Exceedingly Mundane

I took a few pictures yesterday and today of things blooming and growing, and also one of a little chickadee eating from the suet feeder.

If you’re interested in things like that, click on the extended entry to check out all of the pictures 🙂

Disclaimer: Lest you get the wrong impression and think I have a green thumb or something, please let me state the obvious. I’m only taking pictures of the things that have actually lived and are blooming. I won’t be posting pictures of all the plants and flowers that I have killed or that are dying. I know I should, to be fair, but I won’t. 😆

Petunias in a hanging basket I planted:

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Well, today is the last day of our long 3-day holiday weekend. We just got back from Gail’s house. The guys played in the scramble yesterday and had a really good time. Their team had 7 players on it, and I think they came in 3rd or 4th, I’d have to double check with Tim or Don to get the exact results. Irregardless, they had a great time, then went to eat a steak dinner at the clubhouse afterwards. They were late getting in, so we decided to stay another night. Gail and I had kept busy reading, watching TV and playing dominoes till they got home. We all watched 2 movies – Big Momma’s House 2 and Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius (how fitting, a golf movie!). Tim and I slept late this morning while poor Don had to get up and head into work. They’re really busy with this hot, dry weather we’re having.

Tim and I are going to try to go to a matinee this afternoon, probably to see XMen 3. Not sure about the grilling, we may just pick up fast food. That’s still up in the air!

It’s been a really busy, really fun weekend. Makes me wish we had 3 day weekends every week!

It’s day two of the long Memorial Day weekend and we’re still at Gail’s house, and having a really good time. We got here yesterday and all had lunch together, then the guys went to play golf. Gail and I went shopping and got back right before my dad got here. We made a dessert –this one– and then made supper. The guys finally came back after 18 holes of golf and lots of sun. We had intended to watch a movie after supper, but everyone got to talking and telling stories and jokes, and we just never seemed to get around to putting the movie in. 🙄

Today, Tim and I went to Sunday School with Don and Gail, and then we all went to church. They had a really nice Memorial Day service, including having every family place flowers at a cross in front, in remembrance of all of the soldiers who had given their life in service to our country. We went to the local Chinese buffet for lunch afterwards, then the guys headed out to the golf du jour – a scramble at Don’s country club. Dad left for home about mid-afternoon.

And there you have it – a bona fide update. Not sure if we’re going to stay tonight or head home. It will depend on how tired the guys are from another full day of golf, and if we stay to watch a movie or play games, or Tim is tired enough to just want to go home and crash. Either way, I think we’re going to try to grill out tomorrow and maybe take in a movie, a matinee. I’ll try to report back later on that! 🙂

We’re going to be gone some on this long holiday weekend. Gail and Don have invited us up to their house, and we’re headed there this morning. Don and Tim are going to play golf on Saturday and Sunday, and Gail and I are going to hang out. 🙂

I’ll try to post something later from up there – hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

We planted a couple of day lily bushes a few years ago, and they bloomed really well the first year or two. The last couple of years, they haven’t done as well. I imagine I need to divide them or separate them or something, but I just never seem to get around to it. This year, when we redid one of the flower beds, Tim moved one of the daylillies and it is really struggling just to stay alive. Of the three that are remaining in their original spot, only one of them is getting buds and acting like it is going to bloom. Oh well, you can’t win em all!

Yesterday, I noticed that the one that is doing well had a lot of buds on it, and I took a picture, with the intention of blogging about “waiting on a bloom”. Obviously, I never got around to making that post 🙄 So, here’s yesterday’s picture, buds waiting to open:

And this morning, I was greeted with this, my first bloom of the season:

There, a flower picture for the day 🙂

It’s going to be downright hot here today – hope everyone else has a bright, happy, sunshine-y kind of day

Here’s a couple of new acquisitions we picked up over the weekend…

For Tim, a new chipping net:

If you’ll notice in the picture, there’s a white blur on the top right, I think the golf ball glanced off the rim on this particular shot! You can see in the background what he was using, an old flower pot planter. I used to have several terra cotta pots in the back for repotting in the spring (I stored them back there in the winter). They are all gone – they’ve been broken by various and sundry golf balls. 🙄

For Stacy, a new bird bath hanging from a shepherd’s hook:

Another busy Saturday for us. I got up early (before everyone else, that doesn’t happen very often!) and went outside to water all the plants. I think our coolish days and chance of showers are over for a while. It’s hot and dry and very humid here now. High today around 92º. My flowers and all my new shrubs needed water, so I got out while it was still cool and watered everything – took nearly an hour!

We all had breakfast and got ready and drove Suzie out to the airport. We were so glad she got to come visit and stay. We went out last night, to Pepitos, and then watched another movie from our collection (The Saint, Suzanne’s pick). I hope she enjoyed being here, we really enjoyed having her.

After the airport, we headed out to our new Bass Pro Shop. The restaurant has opened since we were there last – Islamorada Fish Company. We looked around a while and then went in for lunch. Check out the lunch menu here. There was a coupon in the paper a couple of weeks ago when they opened to get a free appetizer with entree, and we decided to try the alligator. Tim had had alligator before, but this was a first for me. It was pretty good, not really like fish and not really like meat or chicken (I thought it would taste like chicken, isn’t that a standard response – it tastes like chicken?!) They also bring out some really good fresh baked bread, so by the time our entrees got there, we were nearly full I got the Islamorada Fish Sandwich with fries (grilled, mahi mahi instead of grouper) and Tim got the Angus Sirloin burger. It was all really good. Pricey, but good.

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Yesterday was a good day, my dad and both sisters came into town and we all got to spend some time together. That doesn’t happen very often, maybe a couple of times a year, so I always really enjoy it when we can all be together.

