GoodReads

http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/1811866
Today the library was closed, so Danielle and I had a little time to play with Web 2.0. I really want to complete this, but we are so busy down here that I can't find two minutes to myself it seems. Anyway, I have a GoodReads account and I have set up my profile, and the one book that I have actually read this month! I think the library could use this to share reviews and help people see what might be interesting to them. I like this idea, but honestly - I can't image having time to use it myself.

A visit to the library

This Wednesday, my mother and sister visited the library to see the Christmas trees on display. This is a wonderful family tradition that we enjoy. I hope to add some pictures of my mom and Carrie with all the lovely decorations. Afterwards we went to Alexander's for lunch and to plan our Thanksgiving dinner. I am having the family at our home and love baking for everyone. Gary is going to cook a turkey breast on the smoker, while I roast the main turkey inside. I have lots of work to do to finish painting the kitchen before the big day.

Working on the Wiki Thing

This weekend I've been working on the Wiki thing from home. I wrote a piece for the Tapestry of Freedom wiki, but I put it in the wrong place. After I wrote it, I realized that I had it in the teen section. I deleted it and copied it to another section, but I'm not sure that it really got there. I spoke to Billie on Saturday while I was working and she said that she would fix it. Since then, I logged onto the wiki about Library Success and printed out some information about Online Library Card Registration at Contra Costa County Library. They also issue e-Cards for online use only. I am not sure why they do that and how the licenses work for their online resources, if their customers never enter the library and never establish residency with proof of I.D. Since I am hoping to do a soft launch of our online library card registration this week it was interesting to see what their website looked like. It was an easy way to access shared information- the pro. The con for wikis is that all of the information may not be reliable, since it looks like editing may be easy to do and misinformation may be included. I read an interesting thing online about Sarah Palin. It sounded as if someone wrote a glowing bio of her in a wiki, just before she was announced as the Rep. candidate for Vice President. Afterward, other people added and edited the bio to reflect a more candid account of her career. I just thought is was interesting. I like the idea of the library using wikis. I see this as a great tool for people to add information about our exhibits. I wish that I had taken the time to write down some of the stories that customers told me when we had the replica of the Lincoln Memorial statue. A wiki would have been a good place to store those personal stories.

Podcasting put me to sleep

I was listening to Uncontrolled Vocabulary with its monotone narrator who sounded as bored with his topics as I was. They talked about the director of the Hartford Public Library retiring. She is 74 years old. Apparently there was some kind of security issues that may or may not have been the reason for her planned retirement. Then they discussed the Joy of Sex book being banned at the Nampa Library, but the board reversed their decision when the ACLU got involved. I finally gave up when they went on and on about the lawsuit between J.K. Rowling and the lexicon that contained' "no original commentary." I hope I find some interesting podcasts, but this was not one of them.

Just a side note...I missed church Sunday because I worked. When I got home and checked my email, there was a message from my pastor that this sermon series was too important to miss- so he sent an attachment of the complete video "vodcast?" of his message. After I listened to it, I mentioned to my husband how "out there" that was. He said, " Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you there was an automated message on the answering machine from our pastor saying you needed to go to church this Sunday." Boy, even Denise would be impressed with their marketing- "as mission" staff!

YouTube and Teens

Today I was trying to find a fun YouTube site that I saw awhile ago. It was a promo for teen use of the library with a really "hip" teen librarian and some teens doing a rap about how cool the library is for teens. I couldn't find it again, but this site http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=biQnC0gsTu0
was one of Sarah Long's vodcasts from the Evanston Public Library's Teen Zone. One of the areas that I believe should be at the top of our list in strategic planning is an area dedicated and designed for teens. Lisel and I are working on the Teen Winners program that we do every October for Teen Read Month, but I want to do much more to increase teen usage in our library.

Social Bookmarking is FINALLY done!

Thank you, Margaret! You have the patience of a saint. Even finding a site to bookmark was painful. I wanted to read how circulation staff were using Web 2.0, but everytime I typed in "circulation," all that came up were sites on fans. I did see a really cool site that had some kind of graphic pattern that changed size and color intensity. The "blobs" represented the Dewey numbers of the popular items that were circulating at the library. It took me back to the psychedelic 60's. It also reminded me of the Seattle Public Library with its digital screen that ran the Dewey numbers of items scanned in. I won't tell Denise- we would need to run out and get another plasma screen just for that. Anyway, I hope that podcasting goes a whole lot easier. Thanks again for your help, Margaret.

