Still sick. Ick.

I won't go on and on complaining about this stupid chest cold I have. The doctor said I could expect 4-5 more days of feeling this way. WONderful news, doc! Awesome. Suffice it to say, as I told my friend June over there at Bye, Bye Pie, I am coughing up nasty stuff like skulls and rusted cars and sticks. It's quite unpleasant.

On to more important floral news now, shall we?

Despite my illness, Mother Nature continues to provide us with a specTACular spring! In the mid-70s recently and just sunny and gorgeous out there!

Here are some of the pretties in the back yard:This is the flower on my lovely Daphne bush. I SOOO love Daphne! There are so many blooms on it this year! Many more than last year!

And I know I've shown this bleeding heart a million times now, but just LOOK at how many flowers are on there! It's just loaded with them this year!

The Solomon's Seal has started blooming, as well! This plant is just so unusual and cool! Just love it!

And last for today, the lilacs in their full glory. The entire back yard is awash with their aroma. It's divine!

That's all I've got for today. More spring pics to follow...

Back to the sick bed for me.

Sick Revisited

Oh, man. I overdid it yesterday and am paying for it today. I feel terrible again today. I did a bunch of errands yesterday, did a bunch of work, ran around and pretty much did waaaay too much and my cold or flu or whatever this thing is, has settled in my chest and throat. So much so that I hardly can speak - it's more like and awkward squark. I sort of sound like I have laryngitis or something similar.

Plus it was sort of raining, spritzing on and off and was downright COLD yesterday, so the weather probably did not contribute to my overall wellness. I knew I was doing too much, but sort of just powered through all the things I had to do yesterday. After being sick for 4 days, a lot of things start piling up, you know?

Oh, well. I'm down for the count again. Staying in and taking it easy. Drinking a concoction of raspberry Emergen-C and Wellness herbal liquid blend with Echinacea in it. I like that I'm drinking something partly flower-derived! For those of you that are not that into flowers, you may or may not know that Echinacea is the same thing as coneflower: It doesn't taste all that great, but it's got good vitamins and minimums and good ju-ju in it.

In other news, the lilacs, you ask? Oh, my goodness, how beautiful! This is the view from the window in our guest bedroom!


And I've picked a few of the lily-of-the-valley that are growing in this impossibly unfriendly area along the side of my driveway! The original few plants were ones I took from my husband's grandparent's yard when they had to move out of their house. They have spread now, as lily of the valley are wont to do, and have just bloomed their little faces off this year! I love having plants here that I know his grandparents used to love! As you can see, they are sitting next to the cutest dish scrubber in the WORLD that my adorable sister-in-law gave me for Christmas a couple of years ago. I love this thing! Very cheery, isn't it?

Even in my sickness, those lily of the valley make me SO happy and their fragrance? My most favorite in the world!

Wish me well...I need it!

Things I love

Am feeling a little bit better today, thanks for asking! Even though yesterday I had to do more activities than I had wanted, I got some good, solid sleep thanks to my leetle blue fren, Nyquil! That junk works!

Anyway, I thought I'd be all like Oprah and do a "Things I Love" post like she has in her magazine. That woman has got to have more money than the entire population of Africa. Seriously.

Ok. So, the obvious things I'm not going to list like family, my dogs, gardening, boating, cute animals, the ocean, and, of course, fleurs! We all know that I love those things, right? Right. K.

So, the strange things I love? Here we go!

Hardware stores. I have always and will always love them. There is just so much promise in there, right? SO many possibilities with the paint and the fertilizer and the sand paper and the varnish and such. LOVE them.

Garden centers. Again, with the fleurs, but I LOVE going there. I don't even necessarily have to need anything, I just can't get enough of those places.

Any craft store, any time. Bead places, paint places, doo-dads and gee-gaws and, again, the possibilities! So fun!

A clean kitchen sink. The rest of the house can be all hairy and in a bit of disarray, but if the kitchen sink has nary a dish in it and is clean? I'm satisfied.

A full pantry and stocked fridge. I do not understand how people can carry on if they do not have all the essentials in their homes. Those people with, you know, empty space in the fridge? How do you do that? I have never, ever had an empty fridge in my entire adult life.

The smell of gasoline. Love that smell. I'm sure I have lost several brain cells from smelling the gas fumes as I fill up my car!

The taste of regular Pepto-Bismol. I have no idea. It's weird.

