armygeezer

12:46 pm: Spring Woes
Boo Hoo....my mail-order plants all arrived today and the weather is abysmal. I want to put them out!!!! Where is spring????? What's more, there's no end in sight for at least a week. I'm goint to have to wait for that elusive break in the weather and be ready with trowel in hand. I know all the rest of the NW gardeners are in the same condition as me......frustrated!

05:15 pm: Coming home
We get to pack our bags for the return trip tomorrow. I haven't won my sister's cats over yet....I must be losing my charm! One is on the verge, but it will all be for nothing. I miss my kitties. The weather has been pretty reasonable over all. It rained/snowed for the Bermondsey market, but cleared up. The 99% protesters were in force outside St Paul's Cathedral, so that was marred. The National Gallery was fabulous. The last time I did a tourist visit to London was 1978, so there are lots of changes.
Almost every square inch of London is being dug up. Traffic is horrendous. Every thing is rushing towards completion for the Olympics. I think that there will be massive unemployment when it's all done..they will have completed everything that needs to be done.
It'll be nice to get back to sane traffic.

07:58 pm: Out of Loop
Hi Ho, Hi Ho....it's off to London I go! I just tried to check in online, but for some reason, their site isn't working. Oh well, I have to get luggage on so it doesn't really make a difference. I'll be back on the 19th. Ya'll have fun!!!

01:27 pm: Black Friday
I refuse to go out and be a part of a mob to save a couple of dollars. Today the sun is out, and I am enjoying the continued garden display. This is a camellia that has just started to bloom. I love this one. It will be done just before the end of the year.

10:12 am: November already????
We went to the O'Gallery day auction yesterday. I didn't get ANYTHING....what a miracle. I think it's because people are starting to look for cheap christmas gifts and drive the prices up. There was also a guy there that apparently has an online store that just buys everything and won't quit until he gets what he bids on (and he bought lots of stuff).
Anyway. Mum bought 2 large Royal Dux statues that she had to have, and of course, when she got home she had nowhere to put them except where I have my stuff. She put the favorite on a chinese plant stand that's behind her chair, to which I said I would not be held responsible should the cats knock it off. She took the other one down to her lair and found she couldn't squeeze it into there, so she stuck it on the piano.
Neither of these positions satisfy me. She looked for somewhere else and concluded that one would fit on a small table that I have one of my surround speakers on. Apart from the fact that it would terrible there, I told her you don't put anything in front of speakers. Now she's trying to conjure up somewhere else. I try to tell her to think of where she's going to put anything she wants, but that reasoning doesn't work. I've learned to do it for myself (it works inside the house...but not in the garden!).
When we go out, I get a true idea of how she spent her time and money when she was on her own. The other day we went to Ross's and she "had to have" a set of cutlery that was on sale. WHY?????? She's forever buying stuff she doesn't need or thinks she wants to give to someone because she believes they need it. She would do this almost every day. Enough griping...I knew she did this, but I didn't realize how much she's miss it.

05:29 pm: Autumn Blahs
I've been sitting round the house lately feeling useless. I've gotten all the plants and bulbs in (bar the ones that haven't arrived yet) that I ordered during the year and had to wait for the right planting season. I've watered faithfully all summer (resulting in the biggest water bill ever) in anticipation of the flowering season next year. I can only hope I don't lose a whole lot. I think one of the pacific irises has croaked, but I won't know for sure until next year. I'm going to have to hold myself back in spring so that I don't kill whatever I have in now.
For the moment the roses are still putting out late flowers and the nasturtiums and gaura are going great guns. Oh...the Mums are doing well too.
Mum had me move some of the bulbs that were crowded in her garden, so I'm hoping I've given them a new lease on life. I got them from Hedgerows a few years ago, and now that Hedgerows is gone, I don't have any other source for them. I really miss that nursery, they always had great stuff.
Anyway, now all I can do is watch what I have die back and anticipate next spring. I don't see the hellebores doing much, but I can always hope.