Rain, rain, go away!

My husband and son were planning on spending yesterday and today working on our pond project. Unfortunately, it rained so much, they spent most of the time trying to pump the rain water out. The pond is much bigger than even I imagined. I bought a tarp to cover it before the last storm, but it hardly covered half of it. This project feels like it is taking a life time. They finally did install the underwater pipes for the filtration system. It is really deep. They assure me that our fish (if we ever get that far) will be able to survive the winter below the freeze line. I did have a pair of mallards swimming in there earlier this summer, so I can always hope. But in the meantime, another thunderstorm is in the forecast. The good news is that my "nursery" where I am raising plants for the garden area is doing great. The ornamental grasses are looking healthy and happy and the hostas I've been dividing are blooming nicely. I have a lot of daylilies in a bucket that I dug up when I worked on the irises last month, so I need to find a place to plant them temporarily. It has been a very good summer for the garden.

Surprise welcome home

Last night when we pulled up to our home, I couldn't help but smile. Big, bright sunflowers were welcoming us home! The funny thing is - I did not even plant them. Awhile back, I put a birdfeeder in the butterfly garden. The squirrels loved it and buried sunflower seeds in little holes along the front of the house. They are the perfect addition to the colorful flowerbed that welcomes everyone to our home.

I really enjoyed our vacation. Gary did a great job of planning the trip and I was able to just relax and enjoy it. I especially loved Tybee Island. The beach was so relaxing. I loved walking along the sand with my feet sinking into the wet sand and the waves tickling my ankles. The sound of the seagulls calling and the waves crashing washed all my stress away.

I do have to admit that swimming in the ocean was another thing all together. First, I kept seeing the fishermen on the pier pulling in sting rays and baby sharks. I figure- if there are baby sharks, there are mom and dad sharks swimming with me. Then, we went out dolphin watching and the guide told us that the shrimp boats were hauling in whole schools of jelly fish. All of that sealife is more than I wanted to share the water with. But I did love diving into the waves though.

Vacation time!

The last couple of weeks have been crazy busy, but now I am on vacation. I spent the weekend doing what I love- working on my garden. I have more pictures to add, but for now I am packing for a trip to Savannah, Georgia. I am sure that I will have lots more pictures of gardens to add when I get back.

I took a "fuzzy" picture of a beautiful black and blue butterfly yesterday. I will have to try to figure out what it was. The monarch butterflies have been very uncooperative; they either fly away or just keep moving away from me. My neighbor was laughing at me and of course, he came over with his camera and got a great shot of the one I had been trying to "capture."

I am sure that I will have lots to add when I get back.

Heavenly Day

After watching the vines spread and the leaves sprout all over my Monticello trellis, FINALLY, this morning the first Heavenly Blue Morning Glory welcomed the day. I love the color of these flowers. They make me happy just to think of them.
Also today the butterfly bush that I had planted in memory of my friend, Judy, started to open up. It doesn't look like much right now, but in just a few days it will be a solid mass of little purple flowers and the monarchs and swallowtails will be regular visitors.
Iam going to see the new home that Becky is moving into this afternoon. This will be the first time that she has a yard to plant in. I am really looking forward to helping with that.

Rainy day

Well, it looks like my path project is rained out again. At least that is a small problem compared to all those families that have been flooded out. I saw a lot of that on my trip to Rockford and Racine, Wis. last weekend. On the bright side, the yellow coreopsis and the lavender-colored mallow have filled in nicely and are cheerfully blooming in the front of the house. The sun is trying to peek behind the clouds.

Summer is here!

This morning I found the first daylilies of summer bursting open like fireworks. Gary and I both have the day off- that is a big deal in itself. Every year we go to Swedish Days in Geneva and today was the perfect day for it. We enjoyed lunch outside and visited lots of shops. Afterward we stopped at the Natural Garden- one of my favorite nurseries and also visited Mainstreet Fireplace to see what's new. Then we met our son, Brian, at St. Charles Place for dinner.

In the morning, before we left for Geneva, I did a little trimming and weeding in the front of the house. A robin finally gave away her hidden nest in the magnolia tree by squawking at me furiously. I had wondered where her nest was. I've been watching her for awhile as she carried little bits of twigs from the butterfly garden daily.

