At least I'm not lazy;)

I came home yesterday and the white tulips that have been growing in the middle of my lawn every year were yellow. What is up with my yard that the white flowers turn into yellow ones?



I know I haven't been blogging as frequently as I used to and I haven't been commenting as much either. I also haven't been able to keep up with my gardening or other things in my life.



I thought I was being distracted or maybe just plain lazy. But it turns out after spending a few days in the hospital, that I have some diabetes and thyroid problems. Somehow that made me anemic and so I guess I've been sick and didn't even know it.



I'm going to be taking some time to get back on track, so I don't know how often I'll be posting. But I do think of you and check on your blogs often. And I'm going to leave you with a little something that made me smile today:)

SMILE;)

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day

I have flowers blooming! Not too many, but I still have to clean out the beds so that's ok. Let's see now, first I found the yellow daffodils that were supposed to be white when I bought them.I still haven't bought any bulbs from Home Depot since then.



Then I saw a few Periwinkle or vinca vine whichever you prefer. I prefer to call them invasive weeds.



Right below that is a Hyacinth,and there are purple and white ones in the front yard.



Last of all are these little white flowers I forget what they are called.



The crocus are done now and the tulips are just starting to think about getting buds. It's nice to have a few pretties come up before the grand show;)



Please visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for more about Garden Bloggers Bloom Day.

First Day of Spring

Spent most of the day spring cleaning. Still have a month to go before I can clean out the flower beds. I've been enjoying flowers all winter long inside. This Christmas Cactus has been blooming like this since November.Maybe I should call it a winter cactus.



The Hibiscus I was keeping warm decided to get bugs. White fly and scale, I hosed it down in the shower, sprayed it with insecticidal soap, and trimmed off all the bad stuff. It's an ugly thing now, but I'm sure it will get better.





I went outside after seeing these Crocus from the window.



The Surprise Lilies are in for a surprise when it snows again. The yard looks horrible right now, I can't wait for April.

It may be cold outside, the first real winter in Iowa for a long time. But at our house we have flowers year round.



I've saved six outdoor plants from winter death. My mother-in-law gives us her Hibiscus every Fall,before she moves back to Florida. I have two now and I'll have to start giving them away if I get anymore.



This plant was too pretty to let die, and I had a perfect spot in the south window to hang it.



Of course I'll always have my favorite winter flower on standby if all else fails.


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Happy New Year!

After my last post my second son informed me he was getting married in two weeks at a courthouse. What! We haven't recovered from the last wedding yet. So he got married November 2, 2008. Small wedding and a very small reception at a restaurant, and off to Branson they went for a nice honeymoon. They also moved out of my house and now we are down to 5 people:)



I'd talk about my garden but there just isn't much to talk about. I got a new gazebo to replace the one that blew away. But we couldn't get the tarp off without dismantaling it. I kept the snow off of it okay but the ice storms were too much for it and it is now ripped in four places:( I also have almost 1/3 of my wall in the secret garden finished. The bricks are pretty expensive so I get them a little at a time. For Christmas I recieved some Menards cards for more bricks, I might be able to finish it this Spring:)




The main reason I've been too busy to blog is Austin, Michael, Jayson and Baileigh. We have been spending lots of time together and by the time Austin goes to bed at night I'm too tired to type. Austin is potty trained, Michael is off the binkie, Jayson is walking, and Bailiegh is crawling and I'm glad I was here to see it. For me playing with babies is more fun than flowers:0



My mother is back up here for a while. She had another mini stroke on Christmas Day, I really wish she would quit smoking. There is not much more I can say about that.



I am now the Family Readiness Leader for my husbands unit up in Minnesota. I will probably be going there almost every month this year because they may be deployed by this time next year and we have a lot of training and work that needs to be done. Hopefully I will get a laptop and I will have more chances to blog, I mean work;)



Here's hoping 2008 is a good year for everyone, and a better year for my flowers and shrubs. This year I'm planning on doing a lot of seeds and spending the plant money on walls and paths and an arbor or two. I'm going to be using a lot of pine needles for mulch (it's free!) and I'm still pruning the lilacs a few branches at a time.

Trying To Be Green

Today is blog action day. It's a day for everyone to write about the environment. I've been thinking all week about what I should write about. There are so many issues that it would take more than one post. So I decided I would write about the little things we do around here and provide some links to some interesting sites.

We have been recycling for over ten years now, I started composting last year and now I have 2 compost bins. We replaced some of our light bulbs for compact fluorescent bulbs and this year we are giving them to the kids for Christmas. I joined Freecycle last year, I always try to buy our food locally , and whenever we buy a new appliance we always get one with the energy star.

There are other little things we do like trying to conserve water, growing our own food, and turning off the lights when we are not using them. And we never litter, I think it was those sad commercials we watched when we were kids.

I've been interested in green building for about 3 years now, ever since I read about a straw bale house in Mother Earth News. I've found quite a few different types of homes on the web like this earthship made out of recycled tires and this cute house in Wales. I would like to learn more about green roofs,solar water heating and using graywater.

Maybe someday we will have our dream house on our dream land and we will grow and raise our own food and have solar energy and live off the grid:) A hybrid car would be nice too. But until then we will just have to do what we can to make our environmental footprint smaller,one step at a time.

 

I was looking out the window this morning and saw this pretty rose, so I grabbed the camera and took a walk around the yard.

 

I saw a lot of weeds and trees that don't belong, and here and there little flowers to make me smile:)

 

Next year I must plant more Dahlias around the yard.

 

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Perfect time of year for Pansies:) They were my great grandmothers favorites according to my grandma so we always have some around the yard here and there.


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My baby got married last week. We had the wedding down in Derby at my dads. I decorated the house with twinkle lights and flower garlands everywhere. Michael wore a tux to match his dad and Baileigh was in a pretty white dress just like her mama. After that wedding we went to 3 more, 2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday. It was pretty hectic and now I must take a nap;)