04:10 pm: What's going on?
Our telephone stopped working on Tuesday night. Naturally we didn't know it wasn't working till Thursday morning because Mum had a telephone bid at the auction house on Wednesday night that didn't get through. When she called to complain there was no dial tone!
We called Frontier and they couldn't get out until Friday to fix it, but it turned out to be a "BIG" short in the line. Thankfully the guy was able to fix it. Then today, the pole holding up the satellite dish fell over. I had no idea these guys worked on Sunday, but the repairman was in the driveway when Mum and I got back from Church. Turns out the pole the dish was installed on had rusted through. Jeeze...it hasn't been up THAT long.
Now I'm wondering what else will fall apart around here?

03:16 pm: Bloody critters
We've had sneak attacks on our chickens this week. We've lost 2 so far and the week isn't over yet. What pisses me off it the critter doing the killing is only eating the heads and necks. I went to Wilco today to get some chicks to cover these losses and any future ones, but they were out until tomorrow.....but I did get hay for the horses! I'm going to have to get Dannl Boone to get his shotgun out and start scaring these critters again. It's been quiet a few years since the last killings, so they must need a reminder of why they should stay away!

06:17 pm: The light at the end of the tunnel
I'm feeling pretty virtuous right now! The LAST hardwood floor has been laid, the painting is almost done, and I've finally put the cabinet together so that I can get my excess DVDs and CDs organized. I still have to replace the trim I tore out around the window (the baseboard was replaced as well) and clean said window. I've been going through my clothes trying to make myself ditch some of them. In that process I found a brooch that has been missing for about 10 years!
THEN I have to find new sheer curtains for said window. The ones I took down were good, but too long (and I'm not cutting them to fit).
The reason for feeling virtuous is that I've put off doing this room for years. I should have done it when I was doing the flooring, but there was just too much furniture and junk in the room. The situation was never going to get better, and for some reason we'd had to clear out some of the stuff, so it was a case of now or never.
When I'm done with this room, I'm going to have to get up to the barn and try to clean up some of my mess in there. I don't want Mr. Grumpy using me as an excuse not to do his "work".

05:55 pm: I've been nudged!
OK....OK.....I haven't posted in a while.....SORRRYYYY!!!

I've been busy in the garden trying to get stuff in while we have lovely weather. The goal is to have the perennials establish themselves this year so they can put on a show for me next year. I went to Heirloom Roses for their end of year sale and bought 6 miniature roses and 7 regular roses that were all half priced....you can't beat it with a stick.
Then I went to Ferguson's Fragrant Nursery and bought some penstemmons, 12 hellebores, a few daylillies, a lilac tree that blooms twice a year (it was blooming which is how I noticed it) and a viburnum that has big berries on it! Oh, and 4 delphiniums. I spent yesterday afternoon and most of today getting it all in, as well as top dressing with mulch.

Last weekend I took Mum to Dancing Oaks Nursery in Monmouth. I'm glad it was worth the drive, but there's no way I'll ever go more than twice a year....way too far to drive. It was almost in Corvallis. I bought a ton of unusual stuff there (stuff I've been looking for and haven't found anywhere else). I'm pooped from all the digging and carrying, but the garden under the gazebo should look fabulous next January. I'm just waiting on 2 mail orders from VanEngelen and Adelmans to come in so that I can finish it. I think gardeners live in anticipation of their gardens. We have such big hopes as to what plants will look like when they've had a chance to settle and bloom. I hope all this work and $$$ is worth it.

Jury duty starts tomorrow. That is, I have to call in the afternoon to see if they want me the next day.

The new algae killer seems to be doing its job and I can see the fish swimming now (but not all the way to the bottom). They have to be feeling better not having to swim in green soup. It's only been in 2 days and it said it took about a week to clean the water, but it's doing a great job so far.

I also finished all the existing "Game of Thrones" books. I'm now bereft because it will be years before he gets the next book finished. Now I'll do a little light reading and then start on the Bryce Courtenay books I haven't read yet...as well as get the study/bedroom emptied so that I can put the hardwood floors down and get that job finished (I've put it off for a couple of years now). I'm tired just thinking about that mountain of work!