Sorting

 I am sorting through photos on my computer.  Making copies of photos to put in the Grands albums.  It is a good way to go through my files and delete photos not good enough to keep and duplicates. 

It is a quiet activity that keeps me out of trouble....mostly.

Then I run onto photos that make me smile and think of Spring! 

Far Side

Just one

Just one Lupine bloomed this year.  Here in Minnesota at least in our wild gardens the Lupines can die out from the frost heaves during the winter or freeze in early spring...I have see a number of seedlings in early spring and then a freeze will take them out.

So we appreciate this bloom ever so much as it was the only one!

We had a quiet Sunday, we listened to church, we carved on the Christmas Ornaments and I took care of some weeds.  I did some laundry and in the late afternoon I watched Ride like A Girl on Netflix...a wonderful show I enjoyed very much...I give it a 9 out of 10 stars...my kind of show!

I crocheted for awhile, I have several projects going at once...which for me is not always a good thing especially if I am watching TV and they all use different stitches...sometimes my fingers don't get the correct message from my brain.

Far Guy made supper;  BLT's fruit and potato salad.

Last winter when I was checking out the canned goods in the pantry apparently I missed a can of sauerkraut...who knew that just one can could go that bad and mess up a shelf and be so smelly.  I checked the expiration date...2011...that was certainly on the shelf for more that one pantry clean up.

Far Side

Why?

I wonder why...

Why do hospitals and clinics use the metered water system in their bathrooms...wet ...soap up...rinse rinse rinse...that water does not stay on for the full Happy Birthday song that is playing in my head.

Why doesn't someone design a backpack purse with closures /zippers toward your back instead of out there where who knows who can unzip something.

Why are some "computer things" so complicated that it takes weeks or forever and ever to resolve problems..  Case in point...I set up Online Banking a month ago, as a test I paid two bills from it...electricity and the phone bill...Yes the bill was paid...but the money remains in our account.  "The Third Party" that takes care of this computer crap stuff says oh yes those bills were paid...and so do the payees...but the money has never left the account...so is it a bottomless pit of money?  The Credit Union knows there is a glitch someplace..a mystery glitch now over a month old.

Why is the Infusion Center located in between the hospital and the clinic where all germy people go...some idiot must have thought putting immune suppressed people in the germy area would make them more money.  Yes, since Far Guy has had four ports now...and each one has failed, he goes to the Infusion Center where he gets an IV every week for his Alpha-One Antitrypsin Deficiency.  We were both sick and tired of doing infusions at home when his port was not working properly...let the gals in the Infusion Center worry about it...after all they can start IV's.   It is still the pits exposing him to germs... but he likes the gals up there..one is the daughter of my cousin and another nurse is the sister in law of my nephew.  The gals take very good care of him and make him coffee. It takes real special Nurses to work in the Infusion Center...I just wish they were off in a building all their own or had a separate entrance.

We are finally done with appointments this week...we had five appointments this week. It is what we do.

The last of the Lupines.

Far Side

Yard Happenings

I have been mowing about every four days.  There are several trees that still need their branches trimmed.  I don’t mind so much when I get hit in the shoulder with a branch I have to hold back…but I had a branch that zipped right up the middle of my head and lodged in my pony tail.  I nearly had a head on collision with the BBQ Grill whilst being scalped, I may have said “bad word, bad word”and that branch well… I plucked it out, most of it fell to pieces in my hair…I had to use R and everything to avoid a close encounter with the grill.  I hate using R on the lawn mower, I usually just keep going around in circles and eventually all the lawn will be done.  ( It drives someone who uses R all the time nuts.)

We have a new hose…it is kinda spooky.  It is one of those “pocket hoses” we bought it way last winter thinking it would be easier to lug around and to coil up…it is… so far so good…the spooky part is when you shut off the water it shrinks back down and moves toward the water hydrant… all by itself! Do Do Do Do

I will wait to make my final opinion on this new hose until it has made the whole summer! 

I got new super duper lifting mulching blades on my mower…and was advised to “please lift the blades up when you go across the gravel”  okey dokey.

The yard isn’t always about hoses and lawn mowers…there are flowers too!

It seems to have been a good winter for the Lupines!

Rain and Lupines

We were supposed to have severe weather, first the phone rang with one daughter saying a storm is headed your way…then the other told me on facebook. 

We had heavy rain and hail the size of a pea.  The wind never arrived here.

I took this photo through the dining room window.

We got about 3/4 of an inch of rain, I won’t have to water my flower bed for a few days.

We headed out to an Estate Sale and along the way I spotted some Lupines, on the way back we stopped for photos.

 

I bought a few pieces of glass for glass flowers.  Far Guy ended up with nothing and the sale was supposed to have antique toys. We came home, it was still spitting rain so Far Guy went to straighten up his garage and Chance and I settled in for a movie and a nap… The Movie was Jackass 2 and I promptly fell asleep. ( I think if you were drunk that movie might be funny…sober and sleepy not so much.)

I awakened to help with supper preparations…Lasagna!

Lupines, Lawns and Gas

Sure I can be wrong…it happens once in a while.  I am not perfect.

I said in a blog recently that all of my Lupine winterkilled.  I was wrong.

Where there is one I can always hope there are more. 

Recently we saw a whole ditch full of Lupine on the back way to Bemidji the day I had my Oral Surgery…there was no time to stop…but they were impressive.

Back in 2010 I had a few more Lupines in a few more colors.

Who knows what next year will bring.

Yesterday I mowed the lawn again, cleaned out all the birdbaths, did some laundry, had a nap and the day was over just like that.

