For Tracy

This went to Tracy, my hairdresser, because she taught me how to dry my bangs this week. I'm 50, nearly 51. You'd think I'd know how to do that, wouldn't you? But anyway, I they look so much better, and lots of other people have liked my hair this week. Natalie even asked me if I'd had some "work" done. So for that, Tracy got flowers--daisies and acacia along with sprouting curly willow. The container is one of the purses that Lori found at Goodwill. This was so much fun to make. The tag says, "Thanks for my new bangs!"

Rabbits

Their tracks are everywhere everywhere all over the yard. This one set reminds me of the face from The Scream. I'm going to set out on a hunt for Milorganite. Milwaukee takes their sewage and turns it into a sanitized pellet form. Some people on the GardenWeb forums swear it's a good rabbit repellent. Gives me an excuse to go to Greenview tomorrow. . . sounds like a good outing for a wintery January Saturday.

Makes Me Smile

My mama has been at it again. What a valentine!

Sweet Peas

Martha Stewart published an article about Sweet Pea Gardens in her magazine a few years ago. Their garden is in Maine, where I'm sure they can grow beautiful sweet peas. Here, with our heat and humidity, they are trouble. They need to be planted early. They need a six foot trellis. (Thank you,Mark!) And the rabbits think that they are appetizers, so we have to put up one of those tacky little fences around the rows. But when they bloom, they are the sweetest flowers ever. So the order is in the mail. . .
sweetpeagardens.com

Sunday Snow

Park's Order

I woke up really early this morning and couldn't go back to sleep. So I ordered seeds! Here is salvia artemis from Park's (#4959). It's really hard to pick a favorite, but this is definitely one of my favorites from last year's season. And it's still out there. Squashed and frozen, but still green. So we'll see if it might be perennial too.

Seed Orders

It's time to start ordering! Roger Swain recommends Oregon Giant snow peas, so I'll try those this year. For zinnias, I always go with Benary's Giant. Johnny's has both in their catalog.

Ellen's New Haircut!

Here's Ellen with the cutest new hairstyle. She's holding her long long ponytail that she has been growing for Locks of Love. Such a sweet thing to do, Ellen--some little girl will be so happy to have her new hairstyle too!

More Tulips

More Ice

Not As Easy As It Looks

This is my attempt at a recent teleflora design. I thought it would be really easy and we could have the patients make some up to sell for Valentine's Day. But nope, not this one. Although it is pretty and I'm going to try to improve upon it.

Two of My Favorite Artists

I just got back from Lexington a couple of days ago. Todd and Lori made us so welcome, as always.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Here's my beautiful daughter-in-law Rachel. She's terrific--artistic, creative, funny, she loves to read and garden, she loves animals, and she has a tender heart. What I really love about Rachel is how she loves loves loves my son Judson. And for that alone, she is the world's best daughter-in-law.

Zone 6 Gardening

I've always wanted to move back home to Kentucky so that I could garden in Zone 6. Zone 6 is where your hydrangeas bloom year after year after year. And where azaleas and rhodies can grow tall and full and lush--instead of the little two-feet-tall miniatures that are here in this "northern" garden. But now, thanks to global warming, Zone 6 has come to me! It's hard not to love 50 and 60 degree weather in January. Kelly and I have been sitting on the back porch most mornings. And I could, if I would, go out there and do a lot of gardening right now. It's pretty wet, but I could move, prune, and/or plant perennials, shrubs, trees right now. Maybe not everything would survive, but some would. Anyway, here's the site for the new hardiness map. There a cool feature where you can press play and watch the map change from the 1990 version to today's. http://arborday.org/media/mapchanges.cfm And even though I love this weather and I really really want a Zone 6 garden, I hope there's a day when we (and our children and our children's children) can use all the energy we want because it's clean, it's cheap, it creates more than enough jobs for everybody right here in this country as well as any other country that is interested, and we don't have to fight anybody for it.
NOTE: This rant inspired by Garden Rant. http://www.gardenrant.com/my_weblog/

Better Than TV

I love this guy's pictures. His name is Brent Fultz. I always think that I'll watch the Rose Parade on TV, but then I get distracted by all the talk, the horses, the bands, the commercials, etc.
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~matsci/btf/Rose07/Closeups.html

Art Pillow by Peggy

Love love this!

First Vase of 2007

Went to see Tami yesterday. She's doing okay, but recovering from surgery is no fun. Pretty soon she is going to be hopping and skipping around. (Those little squiggles are from the passion flower vine. I kept a bunch of them and they are still cute--I'm thinking of spray painting some of them too. Maybe purple. . .)