Monday, May 18, 2009

The Joy of Gardening...


Well, we've got the first long weekend of the summer under our belt, and overall, I'd say it's been a pretty durn good one! The weather, for the most part, was fab!! So warm, so sunny...so much so that I didn't mind the rain today. It really felt like a 'warm summer rain' too...Ah, summer, how I've longed for your arrival! I did a significant amount of yard/garden work this weekend, and between the sun and heat, and then the rain today, it's incredible how much growing and blooming has occurred in just two days! Nature is truly amazing! I just love my yard and garden so much - I can't imagine what it would be like to own a house with a big yard in the front and in the back...oh the possibilities!! One can dream...

I've pretty much run out of room for any more perennials but I find it very difficult not to add something new each year...I think I'm going to have to invest in some large containers in order to fulfill my need to propagate.

Sidebar: When I first wrote that last sentence about 'propagation', I was going to be cheeky and follow with, "Stevie, honey, if you are reading this, don't worry! 'Propagate' and 'procreate' are not the same thing!", but then I looked 'propagate' up on www.dictionary.com and, lo and behold, it pretty much means the exact same thing! Oops! My bad! To me, propagate is a plant term whereas procreate is more of a human or animal term, but I was wrong! So just for final clarification, I used the phrase, "...in order to fulfill my need to propagate" in relation to my enjoyment of gardening and planting more plants! Nothing more! Okay. Sidebar over.

Finding more room for planting perennials is just one of the advantages of moving towards containers for gardening. The other advantage is that it makes it much easier to bring my beloved plants with me if we ever did end up buying a house. I hate the thought of having to leave any of my plants behind. I could probably transplant some of them, but others, like my Japanese maples and my magnolia are maturing and becoming quite settled. I don't know that they would survive any attempts made to transplant them. Oh well, for now it's a moot point.

One thing that I certainly fantasize about when it comes to owning our own home, is having my own vegetable garden, as well as a couple of fruit trees and some berry bushes. Some of my fondest childhood memories are of spending summers at my grandparents' house. They had a decent sized vegetable garden and I so loved going out in the afternoon with my grandma to pull up a couple of potato plants and some carrots, throwing the dirt-covered veggies onto the grass, hosing them off, and then bringing them into the kitchen to scrub, slice, and cook. My grandparents also had several fruit trees. My brother and sister and I would just pick up apples or pears or plums that had fallen to the ground and eat them where we were standing. I don't know that the raspberry bushes would have yielded enough raspberries to make a pie, but then again, we never gave them a chance to. We'd be out in the yard playing with the go-karts our Grandpa made us or building forts with lawnchairs and sheets and we'd frequently drop whatever it was that we were doing to run over to the bushes and stuff raspberries into our mouths - little bitty insects and all. We didn't care! We were children, it was our childhood, and ingesting small bugs was just part of the grandness of it all!

I want some of these experiences for my children. For now, though, as I said earlier, I really do love the yard and garden that I've got and I am looking forward to many happy days spent there this summer with my children!

Friday, May 8, 2009

Another 'Comedy Moment', brought to you by Casey...


I'm telling you...the kid cracks me up.

Early this morning, I was sitting on the couch in our living room, putting on my makeup with a little hand held mirror. It's how I 'get ready' every morning that I have to go to work. Whenever Casey wakes up, he comes downstairs and sits right up against me and snuggles to keep warm. It's one of my favorite 'everyday' routines. I hadn't had my tea or breakfast yet and my stomach started to growl, so I said, "Mommy's getting hungry! Did you hear my stomach rumbling?" Casey looks up at me with his beautiful big brown eyes and says, "Are you sure that wasn't your bum flute?" Sigh...another beautiful mother/son moment. By the time this boy gets married, I'm going to have SO much material to provide the MC with!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

TGIF! What?! Wait a minute...what the...?!

All day today I have been thinking that it's Friday! If it was Thursday, I could live with that, but Wednesday?! I'm really ahead of myself. I actually had to put a big sticky note up on my computer screen at work that says "today is WEDNESDAY!". Sigh...It's a good Wednesday, though, and I don't work Thursdays, so I guess I'm doing alright! I'm probably all upside down and turned around because my sister and her daughter arrived here yesterday so we hung out at my place last night later than we normally would with the kids on a school night, so maybe that makes it feel more like "weekend mode".

My sister moved to the States over three years ago and hasn't been able to return home since. I say "home" meaning here, where she came from, but her home now IS the States, with her husband and children. It's been a long process for her to get her immigration status/legalities worked out, but finally, this past Friday, she got the news that it had all been approved, and so here she is, finally! We've been down to visit her several times, but it's good to have her here. Let the 'just hangin' out' begin! She'll be staying through Mother's Day. All I can say is, photo ops galore! Speaking of Mother's Day, I've got a request for Mother Nature herself. How 'bout some sunshine?! Please?! It's a special occasion! My sister - my best friend and her little daughter - our little niece, our little cousin - are finally here! We've got some ground to cover - places to go, people to see, things to do...using photographic equipment is oh so much easier when it's dry! Plus, it's just so much easier with the kids!



My fingers are crossed! Truly though, I'm just so happy to have these two oh-so-special people here that the weather is secondary.

Let the good times roll, rain or shine!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails