bleeding heart(s)

so...

i was standing there with my sign

 and a woman in a passing car yelled out at me,

 "How much are you being paid? Fucking lib!"

 which reminded me that i should check on the bleeding heart that i planted a couple of years ago... 

so when i got back home, i searched for it...

look!!! 

it's TWO plants now!!!

there is hope in the World!!!

 🌎

just sayin'

orange crush

here's hoping that the on-line translator didn't lie and i'm not writing bad words in languages other than dianneish...

oranje

arancio

naranja

arancione

πορτοκάλι

machungwa

apelsin

オレンジ

d'orange

оранжевый

laranja

zoranj

תפוז

Pomarańczowy

orange

i do lurve me some orange...

 orange dream cookies ... adapted from this recipe for lemon cookies ... heaven on a plate, lemmetellya

 the garage door is finally painted ... mark that one off this list from a year ago ... this is how it looked in the early morning sunshine while the paint was still wet... it's a bit more mellow in Real Life ... needless to say, the new color has not been much of a hit with my neighbors ... and, also needless to say, i don't much care cuz i think it's kinda awesome ... and just look at the blue sky!!!

my orange kitty is named Pumpkitten ... finally, a cat that doesn't make my eyes swell shut

 renegade orange marigolds ... not where they are supposed to be
but i'm not gonna complain

 i did not know that cosmos came in orange till i was trying to find flowers that wouldn't clash with the garage door

 what's left of LuLu's tomatoes  ... she LURVES cherry tomatoes

 my new Bronco jammies ... to be worn only on game days

 coffee tastes better in a polka-dotted cup ... especially an ORANGE polka-dotted cup

my Lucy kit from Carrie Nelson at Miss Rosie's Quilt Company ... which i was lucky enough to score before they were all gone ... i was planning on swapping out the greys and blacks with blues so i could make a Bronco quilt, but the fabrics are just too doggone awesome ... and who am i to mess with a quilting genius's fabric choices?!?

Orange is the happiest color.
Frank Sinatra

is that what i think it is?!?

i looked out of the patio door and saw this...

   now everyone knows that i love me some autumn leaves, but...

 it's only the first of august!!!

Parthenocissus quinquefolia and Gleditsia triacanthos

it has been cold and frosty the past few days ... and windy ... so most of the leaves have fallen to the ground and then back up again on accounta when it is windy it is really windy ... and when i look out my front door i don't see this anymore...keep , keep bleeding leaves

my across-the-street-neighbor let a virginia creeper grow up his honey locust tree ... the vine turns a brilliant blood red amidst the chartreuse leaves of the tree when autumn comes around...
it looks like the tree is bleeding out ... and that makes the only words that i remember to Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis start playing inside my head ... on auto-repeat

you cut me open and i
keep bleeding
keep, keep bleeding love
i keep bleeding
i keep, keep bleeding love
keep bleeding
keep, keep bleeding love
you cut me open

it has been ... distracting

summer whine

i've planted raspberry plants a gazillion times ... raspberries and their leaves are full of good stuff for human beings - minerals and vitamins and tannins ... anywho ... every year i'd plant a few raspberry bushes and they never grew ... i'm not talking about producing fruit ... i mean the plants never grew ... not even enough to harvest a few leaves for infusions

a few years ago one of my coworkers was complaining about her raspberry plants being totally out of control so her husband took a rototiller to them and their roots were sending up shoots all over the garden and there were too many berries for five people and who likes raspberries anyway and wah wah wah

are you kidding me?!? you have got to be kidding me!!!