And lastly, I LOVE really, good, down and dirty, greasy, lard-ridden (I'm sure) Mexican food. There is nothing better.

And now some of the things that I do NOT love?

Pears and watermelon. Pppplllllllthhhhh. Oh, the graininess and the texture. I'm seriously making a face right now thinking about it.

Most nuts. Texture, people. TEXTURE. Icky icky icky! I do love cashews, peanuts and pistachios. You all can have the rest. Blech!

Emeralds. They are my birth stone. They are a precious gem. I do not like them. Gimme a sapphire or diamond. No emeralds.

Any red flower. No NO NOOOOOOOO! Anything but red, please. I'll even do orange! No red. Ever.If someone sent me this? I'd have to give it away.

Any red clothes. I hate hate hate having red on my body. It makes me feel all hooey.

The sight of raw chicken. EEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWW! And touching it? OHMYGOD. I totally get OCD and have to wash my hands 57 times if I've even brushed my hand against raw chicken. I've got the heebeejeebees just thinking about it!

And last, but not least? Fennel. Or anise. Good heavens to mergatroid who on earth wants to eat that crap?

Oy. I'm really sick.

Ok. Now it's really REALLY official. I'm sick sick. I think it could be strep. I awoke with EVIL sore throat again today, and took a look at my tonsils and they are not happy. If I'm not feeling better by tomorrow, I will head to the doctor. Hate that.

So, yet another day of "rain" according to the weather people. It's sunny and nice. Is meterology the only job in the world where you can consistently be 100% wrong and STILL get paid? Huh.

I just scraped together every ounce of energy I had and took the dogs out. It's crazy how the most menial tasks require so much energy when one is sick!

Now, onto a different subject. Enough complaining!

Not too long ago I met a woman who was dating our crazy friend who I will call Ted. I do not know any Teds so no one will be offended. Ted was dating this VERY strange woman named Marilyn (that is her real name, I do not think in a thousand trillion years she would ever find this here blog!). Well, the very first time I met her, she was nice enough, but then as the evening wore on, she proceeded to tell me how "deep" of a person she was.

OK. Let me just throw out a simple rule to live by, kids. If you are in fact a "deep" person? You do not have to tell anyone. They would figure that out by themselves by your actions and words. Not one single person, in the history of time, who tells someone they are "deep" has ACTUALLY been a deep person.

Maude: "Hi! Nice to meet you. My name is Maude and I am a deep person."

Me: "Ummmm. No, Maude. You, in fact, are a douchebag!"

There. That subject is finished.

In floral news, I'm VERY excited! I just got an email from this very neat garden center place in MA called Avant Gardens, letting me know that the King Tut Dwarf Giant Papyrus (Whew! That's a mouthful!) will be shipped to me on May 5th! I tried to find them last year to put in my flower boxes again, but could not find them ANYWHERE. So, I decided to be safe this year and just order them up.

I know I showed you this year's flower boxes before, but I found photos of different angles, so you can really see the cool effect with the papyrus in there!


Nice! I think those flower boxes are deep, man. Really deep.

Later!

The view from inside

Ok. The bug got me. You win, bug.

I am officially sick. I haven't been sick sick in eons. Really, it's been forever. I've maybe had a day or so of being "off," but nothing like this. This is a bad cold with extras like nice chills and bad sore throat.

So, I'm inside today. In my jammies and am doing things like computing and reading the paper and trying to tell the doggies that their Daddy will walk them a little bit later, but they are just not having it. They want their walk NOW! Or an hour ago, at least!

This is what I'm getting...

First, the look of utter defeat:

And utter impatience:

Oh, well. I've tried to explain, but they just won't listen!

So here is a shot of what's going on outside the house right now...I took this from inside, so it's not the best photo.

This is a fundraiser walk for a nice place in Salem that helps abused women and children. See over there just to the right of the telephone poles? That's a band. I'm listening to pretty bad jazz right now! Ohhhh, the drum solo right now! They're pretty awful, but whatever! It's the middle of the day and what else am I going to listen to, right?

Here is the view of the side garden from that same window: The purple and orange violas and pussy willow branches are in the flower box in front of this window! If you look beyond that right in the center is a pretty pinky-green tulip. This is one of the many I planted last fall. Pretty color. LOVE that combo.

Now they're playing "Satin Doll." God help us!

Ok. Back to the couch for some easy listenin'!!!!