Summer Bliss

I don't know about you, but one way for me to unwind after a long day at work is to walk around my garden beds every afternoon ... yes, you heard it right, every single afternoon! ha ha My plants are beginning to show their beauty, so I took pictures of some of 'em that are in bloom.
I am sharing nature's beauty with all my blogger friends
... want to come and walk with me? ;)
All images can be enlarged.

Oriental Poppy - delicate and absolutely beautiful! Some of my poppies, the old-fashioned ones, multiply every year; they re-seed, require little care, but sadly they have a short blooming season. I have 3-4 other varieties but they are not blooming as yet except these.


... another poppy variety, a flaming beauty, don't you think? Oriental poppies do not like their roots being disturbed, so be sure to keep the root ball intact when transplanting.


Iris - looks so exotic and elegant! Irises provide so much joy and beauty for so little effort! I also use the leaves in floral arrangements for dramatic effects. This pic was taken in late spring.


Iris - I love its soft, pastel color. As in my previous post, Irises are available in myriad colors!


Nora Barlow Columbine - double blooms, excellent cut flowers! I adore this variety!


Columbine - another variety.


... and more columbine! he he he


Campanula or Canterbury Bell? - vivid blue bells. I also have the old-fashioned kind but they came and went before I was able to take pictures. ;)


Daylily - a beauty for a day! lol They are called that because each flower is only good for a day. Each stem, though, has several buds which will bloom one after another all through the summer. I love the fringed petals of this one. Hardy, and can withstand drought conditions. They are low maintenance beauties! You can't beat that! ha ha


Wild sweet pea - a real charmer and a favorite in aromatic garden! I like them because each bloom resembles a butterfly. You have to watch them though because they can be invasive. They multiply so fast even if you don't have a green thumb. ;)


Dahlia - there are so many varieties available today. They look as gorgeous in bouquets as they do in garden beds. I love them because the more you cut the flowers, the more they reward you with more blooms. And they bloom from early summer to late fall. Most of my dahlias are not ready to be shown yet.


Dahlia - I haven't tried this yet, but I read somewhere that if you dip the stem ends in boiling water for a second, it will make the blossom last longer in a floral arrangement. huh? ;)


Foxglove - I don't remember planting this one, a "gift" from the birdies, perhaps? ;)
Hummingbirds can't resist them.


And I'm sure you've heard a lot about my peonies. lol What I love about them is that the flowers provide a long-lasting and spectacular display from early to late summer.



There you have it my friends! Hope you enjoyed the walk and ... hope I inspired you to do some gardening too! lol

HAVE A SAFE AND HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY EVERYBODEEEEEE!!!

Street Dance Vid - Part 2

I decided to show you this video too because this couple really looks like they were having a good time! Ha ha!
I told our son that he can make his guitar sing! ahem! lol

Street Dance

Last weekend, our little town held a Spring Street Dance to benefit a local hospice house. This was not a typical street dance where there is breakdancing, hip hop, locking, etc. This event was held to raise funds and to give folks a chance to dance and have fun, featuring local bands in a nice outdoor setting. Featured were three bands: Hank & the Hustlers (country music), The Frank Hill Band (country/pop) and our son's Funk Uncle Band (funky) lol.

The 3 bands who each had their own stage, opened with country music, then went to pop and closed with funky music by Funk Uncle. It was funny because when the country/pop bands were playing it was interesting to watch older people swing dancing to the music. When Funk Uncle played, younger people flocked in front of their stage and started dancing! And boy, the girls were really rockin'! ha! ha! It was wonderfully fun and entertaining! The CD's that the Funk Uncle brought to the dance were sold out and some of the girls even asked for autographs! cool huh? ;) For those of you who are new to my blog, Funk Uncle is comprised of 16 to 17 year old boys, where our son is the lead guitarist. And for my regular and loyal friends/readers, I hope you don't get tired watching Funk Uncle! ;)

Being a proud parent that I am, ha, ha, below is a video that I took ... our son is the one wearing sunglasses. The boys were really busy that day because they had a marching band competition at a neighboring town then hurried up to set up their stage. They did not have time (except our son) to dress up a little. (I uploaded this video to my son's facebook ... so you should see more on youtube if you so desire)



Here's a picture of the first band. I didn't take a picture of the other one.


From the looks, seems like everybody enjoyed the free live entertainment; a good way to end the week, don't you agree?

