Here are a few things I saw last year
during a Second Look.
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| Sedum--Autumn Joy This year, they are about a week behind in blooming. They have just started. |
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| Bumblebee on purple sage. The sage is in it's second set of growth for the season and it's still a favorite with the bees. |
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| Marigold The ever-faithful marigold is doing well. All of this years plants came from these plants from last year. |
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| Queen Anne's Lace I haven't seen any of this blooming recently. |
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| The name of this plant escapes me at the moment. It comes back every year like a weed. Sometimes I let it grow and sometimes I don't. This year I left it alone and it's making a nice show in one of my beds. |
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| Skipper Butterfly on purple sage (view from below) The little butterflies are still around. I spent Sunday with my buddy, Sarah, and we spent most our time watching butterflies and bees on flowers at the church. |
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| Blanket flower I don't have many of these this year and they have the most blooms on them now of all season. They always brighten up wherever they are. |
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| Celosia This is an annual that I didn't grow this year. I planted zinnias instead. |
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| Begonia I have a different kind of begonia this year. They are doing quite well especially since I got them on clearance. You never know when you get plants like that. |
I think you get a pass from new second look photos for a while now.
ReplyDeleteYou do have a fantastic eye for photography
Thanks.
DeleteI can't believe you have any available time to post anything! Glad to hear you are surviving and I hope the move goes well.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I post because I want a distraction from all of the other stuff, or when I can't sleep. We aren't close to moving yet. We want to get work done in the new house and we still have to figure out what we're going to move and what we're going to leave for staging, etc.
DeleteFlowers are beautiful. Maybe I can hire you to come landscape my home :).
ReplyDeleteI don't know that I'm so good at landscaping, but I do enjoy flowers and plants.
DeleteI especially enjoyed the ones with the insects so close and zoomed up-it was almost startling to see such a "big" bee at first but then I found it exciting, like "Oh, there's Godzilla, whaddya know?" :o)
ReplyDeleteOnce I started to watch the bees and butterflies gather pollen up close, I'm fascinated by the whole thing.
DeleteHang in there. This too shall pass...
ReplyDeleteI actually really enjoyed the year to year comparison. It's always so interesting to me how plants fare differently from one year to the next.
I've got to find a different way to deal with this move because I'm about ready to have a breakdown. The issue is more complicated that just a lot of work. My mind is wrapping elderly parents, money, and aging all into the painting, cleaning, and moving issues. So far exercise and mind slowing exercise haven't been enough. But, this too shall pass.
DeleteMmmm... breakdown... that sounds bad. I know you will find this laughable and crazy, and it totally is, but it's helped me during very stressful times. I may have written about this on my blog at some point... I can't remember. But here's the story.
DeleteDid you ever see the movie, The Matrix? I didn't actually like the film - WAY too much violence for my taste, but the general plot is that the earth has been taken over by aliens who are living off our "vital energy" - so all the people are really living in these little coffin-like pods in giant warehouses, but we just don't know it because the aliens created a "matrix" (which is a virtual reality computer program) so we think we're walking around doing things, but that's just to keep us entertained. In reality we're just hanging out in the pods having our energy drained.
But... a few people miraculously figure out the reality of the situation, break free and start a revolution (which for some inexplicable reason involves a lot of flying through the air in slow motion with machine guns) yadda, yadda, yadda.
ANYHOO... there's a scene where Neo (the protagonist) has found a collection of other humans who have realized the truth, and he has the following encounter: (don't worry, the clip is only a minute long)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAXtO5dMqEI
That's all just an incredibly long introduction to make the real part make sense. So when I'm really stressed, I lay in bed at night and say to myself over and over "there is no spoon, there is no spoon, there is no spoon." I realize it's totally crazy, but it seems to help.
If all else fails, remember to breathe! xoxoxo
I have never seen the Matrix and I always wondered what it was about. The spoon clip while simple, gives me something to think about. I will be pondering its imaginary and message for a while.
DeleteI think I'm doing better now that I understand where my emotions were coming from (besides the normal ones with change, there was a lot involved with my parents and elderly.). I can separate out just work from them and it all seems more manageable.
We'll see because I definitely could not keep going the way I was going.
Will you have space to plant beautiful flowers in your new place? I wish I was there to help you with your move, just to to do labor, because I know it is kind of like hell. I thought I'd die after my last move and I don't want to ever do it again, not without help that is. Sending you my best wishes.
ReplyDeleteYes, there is plenty of space for planting there. I will have to be careful and not do too much. I want to get away a little from all of the yard work we have now. But I am interested in seeing what's there and working with it.
DeleteI appreciate your long distance offer to help with the move. I think you would be really good at it because I am always amazed at how much you can get into your car. We are going to hire help at least with the big stuff, but hope to cut some costs by doing what we can.