anywho ... she threw some dirt in some old plastic nursery pots, stuck in a few shoots, and brought them to me
honestly, dianne - i don't know why you would want these - they grow like weeds and i don't want to hear you complaining about them being out of control in your yard

i carefully loaded the pots into my car and brought my new babies home ... i left them in the pots for the first two years cuz i was afraid that if i planted them they would go into shock and die ... i finally planted them in a sheltered area ... and watered them ... and talked to them ... and pretty much begged them to grow ... they kinda sputtered and wilted ... and most of them died ... two years ago the three plants that were left came up and grew a little bit ... last year there were actually blossoms on the plants ... those blossoms developed into the most beautiful red raspberries ... they were sweet and delicious ... and they were gone in about two seconds cuz five raspberries are not even a hand full ... this year the plants went a little crazy ... there were berries ... more than five ... a lot more than five ... and i had visions of raspberry jam on buttered toast in the midst of the cold, dark winter to come ... one morning Auntia was checking out her pumpkin plants ... she came in with a few ripe raspberries ... LuLu opened her mouth like a little bird, signed please, and ate those raspberries ... i told myself not to worry cuz there would be more raspberries the next day ... but LuLu was thinking the same thing ... every day for two weeks Auntia would pick a bunch of raspberries ... and every day LuLu would eat all of them ... one morning last week i went outside very early on the pretense of watering the potted plants and picked all of the ripe berries ... i sneaked inside and poured a bowl of cereal ... sprinkled some sugar on top ... and added my treasure... red raspberries on rice chex ... Oh. My. Gawd.

i sat down ... and i ate them ... before a certain little baby girl could gobble them down while squealing
MINE! MINE! now me! now me!
i suppose i shoulda felt guilty ... and i did a little bit ... so ... yesterday i begrudgingly shared the first zucchini (sauteed with olive oil, garlic and onion) with LuLu ... and guess what? she didn't like it - bwah ha ha!!!
nobody else likes zucchini ... which means that it is all
MINE! MINE! now me! now me!

silverlocks and the three barberries

once upon a time there was a crabby silver-haired old woman who was weary of cleaning up other peoples' dogs' poop and pee ... so she planted barberries along the front of her house...take that you little poop machines

the idea was any unsuspecting pup would lift a leg or assume the poop position and feel just enough pain to not ever go there again ... fast forward a year ... new neighbors moved in ... younger neighbors with a blended family ... little kids and teenagers ... whiffle balls and basketballs ... bicycles and tricycles ... skateboards and big wheels ... bowls of skittles (yes, the candy) for breakfast ... lottsa empty pizza boxes and high fructose corn syrup pop bottles at lunchtime ... we're talking kids with leather hides who don't care if they get poked by a few thorns ... after three years in the ground there was one barberry that was too tiny...curse that basketball

and another one that was too short...and curse the hoop that came with the basketball
and one that was juuuuuust about right...and the wannabe Bird Man who can't even hit the backboard
these pictures are from last year ... maybe it will soon stop snowing/raining/hailing/blowing long enough to check out this year's happily ever after

cash crop

we saw this beautiful field of sunflowers on the way to longmont last saturday...

...they are especially pretty with the rocky mountains in the background......sunflowers are Auntia's favorite flower so i drove back the same way so she could take some pictures......and it is so cool how they follow the sun throughout the day......there were lottsa fields of wheat and corn and cabbages, too ... but i am glad that sunflowers are a cash crop ... they are so cheery... and sunflower oil is a very good thing, innit?

in the rearview mirror

NoJo and Gumdrop had crazy hair day at school ... and Littlelle decided to participate, too......she doesn't have a lot of hair to work with, so that stretchy band with a bow is about as crazy as her hair can get...
...i went to see Little Nonnie ... she looks like she's in a race ... she was a bit peeved with me because i was later than i should have been and she thought she was gonna miss lunch...
...it rained for four days in a row ... we had to wait for a break in the storm to place flowers and a flag on GeeJay's grave ... i usually go on the sunday before because traffic in the cemetery is crazy on Memorial Day ... most of the graves were already decorated with the flags that Boy Scouts place on veterans' graves ... but they always seem to miss my dad ... so i take a flag with me, just in case ... and Auntia likes to leave a pinwheel...

