Happy Easter - 2013

 It's bluebonnet season in Texas!  Maybe Lady Bird Johnson was behind this, back in the 60s.  She was into flowers & such.  At this time of year, along the roadsides, you'll see people plopping their toddlers in the middle of a patch of bluebonnets & taking gobs of pictures.  They really are quite pretty.

Here's a closeup - check out the bee, on the right, below.

Picasso went through his blue period in the early 1900's.  This blog is going through its blue period today.  Here's a blue house . It's cloudy today & doesn't show up too great, but it's blue all right.

 Next we have this very cool stand of crape myrtle trees.  Someone has painted the trunks blue to bring awareness to the drought, or deforestation - I forget.  Looks cool, though:

Here's a closer shot - they did a very nice & job & didn't spill all over the ground:

Finally, we have my cool retro bike - in blue - against the hazy Houston skyline:

 

Happy Easter to all three of you who still follow the blog!

Last year was a mast year

 As Roseanne Rosannadanna used to say on SNL, it's always something.  In 2011, we had the drought.  It was pretty brutal in Texas, and we're still having drought conditions, but not as bad.  The live oak trees, in an effort to propagate themselves in 2012, produced a billion acorns.  The garden columnist calls it a mast year.   We don't have a live oak, but our neighbor does - right on the fence line.  Guess where most of the acorns dropped?   On our patio.  Look at those little buggers.

 
 Gahhhhhh!  acorns out the wazoo.

 

Well, you can't really sweep them, or use the leaf blower, because among the acorns is gravel, and we don't want that flying everywhere.  What to do?  Pick 'em up by hand.  Lucky for me, it was a gorgeous, wish I still had a convertible kind of day.  There I am, picking up acorns.

 

Right about now, the deer who follow my blog are all, Oh man, why'd you throw them out?  Well, the squirrels didn't seem to want them, and I was sick of them crunching underfoot.    Here's the after shot - downright tidy out there now.

Meanwhile, what's this plant doing, hanging in the middle of the fence?

 

 
It's giving us something besides fence to look at through the kitchen window:

Finally, here's the ultimate thing you didn't know you needed, until you see it - a lighted hanging rod for the closet.  Now, my hub can see whether those slacks are black, gray or blue.  Sweet!

 

Happy New Year in the Jardin

 

 Hi Gang, it's January in Texas which means - it's nearly Spring!  It's been pretty warm this week, and I asked the fabulous landscaper to come over & do some heavy work.  Here's the side yard, "before" - it was awkward to mow around the air conditioner slab, and between the gate and slab.  Why did we need grass there, anyway?  Dump it.  The droplets on the photos are fog (not snow) - took these pix in the early morning, before I left for work.

 

Awkward, awkward, awkward.   Get rid of it!

 

 In the back of the photo below is our cassia tree.  It blooms in the fall and really looked great last year, but then it grew a bunch of seed pods, and got a little too big, and fell over.  I couldn't straighten it back up, so the landscaper did it. 

Here's the "after" - gravel between the gate & the AC slab - no more mowing there:

 Here is our new cutting garden - it gets the midday sun, should be a good spot:

 

I already had two roses, a hollyhock and a gardenia - planted 'em.   I'll probably add some wildflower seeds and sunflowers to the mix.

 

There's the gardenia, on the right.  We used to have a retired partner at the big law firm who brought us gardenias from his garden every year.  He is now in law firm heaven, so I needed my own plant:

Here is the cassia tree, all straightened up & trimmed.

The landscaper always trims back this muhly grass, and it's a shock, but it has already grown a couple of inches in the 3 days since he cut it:

 

 

 These are the roses along the back fence - year round bloomers.  They change color as the blooms mature.  But they aren't fragrant - bummer.

 The landscaper must have thought the roadrunner, below, looked a little thirsty.  He set him up at the birdbath for a drinkie.  I mean, if you don't have a sense of humor, don't come to work for us.

