My Iris are just astounding this year. A friend told me that if I put some alfalfa around them in the fall, they would bloom heavier this Spring, and she was right!
I bought a bag of alfalfa pellets and scattered them around the corms. I was probably a bit heavy-handed, but the plants seem to have done well. It doesn’t seem to matter which form of alfalfa you use, but the pellets were the tidiest for our gardens.
I plan to take pictures of the gardens with my trusty disposable camera this week. When the pictures have been developed, I’ll post a few here. At least you’ll be able to see the big picture.
I have one deep purple iris that has done poorly for the past three years. Last year I had one bloom stalk on the plant and the dog snapped it off when he tumbled into the plant. This year, I think there may be six bloom stalks, and I can’t wait to have them open! Some of my newer iris are blooming this year, too. Usually I have good luck with blooms the first full season, but I moved these, and then they were heaved out of the ground with the freeze and thaw.
It looks like garnet, or burgundy is my favorite color for iris, but we have yellow, bronze, purple, and blue varieties getting ready to open. One of the most beautiful pale varieties is a delicate ruffled peach called “Infinite Grace.”
I was going to dig up and dispose of a pale lavender iris this year, but I may save a few pieces of it and plant it where it will contrast those stronger colors.
Yup, I’m iris happy. Come visit me this time of year, when my gardens are at their best!
I Stole This From….
Jamie, who got it from T, who stole this from Tara, or maybe it was Whtetigr. If you wish to play along, answer these questions in my comments section. You’re welcome to swipe this from me. I’ll just say you got it from one of the others. *G*
1. Who are you?
2. Are we friends? and if not: do you want to be friends?
3. When and how did we meet?
4. Have you ever seen me IRL and been too freaked out to talk to me? If you only know me online…Have you wanted to reply to write things to me and been too shy to?
5. Would you give me a positive friendster testimonial?
6. Give me a nickname and explain why you picked it.
7. Describe me in a word, phrase, film, or album?
8. What was your first impression?
9. Do you still think that way about me now?
10. What reminds you of me?
11. If you could give me anything what would it be?
12. How well do you know me?
13. When’s the last time you saw me?
14. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn’t?
15. Are you going to put this on your LiveJournal / journal and see what I say about you?
Everything I’ve learned….
You know how that saying goes……Everything I’ve learned, I learned from….
In this case, the sentence ends….”my sister.”
We were gardening this weekend, and took a brief break. I have NO idea how we got on this subject, but she taught me that I need to be wary of “BUTT DROP.”
My God, please don’t tell me that one more thing is going to happen to my body, much less my butt! If my butt drops, I’m going to need a WAGON to carry it around.
As we age, why couldn’t we have problems like having TOO MUCH hair on our heads…..and NO hair on our upper lips? Couldn’t God have been kind and given us svelt bodies as a reward for making it to old age?
At least Sis gave me the low-down on which Land’s End swimsuit to buy, and she warned me to order the long-torso version. It pains me to think what the experience of trying on the regular version might have been. (wincing)
I wonder what else I’m going to learn from my sisters?
The Favor of Time
When was the last time someone gave you the favor of time? It’s a rare gift these days, and all the more precious because so few of us have time to spare.
Today, my oldest sister gave me the favor of an entire day. Yesterday, she helped Dear Husband put the boat in the water. It was her first trip on the Arr!! and it was a major success! She enjoyed the trip up the river, the experience of going through a lock, and motoring to the mooring. She ate the wonderful catered meal, and was so relaxed, she fell asleep on the deck!
When they came back from the lake, she called her husband and announced that she was staying overnight, and would be home late today.
Weeding and planting
We had quite a rain yesterday, and the Arr!! has now disappeared down my drive. I plan to weed and plant, weed and plant.
I have five Homestead purple verbena, five pots of ornamental grass, three butterfly bushes, five dahlias and five Joe Pye Weed to plant.
It’s time to do the container gardens, and I have WEEDS to pull. There’s quite a stand of Snow on the Mountain to be ripped out, and I need to kill off the soapwort that has invaded the center of my garden.
Lots to do! I hope you all have a GREAT weekend!
