More plants

Aren't those white lilies amazing? Upclose they're almost fake looking. This butterfly was on my butterfly bush for about twenty minutes total. She'd fly around to other plants, but always return to this one.

Physical Evidence

The headless stalk of my Beloved Sunflower.

Sunflower, I hardly knew ye.
RIP, Sunflower, RIP. My only consolation now is that now you will be composted and somewhere down the line nourish another generation of sunflowers.
I hope the heartless Menace who did this to you gets constipation for a month. 

Murdered sunflower head, face down on the lawn. 

It was a dark and stormy blog entry

It’s a dark day. Inside and out. It sucks. Yesterday LP and I had one of those Mom-Son arguments. Loud. To top it off yesterday a neighborhood kid with a baseball bat came by and hit the head off of my sunflower. It’s still lying in my lawn. That was so mean. I’m not picking it up either. It can stay there until it rots for all I care. I feel like tying a sign around the bare stalk proclaiming, “Some asshole whacked off my head.” Motherfucker.

For Miss Spideybitch

Readers, my gnomes . . . . gnomes, meet my readers
They're ready for their close-up.

I gathered up my Target gnomes from their places in the house and around the yard for a pictorial. They're standing on the $80 marked-down-to $19.99 red chair on the porch.

Kaysar lost his balls

Why on earth did Kaysar wimp out and put up Nakomis and Diane? Last season he took on “Cappy” and chopped the head off the inane Friendship Alliance. Now he’s totally playing scared by not nominating Will and Mike “Boogie” (the person with the stupidest nickname.) I adore Nakomis and will be sad to see her go.
Jedi Howie lost points with me by calling Nakomis “ugly.” Not cool for a Jedi, Howie.
I kind of like Chicken George. He’s the token old guy, therefore an underdog big time.
Next time Erika’s in a bikini, watch her breasts. They fascinate me. They’re so fake…they just hang there.
Next week Season Six people will go up on the block if they don’t get HOH. And Kaysar will get angry, being backstabbed by the dumbass Chilltown.
I hope Kaysar finds his balls before it’s too late.

Squeezing a gland

Spidey, gnomes photos forthcoming.

It's dark and dreary today.

I'm taking Wed, Thurs and Friday off and so it will probably rain. Tomorrow LP and I have eye appointments. That will be a highlight.

My friend Marcia's doggy, Molly, had surgery yesterday. They removed a bigass tumor from her. It was wrapped around a kidney. the vet said he'd never seen a tumor that big and he wanted to send it to Purdue's School of Veternary (sp) for analysis. It's iffy for Molly. She's about 14 years old and the sweetest dog. She hadn't complained at all...they found it while squeezing a gland. BLECH. On that happy note, I'll take my leave. adios.

Gnomes on sale

Yesterday it was around 95 degrees with 100% humidity so I got the bright idea of transplanting a rose bush. Bad idea.

This rose bush was being crowded out by the freaking coneflowers so it was move it or lose it, and I took pity on the thing. So with a baseball cap on my head and a wet kitchen towel on my neck I cleared the new spot, dug a nice big hole, filled it with some fertilized soil and made room for the rose. Then I took a 15 minute break in the air conditioning with a huge bottle of iced water.

Then I dug up this two year old rose bush. It gave me some trouble. Finally got it up and move to its new spot. I cut back all the old canes and some of the foliage. I watered and watered and watered it. Mulched it and watered some more. After all that work and sweat, I hope it makes it.

Oh, and guess what! I went to my favorite discount department store Target (Hi, Biddy, you old hag) and found a cool ultra contemporary red plasticy and chrome chair that was originally $80! I couldn’t imagine anyone paying $80 for this chair, which is probably why they were marked down to $19.99. I bought one and put it on my front porch to replace a yucky old white plastic chair.

Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd, they had the GNOMES on sale! Remember the gnomes I bought in April or May? The cute ones? Anyway I bought TWO more because they were only $4.98 each. I couldn’t believe it.

Herbs

Dill that's gone to seed. I don't know where it came from (I think it's from the plant I yanked up last summer.) But it's growing in a weird place..in the front yard by the steps. So I'm thinking that when the seeds are ripe, I'll pull up the plant and shake the seeds in a spot where nothing else will grow. I'm sure dill will be perfectly happy there. It's a weed actually, so it should grow just about anywhere.

I don't like to use dill in cooking. The feathery fronds go well with seafood, but I just don't particularly care for the flavor. But I love the look of the plant. When it sets seed it reminds me of fireworks.

Sage is another herb that, to me, smells like camphor and I don't use in cooking, but it's easy to grow and looks good in the garden if it doesn't get too woody.


In case you're wondering here are my absolutely favorite herbs to cook with and grow:

BASIL. Good God it's wonderful. The smell alone sends me to heaven. I like it in eggs, marinara sauce, casseroles and my Thai basil beef is to die for. Basil is a must.

ROSEMARY. mmmm. Soups, eggs, grilled lamb, beef. Anything is better with rosemary on it.

PARSLEY. Underused by everyone except me. Italian flat leaf parsley is good in every dish under the sun. I love to add it to biscuits even.

THYME. Good in everything.

PEPPERMINT. Got to add it to my iced tea in the summer. Yum.

Lots more of course, but these are MUST HAVES.

This is first sunflower from the bird feeder to open. I took this picture at 9:30 last night, isn't is beautiful?