sublime

It's been cold.

Very cold.

So cold the ice hasn't really melted. It sublimates. Which leaves some funky, hard to photograph shapes. Icicles with skinny spots. Some exceedingly smooth, others ripply.

I liked the shapes here with the downspout...

And the sun coming through these...

My ice ornaments melted very little. There's a few drips on the ground. Mostly the water just vaporized, concentrating the pigments in curious ways ....

Leaving icy colored strings behind.

Good Morning Blizzard

Well, it's the biggest snow I can remember of my adult life. Although there are a lot of years that are baby-brain-fogged-out. So don't quote me on that.

It's hard to tell how much snow we got, I'm guessing about a foot, but there's a lot of blowing and drifting out there. Seems a little on the slim side for a blizzard.

Here are the chairs on my back deck, and the snow drifted up against the xB ....

I'm guessing 6 more weeks of winter. Minimum. Then again, who needs a groundhog to tell you that. It IS Michigan, after all.

Dandelion in Blue

I took this a week or two ago. I didn't realize how lovely blue it would turn out.

in related news, all my boys need haircuts.

Belated Catch-Up Pix

Astute Reader Peggy alerted me that my blog had gotten so hungry that it ate my last entries. It does that if I don't feed it every two weeks.

Here are some of the pictures I've taken intending to blog them - click to head to Flickr and see them lifesize. And if you've already seen them there, sorry! I got nothin' new for you yet:

Seven at just past 4 months - cute as ever, I must say.

A few flower pix:

I declare it Spring

It wasn't Spring the other day, no matter how official the calendar might seem.

And it doesn't LOOK like Spring now. But it is. Because the squill are budding.

Click on any pic to see the larger version at my pix on flickr.

Oh, the weather outside is frightful ...

Oh, the weather outside is frightful ...

But cookies are always delightful ....

And since we've no place to go ...

Let it snow,

let it snow,

let it snow ...

Two Entries Will Spoil You

We got some nice snow today, and a little more coming, possibly 3-6" total, if you believe the weather advisories.

I had some go out and shovel, and a few more who "helped" by shoveling the cement pad under the basketball hoop in the back yard.

Pretty, isn't it? Well, the trees. Not so much the forgotten and now half-buried toy collection.

Here's the boys, hard at work.

I napped a little at Quiet Time and heard the older kids coming down a bit before I got up.
When I did get up, I found these pillow guys. If you know my children, you can probably guess which child thought these up. Hint, it's not the one who wanted to be photographed with them, although he did enjoy walking past and hugging them. I think it's the best use those bolsters have ever had!

I'm often amazed at what this particular child thinks up, although never surprised that the child has thought *something* interesting up.

Two Firsts of the Season

Two first on the same day, even!

The first snowman of the season, scraped up by Eminoodle off the deck last night. He's only about 4" tall, and this picture was taken this afternoon where he's been liberally re-dusted with poofy snow.

And Iliacat had her first choir concert of the season. Her choir sang with another youth choir, the High School Girls choir, and the adult Chorale to perform John Rutter's Mass of the Children. They all sang beautifully. She's the one with the arrow pointing at her. :)

Down to the Finish Line but not yet across...

Our house is nearly done.

Nearly.

It has been nearly done for a few days now, so that, in itself, is getting frustrating. I guess when the colleges start back up, College Pro Painters are short staffed, and the staff they have are tired of working ...

but we trust it will, eventually, get done. After all, we have the rest of their money. :)

But it's "done enough" that I can show you. I like it. My neighbor just stopped by and said he liked it. As did the neighbors across the street. The others haven't said, but that's okay, it's my house and I like it blue. It's very, very blue. A deep but bold denim. I'm glad we didn't go with the more gray. I'm sure it would've been nice. But this makes me happy. Or will when it's all done.

* oh, I was going to show these as before-and-after but forgot. Oh well. The before are back here somewhere, maybe back in April or May when we were first thinking of painting and before the windows were replaced? But just imagine it yuck camel snot brown, then ooh and ahh over the improvement.

Pardon me, was I missing?

Apparently I haven't been blogging. You may have noticed this. I did not. Because of the blogging in my head thing, I guess.

Where have I been? Busy with things. I got the bedroom painted and one coat of trim on done in there.

And then ... The Grand Lunar got sick. He's had a bad sore throat -- so bad he couldn't eat much and couldn't even drink much. He went to the doctor because, honestly, who has sore throats that bad that last more than a day or two? But the doctor said it was "just a cold" -- slim consolation when it won't go away. Although now, a full week-plus later, it seems to be getting a little better.

But the doctor also said his blood pressure was too high. We've been skirting that issue, made some half-hearted (or short lived) efforts in the past, but mostly living in denial. Apparently blood pressure doesn't respond well to denial. Go figure. So we've gone back again to the healthy eating, focusing on some exercise, and reading about health and stuff. In addition to Dr. McDougall's "The McDougall Program for a Healthy Heart", I've been reading a book called "The Salt Solution" which I found at our local library when they didn't have another book I wanted. I also requesitioned one that I might buy if I like it, not specifically for hypertension but reportedly containing good McDougall-like heart healthy recipes, "Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease" by Caldwell B. Esselstyn. The good news is that hypertension - in nearly all cases - can be controlled by diet and exercise and lifestyle choices. The harder news is that our tastes and habits need to change. But the benefits are more than just lower blood pressure, but also moving towards a healthy body weight, protection against heart disease, stroke, osteoporosis, kidney disease, and more.

So this "just a cold" has, in some ways, blown into a much bigger thing, but I think it'll be good, in the long run, getting us back on track.

In other news, our house is being painted. At the very end of the CollegePro season, so they're a little short staffed. I'm trying not to be nervous that they'll all quit and go back to school leaving things half done. But so far the change is nice. Here's a sneak preview of the house when they had just started a section on the front. Note, too, my lovely hibiscus in bloom.

I could actually show you more -- they finished the first coat on the front of the house today -- but I want to wait until they're done with the white trim and both coats of blue.

Whatcha think?

I like it.

**note** apparently my captchas have gone missing. The Grand Lunar is going to upgrade my blog software ... stay tuned and feel free to email me in the meantime ...

Northern Flicker?

Wouldn't you know we'd spot an unknown bird when my bird-wise parents are out of town, driving, and can't be called?

Tobi-wan spotted this - said it looked like "a big woodpecker with an arrow pointing down on the back of it's head" - I didn't get a good picture of the front, but it had a VERY clear D-shaped black patch (like a D pointing down, flat side up) on the chest, just below the throat. I don't remember any markings near the eye, and I thought it was more black-and-white speckled than black-and-brown, but my picture seems to tell me otherwise. They sat on our stump for a while, two of them, until a black squirrel scared them off.