...Gumdrop graduated from kindergarten ... the kids signed and sang i love little baby ducks ... it was really sweet ... we are all very proud of our little graduate...

can you believe that refrigerator??!!?? i bring home the bacon and Auntia is supposed to put it away ... there was a ham (yes, an entire ham ... blech - but still...) that i had completely forgotten was in there ... lots of fruits and veggies that made it in but never made it back out again ... too many eggs and too much butter ... and who knows what was in the leftovers containers - totally unrecognizable ... and then i found the turkey breast that i put on the middle shelf to defrost four days before ... it had been shoved to the back ... that was the last straw...

it's still a mess ... but at least the best if used by dates that were older than april are gone ... and i can find the oatmeal......this is Gumdrop, Auntia and NoJo in the movie theater as the credits for Star Trek were running ... i think i'll wait till it comes out on dvd to watch it again ... it was dark and loud this time ... and i found myself dozing off...

the cupcakes totes are about half finished ... the wall is weeded ... the geraniums, lobelia, tomatoes, basil, ivy, money plant, bocopa, lily,and more geraniums are all planted, the grass is cut and trimmed (fodder for another post ... i hate weed whackers) ... we visited with the Moths before their barbecue ... Michael Myson's house has been given official approval ... the cakes have been baked and decorated (future post) ... the bills that had to be paid are in the mail ... a savings account for Littlelle has been opened ... and i even managed to scrub one bathroom...

taken for a ride

yesterday i made the monthly trip to Costco ... i needed baby butt wipes, PreserVision (for Little Nonnie's Mother's Day present), envelopes, and Dr. Pepper...
i knew i was in trouble when i first walked in the door ... six-packs of geraniums for $21.69 ... and we're talking big, pink geraniums ... hanging baskets for $16.49 ... hanging baskets with pink geraniums and vinca vine ... then i remembered that i needed some clear storage boxes and bread and pancake mix and sugar and socks with grey heels and light bulbs and a shop stool (seriously ... it has wheels and a little lever that makes it go up and down ... it is way cool) ... and then i found an easy go cart (it is the green thing in the picture that looks like a trash can that's been whacked off sideways) and decided that $17.99 was a small price to pay for not aggravating my sciatic nerve when i lift bags of dog food and potting soil ...... before i knew it, the shopping basket was overflowing with stuff that was not on my list ... for a total of $208.84...

...it was not easy loading all of that stuff into Auntia's car ... and it's a good thing that she wasn't with me - i might have had to tie her to the roof ... but the easy go cart held all of the plants and the little stuff and is so very, very green ... i think it will come in handy for...

...giving rides to a goofy boy...

and his goofier sister ... she's a white-knuckled rider ... i think i scared her with the sudden stops and figure eights and all of the woo hooing ...... every nonna needs one of these!

pink? not so much...

in autumn of 2006 i planted a collection of pink daffodils ... the first winter was average for temps and moisture and in the spring their blossoms were yellow ... the next winter was bitterly cold with back to back to back blizzards and in the spring their blossoms were yellow ... and this past winter was a mix of bitterly cold or unseasonably mild temps with almost no moisture ... this is their third spring ... do those daffodils look pink to you? they do not look pink to me ... now, don't get me wrong - i think they are beautiful ... gorgeous ... yellow with a touch of peach ... but there is one thing they are not ... and that is PINK

i had a talk with them before the autumnal equinox

i asked them to think pink ...

yellow is good
peach is good, too

"And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils"

spring has sprung

the grass ain't riz ... i wonder where the flowers iz?

this morning i whined to Ranette about having no flowers blooming except for a few crocus (go check out her lovely weeping cherry tree blossoms ... sigh) ...... i was supposed to be laying out that ugly black soaker hose that you see (before the plants start to misbehave) instead of reading blogs ...... anywho, i didn't want to do it because i knew that first i would have to clean out the old stuff from last year ... plant architectural interest in the winter garden (in my case ... ugly mess) ... before i could start with the hose. i waited for the record breaking high temperatures we were supposed to have today so i could use the it's too hot to work outside excuse ... but it hadn't warmed up by noon, so i went outside and started raking ... look at what i found hiding under some old iris leaves...

... she is the sweetest little plant...

...that i have seen in a month of sundays ... just look at those pretty little faces!

the earth is dry (again) ... we are in a drought (again) and the fire danger is extremely high (again) ... the mountain snow pack is above normal, but we will probably have water restrictions (again) ... i am glad that hose is where it is supposed to be.

and now i that i've been a good little gardener, i'm gonna (ignore the baskets of laundry waiting to be folded) go play with my pink and orange BOM blocks.