OMG!!! Accccckkkkkkk!

First things first.

I am completely and throughly crazy for this new blog that my friend June, over there at Bye, Bye Pie told us about on her blog yesterday. It is a hilariously funny blog called Hyperbole and a Halfand I totally and completely adore the post that is currently up there. It seriously killed me yesterday when I read it. I was crying and laughing and could hardly get ahold of my self because I was having such a gigglefest over the drawings and the writing! OMG!!! LOVE!

Next, there is this completely wonderful word game that I found from a link on Hyperbole's site. It's called Word Bubble. LOVE. Play it HERE. Love word games.

Last night we went to a surprise birthday party that was decidedly NOT a surprise! The guy totally knew about the party! My husband got the microphone from the lady DJ and did his best to get the place hopping and get people dancing. It was a good attempt on his part, but these people were not much into dancing and whooping it up, so that was that.

I have another birthday thingy to attend later this evening for a VERY pregnant 42-year-old friend of mine. We are going to her restaurant of choice, The Old Spot, endearingly referred to by many as "The Wet Spot!" Lovely.

In other world news, Sadie is quite possibly the most annoying dog and simultaneously the calmest, mellowest dog. Maddening is what she was when I was trying TRYING to walk home with her this morning. She just got slower and sllooowweerrr and s lll ooo www www www eeerrrrr until it came down to me having to push her from behind to get her to move forward. AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH! To make matters worse, I reeeaaaallllly had to go to the bathroom. Man! So frustrating. Her reaction to my frustration? This:


This is what she's thinking:

" ? " and then " buuuuurrrrrp. " and then " . "

She's a real thinker, that one. If you read Hyperbole's current post - which I highly recommend you do - her "simple dog" is seriously Einstein mixed with Stephen Hawking compared to Sadie.

I wish I was kidding!

In news of the natures, lookit how pretty the water was yesterday:

I love the way that red boat provides such stark contrast to the water. Love the light...

We still have some purple flowers going in a couple spots - in the flower boxes there are still million bells blooming:
I also have another round of purple nemesia in some of the flower boxes.

And in the side yard, the brachyscome is still going strong:


I do appreciate any color that comes my way at this time of year. It's a long, gray winter ahead, so any brightness is appreciated!

Ok. I must go...It's really quite nice outside, in the 50s and sunny and I have more leaves beckoning...The last leaf pick up is on Monday, so I've got to get them babies bagged up!!

Hope you're having a restful, nice weekend!

Ciao!

Planties, fleurs and more!

First things first. I apologize that the pictures in this post are going to look a bit strange. I didn't realize that I had the "backlight" function turned on on the camera, so everything looks a bit odd and washed out. Whatever!!

I didn't post anything yesterday because, HELLO, it was 65 degrees here and on those days that it is THAT beautiful in November, one must spend as much time as humanly possible outside! I did a bunch of running around, most notably to my beloved Marblehead Garden Center! I went there in anticipation of finding all manner of evergreens and twigs and berries and such to do up some flower boxes and planters for clients...But, alas, they only had a couple things there - the rest is arriving later this week, so I'll have to go back this weekend or early next week. Certainly doesn't bother me to have to go back there! LOVE that place!

I did manage to buy some more curly willow, three houseplants for a client, and a pretty cyclamen and cute planter for a friend's birthday gift. Get this - I am going to a surprise birthday party for a friend of my husband's tomorrow night and then Saturday night, I have a birthday dinner with a bunch of girlfriends to celebrate her 42nd birthday! So, it's all birthday weekend, all the time for me over here!!

Here's the cyclamen in the cute planter:
I love the little scrolled legs on the planter! This will suit my friend perfectly!

Today I did a final maintenance job at a client's house- cleaned up the hostas and peonies that had passed. I also clipped back the fairy roses in her yard - some of which are STILL blooming! That's unheard of! After doing the maintenance, I went to another local garden center and bought some pretty ribbon (CHEAP!) and a new pot to plant the grape tomato. I think I'll plant it either tomorrow or over the weekend...Just look at the root system that has developed:
Isn't that just amazing? Serious rootage!

Also have a new, fun development in the planter where I plopped the forget-me-not seeds oh, so long ago!! So, as you know already, we got a tag-along Saponaria in there that continues to bloom:


Well, we now have ANOTHER plant that seeded itself in there:
It's nemesia! There are three or four of them growing in the planter now!! Crazy!

Elsewhere in the side yard, the lamium is still blooming like crazy:


Asters are still blooming their heads off:

Nasturtiums also still blooming:


And the flower boxes still look pretty decent considering it's more than half way through November!


Last for today are the gorgeous hydrangeas that I just cut this afternoon:
Those colors are just to die for!

Mediocre Monday, Tepid Tuesday

Today is kind of eh. Yesterday was okay. Nothing too exciting...Laundry, grocery shopping, ordered a cake for the newlywed couple coming to our Thanksgiving, and also ordered a turkey for our Thanksgiving, as well...Nothing exciting, not bad, not great, just sort of eh. Today, more laundry, took the dogs on a nice walk and then am about to embark on a power walk. Later this afternoon I have a chiropractor appointment.

I know why these are both "eh" sort of days... No sun. It's been gray and overcast and just eh. My mood is directly tied to the sun or lack thereof. I went to the tanning place yesterday - and before you lecture me on the terribleness of tanning, I already know. I have the perfect excuse, thank you very much! And that is that I have psoriasis that gets really bad in the winter due to lack of sunlight. For some reason sun helps keep the psoriasis at bay. No idea why, but it is! So, I usually feel significantly better after getting some good "sun" at the tanning place, but that didn't even seem to help! We'll try some good exercise today and see if that will perk up my mood a bit.

Tomorrow I have to buy some plants to replace a few that have died at one of my client's house and then I am also going to get some greens to do up four hanging planters and a pot at another client's house. I do love the decorating part of my job!

Since there is nothing really happening outside, I took some picture of the happenings inside the house...

I harvested some basil seeds and plan on trying to grow some basil plants this winter: I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to growing things from seed, but we'll give it a shot!

I also noticed that my Christmas cactus has started blooming - we're a month or so early, but I'll take it! I love this vibrant splash of color at this time of year:



Now, it is so dark in the house because of the icky weather, I had to put this under a lamp to photograph it. So, the best way to do that was get down on the floor to photograph it from a decent angle! And, what do you think happens when I get down on the floor? I get a very happy and VERY curious Sadie in my face! This happened in a matter of microseconds after I got down on the floor: What a snoot on her!!!


She's awfully cute, isn't she?

The tropical hibiscus is quite happy right now - it has bloomed and has tons more flowers on the way:
Such a pretty color!

And last, but certainly far from least, the eggplant is coming along nicely!
I wasn't sure how it would react to being moved, but it doesn't seem bothered, so I'm relieved about that!

Ok. I'm off to take my walk now...Happy Tuesday to you!

Later!