Oh, Dear....I Forgot

I was going to cut down on my gardening this year...and then.....I started checking my garden catalogs. It was a snowy day and with not to much to do, so I sat with a cup of tea and started looking at the magazines in my basket under the coffee table. There it was...a lone garden catalog. Wayside Gardens. I started to turn the pages even though the little voice in my head said, "Don't do it!" Page after page of beauty that could be in my very own yard this summer. The pages kept turning...things for shady places, plants for sun, unusual plants, new for 2012 plants. They were all there for me to pick from. Last year I decided to just leave my garden beds the way they were...only maintain what I already had. Only plant in containers. Then I kept reading all the garden blogs throughout the summer months and drooled over new varieties that some of you were trying for the first time. Beautiful pictures of roses, clematis, petunias, and so many others.

I was struggling with the Japanese Beetles at that time and so were you. My moss roses were destroyed, the petunias were full of those nasty pests, the hanging baskets were hanging with clumps of beetles. I had to keep picking them off the roses....and last year wasn't as bad as the previous year. I found that in my own garden the lilies weren't being attacked. So, getting back to the garden catalogs...I decided to go online and check out the lilies. That was my mistake. There they were...Casa Blancas, mixtures of pink colored orientals... all at a reduced price to tempt me even more. They told of the heavy perfume from the lilies, while sitting on your porch. It was like I was intoxicated by their fragrance. "Pick me...Pick me"...they seemed to say. Before I knew it I was filling out the order form and putting my charge card number in. I hit the button and my order was complete. The very nice website said, "Thank you for shopping." I smiled and then I remembered why I hadn't planned to order any flowers. More holes to dig, my aching back, the watering. Oh, dear, the coming in bone tired after a day of planting. Well, it is done and I made my choices. I know how lovely they will be next to my front porch in the evening. I'll have lilies blooming most of the season. Tall ones, short ones...and some in between. When I talk about this to family and friends...I'll just say....."It's my age, I forgot."

Balisha :)

Oh, what a Night!

As it got dark last night, I realized that most of the storm would happen while it was dark. My imagination was working overtime all night.The storm started out in the afternoon and by nightfall it was roaring through our town. The wind sounded like a freight train... some of the time. I could hear tapping on the skylights above me. Little pellets of ice were in the mix. I kept turning on the yard lights, only to see the snow blowing every which way. Most of the time it was blowing in a horizontal fashion. The weather people kept interrupting TV shows....about every 15 min. We decided to go to bed and watch TV from there. The wind was getting worse and the weather guy was saying it was going to pick up after 9 pm like maybe 2-3 inches an hour. I saw some flashes of lightning to the north. We decided to turn out the light and the TV and try to go to sleep. We had a very restless night. I got up a couple of times to check outside...especially when I saw a huge flash in the sky. I don't know what that was, but it woke me up. I looked out the front door and saw the beginning of a big drift. It's going to be a job to get us shoveled out today.

The snow out the back was rippled and drifted across our big open yard. The woods has drifts all along the hill behind. I won't get back there anytime soon...so no pictures. The snow drifted up the windows on our deck. What a job that will be. We can be thankful that our power stayed on. There are so many worse off than we are. I just heard on the radio that there is a 12 foot drift on one of our country roads. Well, the worst of it is over and now the clean up begins. It looks like the sun is trying to peek out right now. I heard that the groundhog didn't see his shadow. Can Spring be far off?

Balisha

This afternoon...We were waiting for the guy we hired at the beginning of the winter, to come and plow us out. Joe was sort of antsy...didn't want the stuff to freeze in the below 0 temps tonight. We were both on our computers, when I heard something outside. I went and looked out the window and here was our little neighbor, Bryce, shoveling his way up our walk. The drifts were almost as tall as he was. I opened the door and told him to just do a little bit at a time...rest in between if he wanted. He told me that he would rather get on with it and finish. It was such a job for him. His cheeks were rosy and I could see his breath when he breathed. Joe got dressed and went out to start the snow blower...to help him out a bit and to get the snow that was blown up against the garage door. I really didn't want him to go out and do it...he has to take care of his back since having back surgery, but he just did his thing. When I looked out again, Bryce and his Dad were there, helping Joe. His Dad's machine broke down, so he finished up our driveway and then took our snow blower home...to do his. Thank God for our wonderful neighbors. Joe found out that he can operate the snow blower without hurting his back. He said, "If I can get through this...I can do anything." The guy we hired...never showed up. So, here we are all shoveled out and ready for what Mother Nature deals us.

Balisha