As far as other identifying notes, I would've called them 'starling sized' - a little bigger than a robin, maybe. They weren't upright on trees, so they had less of that 'upright woodpecker' feel to them. But mostly that's all I had time to notice, the clear red chevron on the back, speckled back and front, and the clear black D-patch on the chest.

Here's the only good picture I got. Not bad for from a distance, through a window ...

Here's two pix I found online (not my images) that seem to confirm the identification, although neither seem quite like what I saw overall ...

the D-patch: from this site:

And the red chevron on the back of the head from this site:

What do you think? Northern Flicker?

In My Yard Today

Just a few things spotted in my yard today ...

A little drying up mushroom that Tobi-wan Kenobi found and asked me to photograph:

Some later summer phlox ~ not sure if this is a different variety than the kind that blooms earlier ... I guess it must be. It's more magenta than the other ...

And a spiderweb that was nestled along the side of our garage ... until I got too close trying to get a better shot than this one, and accidentally unhinged one of the invisible support strands, collapsing the web. The spider survived the ordeal.

For Kerri

Huh. Go figure.

The Day Of Too Many FIREWROKS Pictures

Ahh, the Fourth of July. Independence Day. The Grand Lunar declared, somewhere around noon, that he would stay in his robe today, declaring his independence from clothing. But he did not stick around to be photographed.

Later we enjoyed dinner with Moogie and Poppie, complete with grilled burgers, potato salad, chips, cucumber salsa, corn on the cob, finger-food-veggies, and watermelon. I totally forgot to serve the popsicles!

Then we walked down to the local FIREWROKS* and played frisbee and hung around listening to the band and the singers until the show began.

Then I took too many pictures, as usual. I managed to narrow it down to just 11 to show you, and you don't really have to look at all of them I'll post the little Flickr thumbnails and you can click on the ones you want to see bigger or to go to the whole set of 11, bigger. Some of them aren't great but I liked them anyway, for one reason or another. Some of them you might not be able to tell why I liked them from the tiny preview, but that's okay. Maybe you'll never figure out why I liked them. Maybe the title of the photo will give you a clue. You never know! Some of them I took, some the Grand Lunar took. I can't give him credit for his, though, because once you come home, they all look the same.

*FIREWROKS! - There's place in town where a trailer pulls up, year after year, at the edge of the gas station, to sell fireworks. Only their big banner, hanging on the side of their trailer, for several years in a row, said FIREWROKS. You would think, with a fancy printed banner, that they could've insisted the printers do it right. But then again, maybe once you pay for it, it's yours, and they figured they better get their money's worth, reusing the misspelled banner, year after year. This year I kept forgetting to check and see if it still has a typo.

The Tree Guys Cometh

A little over a week ago we had some Tree Guys come and take down 4 of our trees, plus trim another. And then we decided, with a neighbor, to also have them take down a triad of trees growing on our property line.

Apparently Tree Guys attract a lot of attention - not only were all the neighborhood children out to watch the excitement, but the neighbors on each side of our house also got in on the action, having some trees removed while the equipment was here. The Tree Guy said that was not uncommon.

Despite being very exciting, I got few action shots. But here's a few from the experience.

The Tree That Started It All ~ We've wanted this sad looking Juniper Tree out for years:

We actually missed that one coming down because there were enough guys that they did that one while we watched another one. But here's the cool looking aromatic cut end, Juniper smells a lot like cedar. One neighbor and one tree guy took home the biggest of the juniper logs, apparently it's sought after like cedar, too. Who knew?

Here's the little red machine that squeezed into our back yard to take down the tree by the fort that was back in our "woods" ...

And here's the little red machine when it's sprawled out, ready to maneuver the Tree Guys into the places machines can't drive:

And extending it's cherry-picker part to get up high in a tree somewhat behind:

Here's the neighbor's very tall pine losing it's upper branches:

And our Ash running through the chipper:

The bonus trees between our house and the neighbors. They braced the trunks with this claw machine thingie (That's the technical term, right Kelly?) and then a guy cut them with a regular chain saw while the machine controlled where they fell.

And, for Kerri, the picture she was waiting for:

And, perhaps, the best part of all the tree cutting - leaping off the trunks and stumps. No, the boy was not near where they were cutting. These trunks were left for the neighbor, who cut them up into firewood for his family and ours. Wow, thanks, nice neighbor!

And Now I Need A Plan B

It was supposed to be hot, today. First I read 88. Then I read 90. Then I read 92. Then I quit reading weather reports because it was getting hotter each time.

This morning, way back when the prediction was for 88, they also gave us a 20% chance of thunder showers. It hasn't looked like rain all day, so I didn't think twice of it.

bought some ribs while I was out.

Made an Alton-Brownish Rub for them.

Dragged the grill out to an away-from-children corner of the deck. The children were playing in the sprinkler because it was a beautiful sunny, hot day.

I put the last of the charcoal in the grill and lit it up. I was off to a beautiful start.

I turned around and the sky went black.

It started to rumble.

I held out hope for quite awhile. Brought in the grill's grill to clean off, moved the grill a little closer to the overhang. It seemed to be handling the sprinkling well.

I checked the local radar. This did not bode well.

I'm somewhere along that right edge of that pretty rainbow line.

And then ... it started to pour and thunder in earnest.

That's when I decided I needed a plan B.

And Then They Were Socks

Well, I had joked that the yarn looked like an easter egg, and maybe if I were lucky I'd knit them by Easter. But, in the end, after the detours to knit manly mitts, R2D2, and C3PO hats, I didn't finish by Easter.

I did, however, finally finish them! Ladies and Gentlemen, I now present.... The Kool Socks.

KOOL because they are hand dyed with Kool Aid.

Here's the Extreme Close Up of the sock, taken out in the sun -- the colors are fairly accurate, at least on MY monitor.

They're nice and bright and fun. And no, they don't smell good anymore, although they did when I was dyeing them. The scent rinsed out.

The Pattern is Grumperina's Jaywalker Socks -- the pattern for which seems to be down right now, I'm not sure why. I'm about two years late on the Jaywalker craze, but pleased with myself for finishing my first pair of socks for myself.

But, to avoid having this post ONLY be self-congratulatory, I also offer you my favorite sight of spring: When my squill bloom at once and make a small ocean of blue:

Isn't that beautiful?

The First Day Of Grill

We have successfully completed The First Day Of Grill of the season. Although the children informed me that the neighbors beat us by a day. Fortunately, I did not know until they informed me of this that I was racing the neighbors, so I was not upset.

I have no pictures of the First Day Of Grill. I didn't think of that until later. You'll have to imagine.

