Fine, how're you?

Ok. First things first. Sadie is old. This was the conclusion of the vet's $140 visit yesterday. Oh, and also more pills for her to take. Antioxidants to help slow her dementia. Nice. And a different pill to help her arthritis. So, now we have seventy-leventy different pills for Sadie and Koty who is on a different arthritis pill. My dog has dementia. Isn't that great?

So, we adopted her almost 3 years ago, originally thinking we were getting a 4 year-old dog. I think not! When we got her, her papers actually said she was more like 6 years old. Hmmm. Still not jibing given the way she looked, moved and seemed. The vet took one look at her and said she was more like 8, 9, or 10! So, I'm thinking our doggie is actually quite old. I'm guessing between 12 or 13 years old. Ancient, really. We tell people she's like 100 years old and they think we're kidding! Given her large size, poor nutrition as a youngster and lack of exercise before we adopted her, she's probably verging on 120 in doggie years! Poor thing.

But, anyway, she's still kicking and very happy and just came home from a ride where we went to the beach and ran errands! Not a bad life, right? When we got home I gave them a doggie yogurt called Yoghund - they LOVE them! Peanut butter/papaya flavor! Sounds revolting, but they love them! Anyway, they gobbled up their yogurts and then Sadie came into the kitchen where I was making myself a delicious salad for lunch. And then she barfed on my shoe.

Lovely. How's your day going?

In other news, the mystery plant from yesterday? It's Soapwort! Saponaria is also the name for it. So, there ya go. The gardening expert lady from our newspaper wrote me back and told me what it was. The leaves and roots can be made into a lathery soap! How 'bout that?

Last part of today's news is that I finished the job for my new client...You may remember that I had all those houseplants here and was installing them in this woman's house for her. Also got a large number of ceramic pots to plant all of them and this was the last straw for my poor back. I was lugging around those big pots filled with soil and plants. Can you spell over-use? Well, I can spell it now! Anywho, she also hired me to do a pretty garland for her front door and a swag among all of the indoor planties I did. So today? I went over and photographed all of the most favorite things I did for her! And now you get to see them! I know you're excited! How could you not be, right?!! hee!

The front door:So pretty! That's a grapevine base and I added all sorts of beautiful preserved eucalyptus leaves, preserved hydrangeas, curly willow and raffia to the garland.

The swag:
This has all the same elements and I also put in some wheat for an accent.

These are the planters I did on her front porch:

The asters have since stopped blooming, but they were in the back alongside the peppers.

Now moving inside, I did two dish gardens for her:

Aloe, sedums, and in the big one, snake plant, fern and crotins. I really love that big one.

Dwarf date palm - there are two of them in a family-room:


And then this gorgeous monstrosity (it's over 7 feet tall) that was the straw that literally broke this camel's back:
It's a Lady Palm and it is just gorgeous. But MAN was that thing heavy. The husband and I had to use every inch of our strength to carry that beast into the living room. ENTER: back spasms. Oy.

Last, but far from the least, here's my adorable Koty with his schnoz out the back window as I was driving in Salem today:
Sometimes as I'm driving along, he'll rest his head on the window there and his ear will flop flop flop in the wind. I tried to get a photo of it, but to no avail...Will try again!

Check out the traffic in that last picture. That, my friends, is NOTHING compared to what it's going to look like in a few hours. It's a madhouse here on the weekends. Happy almost Halloween!

Ok...that's all I got for today, kids.

I hope the weekend treats you all well and that your dog doesn't barf on your shoe!

Later!

Fabulous Fall Fleurs

So, we still have things cookin' in the yard despite VEERRRYY chilly temps at night. Even my grape tomatoes are still going - just picked some this morning to cook up with some onions and scrambled eggs!

Let's get right to the photos, shall we?

Here is the mystery plant that is blooming amongst the copious forget-me-nots:
I have no clue what it is, and I've written to the local plant expert who writes a column in our local paper about gardening, also sent her photos, so we'll see if we can solve this mystery! Anyway, aren't those flowers so cute? They're just adorable and so bright for this time of year! This has been slowly growing since I planted the forget-me-not paper things forever ago...Let me go see when I planted them...July 22. There. Now we know!

Here are the forget-me-nots:Cute, no?

My neighbor's planter is still looking lovely:
I'm generally not a fan of potato vine, but I'm really liking the colors on this one for fall arrangements.

Montauk daisies are blooming their faces off!


Doesn't this bat look happy there nestled in with the phlox, angelonia and lamium?I have several bats hanging in the bushes. That's normal, right?

Daisies intermingling with lamium and ivy:

Cute ghosite by the phlox, nasturtium and stonecrop:


Funny skull lights hanging above the rubrum which has tripled in size!


And the hydrangea in the back of the house that is pink in summer? Turned this lovely color for the fall:


Ok. Must go. Have a burrito bowl on the way home with the hubs and then am taking our little Sadie to the vet for a check-up. She has been a bit, well...forgetful, let's call it. The other day she was looking for her water bowl and got all confused because she went into the dining room and not the kitchen. Then the next day, she was with me in the kitchen and then proceeded to meander all over the house and then tried to go upstairs, but we stopped her. She was looking for ME! Even though she had just been in the kitchen with me...Oy vey. Do dogs get dementia?

Wish us luck!

Later, kids!

Jeepers

Hi. I was trying to do a new post because my mom called and told me how disappointed she was that I haven't been posting. I was waiting for it. I've just been BUSY doing year-end maintenance for clients, a big-ish decorating job for a favorite client (Hi Carol Ann!) and nursing my stupid back that is still bad and I've been going to the chiropractor seventy-leven times a week and then getting massages (or massARges as my father-in-law would say!) once per week and ALSO, too? Our boat is getting hauled out for the season on Tuesday, so that's another whole thing I gotta do - clean out the fridge, clean the fridge, get all the cushions, towels, sheets, pillows, etc. off the boat and then put up on our third floor. Oh, and there's also the wood railing that needed some varnish and then the water system has to be flushed out.

Oh, and the cooking and cleaning and laundry at home and the grocery shopping. ANNNNND my husband has been sick, so I've also been walking the dogs twice each day and gee, other than that? Haven't been doing a thing.

And now? This here Blogger place will not let me upload photos for the next hour and a half because they are doing maintenance on the site.

So there. I can't show you any of the ten pretty photos I just took. Will have to wait until tomorrow. Manana. A demain.

In the meantime, I'll look online and see what the mystery plant is that seeded itself alongside the forget-me-nots I planted this summer. It's really pretty with pink flowers. Very cute, indeed. So, methinks it is NOT a weed as I had originally thought, but it is an actual planty plant of some sort...

Will report in tomorrow. (I promise, Mom!)

So, in the meantime, I will leave you with a fabulous resource on gardening, The National Gardening Association website. Fabulous!