Happy 4th of July!

Some baby pictures of the paper cactus buds Peggy graciously let me harvest from her cactus. These are the same cactus I brought back from Quartzsite, AZ, last year - almost exactly a year ago! (waves to Debbie and Bob!) Somehow I lost mine in the change of jobs and the transition of work places. Fortunately, several people have them and they are doing well and having little buds!

I got a very pretty little pot for them on sale at the hardware store

There they are - peeping over the edge of their new home. They will join my jade plant and sanserveria on my desk in my office window.

My big chore for today is to actually set up the power washer and wash the deck and side of the house. There is more to be washed but as it is supposed to be 90 here today and very humid, I think I will do well to get this done!
I got a new powerwasher last year -on sale of course - now to read the instructions and set the darned thing up!


I have never seen mold grow on houses like here in Blooomington. Even in Valdosta, GA, it didn't get this bad.



Bubba the Bird knows his cage is next and he is NOT happy about it!! He will stay in his travel cage while I dismantle his home, drag it out on the deck, and give it and everything in it a good scrubbing. He's not liking this idea.


After more than 17 years of cleaning his cage I would think he could at least help. But, no, not the Prince of Parrots!

Now for the obligatory tour of the backyard on this 4th of July


A stop at the purple cone flowers that have, thankfully, turned purple now
Nice look at the mold on the house. I will scrub that with a brush so the flower doesn't get chemicals on it.

And past the purple cone flowers are the daylillies, russian sage, and the rest of the yard.


I planted another russian sage that has much more room, the right amount of room. Not jammed up like the mess I have closer to the house.


My mess of russian sage and red cone flowers!! They are growing well but they are certainly way out of control and crammed in. Not sure what I am doing to do about that!


I sure do like the colors in this day lilly, it's not a field lilly although it looks like it in this picture. The field lillies are bloomed and done for the year, this guy just started blooming a couple of weeks ago and is much bigger.


Have a safe and happy 4th of July

Happy Birthday Eve, Mom!

It is Mom's birthday tomorrow - one of those big ones with a zero! Little Brother is up in Canada fishing so Beautiful Sister-in-Law, Tammy, and I took the opportunity to scoop Mom up and take her to dinner this evening.

Of course, flowers were involved - a beautiful vase of flowers!


Awwww....come on out, Mom!


There she is! Wonderful picture of my Mother. Are those eyes amazingly blue or what?
The beautiful flowers that are from Dan, Tammy, and I, and all of her grand-critters. Mom - you don't look anywhere near to that birthday with a 0!



A full picture of the flowers since little brother wasn't there to see them in person.

Gosh - they are just perfect! And Steve's Flower's even matched the flowers to the card.


Then off to dinner at....


I don't know what this poster says but it was very big and very cool looking.


And the food was very good - the Sauerbrauten was simply perfect.




Unfortunately, wir zuviel gegessen haben. Dann sind wir wieder zu Hause gewatschelt.

(We ate too much. Then we waddled on home.)




Happy Birthday, Mom!!! We missed you Little Brother Ugly!

Off to the Puppy Dog Beauty Shop!

Time for Rocky & Mini to get all washed, blow-dried, and smelling much better. Off to Doggy Styles with Auntie Lori and Uncle Todd (aka Santa - see December blog!).



Rocky & Mini have been going to Doggy Styles for about 5 years, Uncle Todd and Aunt Lori have even been to their house to visit them. They are treated so well and so kindly there. And smell so much BETTER afterwards!

Of course, Rocky and Mini don't quite see it that way if they can't be out and running around the shop! Here they are in 'jail' according to them. Just how pitiful they are! Don't worry, though, some treats more than made up for it. Lori makes the sweetest little kerchiefs and ruffles for them after they are all nice and clean. Rocky looked quite handsome in his summer kerchief - after he quit looking so pitiful! Mini, of course, is quite lovely in her pink scarf.