Once, last year, I bought a box of frozen pre-formed "beef" patties to grill. Everyone ate them the way cats chew things - you know that open mouth suspicious kind of chew where some of it might just fall back out? 'Cause it turns out "beef" patties aren't. If they don't say 100% beef, they're not. They're soy patties that have had a cow walk past. And shredded newspaper, I'm pretty sure that was on the label, too. They were gross. I wanted to throw them out, but my mom thought that was wasteful so she took the rest home and I guess they must've choked them down, chewing like cats, and trying to pretend they weren't awful. But they were awful.

So that was LAST year and, trust me, I learned my lesson.

Do you think it's cheating to buy the pre-formed burger patties? Did you know they sell them in the frozen section in giant boxes, and you just pop them on the grill? Okay, I suppose it's not cheaper, but hey, it's soooooo easy and they come out perfect unless you flip them badly and they fall between the bars of the grill and onto the coals. But that was last year, too. I'm learning. Getting better all the time.

Maybe you don't remember, but last summer was The Year I Learned To Grill. Because my family likes the idea of grilled animal flesh in the summer, yet getting the grill ready and standing over it and getting a head full of smoke does not appeal to anyone. So I decided I would take on that role.

This year is a year to build on last year's success. I will learn how to better clean and care for the grill, how to drag it across the lawn to the Pit of Yecchhh without the back leg coming off and dumping the ash-tray on my shoe, and how to grill things I've never grilled before.

But here's the amazing part about today. As you may recall, I am not currently an eater of animal flesh. For health reasons. I won't pretend it didn't look and smell realllly good, nor that I don't miss it at all. But I can live without it most of the time for the benefits in health and healthy weight. But I digress. I bought myself some vegan grilling patties. With much fear and trepidation. Because I've done that before and hated them. HATED! They were almost as bad as the "beef" patties. Not quite. The "beef" patties were that bad. But I was feeling adventuresome and so I tried again with the vegan burger thingies.

I got the Morningstar Farms Grillers' Vegan Patties and noticed after I'd bought them that there were no grilling instructions. Apparently you are not supposed to actually grill "Grillers' Vegan" patties. This did not bother me. I am not a rule follower, which of course you all know. So I just plopped them on the grill next to the sizzling grease splattering beef. You see I am not a purist.

The surprising part is that they were good! They were not great - i.e. they did not taste like a greasy hot burger. But! On a whole wheat bun with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickle, and a little horseradish mustard, they did have that smoky "something grilled is in here" flavor and no weird soy taste. Perhaps it was the fine spray of smoky burger grease splattered on my vegan meal, but I really felt like I was participating in the family grilling night. I hardly knew it was faux. AND I didn't feel all fat and greasy afterwards.

So there you have it, the shocking news. I would do it again. That's how not bad they were. And, if you knew my soy aversion, you would know that's pretty high praise.

What should I grill next?
I would like to try pork chops this summer, and will have to do ribs again, and I'd really like to learn how to grill good steaks, but I'm afraid I'll ruin them.

I'd also like to pick up some good veggie-and-side dishes -- with no added oils! -- to grill, but then again on a little Weber charcoal grill there's not a lot of room for a large family's meatsy meat plus a vegetarian's meal's worth of veggies. So maybe I'll stick with the non-grilled sides.

And thus endth The First Day Of Grill.

Building A Habitat for Monkeys

Today we built a monkey habitat!

Here's the sweet 'n sappy version (the one I made):

And here's the wacky quickie version (the one The Grand Lunar made):

And here's the boring static final-result images for those of you unenthused, unwilling, or unable to view the movies:

And, lastly, the link to the teeny weeny soundless quick version for the DialUppy Friends (348 K)

6' Dome Kit from www.domeclimber.com

Proof It Didn't Kill Me

So Hollie and I finished up my bedroom today. Yeah yeah, pix of that coming some other day. Actually maybe I'll wait until I paint and decorate it. But the closets and drawers look great. WOOT! But that's not what I'm here to talk about ...

Hollie's son volunteered to sort out and prep the garage for organizing -- I should've done it when it was warmer, it was eleventy-billion below today. But since he's a young man, he has no fear of the cold, no need for hats and gloves. I sent my eldest two out to help do some of the moving stuff out. We didn't really take everything OUT and organize it, because I wanted to sort of sort it, see what we had. You don't know how many shovels you have until they're all in one place.

So when Hollie and I were done in the bedroom, nearing the end of her time there, we went out to see how the kids had done. I only hyperventilated a little. And had that sinking "all this stuff, spread all over" feeling a little. Okay, a lot. But I bucked up and didn't freak out too much.

And they'd done a great job of sorting and spreading the things out. Except we had to get things back IN the garage before we were 'done' for the day, just sorted. And Hollie was out of time. But couldn't stop working. Here it was, past time for her to go, and she was trying to sweep the corner before putting the trash cans in, even though we'd just have to move all that OUT again tomorrow. I had to shove her into her car and quick lock her in to keep her from working. She was very unsure about leaving me with any tasks -- and with good reason! Since she always tacks on the phrase "if you want to" to any assignment she gives me ... well, you know how that turns out. I take the leeway she gives, and never want to. ha ha!

So today I told her to tell me to tidy up the sorting and put it back, and not to say "if you want to" ... and I promised I'd do it and it wouldn't kill me.

So this link is really for her, tucked away in her cozy home with her family, to prove that I didn't freeze and die trying to sort things out there. LOL. I present:

The Garage, put away sorted neatly but not yet organized.

I guess I should've taken before pix, you would've appreciated them. But I didn't. So you'll just have to wait for tomorrow, Organized With Room for the Small Van.

But see, Hollie? I told you I could do it without dying! I almost could've even made room for the van to fit, but I figured since we'll get it all out tomorrow or Friday, I didn't need to go that extra mile today. So I didn't. But still! It's even pretty tidy. I think you'll be pleased.

Tomorrow and Friday we'll toss and organize and it'll be like a new garage. Too bad I waited until it was too cold to paint.

Oh, and I didn't see any dead mice. So that's good. THAT might've killed me.

***

Oh, and I almost forgot to try to answer Reader Questions.

Betsy asked (and I paraphrase): "Where are the containers and shelves coming from?"

Most of the things we've used have been somewhere else in the house. We've bought a few cute basket packages from Meijer, and a few wire shelves ... I had some cute baskets buried in clutter here and there in the house, and the cubes with totes in the living room and boys room were things I'd bought previously in my attempts to control clutter myself. And I already owned lots of plastic totes that used to hold our too-too-too many toys in the past, in my various previous attempts to organize myself, which Hollie reclaimed with more thought and order than I'd done.