A dragonfly followed me around for awhile, flitting from one branch to another. I also saw an orange butterfly that I did not recognize by the arbor. I really enjoy watching all the summer bugs and flowers.

Swedish Days was fun as usual. One of my favorite things is the Rosemaling competition and show. As usual, the Japanese artists were the top award winners in this Norwegian folk art. Their brush strokes are exquisite. I really need to find time to pull out some of the patterns I have been saving and "brush up" on my skills. I bought a huge arched mirror with great wood carvings that I want to add some roses and vines to give it a little more color and detail. I found it at Banbury Fair a few weeks ago. It just seems like I always have more ideas than time to get to them.

At the Natural Garden, I asked them for some suggestions about my clematis. I have several growing vigorously on the trellis, but they haven't bloomed. First she thought that the roots needed some ground cover plants or more mulch to keep them cool, but then she remembered that it takes two years for the root systems to really develope and that probably is the explanation, since these were planted last year and this year. It's hard to be patient. I took a picure of a beautiful white clematis vine in Geneva. The flowers were smaller than the usual variety, but they were everwhere. I will have to research that variety. I loved it.

Hauling plants in my new Jeep!

Well the road trip to Wisconsin was a success. I came home with a Jeep Liberty. Becky's boyfriend, Shawn, knew that Ireally liked her Jeep, so when he saw two for sale last week, he test drove them and did all the negotiating. As much as I hate car shopping, it could not have been easier. I still have some paperwork to do, but ...

Today I went Father's Day shopping and loved hauling flowers in the Jeep. In case you don't know, my husband, Gary, is also a gardener. I bought some healthy zinnias, which he loves and also some seed packets. We went out to breakfast in my Jeep and it was fun showing him the features my Jeep has- that his doesn't. He has the Wrangler, which is his Toy. He loves driving around with the top off, but so far the weather has not cooperated.

So far, the best things about my Jeep are the heated seats and the CD player. The funny thing is that I really enjoy Christian music and while I was driving back from Racine in a rain storm, I found out that the couple who sold me the car had left one of their worship CDs in the player. I will mail it back to them, but it was great to listen to that music and when the storm was over there was a huge rainbow in the sky.

My memory disc is full

Last night I was trying to take a video to add to my blog. I was all set to record the sound of the waterfall and the shimmering lights of my little fountain, but- my memory disc was full. So, I popped in another one and- the disc was full.

I think that is a metaphor of my life right now. At work I am dealing with PINs, Ecommerce and Online Registrations on top of budget planning, evaluations and hiring. At home I have a painting project started in the kitchen which was on hold while I recovered from surgery, the cement path project that keeps getting washed out and tomorrow I am going car shopping (which I hate!). My old reliable Saturn has seen almost 140,000 miles and better days. Before I sink any more money into it, I am going to try to replace it. So, it's off to Racine, Wis. and a new adventure, but- my memory disc is full. I do not want another thing to deal with.

But, to get back to why I am really writing today... I am happy to announce that Tara and I have successfully instant messaged each other. It is a minor miracle, since we have been running like crazy to keep up at work. I looked at the gate count and this week there were three days that over 3,000 visitors came to the library. It is really amazing. So, Thing 3 is completed, although as soon as Tina and I are working on the same day again, we are going to start Instant Messaging, if we are ever in our offices at the same time. Also, last night I played with some of my pictures from our Disney World trip and posted them on Flickr.com, so Thing 4 is also done. I have already posted pictures for my family on MySpace, so maybe that counts too for the Photo Sharing. Anyway, I am off to clean out my car, since I might be saying a fond farewell to it tomorrow.

Fountain flowing

Over the weekend, between rain storms, I worked on cleaning our water fountain. I cleaned all of the large rounded stones that we use to cover the wiring that runs the light fixtures on the bottom of the fountain and scrubbed the lining. It's looking really nice, although we had an electrical problem last night and Gary had to rewire the outlet on his day off. I want to clean up the area around it and shoot a video for the blog. I love the sound of the water pouring into the basin. At night the fountain is especially pretty with the light reflected in the copper and flowing water.

