leder legends

I just watched this female Baltimore Oriole enjoying a red hot poker.  We never see them this late!

I’ll start with a picture of an ugly, badly formed plant that I bought because I wanted to see what would happen. As you can see, it did blossom but all the blooms are on two fused stocks.  So bizarre but fun too! I spent a very hot and sweaty hour and a half pulling weeds that I had left to grow quite large.  I think I was hoping that would make them easier to pull out the verdict is still out. I now need to go and bag the piles of weeds but first a rest. Dispite the plethora of weeds I also found an odd variety of blooms. The red hot pokers (kniphofia) are almost done but still striking. Here are a few more... Early flowering hosta Tickweed or coreopsis Cranesbill geranium   Snapdragons that survived the harsh winter. Mystery plant Scabiosa or pin cushion plant.  Lilies are starting-  Stella D’Oro day-lilies   Oriental li...

 It's gardening time not lunch time! And it's very hot outside 87° or more! That means we have dirt under our nails and perhaps vegetation in our hair and sweat on our brows. Lunch needs to be at a place where we can feel comfortable in our present state and where we can get good food! We found O'Brien's deli. It's tucked in small strip mall. It's not easy to find since there are no big signs to announce it's location.  The food was great and prices were reasonable.  The Wednesday special was burgers with french fries for $14 and you could choose from a list of 10 burgers. Rose got the double smash burger and I ordered the rodeo burger. Both great choices.  The meat was tender and my burger was piled high with onion rings, bacon, lettuce and tomatoes and two sauces. Fun but a bit messy!  The deli had plenty of tables/booths both inside and outside,  uses real cutlery and cloth napkins, has a very friendly staff and lots of customers....

  I am going through everything on the main floor of the house before the painters come. It is a process that is much more mentally exhausting than I anticipated.  I would like to cleanly sweep everything into the trash and be done BUT I am not wired like that.  Everything here was kept for a reason, right?  So every item has been examined and either kept and given a new spot, tossed, or given away. Today I emptied a bookshelf. It took so long and I’m tired but it is done! The stuff on the floor was not part of the project.  I forgot to take a before picture. Now I have to decide what to do with the shelf- give it away, try and sell it or decide where it now belongs!  I have a headache lol! P.S. I do know I could gently push everything into the center of each room so the walls are clear enough for the painter to do his thing but this clean up has to be done eventually.  It’s not something I want to leave for others to do when I am no longer...

We got married on a shoestring... maybe that helped it stick. We made our own invitations (crude compared to today's technology), borrowed a dress, sewed bridesmaids dresses, baked and decorated the cake, fashioned the bouquets and boutainaires, had very little to decorate the church, the reception was fun and held in a church basement, the food was ok, the preacher was a friend, and the organist considered his playing a gift.  Celebrated by going to a steakhouse.    Good food and still good company.