On top of that, Hollie is a prodigy in box customizing. She's taken shoe boxes and cardboard boxes and tapes little dividers and such, so that they hold things that are alike yet distinct. So many of the tidy spaces you see are divided with things I already had, and aren't cute and fancy when you look close, just amazingly functional. I really haven't spent a whole lot of money on organizey things yet, the most was on some cutesy baskets that I haven't figured out where to put yet.

As we've successfully decluttered, we've emptied out some dressers and cupboards and shelving units and been able to use them in other spaces.

Which brings me to Peggy's Question: "Okay, I have to know. Where IS everything? I see all the nearly-empty shelves and I have to wonder where all the boys' stuff went."

That's the other thing Hollie has really been a wonderful blessing with ... she has helped us to be more successful in our decluttering. In the boys' room I can't tell you how many times I'd swooped through (usually crabbily) and boxed up all their toys and stuff and stomped the box down to the basement to ... well, to be ignored or eventually just brought back up. Getting rid of stuff helped a little for a little while, but never really helped a LOT. Hollie helped us narrow down what we kept to fewer things, but additionally provided clear, labeled spaces for those things we DID keep.

If you look back at the boys before picture, you'll see that most of the mess was papers, toys, and clothes. We got rid of clothes the boys said they didn't like/wear (yes, even the ones I was fond of) and made clear homes in the closet for the ones we kept. We got rid of almost all the misc. toys, keeping just a few categories: Bionicles, Lego, Killer Bunnies game. We put in one of those magazine holders from elsewhere in the house to hold special papers and pictures and creations.

There was a bookshelf in the boys' closet that held books and piles of papers and misc. toys. We relocated the books to downstairs, leaving a very few to "live" in the bedroom, and we gave away some toys and relocated others to the rest of their "family" downstairs. Then we hung all their shirts and pants (Hollie's idea, she claimed it was easier, and it's working wonderfully!) which cleared out most of the dresser. Jammies, socks, and underwear fit into tidy canvas totes in that cube-thing, since those totes were no longer filled with miscellaneous junk.

Likewise in the rest of the house, giving away and throwing a way a fair amount of stuff is the main thing that has enabled us to find *space* -- and part of the idea is that if we leave a little free space, we'll have room to put things as we relocate them or buy more and such. So we're only aiming to fill shelves and cupboards 75-80% ...

We've had at least one "goodwill" box and some days two or three, for each day we've worked. And there's been a lot of things going to the trash, too.

I don't think I could've rid our home of so much stuff without her encouragement, gentle but firm questioning, and persistence. But it's been worth it.

Does that help answer those questions? Good thing it wasn't a 100 words or less essay question. LOL.

We Interrupt this ... uh ... blog hiatus ...

... for the first "real" snow of the year!

Real meaning the first one to *stick* ...

Oh, and before I show you the snow-on-plants, I must add this disclaimer: I DID take a few of the children (too few, they were all coming back in, cold and wet, before I got the camera out) but they were blurry. I guess blurry with excitement, I don't know. At least since it's the first snow of the year I'm guaranteed more kids in snow photo ops!

Tiny pix for my dial up friends ~ you know who you are! ~ click for the full size Flickr pix.

Regarding the lengthy dawdling pause ... I could claim I've been busy. I sort of have. Hollie and I have pressed on and are running out of jobs I can deal with, LOL. We even did my DESK the other day! I'm sure you want to see that.

Have you ever gotten so behind on blogging and pix that you figure the job of blogging the pix is just too overwhelming, both to do and for your dial-up friends to read? No? Well I have. And so I keep meaning to get around to it, but then I think of all the before and after pix to round up, and all the rambling to do, and I think "Yeah, I'll do that in a few minutes." and you all know what THAT means.

But today's a holiday and Linda is here, handling all the cooking, so maybe I will have time to blog. I could try.

Of course, you'll all be too busy to read it today ...

hm.

The Fourth Day ~ And Meanwhile ...

Today was OrgoDay4 ...

but lest you think all I've done is work hard (well, I think you all know me better than that anyway!) I threw in some more of what's been going on.

Yesterday it was leaf-heaping:

Tobi-Wan floofing leaves on himself:

Low in the leaves he lay, Garkie the Jedi, waiting the coming Sith, Garkie my son...
Up from the leaves he arose! With a mighty triumph o'er his foes:

Three Monkeys in a leafy nest:

and tonight was Tent Night:

A tent in the living room? How can that be?

They even get to sleep there:

Um ... except they're not sleeping. Yet.

But you're still wondering about OrgoDay4, aren't you?

Today we moved on to the family room and living room. I decluttered quite a few videos (after beginning the morning explaining why I didn't need to get rid of any, ha ha) but I didn't get pix of that. I was supposed to do a filing cabinet, but we moved on to toys and that took longer than we imagined.

The toys. Oh, the toys, toys, toys, TOYS!!

Too bad I didn't have a picture of the cabinets before.

Hollie began by ... *gulp* having the children DUMP all the toys into a huge heap.

A huge freaky heap of all kinds of toys, mixed together. This is just a small piece of the heap.

We even brought up some of the toys in the basement, and the toys from the kids rooms, and put them in the heap so nearly all the house's toys - and all the upstairs games and puzzles, were out on the floor at once.

Here's the cupboards, emptied, with their contents barfed out in front of them:

It brings to mind the near-end of Cat in the Hat, where the children say, "This mess is so big, and so deep, and so tall, we can not clean it up. There is no way at all."

So little Buzz took a SpiderMan break, and I took a PhotoOp break. Since he was leaping the whole time, none of the pix are great. Here, he leaped right out of the photo frame.

So anyway, the toys. She wanted us to take that giant heap and to sort it into bins, and then declutter.

The worst part was that the decluttering was slow, and Hollie had to revive me twice, plus give me several pep talks on the value of decluttering and a sparsely-toyed home. Which was fine, but then we ran out of time. And she had to leave. Before the mess was done. Leaving me to do some on my own.

::blink blink:: did you catch that? On. My. Own.

It was too much for me.

Okay, I'm half kidding. We got through the toys, and she really didn't want to leave without it being done, I could tell. But she needed to and I boldly reassured her that not only would I not die, but I would sort through the puzzles and games returning odd pieces to their games and making sure puzzles have all their pieces and stuff like that. I decluttered some, and then neatly put away all the things that weren't quite done that we could finish tomorrow.

So, even though it's not Hollierginized, and it's not done, it looks pretty good, don't you think?

Maybe there's hope for me after all.

Thus Endeth the Second Day

Phew, working 9-6 makes for a long day!

Sorry I couldn't post sooner; In addition to working until nearly six, tonight was also my date out with Tobi-Wan, and then after getting kids to bed I had a little putting away and tidying up to do. So I'll try to make this quick.

Organizing Day Two -- back up two posts if you're not up to speed with us here, LOL.

