Green Thumb Sunday and Apartment Update

It's Green Thumb Sunday, hosted by Tricia at As the Garden Grows. If you'd like to participate, just click on the link to find out how.

Deena at Can I Be Pretty in Pink is having a garden tour on June 15th. Please follow the link to join in and show us all the beautiful blooms in your garden. Deena is fighting breast cancer and is asking participants to add the button for free mammograms to their blogs. What a great cause.

This week I have some new blooms to show you. Many of my perennials have bloomed and though I haven't had time to work in the garden much this year, I will show you a few of my favorites.

Above you can see my mini carnations. I'm hoping by next week this garden has more flowers in it. It's pretty bare right now.
My neighbor gave me the flowers above about five years ago. I'm don't know what they are. She called them Hungarian geraniums. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know. They are pretty but each year they spread and I have to thin them. I give them away to anyone who wants them. Last year I gave some to my neighbor and this year she has them blooming in a big patch.
One of my very favorites. My red Oriental poppies. I wait for this each spring. They don't last long though and I'm always sad to see them go. These were a gift from a little bird. It dropped the seeds in a deposit about eight or nine years ago. That was a wonderful gift.

That is all the blooms I'm going to show you this week. I'm saving the rest for Deena's garden tour. Please join in. It's going to be wonderful seeing everyone's garden beauties.

In other news, the apartment is coming along. We took a break yesterday, as we were both exhausted and we needed to do other household chores. Since Sunday is a day of rest we aren't going to work on it today either. We will begin again on Monday.

This is what the bathroom looks like now. It is pretty much gutted down to the joists.



This is the small second bedroom in the apartment. I phoned for a bin and they told me it would be $400. I told my hubby that it would be but he didn't think so. Another score for me. LOL Anyway then I phoned 1-800-Got-J*unk and they told me to put it all in one room and they would send two men out to take it all down and haul it away. Approximate cost $215. That sounds good to me. I dreaded the thoughts of carrying this down the stairs. We will wait until we have all the garbage together and then phone them.

That's about it for now. I did take a relaxing walk with Meeko and I will post those photos and some of Griffyn later in the week.

Have a great Sunday and take time to enjoy the beauty of nature and spend some time with your family. ~Blessings, Mary~

Green Thumb Sunday

It's Green Thumb Sunday, hosted by Tricia at As the Garden Grows. If you'd like to participate, just click on the link to find out how.

I have some beauties growing in my garden and this week I'm going to show a few of them this week. I can't believe its June 1st already.

A week or so ago, I posted a photo of my balloon flower, which I purchased new this year. I had never seen this flower before and thought it was beautiful. Back then it was in bud but now it is flowering. If it quits raining long enough, I will get it in the ground. This is a perennial and will come back year after year. I don't have a lot of space so only bought one. I would love to have dozens of them.

Above, you can see my purple columbine fighting its way out of the lavender, which is trying to take over the entire flowerbed. I am going to take the pruning shears out and cut away a lot of it. Each year it spreads and each year I cut it back completely. You can also see the leaves of my clematis on the right side of the photo. It has lots of buds and should be blooming soon.
I have mentioned my brown iris in other postings and here it is. The original toe is almost a hundred years old. I got a toe from my mother who got it from her mother. The original plant was one that my paternal great-grandmother grew. It's nice to have a plant that has been handed down for generations.
My red peony is huge. It has lots of buds on it and should be blooming within the next few days. I'm hoping its in all of its glory for next week's post.
Ah! Can you see him? He is right there on top of the peony bud. Yes, a bee. It is gathering pollen and working its little heart out. Bees are such amazing creatures, especially the workers. I often watch them as they busy themselves at the buds and blooms in my garden.

I hope you've enjoyed a glimpse of my garden this week. I'm enjoying the beauty of spring and all my favorite flowers that I've had for years. What is your favorite flower? Isn't it hard to chose as they are all so beautiful.

Take care and enjoy a quiet Sunday with your family. ~Blessings, Mary~

Green Thumb Sunday

It's Green Thumb Sunday, hosted by Tricia at As the Garden Grows. If you'd like to participate, just click on the link to find out how.

I made a comment on someone's post the other day about the Balloon Flower I bought. I had never seen these before and thought they were lovely. When I bought it, it had three purple flowers. It seems they don't last very long, but there are more blooms coming.

The reason they are called Balloon Flowers is because the buds puff up before the flowers blossom. Here it is basking in the sunlight.
Later, I moved it to my porch to sit beside my little bluebird. Once the weather warms up, I will plant it. It is a perennial and will propagate itself.

The hanging basket above is a scarveola. Pronounced scar-v-oh-la. The first time I ever saw these was about eight years ago when I received one for Mother's Day from the boys. At that time the lady at the garden center told me they were a new type of plant.

Last year they were very scarce and that was the first time I hadn't had one hanging on my porch since that first one. Michelle tried to find one this year, but no luck. So, when I saw this at a little out-of-the-way store, I snapped it up. They only had two and I wanted to be certain I'd have one this year. I wish they were perennials, but alas, they are annuals. It is one flower that I want to have every year.

In other news, Brandon came for a sleepover Friday night. It is his birthday on Tuesday and the boys are always invited for a birthday sleepover. Brandon got to choose where we ate and he chose McDonald's. He hasn't eaten there in months because we don't encourage it but birthdays are special. I was surprised as Brandon is not a McDonald's fan. I think he wanted to try their cherry milkshake.

Once we had eaten we came home and dropped Grandpa off and then took Jordan the DVDs he had forgotten to take with him to his other Grandma's. Then we headed to Zeller's, which is a department store and we looked around a bit there. We didn't buy anything but had fun looking at things. After that, we came home, had a game of crib and by that time Brandon was ready for bed. He's an early to bed, early to rise kind of kid.

This morning we had breakfast and all he really wanted to do was lounge around in his pajamas and watch TV. I did a few chores and then at noon Jordan was dropped off by his parents and we got ready and headed to Apps Mills Nature Center. On the way, we stopped for gas and I couldn't believe that $30.00 only gave me a little over a half tank. The gas price was $1.27 per liter. Multiply that by 4.5 and you get $5.72 per gallon. I almost died when I got back into the car and saw I only had a half tank. I used to fill my car up for $30 not that long ago.

It was a beautiful day here today. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze. It was a glorious day to be out and about in the woods. One day this week I will tell you all about our trip.

Take care and if you are in the US, enjoy your Memorial Day weekend. ~Blessings, Mary