For you CASPER fans!!! Remember his baby pictures up on my cube wall? Well - has he ever grown! And he has a baby brother..all courtesy of Todd and Lori's 'stable' (maybe kennel?) of Wilky boxers - they are really show dogs but I get to play with them sometimes on grooming days.


The only title for this picture is 'Brothers'. Jonathan is Casper's baby brother! All together now....awwwwwwww


Quite the handsome young lad, Jonathan is. Here he is strutting his champion stuff.


He wanted to say 'hi' and let everyone know he is a future Champion! A little dweeby right now, like most little boys, but you can see from the picture above that he will be quite the Boxer's Boxer. But Casper remains my buddy. No champion will ever replace Casper!

New Friend!

Found this fellow hanging out on one of my lillies today


Look at his legs - he has little orange sacs on them - I think it is pollen from the lilly stamen! I enhanced the picture to try to get a little more contrast but I didn't change the color at all. I think he was looking at me and giving me some attitude!

And I am happy to report that my coneflowers now seem to be turning more purple.

Why is my purple coneflower pink?

It has always been purple. I did move it last year but it was still purple. Well, actually I moved it twice. It didn't like the first spot I moved it to, so I moved it to a different spot. But still....I don't know why my purple coneflower is pink.

Beady-Eyed Bunch - Summer Solstice Celebration, continued

The 3rd and final installment of our Solstice Celebration.

The Beady-Eyed Bunch gets down to business. Vickie's sister, Lisa, joined us. You can tell they are sisters! But I won't say how - I will leave that to your imagination.


Lisa is also a quilter in her other, non-beading, life


Chris and Dalton decided to leave the beaders in the house and go fishing! Right outside of their back door.


Peggy started to bead a 'Bumps in the Road'. This is as far as she got the entire afternoon! We had lots of fun and compared a lot of beading and techniques - admired the heck out of each other's work. But very little beading got done!


Lorraine is a friend of Vickie's and won our hearts by making the brownies and the rice krispies treats and is a bead, too!! I didn't get pictures of her pieces but Vickie is working on that. We hope she will come to the next Beady-Eyed gathering. She did some very excellent brick stitch fringe earrings with patterns in the fringe - hard to explain but the pictures will be wonderful.


Bonani is cleaning up the tea from when I knocked the light into Peggy's tea glass and then that landed on Bonani's beading matt....quick prioritizer that she is, Bonani yelled 'get the Storm' so Peggy could rescue her new cell phone! I am still so very sorry, Peggy and Bonani!


We never did figure out why a replica of Chandler's head was suddenly growing out of the top of Phyllis' head. Maybe a side effect of her spiritual beading dance at the opening ceremonies


Peggy just went around hugging everyone!!! Can't you tell? She's just a 'touchy feely' kind of lady! As you can guess, there is a story behind this one!


Someone came up with the idea of taking pictures of all of our eyes. Even Chris and Dalton are in the Beady-Eyed Beader's Eyes!


THIS is the picture I get the 'worst picture' prize for!! OMG - I don't even have a neck! I must change my ways.


We didn't get Chandler's eye, though. He had left and all we had is his replica head growing out of Phyllis' head. It started to snarl when we tried to take a picture of it's eye so we quit. Didn't want Phyllis to get a headache.

Back to beading!
One of Phyllis' wonderful creations - can she ever put colors and design together! And I think I can almost do that turquoise braclet she has there - I may give it a try. The long piece is a flat spiral.


Now for the closing ceremonies!! Bonani decided she was leaving with a completed piece and this:

Became this:


This didn't go anywhere


And, finally, Chris yodeled the closing ceremonial song....

And another celebration of the changing of the seasons is completed.
See all of you at the Autumnal Equinox!!! Maybe Madeleine and Laura will be there next time and we will be able to add their eyes to the Beady-Eyed Beader's Eyes.
Thank you all - it was wonderful! Vickie has a wonderful home and family and...can you believe it....even asked us to come back in October!