Day Two Pix:

please note that the LAST pic somehow showed up first on the page, but after that they're in order top to bottom ... so think of the first pic as a preview, LOL, and then the before pix.
http://www.andfam.net/kim/OrgoDay2/OrgoDay2.html

We really finished the *kitchen* today, but still have the dining room / craft areas to do tomorrow ~ the schooly/crafty cupboards intimidate me, but it will be nice to have them done and done well.

We worked all day. We agreed to take a lunch break, but they worked while they ate. I told them that for lunch they were no longer my Organizing Helpers but my guests, but apparently they really wanted to keep working... so I finished my yogurt smoothie quick and went back to work as much as I could.

My children were a little more tired and squirrelly today, but we were still able to keep working, sorting, cleaning -- I even pitched some of my beloved spices!

By the end of the day everything (!) in the kitchen proper (except cleaning OUT the oven, which I was going to do tonight but will have to do tomorrow night) is done. Hollie said she's done houses where it's taken 4-5 days, so us finishing a pretty big kitchen in 2 days wasn't bad at all. You know me, I was afraid my kitchen was the worst evah. But apparently not. We had a bag and a half of trash, and a BIG box for good will, plus continued to fill the many boxes of things that go elsewhere.

The method was really the same as yesterday; take everything out of a zone, weed through it for different room stuff, declutter and toss stuff, and then she put it all back in. And Hollie's son put shelf paper on many of the shelves and that made them look much nicer. One very nice thing about this method was, at the end of the day, when we were wrapping it up, we just stacked all the "elsewhere" boxes up in the guest room and the kitchen was clean, and those boxes are just waiting quietly for us in the morning.

Tomorrow we're starting at 9 again but only going until 2, I think.

I need to fold laundry, but instead I'm going to bed, I can't believe it's already after 11 and it's been a very long day.

You'll be proud to hear that I did not check my email ONCE during that 9-6 window, not even a peek. And I didn't even die not checking! ;-)

When the Peeps Need Pix

After I teased you the other day with references to undisplayed pix, I got some requests to see them.

So, lest I disappoint you, my beloved blog peeps, here's some pix!

First up: The Hwimmin' Huit SuperHeroes, and then a Bad Guy in his Huit:

Yes, that's Buzz's bad guy face in the second picture. See how serious bad guys are? And see how he's wearing his Huit (Suit, minus that difficult to pronounce S) over his clothes. I guess I didn't get one with the boots, too.

Although I DID get this picture of him exercising in his boots:

In addition to proper exercise attire, you will note also the presence of proper exercise motivation, and proper exercise nutrition. No wonder I haven't done so well with the regular exercise. I rarely eat Star Wars action figures for breakfast, much less exert my efforts to squash stuffed frogs.

Now no one REALLY said they wanted to see my tote heap, but here it is, nonetheless, in it's before glory. There is no after glory. Yet.

In other news, some of you may be quietly wondering if I killed all those plants I planted this spring, but know me well enough to be afraid to ask. There's good and bad news on that front. A good handful of the plants did not survive this very dry summer, despite my best efforts to water and care for them. I haven't acted on the replacement guarantee yet because I'm not quite sure which of the what-ones died, I'll have to look at my order. Since most of the flowering plants did not bloom, even if they survived, I'm not sure which is which anymore. I never did draw that garden map.

But more than half DID survive, and I'm hopeful we'll see some blooms next year. One of my hardy hibiscus was gracious enough to even flourish and bloom, despite some little caterpillar really really lovin' on his leaves, and the other hibiscus planted out front was gracious enough to live, if not bloom. And my dark butterfly bush has also done well, not only not-dying, but blooming! These two are on my flickr pix if you want to see them bigger ...

So, there you go, pix-loving peeps. And, once more, my apologies to my dial-up friends.

What have I done?

I like flowers.

I like nice yards.

I love to take pictures of my pretty flowers.

I like to think that, with enough wishful thinking and occasional effort, I will have a lovely yard. Maybe not all professionally landscaped looking, but nice.

And so, riding high on that dream and an internet discount, I bought some plants.

What was I thinking?!

They arrived today. A box full of tiny little baby plants. Sweet little drooping things too long enclosed in a dark cardboard box. Baby plants that need a carefully prepared bed and some love and attention.

Who did I think was going to provide that for them?

I can't even remember where I had envisioned planting them. I mean, I vaguely remember, but all those areas need to so very much prep. And, of course, I didn't do the prep before the plants arrived. And, of course, all the baby plants arrived at once, on the same day, in the same box, with instructions to plant them all immediately.

In the box are 4 tiny baby lilac bushes. They are so tiny. I'm not sure what I expected from "2 year bare root" plants but they are TINY! The kind of thing you'd mow over without blinking. The kind of thing that will be overwhelmed and lost amongst all my aggressive invasive species. The kind of thing that may not last one summer.

And the three blue hydrangea "bushes" are even smaller than tiny. They came packaged on a microscope slide.

And in addition to the bushes, there's a smattering of blue flowers that supposedly are easy to grow. But all, also, need to be stuck in soft dirt and watered. Requiring effort and attention.

So ...

I'm feeling bad for all the lovely things I'm about to kill.

What have I done?

Since we've no place to go ...

Two down.

According to the brick.

Two to Six more to go. With no signs of stopping.

It has not a good year for these daffodils.

I should sneak over to the neighbors and take a picture of her blooming daffodils weighed down by the snow.

Only there's enough snow to leave telling footprints. She'd know I did it.

Although, on the other hand, the footprints would be safely buried soon enough.

'Cause the weather outside is frightful.

Of Muffins And Ice

Of Muffins ~

Despite my fears mentioned in my previous post, the muffins turned out fine, they didn't stick much at all. Phew! They turned out pretty good. Not great like I expected. they seemed less sweet after baking. Perhaps they were a bit too eggy for my tastes. But they were well received, and the children are full. That's good enough for me.

Peggy asked why on earth I didn't healthify them. Um ... uh ...

The lame reason is:

Sometimes I get tired of healthifying things. Sometimes I dream of the "Wow, these are great muffins!" rewards of making things chock full of butter, sugar, and fat. And I just cave in, going for the compliment instead of the health.

Which, in this case, didn't really work. I mean, they liked them, but no one raved. No compliments that I'm a great cook, or that these are great muffins. Oh well.

Truth be told, my best bet is to make very healthy muffins and add a half cup of mini chocolate chips to a 24-muffin panful. Which, in my mind, is probably a better compromise anyway. So I guess I'll do that, next time.

But if you want it, here's the recipe for not-so-healthy pretty good muffins:

Lemon-Yogurt Muffins ~

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 1/2 cup white sugar
4 eggs
1 cup plain, non-fat yogurt
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease 9x13 pan on the sides, and forget to put in the non-stick liner. Oops.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the lemon yogurt, lemon juice, and lemon extract.

Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; stir into the lemon mixture until just blended. Spoon batter into the pan.

Bake for 20-25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the top springs back when lightly touched. If you're clever and set the psycho timer that does not work, make sure to keep an eye on the muffins and test them with a toothpick.

Allow the muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before removing them from the pan. Cut into 24 squares.

Of Ice

These are pictures from the other day. Yesterday, maybe. I lose track. But today started pretty much the same.

The poor rescued daffodils aren't getting a break:

The squill are drooping under the cold and lack of sun:

And the anemone blanda aren't too happy, either:

And now I'm back to the basement for another day ... or hour ... of work.

Who's that plant running around with you?

I went out to take a picture of The Big Clump of Daffodils on the first full day after emerging their harrowing ordeal. While there isn't any sun to warm them (insert weary sigh) at least they have the freedom to perk up.

Here's one of my anemone blanda blossoms, also protesting the lack of sun today:

I like those, I should plant some more.

A lot of the plants in my yard are inherited from the home's former owner, and I believe she was into planting native wildflowers. Many of which have been buried by the other things which have grown up around a few scattering of plantings. This is all speculation, of course. Here's another something which I think my mom identifies for me every year. Then I forget. I was thinking it was mayapple, but I see from the web I was clearly wrong. I think I might have mayapple growing in the same area, but that is not what this is. So, mom? (or anyone else?) Who is this?

Click on either picture to see them bigger! on Fickr if that helps identify them.

Whoever it is, I like the pink-tinged leaflets and the way they unfurl.

Poor Daffodils

Last summer, you might recall, we had a nice young man do some yard work.

My 'flower garden' out front has been overgrown since before we moved in, and getting worse each year. Finally, in a desperate attempt to gain some control, we asked this young man who was looking for outdoor work to whack out the tiny trees, cover everything but the Big Plants with weed barrier, and bury it all in mulch. He did a great job, and it looked much better afterwards.* Maintainable, even.

I was surprised to see some crocus-like plants and tulips and a daffodil or two poking through the weed barrier and mulch. I didn't know if they were just opportunistic and had found small holes to grow through.

But my big clump of daffodils from years past did not poke through.

We did the burying of things in late summer when there was no longer any clear sign of where the daffodils had been. I think. Rather than just poke around or guess, we just had him cover over anything that wasn't well established on those days he was working.

Today I was feeling sad that we'd inadvertently covered the big clump of daffodils (which, I suppose, need to be divided? Is that right, anyone?)

I had, however, seen a huge heap of mulch near the edge of the driveway. I figured it was from when we shoveled too near the edge in the winter, and I must've shoved all the mulch into a heap.

Anyway, today I decided I'd look for the daffodils and try to cut them a little hole, if I could find them, even though my poked-through ones were already budding. Maybe it wasn't too late to save The Big Clump.

And when I looked closely at the mulch heap, I realized it wasn't a mulch heap. It was a giant lump under the weed barrier. I could see a little yellowish green through thin spots.

It was The Big Clump itself, desperately trying to break through.

I set it free.

Two children watched in wonder as we freed The Big Clump which had pushed its way up into a giant lump under the barrier and mulch.

I hope I freed we in time for it to bloom.

I thought the varied yellow and green and trapped curls of the leaves were nifty looking. Don't you?

* Did I never blog the before and after of his hard work? I couldn't find an entry of it. I took pictures and intended to! He really did nice work! And he was a very nice young man, honest and hard working, too!

Feels Like Spring

It's a gorgeous, sunny 74 degrees here right now.

Highlights of today:

(there's two more squill pix on my Flickr if youjust can't get enough squill pix)

... and the first picnic of the year:

First Day of Squill!

I know yesterday I posted shoots and said it would be awhile before we saw blooms.

I was wrong!

Hooray! This is one case where I'm thrilled to be wrong.

Here's a squill budding even as it pushes up through the dirt, And another bud raised up and ready to open tomorrow:

Click on either image if you'd like to go to my flickr photostream and see those larger.

I actually saw one bloom open, but I couldn't get a good picture of it in the fading daylight.

I believe this is almost week earlier than last year, where my first glimpse of buds was on March 28.

Michelle from Scribbit asked what squill is - I apologize for not naming it aright. Scilla siberica is it's proper name, also known as Siberian Squill, a tiny member of the lily family.

More importantly (to me), it's my favorite plant ever. I'm so happy to see it blooming. I can't wait a few weeks until it's blooming in oceans in my yard.

My Own Personal Spring Joy

The one thing that tells me Spring is really coming is my squill.

They're not blooming yet -- usually that's mid-April. But look, they've popped up! And I found them in a rare splash of sun, even!

It looks like all the rain has unearthed some of their tiny bulbs, but they're popping up in their little ocean patches. The ones under the bird feeder don't look too choked out by the discarded birdseed and squirrel diggings.

Anyway, it's not a flower, blooming, yet ... but it's a start.

Maybe, just maybe, I can relax my winter guard and start hoping for Spring to stay.

Waiting for the Squirrel to Barf

So a week or two ago The Grand Lunar sent me an amusing YouTube video of a Twirl-A-Squirrel.

I went on a hunt to see if it was an actual, purchasable product. And, in the end, found the best price from Amazon! (Although, oddly enough, the Amazon Store through which I purchased it is not currently listed as one of the sellers. Maybe I bought their last one?) And so I bought one.

It arrived on Monday and we promptly, and excitedly, installed it.

We've been watching out the window for two days straight, now.

But the feeder I have hangs from a cable, and the squirrels seem to have been daunted by the stretch from the bell to the feeder. Although that didn't stop them before, maybe the bell is just the right shape & size to make it hard. So instead of trying to climb down onto the feeder, and being spun for our amusement, they are using the pole and bell above the feeder as a launching pad to get to the suet feeder.

If I move the spinner to the suet, it will leave the bigger feeder unprotected again. But if I don't, we might never get to see a dizzy squirrel.

I might just order another spinner. Only I'd really like to see it work, first.

What to do? What to do?

Bring On The Mud

My good friend Rosanne said, yesterday, that she would rather have snow and ice than mud.

Oh, no. Not me. Give me the mud, any day.

Why? Because it means it's melting.

I like winter, when it first begins. But oh, do I love the Spring when things begin to melt.

Even before the first sprouts peek up, fighting their way through mulch and mud, just the sound of dripping water, and knowing that Spring really is, finally, coming, is all I need. Although the sprouts are good to see.

I am kicking myself for not planting the winter aconite I promised myself last Spring I'd plant. This fall, Kim, even if it threatens to kill you, order and plant some winter aconite. And snowdrops. And glory of the snow. Trust me on this, Kim. It will be worth the effort, come next Spring.