A Must-See Iris Garden

I meant to post what I have accomplished for the rest of my week off last week, but I am so excited to share these photos with everybody! You see, my friend, Judy, who is also into gardening, took me to an Iris farm this afternoon. We took off one hour early from work and drove about half an hour to arrive at what I call ... an Iris Museum! ha! ha!

From the road, this is what you will see, show-stopping colors! ... four acres of Iris, Peonies, Lupines, Daylilies, Clematis, etc. It's owned and operated by the Borglum family whom I understand are a retired couple who enjoy gardening.
(all photos can be enlarged by clicking)


Iris as far as your eyes can see! I definitely give the owners two exciting green thumbs up! lol I was so thrilled and excited I felt like a little kid! ... I could hardly believe what I was seeing, a rainbow of colors!



... a few close ups.






... many varieties of lupines, hundreds of them with a kaleidoscope of hues, and such elegance! Judy said, she's contemplating on starting a lupine garden bed for next year. Last year, we were both into daylilies, this year, iris, so maybe next year it will be lupines? nah, not for me, my garden is getting hard to manage. ;)


... these are just a few of the peonies, there were too many varieties to photograph. Aren't they gorgeous? I've never seen a two toned peonies before! ... and a yellow one? wow, how cool is that!
I was so excited that I called another friend, Josie (she helped me put up my garden wall) and asked if she will be busy this weekend. I want to bring her to that place because I'm pretty sure she'll enjoy it. Maybe I will take more photos then.






I already have a few iris in my yard, they are all pictured below. Iris are very self-sufficient, they multiply annually and most important, they are fuss-free! They grow in full sun or partial shade. They are also an excellent cut flowers, and smell so sweet.








This is one of my newer collections. I think it is called Royal Blue Batik Iris and it is a re-bloomer, meaning it will bloom in the spring, summer and again in the fall. Too bad the rest of my newer ones are still tight buds so I can't show you.


The farm owners are selling their iris for $7.00 per clump but if you buy 10 clumps, you get 2 clumps for free. Judy and I decided to go for the 10 + 2 and divided it among ourselves. It was really a bargain because one clump consisted of about 6 to 12 rhizomes. It was fun because you dig your own, so we tried to look for bigger clumps for more rhizomes, and more rhizomes mean more plants, right?

And these are my share after Judy and I split the clumps. Twelve bags, each bag is one variety and contained about 3-6 rhizomes. If you enlarge, try to notice the lightest purple on top, somewhere in the middle, it is speckled, and we've never seen another clump of that kind in the farm (the worm on one of the bags is free) lol. I always receive garden catalogs in the mail and they are selling 7 plants for $30.00 plus shipping and handling, so I think Judy and I got a real bargain.
Now, my problem is, where in the heck will I plant these?! I promised myself not to start another garden bed anymore because it's getting unmanageable ... hmmmm, maybe I will just intermingle them with my other plants. Sounds good, eh?

The Beauty of a Garden

One Saturday, I went and helped my friend, Josie put up a garden wall in front of their house. It was getting difficult for her husband to mow that sloping part of their yard because of his bad knees.
Below is a picture of what we were working on ...
(all photos can be enlarged by clicking)


This is what it looks like after 2 days of hard work! ... but it was worth it, don't you think? It's hard to see, but Josie planted beautiful roses, dahlias, gladiolas, and I don't know what else. I'm pretty sure it will be a beautiful display of flowers once they start blooming.


If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you'll probably remember how my front yard looked "blah" in the winter. I've been debating on what to do to give it a little ommph! When I saw my friend's completed garden wall, I said, "that's it, that's what I will do with mine!" ;)
So, I took a week off from work, and my friends, Josie and Cecilia came and helped me spruce up the place. Pictured below is the before ...


... and after. There was a lot of hauling and digging. I could hardly move the next day; my whole body ached, very back- breaking work for sure, but the red blocks made a lot of difference! Sometime next year, I will strategically plant a few dwarf pines or yews, that will stay green in the winter. I think it will look nice with Christmas lights.


Remember also, when this same friend, Josie came and helped me start a new garden bed by our walkway? If you click the link, that's how it looked like then.

Anyhow, at first, we put two layers of blocks along the walkway, but I decided that it looked like too much, so we came up with just two layers in front as a garden wall, and one layer along the walkway as edging. I think it's more pleasing to the eye that way.