 

Every garden needs a gnome - ours used to be a rain gauge - he hugged a little test tube.  Well, klutzy me kept knocking it over & the tube cracked.  So now, he's just waiting for a gnome-babe to come along, visit the tadpole cafe next door, and he'll have someone new to hug.

Meanwhile, I went for a new rain gauge.  The guy at the garden center asked, what kind do you want?  "One I can read without glasses."   Check it out:

We'll be planting tomatoes soon!

Forgot this ornament on the last post

Forgot this one on the last post - it isn't that old, but we like to buy ornaments when we travel, to remind us of where we've been.  We picked up this one in Roswell, NM several years ago.  That town has a real sense of humor about what draws tourism.  We figured an alien posing with a gingerbread man wasn't too blasphemous.  Aren't they a darling pair?

 

Merry Christmas! more nostalgia

 Brother Bill reminded me the other day that I haven't done a blog post since he sent me the awesome retro bike.  I was gob-smacked by it!  Here we have a little Christmas blog post.  We've all been seeing Christmas stuff in stores for months.  Most "public" trees are done by interior design folks - they're all matchy-matchy and boring.  At home, we have a mix of old & new ornaments.  The old ones are my faves.  Here is a little white reindeer I remember from childhood.  There were probably 8 of them in the original set - only this one survived.  Unless Bill-Ding has one. 

This ugly little elf always goes toward the bottom of the tree, tucked into the branches.  Isn't he cute?

 

This is a nice blown glass nativity, given to me years ago by the couple who helped us through pre-marriage prep.  That marriage didn't last, but the ornament is gorgeous.  Wherever they are, I hope that couple has a jillion grandkids & they're happy and healthly.

Here's one that niece Beth made me when she was a kid.  She's in her 40's now with kids of her own. 

 

I had my final vacation day of the year today, which was super hectic with shopping, errands, lawn-mowing (it's Texas!) and more shopping.  Time to take a little breather.  Spend time with your loved ones this holiday season, cook something together, and get some rest.  PEACE to all!

Then & now? Sooner or Later? Before & After!

Who's up for a little nostalgia?  (WE ARE!)  Well, girls & boys, this week, your blogmistress stepped out the front door for the mail, and what was out there?  A couple of huge boxes, that's what.  (WHAT WAS IN THEM?)  I'm glad you asked.  A cool, retro bike was in them!!  Ok, it was in several pieces, but now it's one awesome bike.

How did this come to be?  Let's rewind about 40 years.  We called this Mom's bike, and so it was.  It's a big, heavy, one-speed.  Your blogmistress, being smart and industrious, not to mention semi-brawny, took over brother Bill's paper route when he went to work at A&P in the early 70's.  She needed a summer ride to deliver those papers!  Enter Mom's bike.  Here we are, Mom & daughter, probably at the precise moment of hand-off.  Look, there are the papers, behind the bike!

Big brother Dave stored this bike in his garage or barn for many years.  Last year, after Bill finished restoring the Ding-Ray, he needed a new project.  So he restored Mom's bike!  What a fine job he did, too.  Thanks Bill-Ding!  I don't have any purple bellbottoms these days, but I tried to capture the same stance - check it!

Bill tricked it out with a headlight on the front fender and a horn - the original, paper route workhorse didn't have that - don't we all need a little enhancement as we get older?  (Botox?  SURE!  Boob job?  NO!)

When is the last time you rode your bike, just for fun?  Get out there & start pedaling. 

The drought is definitely OVER, at least in Texas

I think it has rained for at least 10 days straight in Houston.  What a contrast to last year!  There is still a drought throughout the midwest, and the farmers are feeling that pain.  I don't think we'll be complaining about rain for a long time to come.  Along with the rain, though, comes more creepy mushrooms.  They're everywhere in the garden!

Everywhere!  I think they're nasty.

You know what we don't have, though?  That crappy jasmine I pulled out while the house was being built.  I did such a good job of that, I haven't seen one leaf of the stuff since we moved back in.  Hurray!  Cuz it was worse than the mushrooms, and harder to get rid of.