But you'll be pleased to hear that 40 degrees and melting was enough to actually get me outside today. Yes, I am not kidding. Me. Outside. And not just to get to the car. I stood in the snow and saw the sun. Really. Here's proof:

Of course, the children went out, too. They sledded, stomped, knocked down fort walls, climbed, swung, and painted the fort with pine branches dipped in puddles. It doesn't get much better than that.

Here's Buzz discussing shoveling, and Little D scaling the fort wall:

Here's Em and Ilia braving the Sled Ramp:

And Tobi-Wan on a big snowball:

And last, but not least, a picture I shall title: Gark: Self-Portrait with Runny Nose

Oh, and if you like the sprout and icicle pix, there's a few more of those at my Flickr space. Click those words, or one of the pix, or even the little badge to your left. There's so many roads that lead to my Flickr.

S-A-TUR-DAY ... Night!

I should be in bed.

I was up doing the small church newsletter. Now I just have to remember to TAKE it to church. Don't you hate when you're doing something a newsletter and the necessary info doesn't quite fit on one page, so you have three choices: Make it tiny text to cram it in one page, make it big huge text to fill up two pages, or invent some content to fill the space. I chose option three, and surfed up some corny Valentine word finds, scrambles, and word ladders. The newsletter is about 45% fluff. Oh well. I guess I could've invented some real content, but then I would've been up even later.

While I was up late, I saw how pretty our icicles look with the back floodlight shining through them. But I couldn't get a good non-flash picture without a tripod and more camera knowledge. Someday I will learn what to do to take low-light pictures. Not tonight. So here's one with the flash, looking up the icicles.

In food news, our meals weren't all that exciting today. Leftovers for lunch. For dinner I was craving egg rolls, but of course those aren't low-fat, and I haven't found egg-free egg roll wrappers locally, and blah blah blah. I was running out of time, too. I actually do have some rice paper wrapper things ... is that what they're called? The ones you soak in water and they turn really slippery and pliable and sometimes fragile? I didn't want to mess with those. To make spring rolls, I think. Anyway, I tried to make something "chineseish" without much effort. It was one of those meals that, in the end, was ... adequate.

Of course, several of my children don't like rice, not even white rice (which I used. I know brown rice is healthier. I didn't have time, since I didn't plan ahead). They all ate a little of something, but none of them really ate much, and they filled up on whole wheat bread and whole wheat english muffins and all fruit jelly not long after dinner. Which, I suppose, isn't a horrible thing to fill up on, but it's disheartening to make a reasonable meal and have no one be very excited about it. I'll admit, even I wasn't excited about it. Not that it was bad. Just ... okay. You know what I mean? Am I the only one who has meals like that?

So what is it? It's steamed broccoli over white rice, and yet another cabbage salad. I put the same sauce over each, it was a home made teriyaki sort of thing, but I wasn't very pleased with it. Again, not awful, just ... meh.

So instead of posting the recipe for today's sauce, I'll point you to this previous post with a much better homemade Hot Garlic Sauce in it. If I was doing dinner over, I'd make that instead of making up something new. Because I'm very pleased with that previous sauce.

And now, I just remembered that I forgot to upload the newsletter to it's little home on the web. I better do that before I forget. And then I better go to bed. Two of the children are singing in the choir tomorrow, so I need to be alert and ready to help.

Good night, blog friends!

AndFam Under Ice

House Under Ice

Well, I'm sure this is too many pictures. Sorry, again, dial-up friends. I always feel I shouldn't leave any of the kids out. But that always adds up to too too many pictures. Especially when Buzz is so cute. Only there's no good Noodle shot today, because she was eating snow in all of them. Which isn't that horrible itself (toxicity of snow notwithstanding) but they just weren't action shots. She did a lot of action, I just didn't manage to get them in the shots.

ANYway, this is also 'old news' from Monday, was it? When the snow first hit. It just took me this long to get them up. But since you haven't seen them, they're not THAT old news.

Since this has been an unusually snow-free winter, so far, I granted a snow holiday from school on Monday. We were good and did school the rest of the week.

The children with a neighbor shoveled a big heap in front of the swing set, and then would leap from the swing onto the heap. The best crashing into the heap pic I have wasn't my child, so I figured I better not blog it. It's HARD to hit just the right moment to capture the impact and snow flying.

But here's some about-to-hit pix:

Tobi-Wan was cold and miserable when his mittens got wet. Don't you pity him? You're supposed to, it's his best "pity me" face.

But he's not always so pitiful.

LittleD liked being out in the snow. Very much, thank you.

Buzz was another story. At first he did not want to go out. At all.

Until he saw us all out there. And decided to get himself ready.

And then had a lot of fun playing snow-bat-smack:

And, since poor Eminoodle was left out of the other pix, here she is, modeling the scarf-mit set we made, which we were able to give to Moogie, and I think, I hope, Moogie will enjoy it much:

I took this leaf picture hoping to be as cool as my sister's snowflake pix on Flickr (Kelly, may I link to them?) but it's just not cool.

In the Immortal Words of Larry The Cucumber ...

Poor Tomato. Isn't it Sad?

That's the grand total result of my vegetable gardening this year. Seriously. One tomato. One. Smaller than a golf ball. Still green.

Maybe next year I'll water them.

And, uh, not plant 10 to a tiny pot and never thin them.

You think?

So I totally forgot to take pix and blog about my late spring, early summer, mid summer, and late summer flowers. And I was terribly negligent about deadheading the blooms on all the plants that like that kind of stuff. Maybe because I was so busy caring for my tomato. Yeah.

But here's what's blooming in my garden today, at the very end of September.

Clematis still working to make flower buds:

A surprise Snap Dragon that I did not plant, appearing out of nowhere, and blooming, and then apparently planning to bloom some more:

My veronica is still trying hard to make a few blooms out at the ends of the spent bloom stalks. They're sparse, but still a beautiful color.

My hydrangea is dusted with pink:

And my sedum is the prettiest color it's ever been, a beautiful deep pink. I'm very pleased with it this year.

All the flowers that you planned to water

A plea for help:

I'm sure I've mentioned my scary jungle of an overgrown yard. It's so overgrown it's daunting. Overwhelming. Every other year or so I go out and prune the snot out of a bunch of bushes, getting crazy satisfaction out of my ability to make things look different.

But it turns out 80% of what I've whacked has been bushes that spring back around the cuts with 6 new, fast growing shoots. So I have, essentially, made things worse in the long run.

Anyway, we know of a young man, eldest son of a homeschooling family, looking for outdoor work this summer. He is more than willing to take on taming our yard. BUT ...

