All About the Flowers

It was a lovely day yesterday. The wind finally died down, and I believe the warm weather has arrived...for a few days, at least. Along with the rest of the entire population of the United States, we made our way to the garden stores to stock up on annuals for the season. But don't worry, we were on the hunt for some perennials too. This turned into quite a fiasco. 

We first stopped off at a local garden center on our crusade to replace our blue clematis. We found plenty, but I was especially taken with this particular clematis known as Mrs. N. Thompson. This isn't my photo, but one I swiped off the internet.

(image source)

Isn't this gorgeous? When I saw it, I completely lost interest in the dark blue ones we were seeking, although they had those too. So we picked up one of those along with a cherry tomato and a trellis, and we made our way to the checkout. There, we found five lines, each at least ten people deep. The payment system at the garden center was down. After waiting without moving for about 15 minutes, we decided this was going to be a lost cause, and so we replaced our items, and moved along. We'll try again today. In our experience, the clematis sell out fast, so you'd better get them while you can. The whole payment system thing was rather disheartening. Hopefully, they'll get it working again today, but we'll call ahead.

Okay, so our clematis hopes dashed, we headed down the road to another grower to see if we could find some hanging baskets. They had the most beautiful dahlias in pots.

Dahlias are my favorite flower. I was mightily tempted, but then considered whether I really wanted to dig these up each fall. I'll need to give this more thought, and so I bypassed them in favor of the hanging baskets.

We got a bad case of the cough syrup syndrome looking at these, but finally decided on this bright red one...

And this one.

Both of these have some other colors mixed in too. They're hanging out on the deck now, but I forgot to take a picture afterward. I'll get one when I make my next little walk around.

But wait...just what is she talking about with this "cough syrup syndrome?" Well, as I've mentioned before, it's a disease Mike and I made up. Have you ever walked into a pharmacy for some cough syrup? There are so many kinds! Plain cough syrup in 15 different brands. Cough syrup with decongestant in another 15 different brands. Cough syrups with expectorants in another dozen brands. Cough syrups with decongestants AND expectorants in twenty brands. Throat lozenges and cough drops. What's a coughing person to do? I'll tell you what we do. We usually leave without buying anything. We can't make up our minds. Fortunately, we were undeterred by so many choices yesterday and forced ourselves to choose something. 

Okay, and then finally, we were on to our local megamart, where they have the best prices on annuals. For this year's potting pleasure, I chose geraniums, gerbera daisies, marigolds, impatiens, and something else I can't remember.

Oh yes, and some chives, and a cherry tomato. That should hold us for the season. Except we tried calling the original place about the clematis, and their payment system was still down. We'll call again when they open this morning. We might have to go elsewhere. I'd hoped we could purchase it online for curbside pick-up, but that particular clematis isn't listed on their website.

Okay, so when we got home, I noticed one of the red tulips has opened. So pretty. There are a few more of these getting ready to bloom.

We unloaded all the flowers to the greenhouse and hung the baskets, and then I went to work sewing the binding onto the Sundress quilt. Of course, I had a lot of help with this. Smitty was dismayed there was nothing but frilly dresses on this quilt. He's waiting for the day I make a quilt suitable for handsome Mancats.

And then I went to work machine sewing the binding to the edge. This is my second most hated task of quilting. My first most hated task is sandwiching.

When I finished that, Sadie helped me tidy up the sewing room. She keeps her paws off the rotary cutter and pins, but she folded all the fabric and helped put it away. Don't believe me? A picture is worth a thousand words...just look at that tidy sewing room.

Okay, and then I was absolutely thrilled to find one of the cantaloupe seeds had sprouted. These are so late to the party, I was beginning to wonder if I'd actually planted any seeds in these little pots.

Okay, so here's something straight out of the Jetson's. It's a Litter Robot. A Facebook friend told me about this. Mike is the chief pooper scooper in our house, and so I showed it to him, and he bit. Ours arrived yesterday. 

So, basically, kitty pees or poops. The robot waits 7 minutes after the kitty leaves (to give it time to clump), and then it rotates and dumps the little clump into a bin below. When the bin is full, a light comes on to alert a human to dump it. I'm told it needs dumping about every three days. Also, I'm told it doesn't smell. If you want to see how it works, you can watch this video:

Both kitties have already used it. It wasn't me or Mike, so it had to have been the kitties. I figured this out through process of elimination. (Get it? Elimination? OMG...I'm so punny.) It's too soon to say whether this is the answer to our pooping prayers, but you can be sure I'll keep you updated. Honestly, how could I resist?

Okay, so by day's end, I'd turned the first corner on the quilt. I don't mind the hand-sewing part at all. 

So, in addition to trying again to get the desired clematis, we have grocery shopping to do. Our list is short since we're going camping next week, and the food is already prepared for that. When we get home, I'll get to work planting the annuals. There probably won't be much time for sewing today, but I'll get some of the hand work done. There's always time for hand sewing.

Before I go, please remain calm. I've received word that Google's Feedburner is going away. If you're an email subscriber, this pertains to you. I'm on the hunt for an alternative way to email posts directly to you, and I'll keep you updated. The change won't happen until July, and I sincerely hope I'll be able to find something. After a cursory review of alternatives, it seems all of them require a monthly subscription, and I'm not willing to pay for anything. I'm hopeful of finding a free service. Let's not get whipped up about this just yet. I'll keep you informed of what I learn as I go. It's far too soon for anyone to elevate their blood pressure over this. Deep breath.