leder legends

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.

  We made the decision a while back to “age in place”! That meant one major renovation…. Move the laundry out of the basement and upstairs! The logistics of that in a ranch-style house was much more complicated than expected.  The bathroom is almost restored with a special place for the new washer/ dryer combo. I’m getting excited for the new vanity, toilet and tiled shower. Since our decision to “age in place” felt like a new beginning, we also decided to get a complete paint job- all the walls and all the trim. That decision also came with great ramifications.  Each room is being purged! Boxes of stuff are delivered almost daily to New2You and the trash can is often overflowing. Making all these ‘tiny’ decisions about what to throw away, give away or keep is exhausting! It has been fun looking at some of the once believed to be treasures! New garage door Alcove in the shower  The mess One room purged and ready for pai...

The hostas are big this year May is an awesome time in my yard! It's full of lush hostas, colorful columbines, stunning allium, shy brunnera and bleeding hearts, vibrant irises, and meadow sweet and peonies attempting to pop open. I walked around with the camera trying to capture the exuberance. ENJOY! Three different baptisia - dark chocolate, lemon meringue and wild blue indigo ready to pop! Irises are plentiful this year in many colors.  The deep purple is majestic! This one has variegated leaves and has been slow to bloom. Columbines are always a welcome surprise.  So many different colors in many different locations around- they self-seed and come up different than the mother plant. Brunnera comes up quite vigorously with large leaves and then shyly produces small blue flowers. Bleeding hearts are o...