I am not sure how to go about it. I mean, he's not a landscaper, I can't just turn him loose without instructions.

And I don't know how to make a plan, much less carry one out. I have a few bushes and plants I want to keep. Between them are bulbs that I wouldn't mind keeping, and feel bad hurrying, but am not sure how to locate, especially when they've been squelched out by more aggressive plants.

My three main questions are:

how much is worth trying to save? Is it worth trying to dig up medium sized plants that I don't hate, much less the ones I invested in because I liked, to escape being annihilated? To ... what, replant in a more orderly fashion? We are thinking it's time to essentially start over, rather than sentence this young man to a lifetime of weeding; to bury it all in weed block fabric and mulch.

how do we *plant* things if we go the weed barrier route? do we cut holes and stick plants in? And is that foolish if I have no *big picture* plan of where my landscaping is headed?

And what about bulbs -- I would like 1.) an ocean of early spring bulbs and 2.) some plants that look reasonable most of the spring/summer/fall. Big perennials I can see growing thru holes in the weed barrier, but bulbs can't really work that way, right? 3.) low maintenance is a must

I like the cottage garden look but not sure I could pull it off, I think it might take more work than it looks.

I am tired of aggressive plants that look pretty for maybe a week but look weedy before and after blooming, like my rampant foxglove.

And, like I said, I'm hiring a young man willing to do outside work, but not a landscaper ... I think maybe he'd be willing to dig holes and plant if I knew what I wanted where, maybe ... but maybe I'm not being realistic.

I was going to post a picture of my overgrown space but can't find one. I know they're on my space somewhere.

Oh. here's one from 2 years ago:

it looks similar now, maybe a little more overgrown.

Here's what some agressive pruning & mowing did, also 2 years ago:

That's the front of our house, btw -- there's no door or window hidden by that bush, the "front" door is over on the left side, facing the driveway. It's weird.
Any thoughts are appreciated.

Garden Notes ~ Early April

I'll start with the oldest first.

One week after I posted my Looking for my garden post, I went out and took more pictures:

In my garden 3/28/06

most important to me: my first peek of my squill (Scilla siberica)

more pix of the grape vine twists, playing with the macro (there's more on my flickr pix, some with the sky behind like Kelly suggested, but I'm still having focus troubles with the macro):

daylillies starting to grow ...

In my garden Two Days Later 3/30/06

more squill buds ~ I can't quite capture the vibrant violet these are in the sun. They are deeper "in real life"

The next day those same 3 buds were in full bloom (more at Flickr):

more squill - click the link for larger sizes at flickr, some of these really turned out nice ~ maybe even "get prints to hang on the wall" nice:

And a double rainbow (also linked to the bigger flickr pix):

And a few days after that (Friday April 5th) we got our usual Michigan April Fool's:

and the leeks peeked out:

and last but not least, we found the crocus that hides in our "woods":

As of today, the patches of squill that turn into little blue oceans are filling in, but I think I still have another week before it peaks. I have many more pictures than I've posted, but I'm sure I've already overwhelmed my poor dial-up friends, and I apologize. I'll try to be more timely so that at least I'm only posting one day's worth, rather than more than a week!

The Truth about my Blog

I have taken TONS and TONS of pictures in my garden!

My squill is blooming, despite the snow. I have one crocus and many daffodil buds. I'm taking pictures as they grow. I just haven't managed to get them up HERE yet. But I haven't forgotten! Really I haven't!

So ... stay tuned! Today could be the day!

Looking For My Garden

On the heels of my last post, I wanted to try to document my "garden"* better this year, to know when to expect things to bloom. My sister has done a nice job of this in the past, and so was able to tell me which are her earliest bloomers.

So today, March 21, 2006, I begin:

It is too early for any blooms in my yard, but there are, already, signs of life:

Daffodils and tulips have pushed their way up through the dirt, mulch, leaves, and weeds, to show the tips of their leaves. One set of tulips peeks through with red-tipped shoots, causing me to second-guess what they are each year. I'm on to them, finally:

An early surprise was the garlic I planted two or three years ago and apparently didn't dig all up:

My new bird feeder is up, and although I've yet to get a GREAT picture, I've taken one reasonable one of Mama Cardinal. Dad is here right now, but he's not on the feeder or in the sun, so I'll wait for another photo op for him:

And although it hardly counts as the exciting spring blooms I long for, I find that some of the plants that manage to winter over with some green are starting to perk that green back up. The evil Garlic Mustard, for one, already is perking up it's never quite dead leaves:

Along with it, our wild phlox, which similarly dies back but never really quite dies, is starting to lift it's green from wilted heaps. (While not technically an invasive plant (that I know of) it certainly spreads vigorously and it's post-blooming dead spires are not the prettiest things or easy to clear out each fall):

Last but not least, my vinca, which is an evergreen vine, is as green as ever, but showing no signs of squill peeking through YET. But one of these days I'll look and see green shoots popping up all around and will be thrilled After the vinca picture is a picture of last year's squill, which is my favorite of all the spring blooms and was, apparently, in full bloom by April 17 of last year. I'll try to get the first shoots and blooms this year.

* I put garden in quotes because garden seems to imply something kept and cared for, and mine is hardly that. My yard is more the remnants of other gardeners, long ago -- their work overgrown here, butchered there, and still managing a few spots of beauty despite my noteworthy lack of effort or assistance.

In My Yard Today

I have a big backblog of flower/yard pictures I haven't gotten around to post. I keep thinking I need to do a massive catch-up. But I'm not going to. This is today's flowers. Just today.

Kelly gave me some "blue chivey things" ~ better known as allium azureum, which is now blooming. I need to weed away some of the foxglove to give it a little more space to be seen. I like the color, it is very similar to my squill. The first picture is without the flash and shows the color a little better.

I also have lots of daisies

and was surprised to see a splash of red in one of my overgrown jungle areas:

Turns out there are some nice wild roses blooming there!

This first one is a little out of focus but shows the bud color better. The second is a little overexposed, but you can see spider web strands on the bud:

Also near here I found baby wild plums:

All around my yard is the lovely but slightly poisonous nightshade. It's not the really deadly one. And it's really hard to get rid of. But the flowers are pretty neat when you look close:

And out front is looking shaggy and overgrown (because it is) but I do have a lot of foxglove about to bloom, and for a few days when it blooms it will be beautiful. Until it rains and it all gets knocked down and looks weedy and overgrown again.

I took a picture of how weedy the front looks, but it actually looked okay in the picture because The Grand Lunar mowed yesterday and tidied up the edge of the chaos. And I figured you didn't really want to see it anyway. It's hard to be the only house on the block that's not nicely landscaped. But oh well. As Kelly has showed me, even a weedy overgrown yard looks beautiful up close!