot of Dr Seuss]. You probably don’t use Twitter much – emojis are very popular there. Although as I said, sometimes really overused too.
PS – what we need – FOR SURE – is a font dedicated SOLELY for sarcasm, because it’s often very difficult to make it clear one is being sarcastic. You can tell right away when someone is speaking, but in writing it can be virtually impossible. And because of the Internet we are ALL writing much more than we used to. I’m sure you know this, but the comments section of just about EVERYTHING online includes the writing of a lot of people who sadly can’t string a coherent thought together & need all the help they can get making themselves clear. 😉
What I notice so much in even mainstream articles from major newspapers and magazines is the lack of punctuation and ‘way too many misspellings. Proofreaders (human) apparently no longer exist in the world.
I say that very same thing. I’m amazed at the misspellings I see and the errors in punctuation. I bet you’re right – no human proofreaders…that job should not be done by a computer!
So right, Vicki. I went to Catholic schools all my life and not for nothing, but back when English was still REALLY taught. Grammar, punctuation, comprehension, style – the whole 9 words. Now I often say I could actually make a handsome living if I was paid $1 for every error I’ve spotted. And not just online errors either. Print errors are 1000% more common now because even if there IS a proofreader for a print piece, that person is usually younger & didn’t get good training when he/she was in school. I’ve also spotted spelling errors “out in the world” too. For [literally] decades, the Automotive department at the Sears store near my house has “accessories” spelled with one “S” on a wall. I mentioned it to a salesperson back in the 70s when I first noticed it – I was about 19 I think. And no kidding but it’s still there. LOL. 😉
Proofreading my own stuff – haha. WORDS above – should be YARDS. Duh.
xo
Oh, I tweet – quite often. I just find a way to say what I feel succinctly. Sometimes I have to try and try again!
Like I said, I don’t mind when others use them at all! I just can’t do it. Can’t. I think I’ve left a heart a couple of times before when someone is sad.
Very fun, opinionated discussion on emoji’s! I only use them with one friend on iMessage…normally I just use the wink. ;). What on earth did the little smiley face ever do to you Claudia? LOL! Too funny! Glad your flowers are doing well. We had so much rain about a week and a half ago….I think some of my plants drowned. This has been an unusual summer around here….and I’m not liking it. Weed chomping sounds infinitely stronger than whacking! ;)
The smiley face’s in-your-face demand to smile was too much for me. I’ll smile if and when I want to!
Ok then…good to know! Sorry…but, it’s still funny! Enjoy your evening! ;)
It is very funny! xoxo You know I was kidding, don’t you? Perhaps I should have added LOL!
Yes, this has been a fun discussion. Claudia, maybe you WERE frightened by a smiley face or something similar as a toddler or thereabouts – haha! Just teasing, of course. We all have our “bugbears” as the Brits would say. Things that irritate us for no good reason really – we just don’t like ’em. With me, it’s people that don’t end a text formally. You don’t “know” it’s actually over – they just disappear. To me this is really rude. Tantamount to hanging up in the middle of a phone conversation. But most people don’t seem too bothered by this. Go figure.
Oh, I fear it’s becoming a bit of the Wild West out there, with bad proofreading, bad grammar, texting, etc!
Hi Claudia, I am so worried that my grandchildren are not going to know how to write and become illiterate because of the way that the world is going with all of this ^&$$#@^T(_ stuff. lol I guess that’s why I read to them so much and have them make cards for occasions. I love receiving a lovely letter or card in the mail.
Love, love your beautiful flowers, I’ll bet that you love walking through your garden and enjoying what you have worked so hard to achieve.
I usually end my comments with xx for hugs but I will turn over a new leaf and write Hugs, Jo
Oh, Joanne, I sign every email with xoxo – I’ve always done it that way! You can use xx or hugs or even an emoji, if you want to!
I understand your thing with the smiley faces..at times when something becomes so popular that you see it everywhere and everyday it gets on my nerves too…I do have one of those mugs though…I use emoticons occasionally mostly when I’ve been sarcastic..which according to my ex-husband I am an expert at…to let people know I am joking..some people take everything so seriously…:-)….lol
The smiley faces were a no go for me right from the start, Nancy!
I’m hoping my summer garden looks as lovely as yours does Claudia. I have lots of seedlings in my greenhouse waiting for the weather to warm up.
Thanks, Jan! You’re waiting for summer, we’re dreading the onset of winter!
Love the peek into your garden! Amazing!
Thank you, Sydney!