Since you asked, Billy…
I haven’t been on the Arr!! for two years, and I fervently hope I will never have to be on it again. The Arr!! is a Canadian built Bayfield sailboat. It seems to me that it is about 32 feet long, and roughly 21 years old. It is my husband’s pride and joy, and each year I become a boat widow for the weekends between May 15 and October 15.
Chicago has a limited boating season. Only the really hardy, or the truly addicted, sail earlier or later than those dates, but it can be done. Lake Michigan can be exceedingly choppy in early spring and late fall. Because the winds are stronger then, you can get more speed out of your boat, but you also have to have a cast iron stomach to deal with the chop.
Widowhood….again!
The Arr!! disappeared down the drive a few minutes ago. I am officially a boat widow for the next five months.
Yesterday I was having a dreadful day in the office. The phone rang constantly, interrupting all I was trying to wade through, and the fax machine kept spewing paper at me. My sister called to say that she could get away earlier than she thought….could she come to dinner after all?
In the midst of all this, I get another call, and it’s Dear Husband, who is outside, working on the boat. He was having the kind of crisis that would leave me wringing my hands and fretting in a major way, but he calmly asked if I had a moment to help him.
What can I do?
I SO wish I could make the world right.
We have a friend who is having so much trouble getting a job that he is close to being homeless.
The beheading of Nicholas Berg has shocked me to the core.
Our unstable economy refuses to settle and grow, and it’s impact is horribly widespread.
A number of diseases, like tuberculosis, have returned with vigor, and are resisting our attempts to eradicate them.
And the list goes on and on.
What can I do as one person to make the world better? Keeping myself off the lists of the needy isn’t enough. Beyond making contributions, and saying my prayers……..what can I do?
Exercise
My doctor assures me that exercise is good for me. In fact, she was specific about kinds…..resistance, cardio, weight lifting. I was quick to assure her that I DO exercise. Three days a week I go to a morning class, and it’s led by this wonderful, goofy, loveable incarnation of SATAN!
Lynda has spent her life in the pursuit of things physical. Specifically, she has learned almost every Asian exercise method, and what she doesn’t know, her husband does.
We were skeptical at first when she came to lead our class. We didn’t quite know what to expect. She kept a smile pasted on her face for the first year as we adjusted, and then we began to tease her, and she started teasing back.
She’s slipped a lot of yoga into our cardio session, in the stretching and balance exercises. I’ve learned to pose like a tree, or something like that, and surprisingly, having to rise up to my toes is making my feet MUCH healthier!
We use lightweight poles for arm exercises, and 2 to 7 pound weights. We have two types of resistance bands: a small ring, and what looks like an elastic jump rope. We stretch almost every part of our bodies during warm up and cool down, and Lynda is likely to add two pound balls, basket balls, bean bags or anything else she can find into the mix to get us to use our muscles in a variety of ways.
She must feel that she’s been successful in her efforts, because lately she’s been slipping new moves into the routines. I’ve found a number of muscles I didn’t know I had, and a few I wanted to forget about.
And through it all, she just smiles this inscrutable smile. I think that when she is wound up and can’t sleep at night, she plans which muscle mass to attack the next day!
Organization
I’ve been focused on getting the herbies settled, and getting the gardens in shape this spring, and realized that I had forgotten to do the Spring organization INSIDE the house.
It used to be, in times before air conditioning, and when houses were huge and had staff to manage them, that curtains and rugs were changed for the hot months, and the furniture might be covered with lighter weight slip covers. They used lighter colors and lighter fabrics in an effort to cool the house down. I don’t go that far, but we do change to a different set of table linens, and the curtains and throw rugs are washed.
I’d like to point out that I’m done with most of that, but what I haven’t gotten to is the change of wardrobe. I store off season clothes in huge plastic bins in the basement. Last night, DH schlepped the bins upstairs for me, so one of my chores in the next couple of days is the changing of the guard…..er wardrobe.
I take my mother to an exercise class three mornings a week. I had on long jersey pants and a long sleeved T-shirt yesterday, and I thought I was going to melt! Of course, tomorrow, the high for the day is supposed to be 63, so I’ll have to leave a few warm things in the closet.
And….I’m testing the air conditioning today! So, maybe I need to keep a sweater, too.