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.