I was almost out of gas for the lawnmower.  We used to haul the gas can in the old pickup.  I don’t want to haul it in the car.  It gives me a massive headache. My other baby brother very kindly fills the mower and the gas can for me over at his place.  My shoulders are getting older…I think I need to buy two small gas cans instead of one large one.  I might be ageing fast…but lifting and dumping a six gallon gas can into the mower…must weigh about 42 pounds…I can do it but sometimes we have to find better solutions for life’s little problems.  How do you haul your gas can and how large is it?

Not Much Happening

We are a quiet bunch here in convalescent land.  We putz around…we steamed the tile floors…worked on Christmas Ornaments…took naps…played ball with Chance…did some laundry.   I have finally been reading on my Kindle Fire again. 

The Lupines are still blooming.  The cool weather we have been having extends their bloom times.  It was barely 70 F yesterday and cloudy all day, spitting rain a few times.

These blooms were playing peek a boo with the fence.

I planted Lupines about 14 years ago and since then they have reseeded themselves all over, they are buggers to transplant so they just bloom wherever they grow.

I am listening to my body…when it says I am tired I lay down and nap..sometimes for more than a few hours.  No worries Chance wakes someone up at 5:30 because he is getting hungry and someone should be in the kitchen cooking supper by then.  I swear if the dog could cook he would, he lays in the kitchen the entire time someone is cooking…supervising and making sure his dish gets fixed…even though he has a bowl of dry food available all the time.  Sometimes I wonder just who is in charge of who in this household.

June 01, 2012

Well lets get on with summer! We had brats on the grill, baked beans and raspberries for supper last night.  I wore my heavy fleece lined sweatshirt at work..it was not much above 55 degrees F in the museum.  I almost got my snow boots out of the closet and my parka is still there too. 

Far Guy’s Lilac is about to bloom.  Chance is sitting in the old sandy parking lot, if it rains some more the weeds will take over that area and it will be greener by fall.

It was a hard winter for the Lupines.  Without much snow cover many of them succumbed to the frost heaves.  Last year I had many Lupines.  This year I have lots of little seedlings that may bloom later in the summer. These blooms were a nice surprise!

The Oak leaves are expanding nicely after the last rain.  Another week and we will have the dense shade that is ten degrees cooler than in town.

Far Guy mowed the lawn twice in May. It almost froze the other morning.  We are thankful for the fireplace..it keeps the house warm and cozy.

I am feeling better as long as I get the rest I need. I have had this cold for 23 days now..I think I am over the cough ..the antibiotics must finally be working.  My chest wall is no longer inflamed because I can breathe without pain..so things are looking up! :)

Snowy Gardens

We have very little snow.

Hardly enough moisture to make the wild gardens look good if and when they grow again next spring.

Perhaps the flowers of June will be only a memory.

Veronica ‘Blue Bouquet’ spreads like a blanket of water through the gardens.  The Lupines reseed themselves freely.

June is only five months away…these dreary warm above freezing  days it seems like winter is taking it’s sweet time.  Snow already..go to 40 below zero for days..get it over with ..we know it is coming..we are not idiots.  It snows in Minnesota..and you can freeze your butts off almost every day ALL winter long..just not this year:)

The Lupines In Bloom

I have many different colors of Lupines.

Could you get lost it this purple color?

Perhaps you like peach? I love the peach.

Perhaps pink is your passion.

The Lupines must have liked the cool wet spring, or maybe the cool wet summer we are having.  Many new seedlings have emerged this year. Many are still forming buds..you just never can tell what color will bloom next:)

Twin Lupines and Twin Thoughts

Recently in the very wild weedy gardens, a Lupine had twins. Of course I photographed them. They began as one bloom and then something happened probably during the bud development, and two flower stalks formed where one is the norm. I used to know all the technical terms, after reading for some time, and just short of getting out some of my old textbooks I gave up and said "So what..forget the why, and enjoy the darn flower." Lupin or Lupine ( North American) ..both are correct spellings..at any rate they are beautiful plants.

Twins were on my mind this morning, and I really didn't know why, until I looked at the calendar. Jen made me a special calendar this year, I like to keep track of birthdays, and anniversaries, so she made me a calendar that has photographs of special people and their special days. Two little very different faces occupy this day on my calendar. Five year old today faces, of my great nephews, fraternal twins, both look very different, both are unique individuals. The party is on Sunday!

I have an Uncle and Aunt that are twins, my Grandmother gave birth to them two months after I was born, they are as different as night and day. I have twin cousins, they are not identical, but close enough that most people cannot tell them apart. Most people tell them apart by their wives, one married a blond, one a brunette. Far Guy's parents had twins, a boy and a girl back in 1942, they were born and died on the same day. It was very sad, and was not something they talked about very much. They lived in Omaha at the time, so not many relatives can even fill in the blanks. Our daughter Trica finally wrote and got their birth and death certificates.. we always wondered where the twins were buried. We still don't know, as the hospital took care of all the details. I guess years ago, they just did mass burials of babies that were born too soon. Far Guy's Dad got to see them, and he told me once that he held one of them, Far Guy's Mom was not awake, this was back when most Mother's were rendered unconscious for the birth of their children in hospitals. Philip Leroy lived for 2 hours, Elizabeth Ann for 6 hours and 13 minutes. Not nearly long enough, their dashes were short. Their dashes were hardly recognized, they were not listed when Far Guys Dad died, but the hand written obituary that Far Guy's Mom left behind included them.

Abra a blogging friend, came up with the "dashes" she once wrote that it is what you do with your dash that is important, not the dates at the beginning or the end:)

The twin Lupines are on the left in these last two photos, as usual click on them to see an enlarged view!