Gail got here first, and we ran a couple of errands together, including Walmart and the library. She’s a bad influence on me, I’m telling you. I struggle with narrowing down my book choices in the library to just 3 or 4 books. With Gail with me, I walked out with six, count em 6, books 😆 Oh well, some of them will read quickly, and I can always call in and recheck them out if I can’t read them in time. Check out my sidebar for all of the books.

Dad and Suzanne got here not long after we got back from Walmart. We all went to Vasilio’s, a little Greek place near our house. We had hummus and pita bread, and then we all had sandwiches (gyro’s for me and Suzie, chicken gyro for Gail and souvlaki for Dad). The sandwiches were good, but a little dry (we all wanted more tzatziki sauce on our sandwiches ). It was good though, and I always love going there. We came back to my house and hung out for a while. Dad took a nap, and Gail and Suzanne and I visited, worked some Sudoku’s and I showed them all the flowers and shrubs we had planted in our yard. We hated to see Dad and Gail have to leave, but they had to head out in the late afternoon to drive back.

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I blogged briefly over the weekend about how we spent all Saturday working in our yard. Tim and I were both worn out by the time we finished, which was right before dark. I’ve been fairly sore ever since, from stretching muscles that I apparently don’t use regularly. 🙄

We got a lot done, though, and we were really pleased. We had originally planned to redo one of the big flower beds in the backyard and maybe build an arbor or swing, or (Stacy’s idea ONLY) make a patio type area where we could put chairs and a firepit (I was outvoted quickly on this one). 🙂 Instead, in the end, we decided to basically redo the bed like we had it before, except with some new plants. We even put some plants back in that we had in that bed before (which drives me nuts, we dug up perfectly good plants and put them at the curb for the garbage man to take away, then went back and bought the same thing). Enough to make a penny-pincher like me nuts.

Anyway, we got most of it done, and I took a few pictures. Check out the extended page if you’re so inclined.

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Isn’t that the name of some really old movie, or maybe a line from a really old movie? “My Little Chickadee” ?? I’m thinking some kind of Mae West line or movie, which, of course, I’ve never seen.

Anyway, I’ve been trying for months to get a picture of some of the different birds that visit my bird feeders. The chickadees are some of the hardest to get – they skirt in and out in a heartbeat. And they’re so small, that they really don’t show up when I try to take pictures from inside the house (where I take 95% of my bird and squirrel photos).

I was out in the yard a couple of days ago, taking pictures of the flowers and flower beds, and a chickadee swooped past me to the feeder, so I was finally able to get a picture:

And yesterday, I took this picture of a dove perched on the roof of the little boathouse/shed next door:

OK, that will hopefully be all of the wildlife photos for today. I’m going to post some pictures soon of all the plants we planted in our yard over the weekend, and some of my flowers blooming in the yard. Don’t all jump up and down at one time, yelling and screaming in anticipation

Today, Monday, is going to be a major catch-up day for me. We were so busy all weekend, and I wasn’t able to do a single thing around here. I have a mountain of dirty laundry, and a dirty house to go with it (complete with dirt and grass that we tracked in all day Saturday). I am really sore from all the yard work on Saturday, and have a few pictures that I need to upload and post. We are really happy with all the work we got done in the yard. We have to go get more mulch, but we did get everything planted. I’ll need to “tend” to all those flowers and shrubs for the next couple of weeks, and baby them enough to get them growing and blooming. 🙂

We had a great time yesterday visiting with Tim’s mom. It was nice to be able to go to church with them, then have lunch and have a nice long visit.

Suzanne is headed to Hattiesburg later today, so it will be wonderful to see her later this week. I better get the guest rooms cleaned up before she gets here! 🙂

Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms out there.

Unfortunately, this is still an especially difficult time of the year for me. I still struggle with the fact that I will never be a mother, and now, for the last several years, I have been without my own mother. Dodie, I still miss you every day 😥 Thankfully, I have a wonderful mother-in-law, whom we are going to see today, and spend the day with her. So, at least I still have one mom!

Here’s an interesting Mother’s Day tidbit – did you know that it was President Woodrow Wilson made Mother’s Day a national holiday in 1914?

Have a great day 🙂

Today is the first sunny Saturday we’ve had in a couple of weeks. So, we’ll be spending the day working in our yard. We’ve spent all morning out buying flowers, shrubs, roses, mulch, pavers, soil and sand. I think we have more to do than we have hours left in the day!

UPDATE: We worked all day, until almost dark, and got a lot done. Still more to do, but it looks a lot better around here! I took a few pictures and will try to post some in a few days. 🙂

I was putting out a new medical poll on the homepage of Hambones earlier, and I noticed that the word of the day is “turgid”. That’s not a word I’m familiar with. I consider myself to have a decent vocabulary and to be an average or above average speller (yes, I’m conceited today :mrgreen:). Learning new words is something I don’t do enough of these days, so I thought I’d pass this along.

According to Dictionary.com, turgid means swollen, bloated or puffed up. Hmmm. Not a word I’d use everyday, but still.

Also, I’ve had a lot of things on my mind lately, and I wondered earlier today – do other people respond to things like I do? More specifically – do they eat more when they are upset, stressed, mad, angry, depressed or whatever. I know I do. I wish, wish, wish I was one of these people who didn’t like to lose myself in a candy bar or a bowl of ice cream, but I am. I tend to just eat more when I’m concerned or stressed about something, so I thought I would do a quick poll. Please vote and let me know if you’re the same way, or you’re one of the lucky ones – do you actually not eat any more when you’re stressed?! Lucky you if you are!