B is Beautiful Baby African Violets!

My Oma Stella had African violets blooming about her house. I miss them. I miss her! I see her blue eyes in my children's eyes, also her big kissable cheeks.

For a few years I have looked in stores and asked my neighbor and floral wizard about African violets, more unusual than the two deep solid purple ones I have blooming. Finally I found a site that sells exquisite flowers. For a birthday hint I sent C the link and voila! a big box of very tiny plants arrived on the 29th. On the 30th C & I walked to Home Depot , bought some special AV dirt and new pots and on the 31st I planted them! By the 2nd I was having a happy birthday (ignoring any news on that day). They are in our kitchen, thriving. They are happy to be here and I am so happy to have them. I have no idea what they will look like when they bloom.

Thank you C! You are sweet and generous! You are fun to grow old with... the best is yet to be.
(Thanks also to Mr. Browning.)

My Mum's tomatoes? Not so great. I'll take pictures... there are a few tomatoes, no 5 pounders though. I didn't stake the plant correctly, or prune it as it grew. Also, I think our soil needs some "amending."

G is for a Garden Gate.

G is for a Garden Gate.

These pictures are from our recent, brief trip to Seattle on our way to Alaska. I went on a long walk and found this garden and met a very friendly gardener.
Loved the gate/fence. The conversation started when I took some pictures to remember how it was built.

T is for Tomatoes for Gama.

Summer is here and I am late for everything. No one is signed up for anything and maybe that is ok. The calendar is a wreck. Maybe we will take the TV away... maybe we will sign up for Netflix again, maybe not. Maybe we will get 7 Peaks passes, although we missed the discount rates, there is still a 2 for one.

One thing is sure: Gama will have some BIG tomatoes. Here are the pictures from Mother's Day... M is doing the tomato dance for good luck. We planted the tomato in the coooooold and we all sang a song. Tomato curmudgeon S was in China eating so much sick food (touristy Chinese food --> roast piglet, eyes included) that warm home grown tomatoes with salt, on crunchy bread, might have actually looked good to her.

Today I'm trying to work on the garden. Gotta go. I'm wearing a goofy hat to protect my hair from the sun but it was just so hot... which has been unusual.

Dance recital today: M & S are loving it! M, unfortunately, is not performing her tomato dance today on the stage.

I'll keep post pictures of the BELGIUM tomato plant... progress. Today it is having a dinner of Miracle Grow.

N is for Nak ed Lady in a Bath!

N and bath time fun.

I hope that no one is surfing the web and comes across my blog because they were looking for "nak ed ladies" -- ha ha, I added the space thinking that will throw them off.

Spring is marching on, around here it has been cold and rainy. I love it, my peas are loving it and the ducks love, love LOVE it. Llamas? They don't seem to care about much.

One of the highlights of spring if to ask small children if they would like to see a "Naked Lady in a Bath?" Be careful with this these days, this joke only works if you ask a child this question while standing in a garden, no where near a bath tub and be sure that no real naked ladies are involved. Any other way would be sick and wrong and eventually lead to a visit by a uniformed officer of the law. Don't do it. Outside, standing by a big bleeding heart plant is the ONLY way.

The second part of the joke is to gently pluck a flower, turn it upside down and reveal the lady in the bath!

S, K, J, and N love to make these Ladies out of bleeding heart flowers, gently folding the outer petals down to reveal the head and arms of the lady. Giggle giggle giggle.

Best to do it on a big plant so that you don't enthusiastically destroy a lovely young blooming plant.

Lovely M, a young lady in the bath.