This is what the other side looks like. There are dahlias, zinnias, poppies, cosmos and marigolds growing in here, that is why I can't really dump some mulch yet.



The next day, Josie came back and helped me weed our peonies. I swear, sometimes, grasses and weeds grow as fast at the plants themselves.
This is before ...



... and after. I can almost feel my peonies thanking us! lol Now they can "breathe".
To save my aching back and rickety knees, I decided to use those landscape fabrics, covered with mulch to prevent weeds/grass from growing back.


It's amazing what you can do in a matter of two days. We were even able to weed, mulch and plant a few geraniums and snapdragons around some of my bushes/trees.


... like this one.



... and these. Next time, I will show you what I've accomplished for the rest of my week; a very busy and tiring but productive week off indeed! And hey, I lost 6 lbs from all these exertions by the way! ;)

Homing Pigeons

Have you heard of homing pigeons before? Probably a lot of you have. Not me though (hey, I grew up in the boondocks.) lol
Last week we celebrated Memorial Day at the facility where I work. Part of the celebration was to release 25 pigeons in the air. That was my first time to hear about pigeons having the ability to go home where they were raised. I was so amazed and flabbergasted that I had to talk to the owner. She said they started training homing pigeons at an early age. They encourage them to fly around the house or porch first at around 1 month old to give them freedom to explore their surroundings. They normally don't give them food before they do this so that the birds will go back in the house to feed. Once they are trained to go back, they will drive a few miles away from their house and release them again. They always make sure that there is food waiting for the birds at home as rewards. They keep doing this, increasing the distance gradually until the birds are fully trained to return home. Pictured below is the owner, getting ready to release the pigeons.



... off they go!


It's hard to see (white speckles in the sky) but they circled about 3 times, waiting for the rest of them before they headed home.



The owner said they get requests from weddings, birthdays, graduation parties and even funerals for their birds to "show off." ;)
Now that I think about it, birds do migrate to the south in the winter so they must have this ability and/or instinct to navigate, so now I wonder if other kinds of birds can be trained too, to come home. Hmmmm?

What'sup ...?

TODAY is Mother's Day, so greetings to all mothers, grandmamas, step-moms and everybody in between! ;)
The ladies of our church and a few friends from other churches were treated, and served a scrumptious breakfast by the men yesterday (Saturday), hosted by Bobo, the clown. Bobo was a member of the Ringling Brothers Circus, and was married to one of the Wallenda sisters; a member of the famous Wallenda flying troupe. His wife and son died in a horrible car accident. One of these days, I'll interview him and post it here. The story of his life's struggle is quite interesting and he loves sharing it.
Pictured below is Bobo, without his make up.


A busy day yesterday! Early Saturday morning our son and his Funk Uncle's band went to Blackdog recording studio, to record a CD. They've been dreaming of having a CD done for a long time, so this is like a dream come true for their group.


Saturday afternoon or early evening, was Prom Night! As soon as we got back from the recording studio, our son jumped in the bathroom and took a shower. A few minutes later, I heard a "bye mom!", and I said, "Wait, I want to take a picture!" He says, "I'm already late, mom, I was supposed to be at our meeting place by 5:30!" (it was already a little past 6 pm). Of course that won't fly by me, so he obliged by posing a few seconds with a "forced" smile on his face! ;)


... I took another shot while he was loading his stuff. Our son just got his junior driver's license this year and is not allowed to drive after 9pm yet, so his dad drove him to their meeting place and after the prom, was picked up by the mother of his friend where he stayed the night along with other boys. I should have went with them when he was dropped off to take more photos with his date and friends, but I was in the middle of something.



This was prom night last year, that's our son in a purple tux and his date in a purple gown.


...nice couple if I may say so myself! ;)


Prom nights bring good memories for me too. I particularly remember selecting the most popular songs to be played for the occasion; stamping our feet dancing to the music, "Knock Three Times", that was our "rock 'n roll" then ... and slow dancing with my high school crush, to the song, "Honey" lol ... boy, I'm really showing my age! ;) Over time, proms are surely a-changin' ... we didn't have formal dinner at a restaurant before nor after the prom; we didn't have limos either. Although our proms were not as elaborate and expensive as nowadays, they were still good memories just the same. How were your promenades?