Welcome June but where or where did May go?

Where did the month of May go? Turned around and it was gone. Not sure where it went. Time sure does fly. It has been a busy month. Hubby and I “teen sat” for three days in Des Moines.  It was fun to spend time with two of our grandsons without parents around. They seem to talk more. Another thing I forgot about teenagers. They can eat. Haven’t cooked for teenage boys in a long time.  Even was able to take in a couple of their soccer games. The weather was suited more for football, tho. 

We had seven graduation parties to attend. We, also, attended our grandson’s graduation ceremony in D.M. He has grown up to be a nice young man. And I do mean grown up. He is 6’3”. He is the tallest in our family of 24. We stayed overnight in D.M. and did some plant shopping with a couple of our daughters. Fun time. We were back in D.M. Memorial Day weekend for grandson’s graduation party. This weekend is my niece’s wedding reception. Add spring planting and yard work and May is gone. Welcome June 1.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Rose

P.S. New Hosta bed is coming along nicely.

Right on time and they are EVERYWHERE!

The Orioles arrived right on time, May 5. Not sure how they know the date, but they are very prompt and have always arrived at our house on the 5^th. Did you know they travel in flocks at night? The flock was apparently hungry after their long flight because our alarm clock on that morning, were the Orioles wanting “breakfast”. Normally, I try to have the feeders up and ready. But with the very cool spring, I thought the Orioles might be late arriving.

We have one nectar feeder and two jelly feeders. They love grape jelly. Hubby fills the votive like jars with grape jelly every morning and late afternoon. I told him we need to buy stock in the Welsh jelly company. We counted 18 at one time at the feeders. 

We counted 18 Orioles at one time.They were everywhere.

And, boy, do they fight. We have one we call THE BULLY. He will eat, fly up to a branch close to the feeders and proceed to yell and fight with any Oriole that tries to eat. Most of the time, he wins. But every once in awhile one will try to whole his ground and he retreats. Good thing we have two jelly feeders, one the east side of the house and the other on the south. While he is busy keeping his “friends” off of one feeder, there will be Orioles eating at the other one.

They are so beautiful and very entertaining.  What a fun way to spent a spring morning, watching the Orioles.

I hope this past week was a good one and the coming week even better. Rose

You can listen to the song of Orioles and learn some interesting facts about them here.

Songs and Facts of Orioles.

What a difference a week can make.

             What a difference a week makes. I transplanted these Hostas on April 30.

                      Same view a week to the day later. Nature is so amazing.

  

Have a good weekend,

Rose

Spring weather, our close call.

Spring, or should I say summer, is finally here. The temp got to 94 yesterday. And today there is a chance of severe thunderstorms. I love the warmer weather but I don’t like the storms that usually come with it. Here in Iowa the weather can go from beautiful and sunny to cloudy and stormy in no time at all.

Back in June of 1968, I was pregnant and very due with our fourth child. It was a beautiful late spring day. Sunny and a nice day to be outside. But by evening that all changed. Thunderstorms moved in by bedtime. After being outside most the day, very tired and very pregnant, I was sound asleep when hubby woke me up with” do you hear that?” I remember saying, “It is just thunder, go back to sleep.” I had just got the words out of my mouth with the slamming of doors and breaking of windows had both of us out of bed in a flash. The wind was so strong it blew our 2 ½ year old girl’s door shut. Over the sound of wind and glass breaking, we could hear screaming. Hubby had trouble getting her door open to rescue her. The foot of her bed was in front of the window and there she stood with glass all around her but not a scratch on her.  But hubby cut his foot getting her out. We got the other two girls and headed down stairs. By then the storm had passed. Apparently a tornado had dipped down but had not touched ground. All the windows on the south and west side of the house were broke and water was everywhere. A huge, very old tree was uprooted right on top of Hubby’s car. And Hubby just kept saying “Don’t decide to have that baby tonight.” God was with us that night. Yes, we had some damage but we still had a house and our lives. It definitely was a night to remember.

Stay safe,

Rose 

Carefree Hostas

This weather is so fickle, rainy and cold today. It was nice on Saturday so hubby and I worked outside most of the day. Hubby cleaning the garage and me doing yard work. Monday and Tuesday were our annual “clean up the town” day. On those days, you can haul just about anything down to the town area by the park and there is help to put the “stuff’ into town provided dumpsters. We always seem to collect “stuff” over the winter and it is a good time to get rid of it. Now if the yard work was as easy. I swear our yard has gotten bigger over the years. Or maybe I got older. When we first moved into our home many years ago, I WAS much younger. The house was surrounded by tall, shaggy bushes. I couldn’t even see out of any of the windows clearly. And with a couple of kids outside playing and a baby inside, it was important to be able to check on them. One cool spring morning, I had a brain storm of an idea to correct the problem. With axe, shovel and clippers in hand, outside I went. By the end of the day, I was able to see clearly out all the windows. Since that time, I have turned the area around the house into flower gardens. At first it was sun perennials but shape took over and how the area is filled various types of Hostas.  When I was doing daycare, I had a huge sandbox under a shape tree. After retiring from daycare last summer, I no longer needed a sandbox. What to do with that space. I wanted plants that were carefree. Hostas to the rescue. I have a lot of them and they needed divided. The price was right, and a perfect solution. 

The rainy weather we have had the last couple of days have been perfect. The Hostas love it. And you know what? It beats digging and chopping out wild bushes. 

Here are a few pictures I took last year  of Hostas around the house . I have planted them around trees and any other little space I can find in the shade. They are some of the easiest plants for shade, they bloom and they take no care when established. My kind of plant.

Happy gardening,

Rose

Purse organizer

Have you ever considered purchasing one of those purse organizers? You know, the ones that are supposed to make changing and organizing purse easier?  I have thought about it various times but always changed my mine figuring I didn’t really need it. One of my daughters and her family went to Mexico for spring break and bought me back a beautiful handmade hobo style purse.

The only pocket it had was one on the front of the purse. Now, if the person who made it was like the typical woman here in the states that carry just about everything but the kitchen sink in their purse, he/she would have put some pockets on the inside. So, I went to one of my favorite on line stores and found me a purse organizer.

 I love it. I was able to put everything I had in my purse into the organizer.

Then I put the organizer into my purse with ease.

Once the organizer was in my purse, I put my billfold on one side and my pack of hand wipes on the other. And my glasses case on the end. Perfect. And as bonus, I now can change purses with ease.

Now I am set to go shopping,

Rose

Happy Easter

Have a wonderful  Easter with family and friends,

Happy Easter

Rose