Aiming for 50,000 page views!!! WOO HOOO

Almost there. I cannot believe that many pages of my silly blog have been looked at since I started blogging! I know for some people that's not a lot, but for little ol' me over here in Anchorage Alaska? I'm outta my mind so proud and thankful.

Thank you my peeps that I love and who support me. Even during my dark days. Much love and gratitude.

So, I was getting ready to log on here and do my usual blah de bloo de yadda yadda yadda.

Well, I get this alert from my Dropcam that I've got "movement" detected in my back yard. I turned that on because we had that problem with the person with the sticky fingers and my credit cards sprouting legs in the night.

SOOOO, I got this little beauty for half price for a new promotion they were doing (Thank YOU Dropcam) and what movement did my little sweet camera find for MOI?

https://www.dropcam.com/c/d23f73d2c3d54b3889202fe976c3af00.…

I KNOW, right?

HOLY HOLY MOOOOOOSSSIIIIEEEEEE girl. She's only about 7 or 8 months old.

A Baaaayyybeeee mmoooosssieeee to go with my baby dog, baby squirrel (living in my garden shed) and my baby mowse that will NOT stop eating the butter. It's on TOP of the fridge and this little fart will not leave it alone. Finally had to store everything in a cupboard above my microwave and in the other cupboards up high that he can't reach. Little shit.

Anywho, yeah.

That's Alaska. They stop traffic, they wander into yards (even ones like mine that are fenced-in!), they wander onto porches and even stick their heads into open windows! One friend of mine had his front door propped open in the summer as he was working in the yard, well, this young moose just helped himself and went right on into the house!! Steve had to open his back door to entice the moose out of the house and into his vegetable and flower garden!

Oh, these stories are sooooo damn cool. Amaze-balls, as my friend Kristen would say!

Anyway, enjoy the Moose Cam - I've got it in my kitchen window looking out over the back yard.

From helping to thwart crime to recording the critters of Alaska. Yeesh.

The FlowerSmith Website

My hydrangeas on the side of the Derby Street house. Yummy.

Angelonia in a pot by the back door.

Eggplant blossom!
I grew these in raised beds in our parking area...
They did very well. Small, sweet eggplants.

Gorgeous butterfly enjoying the nectar on one of the
oversized butterfly bushes in the backyard.

I don't know why this has taken me so long!


Ridiculous!

Anyway, my website is almost done. More photos to load and some tweaking to do here and there, but it's basically allllmost done!

Let me know what you think!

Click here: The FlowerSmith

Fall pretties with bunny tail grass, sweet potato vine, chili peppers and kale.

Purple asters provide a bit of bright color to this arrangement.

Grasses, pumpkins, kale...

Winter doesn't have to be bleak!

A festive wreath, garland and planter for the holidays!

A Few Gems from Hank. My GOODness I love his sense of humor!

A man walked into a bar. He told the bartender that he didn't have any money, but he would show the bartender something amazing in exchange for a drink. It was a slow day, so the bartender agreed.

The man reached into his pocket and pulled out a frog, a hamster and a tiny piano. The frog started playing a fantastic jazz solo. Then the hamster started singing along in an amazing duet. Impressed, the bartender gave the man a drink.

Just then another bar patron rushed up to the man and offered him $1,000 for the singing hamster. The man instantly agreed to the deal.

The patron paid the man and quickly left with the hamster. After the patron left, the bartender couldn't keep quiet anymore and exclaimed, "I can't believe you sold a singing hamster for only $1,000!"

The man shrugged and said, " the frog is a ventriloquist."

The Pleasures of Reading...

I love to read. When I have nothing to do I pick up a book and read. Sometimes I read for fun. Other times I read to learn something. I really enjoy reading.

Sometimes I become unhappy while reading. I will be enjoying a fine story when all of a sudden a big word will stare back at me. Now I know a few big words but, after all, isn't it true that in simplicity there is beauty?

Take the other day. While reading a particularly engrossing story I ran across the word "scree."  I later found out that the word "scree" meant "pebbles and rocks." Why didn't the author just say "pebbles and rocks?"

Another thing. People just can't say anything the simple way any more. Yesterday I read about a guy "adroitly manipulating the shifting mechanism!" So he threw the car into second gear.

Now if I were a writer, I would try to avoid confusing my readers. We all feel that confused and pompous prose has no place in contemporary society. It does no good to engulf you readers in a sea of indistinguishable trivia.

I feel quite strongly about this. I feel that perpetual adherence to enigmatic expression stultifies intellectual response. Furthermore, excess circumlocution inevitably leads to incomprehensible mayhem.

When authors engage their literary crampons into my lethargic intellect, I feel like poking my pate into a catatonic mound of fronds and lianas. I would rather ascend icy scarps or embroil my ego into a capacious sea of undulating hummocks than perambulate through a plethora of insatiable verbiage.

It all leaves me flaccid as a sprag.

A guy spots a sign outside a house that reads "Talking Dog for Sale." Intrigued, he walks in.

"So what have you done with your life?" he asks the dog. "I've led a very full life," says the dog. "I lived in the Alps rescuing avalanche victims. Then I served my country in Iraq. And now I spend my days reading to the residents of a retirement home."

The guy is flabbergasted. He asks the dog's owner, "Why on earth would you want to get rid of an incredible dog like that?"

The owner says, "Because he's a liar! He never did any of that!"

Fleurs finished!

We already saw the vase. Here are the other components that will go into the arrangement:





Here's one of our dogs surveying the situation. Her name is Sadie. She's a peanut.



And here is the finished product! I ended up using hydrangeas and some grasses from my garden! It's November in New England, but I still have a few things trying to survive!




I generally don't like hard yellows in any arrangment, but somehow the vibrant yellow petals with the maroon centers seemed cheerful and added some pop to the hydrangeas which have faded to a muted blue/green with maroon. I also used green poms, a neat maroon/yellow larkspur and little white flowers on long stalks. (That's sad I don't even know the names of those!) For accents, I added variegated holly, two types of eucalyptus, and boxwood.

That's it for today. Will be doing some more flowers for my own holiday table tomorrow. If I have time, I'll show you!

Happy Thanksgiving!