Buds A Plenty

The lily plants out front are very pregnant.  In a week or so I'm going to have more pink lilies than I can count.  I have nine plants, and every one of them is heavy laden with buds.  This is going to be FUN. 

You know my Cosmos in the back yard?  Well, we planted them in a spot that gets a little more sun light than those guys are designed to take.  When we got home from work last night they were looking pretty poorly.  It got pretty hot here yesterday and it was windy as well, and it just was too much for the Cosmos.  So Mike said he'd stop at the nursery on his way home from work tonight and get me some more Cosmos for me plus some ornamental grass to plant behind the rocks where the Cosmos were withering.  Guess what?  Those Cosmos were happy campers when we got home.  They didn't look like they had a care in the world, but then it was much cooler today than yesterday.  Anyway, Mike transplanted the revived Cosmos and the new ones in a shadier corner of the yard.  They SHOULD be much happier there come the next hot day. 

A fresh start

Our back yard was being taken over by a wild strawberry plant, and no matter how many times we pulled them out, they just kept on coming back and even multiplying.  So this past week end my husband was on a mission.  He hired 3 day laborers and the four of them pulled weeds big time.  In fact they moved all the river rock out of the flower beds and pulled every scrap of weed and anything growing that I hadn't said should stay.  I guess it's a lot easier to pull weeds if you're not worried about pulling other things up with it.  At any rate that meant that only the established plants in the front would stay.  Everything else (except trees) went.  Then they put down a nice layer of mulch and planted some new plants. . . almost all of them perenials.  I LOVE plants that come back on their own.  The only exception that I made was a little patch of tiny purple daisies and a patch of Cosmos.  I do like Cosmos.  And if I even get a HINT of one of those strawberry plants, I'm going to be all over it. 

Have you ever seen a lavender rose?  I didn't know they came in that color.  This lady's yard has two different lavender rose bushes in it.  We go by her yard almost every evening we take our walks.  This picture is actually a little deceiving, because it looks almost like a light pink rose.  In real life this rose doesn't look quite this colorful; it looks much paler.  It's almost as if it used to be a nice lavender color, but then faded from the sun.  And I'll bet someone went to a lot of trouble to cultivate a lavender rose. 

Working for God on earth does not pay much,

but His Retirement plan is out of this world. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Tulip Tree (Magnolia) in Washington, DC
Click on picture, then F11 to see larger size picture.

It was a busy and productive week end for us.  My husband has been using my 10 year old laptop as his home computer for a long time and we finally bit the bullet this week end and bought him a new laptop and a new printer / copier / scanner.  The old laptop was so slow that he hated to even get his emails on it and he's never had his own printer at the house before, so this is a big deal for him.  I'm almost positive that we bought him more computer than he'll use, but you never know.  Perhaps the ancient dinosaur he's been using is what's been holding him back.  I've been sort of dreading this because it's always such a hassle switching over from one computer to another . . . favorites, email account, email address book, wallpapers, screen savers . . . all have to be set up the way he's used to.  And although I know 10 times more about computers than he does, I'm not knowledgable enough to set up networks and stuff like that.  At least I thought I wouldn't be able to, but I'm happy to report that we got it all set up, hooked up to his printer, and even got the new laptop working with the wireless network in the house.  (Three Cheers).  I got his printer hooked up as well and it all works too.  Thank goodness "Plug and Play" is getting so much better than it used to be. 

I was amazed at how many email addresses he has in his address book; probably three times as many as I have in mine.  Anyway, I'm feeling pretty good about the whole process.  We also managed to go to church, plant a bunch of flowers in the back yard, eat out, take two walks, and watch Mystery.  A pretty full week end.

Last night I took my camera along when my husband and I took our evening walk, because I really wanted to get a picture of this striking purple iris I'd seen the night before.  I thought it was beautiful.  Unfortunately, when I went to take the picture there was no media card in my camera.  So I made sure the card was in there tonight as we headed out.  I don't think I've ever seen one like this before.  And I'm not even a fan of irises normally, but maybe this one found a soft spot in my heart because it's purple.  Georgeous, isn't it!

This is a picture of the lavender Verbina I have growing in the alley behind our house.  I could hardly believe how prolific they were this year.  Last year I planted 6 small pots to see if they would take hold.  WOW, did they ever!!  I'll have asters later on this summer, but for now I'm lovin the lavender. 

These trees were very prevalent in Washington DC.  I didn't think they were the Cherry Blossoms that Washington DC is so famous for, but I didn't know either that there were pink Magnolias.  I thought all Magnolia trees had white blossoms, because that's all I've ever seen in Texas, but Alice assures me that this is a Magnolia tree.  Anyway, I thought they were beautiful. We may have been slightly too early for the Cherry Blossoms, but not for the Magnolias.

Secret Service Waving Me Off

My husband and I were recently in Washington DC to attend the annual Radio Television Correspondents Dinner.  President Bush was supposed to be our speaker (that's the real reason we decided to attend) but because of the Pope's death and funeral, Vice President Dick Cheney was to be our substitute speaker.  So why did I take a picture of this Secret Service man you might ask.  Trust Me!!  Behind HIS head is Vice President Cheney . . . and for that I have to thank the 2 second delay on my digital camera.  Between the time I clicked the button to take a picture and the time the shutter actually took the picture, there was just enough time for this guy to move in between my camera and the Vice President.  I don't know if he thought he was actually saving Cheney from being shot or whether he was just a party pooper, but for all my efforts . . . this is all I got.