Playing with pictures

I finally connected the card reader to my computer at work. I am still struggling to figure out how to load pictures and edit, but it's getting there. I still can't seem to delete the ones that failed to completely load at home. We had several big storms come through over the weekend, so many of my flower beds look "beaten up." I noticed that the shepherd's hook with the bird feeder and hanging basket was knocked over, so I will need to fix that. I bought some dill for the butterfly garden, cosmos for the front of the picket fence and some heavenly blue morning glories for the trellis to go with the clematis. Hope it stops raining soon, so I can go play in the garden.

First rose

It's been a busy week in the garden, but I've been too busy at work to really enjoy it. I do have a nice flower arrangement in my office of iris, peonies and snow-on-the-mountain. My Peace rose had it first flower of the season, I love the rosebud- but I've never been a fan of rose flowers. It does have a nice scent though. I took some pictures of the cloud of pink primrose under the magnolia tree and some of the plants in the front of the house. If I have time tomorrow, I will try to use the gadget Denise talked me into buying. It is a card reader to use on my computer at work, since this home computer keeps crashing on me. It's the only way that I can figure out how to load pictures into my garden blog. Hope it works.

Creating a new path

This weekend I found a form that I can use to create a pathway to the potting shed. I also bought some liquid cement color to add to the cement to give it a more natural appearance. Today I started digging out the area that I am going to fill with the cement mold. I hope to add more interest to it by imprinting my fern leaves, stems of bleeding hearts and even some of those propeller seeds that are floating down everywhere. I expect this will be a very long project, since I have to mold one section at a time, but it is a small area.

Yesterday I salvaged a shepard's hook that was buried in the woodland walk area. I put it next to the shed in my new butterfly garden and hung one of the bird feeders on one side and an arrangement of red, white and deep blue annuals in a hanging basket on the other side. I still need to really trim the dogwood tree in that area, but it's coming along.

I hope to have a little sun tomorrow morning. I finally fixed my digital and I want to get a picture of the iris before the storms destroy the fragile blooms. I am having a terrible time with my computer at home, so I bought a card reader to download pictures from my memory card into my computer at work. Last time I tried to download pictures into my blog, my computer froze and I have two boxes where I tried to insert a picture, but nothing appears. Hope to try some new pictures tomorrow at work.

Iris sighting!

When we sold the home that I grew up in, my mother gave me the rhizomes of some amazing bearded iris. They were beautiful purple and white flowers. They have been in one of the flower beds in the front of the house for years now, but last year they did not bloom at all. When I checked the rhizomes, they were dried out and dead. So, I was pleasantly surprised to see some of the plants sending up leaves and flowers this year. I am reading up on how to propagate these plants in one of my favorite gardening books, Perennial All Stars. In about six weeks I will need to remember to dig up the entire bed and "refresh" them, but it will be worth it. They are a real treasure to me. I used to always make an arrangement for my mother and she loved them.

Flowers as enlightenment

One of my favorite things to do is- browse in book stores. Isn't that crazy! I work in a library, but when I go to a book store I see all these titles that I want to read NOW. So, when I was at Barnes & Nobles over the weekend, I made a list of the titles that I want to read this summer. I just finished reading The Shack, and now I'm starting A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. It's one of our Quick Picks, so I better dive in quick.

So true to my theme of gardens, the beginning is about the about the Flowering of Human Consciousness. It starts: "Earth, 114 million years ago, one morning just after sunrise: The first flower ever to appear on the planet opens up to receive the rays of the sun." What a great start!

To follow up on the RSS assignment, I wanted to let you know that I chose Google Reader and the feeds I signed up for are related to some of my interests. They are:Gardening Ideas, Oil Painting Video, Room to Read Gail Borden Learns, The Shifted Librarian and The Shack. I probably won't continue to use all of them, but they are interesting.

Loved the prize for Thing 1! Everyone can use that!

The ants are busy

It's that time of year again. The big black ants are busy working on the peonies. The first peony opened up this morning. I have 10 peony bushes and the ones with the southern exposure are always the first to bloom. The first flowers are the bright pinks and they are beautiful with the purlple iris that are just about to join them.

I'm still fighting this cold, so I really didn't do much again today. I made an arrangement with a few of the peonies for the kitchen table. They match the bleeding hearts arrangement in the hanging vase on the wall. Mostly I just watched HGTV and a program on the top 25 gardening mistakes.

