Choice Morsels

  Today's Garden Pic is a pretty Native Daylily sunlit by the last rays of the setting sun. In other news, I'm looking into replacing my rain gutters. The first company I called, the owner said " he'd shoot me a text before he came on Wednesday," but when 4 o'clock rolled around, I texted to ask if he was still planning on coming? His answer was to tell me about his daughter being sick and about having to stay home with his son and that he was super busy and said, I quote, "he didn't need me to be there to hold his hand while he looked at the gutters." I was like, "What?" I didn't quite know what to make of that. It seemed a little personal and not very professional. A professional reply would've been, "I've had some expected things come up today---can I reschedule?" I tried to be gracious, telling him I was sorry to hear all that; that I was just trying learn what to expect and that, being retired, I was generally...

This is the time of year when my Florida garden explodes into bloom---Easter lilies everywhere! Climbing Roses, Hydrangeas, Blue Agapanthus, Shasta Daisies, Gardenias---everything all at once! Today's Garden Pic is a shot of Climbing Red Roses, a 4 O'clock getting ready to bloom & a Easter Lily!   I was home to Indiana last week---where I still needed long sleeves & pants because May in Indiana is still pretty cool. I was able to see my sisters and my nephews & niece. We were gathered for a Celebration of Life for our Mom who died last October and we put her ash box in the mausoleum next to Dad's coffin.  It was a good visit.  It was nearly midnight when my friend dropped me off back at the house after the airport and I saw my Gardenia there by the driveway was thick with white blossoms and it's allspice-like fragrance hung heavy on the night air mingled with the fragrance of dozens of Easter lilies. It was nice to come home to.

I flew down and visited friends in Orlando a week ago. It was a nice getaway and got to know them a whole lot better. This week for Garden Pics, I'm featuring some "Blues." I collect flowers that bloom blue because they are uncommon. Bloomed earlier this spring: Portuguese Squill    Blooming now: Blue Clematis It's sort of a soft lavenderish-blue. I bought it for this color and because it's smaller stature for a clematis (5 feet), but my soil is acidy, so it was much more violet last year. So I watered it often last fall with water with baking soda and also added some lime--so this year, it's more the proper light blue color!

 Yesterday, I had lunch with an Air Force Chaplain who was really good friends with my husband. The Chaplain was deployed at the time Dave died, but has since returned and reached out for a lunch chat. He's reassigning in a couple weeks elsewhere, but gave me the number for a different Chaplain Dave and I had known quite well in the past, but had lost touch with. So, I'm glad to be reconnected with that Chaplain & his wife once more! I spent 2 hours at the local T-Mobile office which is close by now here where I live, because I was having HUGE problems with Sprint billing because T-Mobile owns Sprint. Unfortunately, they allow them to operate separately. Some bug in the Sprint system was rejecting every avenue I tried. I find T-Mobile oh-so-much more friendly & helpful. We resolved the problem by paying Sprint off and switching me to T-Mobile. It didn't cost anything to do and I ended up in a plan nearly like the one I'd had with Sprint that was, in fact, about ...

  Hello----I've been away from blogging for awhile, but I feel ready to at least blog about my garden and flowers. Things in life happen and daily life can be suddenly and radically altered. Mine was. Hubby died unexpectedly in December.  On the up side, my schedule is entirely my own now. I have plenty of uninterrupted time to work on my flower beds and garden. Being spring, I've begun working from bed to bed, weeding out the borders around each. I'm still working on the front beds and today I cleaned up one of the two beds with an unruly Pampas Grass. I trimmed off it's grass skirt around the bottom. Tomorrow or the next day, the other bed with an unruly Pampas gets trimmed. I also have a luncheon with my old friends from yoga class tomorrow at a favorite local Mexican restaurant. Todays Garden Pics are a couple of nice of late day shots of my yellow Flag Iris in the glowing rays of the setting sun:

We had a hard freeze the past 2 nights, but I covered the tomatoes, lettuce and peppers and a few other things a day ahead, so they're okay.  I was surprised to see a sparkle of frost glittering on some plants in the front yard. Funny thing. The Vinca weren't effected. I guess it wasn't freeze enough for them.   T oday's garden pics: New Butterfly Weed: This butterfly weed is something I just planted this fall. I've already seen a few Monarch's visiting the flowers, but it's fall and they are really on their way migrating someplace else. So it was just a snack-stop. Tray of Basil for Drying: Knowing a freeze was expected Monday night, I scurried about collecting Basil to dry in my electric Presto dryer. Because the frost will kill the Basil. It's the only herb effected by frost. This is just one tray. I did 5 trays just like this.

 I haven't posted much this past couple weeks because stuff has been going on.  Hubby has been sick. He's in the hospital right now, since yesterday morning. It's pneumonia. He's in our local military hospital here and getting excellent care. Visitation isn't allowed nowadays, which is a bummer, but that's how it is. I spoke with him on the phone this morning and he's in good spirits. This evening I just sent one of our military friends over there to the ER to deliver Hubby his cell phone & charger. They'll send a staff member downstairs to get it from him and deliver it to my Hubby in his room. That's what the nursing station suggested. So hopefully that will work. Prayers for his full and speedy recovery are welcome. So I'm home alone for Thanksgiving. I got a pre-cooked turkey and fixin's from the local grocery today, so I can have some delicious tasting food over the next few days without having to actually worry about grocery shoppin...