Second Look-4-28

I plan to take "A Second Look"  around my yard every week to see what perennials and shrubs are blooming. Here's what I found this week.

Dead nettle (Lamium m. Aureum) in my shade bed. The dark green leaves in the upper left corner are wintergreen or tea-berry. I got this because it reminded me of a favorite chewing gum from my childhood.

Pieris japoinica

 

The only tulip left that the deer haven't eaten.

White dogwood.

Pink dogwood--my favorite of all the trees that bloom in Spring.

The seventh variety of daffodil that we have found. The two small blooms come from the same stem.

Spring Star Flower

Azalea

Longwood Gardens

We recently visited Longwood Gardens.

The day was cool and rainy which kept the crowds down. We enjoyed the magnificent spring blooms, huge old trees, and the four acres of indoor gardens in the conservatory.

 

  

No Lesson Learned?

Meet my cat, Annie.

Annie (left) and her brother, The early days

We got Annie seven years ago when we adopted her with her brother from a pet rescue organization. They joined our other two cats. (Yes, count them. We have four cats. And yes, we are a little bit crazy to have that many.) She came into the household adventuresome and bossy. Among other things, she tried to take over the favorite spots of the older cats. This had mixed results. After a few months, the pecking order was finally established, and much to her chagrin, Annie was the Number Two cat.

This sometimes left her a little cranky and determined to succeed in another area—eating. She soon figured out that I usually did the feeding and stuck to me like glue. She would always be the first one eating, pushing others out of the way if necessary even though they each had their own bowl. She would bump my hand as I was pouring food so more would spill into the bowl. Then, if any food was left from the other cats, she would finish it. Success was finally hers because soon Annie was the Number One heavy weight cat.

Annie was always getting into something.

Her size did not appear to slow her down, however. She was still the loudest cat and the most aggressive hunter. She was always first on the scene when anything new came into the house. Even though squabbles between her and the other cats quieted down, she would still take advantage of vulnerable situations to try to assert her authority. In other words, she had not forgotten her ultimate goal of being top cat, but still she remained Number Two. 

This started to really bug her. Her normal grooming became a source of comfort and she licked so much that she licked her belly bare of fur. The vet said that we should intervene. Annie was soon fitted with an Elizabethan collar to deter her licking. This threw her for a loop in the beginning. She bumped into things because she was not used to the extra width around her face and no longer could use her whiskers to help her judge distances. She was frustrated that she couldn't perform her instinctive grooming because of this plastic collar around her head. At first the collar seemed to dampen her spirit, but being Annie, she soon adapted. She bumped into fewer walls. She insisted that I pet, comb, and scratch her to take care of the areas she could not reach to groom. She hunted and caught a mouse even with the hindrance of her collar. Otherwise, She took a lickin' and kept on tickin'. Or maybe we should say, She couldn't take a lickin' but she keeps on tickin'. 

Annie was not happy with her collar in the beginning.

I don't know what we are supposed to learn from Annie's example. Maybe,"Always have a dream." Or "If first you don't succeed, try, try again." Or "Food is not the answer." Or "Better watch what you're doing or someone will whisk you away and fit you with a fashion accessory you don't want even though it is does help balance the 'fullness' of the rest of your body." Or maybe, there doesn't have to be a lesson in everything. That's what Annie says. She says that thinking too much gets you in trouble. Look what it did to her belly. Oh wait, that is a lesson-"Don't think too much."

A Second Look

  

Spring has sprung!  The flowers are emerging from the ground. The pollen is dropping from trees. Plentiful April showers are determined to bring May flowers.

Spring was an enchanted time for my children when we first moved to the four season climate that we live in now. Up until this point in their lives, they had lived along the Gulf Coast where the seasons were marked by whether or not you wore a light jacket or were drenched in sweat. The emerging of the crocus, the blooming of the daffodils, and  the sprouting of new green leaves were things they had never seen before.  When they came home from school, they would call me out into the yard and we would go on a treasure hunt to find what new flowers were blooming. It was an exciting time for all as we got to know our new surroundings. This excitement lasted all summer that first year. 

Then as time wore on and the weeds seemed to be encroaching menacingly on our beautiful flowers, our emphasis changed. We began to notice the weeds more than the flowers. The kids got more interested in video games than plants and the names that I taught them of the colorful blooming flora in the beginning became the yellow one and the purple one. In other words, our enchantment was gone. Spring moved into the background as all things seem to do after awhile.

Then this Spring, we had a taste of that excitement again. While cutting daffodils to bring inside, we discovered that instead of just some white ones and some yellow ones, we actually had 6 different varieties. Who knew? With the second look at the daffodils, we noticed other things growing around them. We noticed which ones bloomed early and which ones were just budding. We noticed which plants the deer had been nibbling on. We noticed the birds. Wow! There's a lot of activity going on outside this time of year if you take time to notice.

It may not last long, but for just a little while we were all like the young kids my sons were that first year. I hope we can remember to take a second look at things around us then and again.Who knows what we'll find?

What's in a name?

I've been toying with writing a blog for a while now and decided it was time to put thoughts into actions. It all seemed so simple. Use one of the free blog sites and start writing. But wait, what was it going to be about and what would I call it? My kids advised me that I needed a subject or it would be nothing more than an online journal. Well, since I'm not that knowledgeable or passionate about any one subject, I decided that it would be personal reflections. My idea was to make comments about things I experience or see around me that other people may be able to relate to. Now what to name it. Not as easy as it would seem. With the millions of blogs out there, there's not much left to choose from.

My first idea was Observations of an everyday boring life. However, it was suggested that I don't need to tell people ahead of time that my life is often boring. Next I played with, Run of the mill, Matter of fact, and So on and so forth. All taken. Next was Watching paint Dry, but that was taken also with actual web cams set up to watch paint dry. How about Dull as Dishwater?  Maybe that was giving too much away ahead of time again. (BTW, the original phrase was supposedly, "Dull as Ditch Water.") 

I was going to have to get creative. The family started brainstorming. Running with safety scissors and Your guess is as good as mine. Taken. My personal favorite was one I thought up- Lend me your nose. A play on Lend me your ear but using nose indicating that you should Take time to stop and smell the roses. 


After several more hours of deep thought, I settled on Live and Learn-Toss and Turn. This title is supposed to indicate that no matter what happens to us, we can always learn from it and the unknown can still be a little scary and cause us to toss and turn. Or maybe the title just means, that I was really tired and the rhyming of the words seemed good enough. This morning my son asked me what name I came up with and after I told him, he replied, "Well, it's not as bad as I thought it would be." I don't think I will ever be able to live down, "Lend me your nose."