I was very disappointed with the rain damage to some of my plants. I intended to make some sketches of some new white flowers and now all that's left are the stems. Last night when I was searching for RSS feeds, I looked up one of my favorite artists/authors/gardeners- Tasha Tudor. I wasn't even sure she was still alive. She is in her 90's. I love her studies of natural flowers and she is known for her heirloom seeds. I really need to find time to start drawing and painting again.

The Shack

Today I had a terrible cold. I overslept and when I woke up, I could not stop sneezing and I felt miserable. My neighbor, Fred, came over and gave me a rose bush he didn't want anymore. I didn't feel like going outside at all- but it was a beautiful day, so I went over to look at it. His wife, Char, couldn't remember what color it was, but I ended up taking it anyway. I guess it will be a surprise.

Basically, I stayed in the house and drank hot tea and slept. I am reading, The Shack, by William P. Young. I guess I can't completely get away from gardens. I especially enjoyed the chapter, A Long Time Ago, In a Garden Far,Far Away. Mack is told that the garden that he calls a mess, is really his soul. It is a very interesting story. Like Mack, sometimes I wonder how God can allow bad things to happen. This book really presents the Holy Trinity in a very unique way. I hope to finish it tonight.

Well, the Nyquil is setting in, so I'm signing off. I worked on the RSS feed and read about a really cool library in Holland.

Addition of a butterfly feature

This morning the sun was shining and I grabbed my camera to try to capture the morning light. I took a couple of pictures of some of the flowers that I have written about to add to the blog. I'm going to try to download them in a minute.

Also, based on the Creative Ideas magazine from Lowes, I worked on an area on the side of the house next to the potting shed to attract butterflies. Basically, all I needed to do was lay out a small area of stepping stones and a small patch of sand. The butterflies like to rest on the rocks, which absorb heat from the sun. The sand holds moisture and the butterflies drink water and get minerals from the sand. I bought a couple of bright blue salvia to add to the area. This area is really just my "nursery" where I am propagating new plants for the pond area- if that ever really gets finished. Although, I have to admit it was fun to see a pair of mallards swimming in the pond after the last big rain. Anyway, I spread out a few bags of mulch and moved the bird bath over there to give it a more finished look. It was a fun little project and I hope we will have some company soon. A few weeks from now the nearby bushes will be bursting into bloom and little orange butterflies- I think they are called Admiral butterflies, will be swarming them. It will be interesting to see if they really do like the new feature I worked on.

Well wish me luck, I'm going to try to download my pictures...Well, it looked like it was working, but I don't see anything. Guess I will have to try again next week with a little (lot) of help.

A Funny Flower

One of my favorite gifts was a notebook/calendar from my friend, Marcie. She knows that I love gardening and art. The notebook was based on Monet's garden and it was designed to record my memories of the garden each month. I saved lots of pictures of my favorite flowers in the pockets of the book.

I think that this blog will be my new memory keeper for this year's garden.

The very first special discovery this spring happened very early on a cold morning. I was just about to go to work, but I decided to cut some daffodils for a small vase. I love daffodils and have about a half dozen varieties. One in particular is a creamy white with a trumpet center. One of the flowers that I was about to cut looked deformed. So, I looked more closely at it. To my surprise, a white butterfly was sleeping inside the flower. I couldn't disturb her, so I left that flower uncut. It has been such a cold and wet spring that it was wonderful to find such a pleasant surprise and a great way to start my day.

Yesterday I had another surprise. I spotted a bright, big ball of purple floating two feet off the ground. It was that crazy allium that Gary planted a few years ago. It is such an odd plant. I just pops up almost overnight and then when it is done blooming, it just seems to disappear. I will have to try to take a picture of it for my blog. It is such a funny plant. I just remembered that Martha Stewart dedicated one of the covers of her Living magazine to alliums last year. I will have to find that issue and read up on them.

What's blooming?

I love this time of year. Every morning I enjoy taking a walk around the yard to see what's new. Today I enjoyed seeing some new blooms on the bleeding heart plants. They have really spread this year. I will need to divide them and share with friends. I especially love the scent of the lilies of the valley. I have a few cut flowers on the dining table and they are really pretty.



It looks like it has snowed in the back yard. Both of the flowering crabtrees have lost their petals, but the dogwood is still in full bloom.



I can't wait for my daughter to buy her first home, so I can share my plants with her.