Give Me Some Good Good Lovin(g)

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Honestly if tomorrow wasn't D Day, I would happily leave up my last post and wait for more comments.

And to think I was a little leery about writing such a political post.

Obviously I have the best readers, "to the left, to the left", as Beyonce would say.

But anyhoo, with Google reader bidding us adieu, (does anyone know why?), I have to stake my claim.

At least that's what Bloglovin tells me. (What happened to the "g"?)

I have moved my reader over to my new hostess and am set to go.

I see I already have a crew of followers. Either you're also using the b-love or you were so shocked by the big head on top of my blog you were hypnotized into following me on Bloglovin

g.

So what happens tomorrow?

Does the blog list on my page simply vanish into thin air?

I'm not good at the wait and see mode.

 But Lucy is.

What are you all doing?

We Can Be Heroes

This week, this week,

Starting with a beautiful FITH, where I couldn't help but notice how everyone's designs have matured. Is that the right word?

Styles are looser and just full of joie de vivre. The containers are as engaging as the flowers themselves and we had some new guests come to the party and invite us in the homes.

Total success. let's do it again next month!

Now how about that Supreme Court?

I am quite the little political junkie and when I'm not in the garden or the gym, I'm tuning in to the news of the day.

Tuesday my heart was broken by the decision on the Voting Rights Act. I cried.

Wednesday, my spirit jumped up and down in jubilation when that same court struck down Doma and repealed Prop 8. It was like the end of a long winter, when you think you can't take another day of cold and gray and then the sun comes out and you see your first crocus.

I cried at work. I put on sunglasses and went outside and cried some more. I talked on the phone. I sent and responded to text.

I facebooked and shared in social media joy. I came home and watched the news, and to the chagrin of the kittens, well you know what I did.

I stood with Wendy Davis and marveled at her mental and physical stamina. I cheered the crowd of 400 protesters who made up the "peoples filibuster" and yes I shed a few tears.

My soul is clearly starved for some good news and for a hero or two or 400.

Cheers to the Senate for getting it together and passing an Immigration Reform bill.

Boo to the House for immediately responding it won't be brought to the floor for a vote.

My suggestion as a taxpayer?

More flowers in the House, less hatred.

And congratulations to the two couples who brought the suit against Prop 8 to the highest court in the land.

They were both married tonight in California.

See, at the end of every rant, I'll offer up a happy ending.

And flowers and a kitten.

 Now aren't you glad you stayed?

Flowers In The Super Moon House: June 2013

We awoke to grey skies and the smell of rain to come.

After coffee, the kittens and I skittered about the garden cutting a flower here, pulling a weed there.

Then at 8am the skies opened. The windows and doors were open, music playing and the laundry washing.

I had a pile of new library books, flowers stems and leaves all over the kitchen floor and no possibility of any more garden work.What a perfect Sunday morning.

I filled one vase with monarda, hyrdangea, yarrow, baptisia foliage, geranium, oregano blossoms and bronze fennel.

 Heady stuff this.

The taller blue vase had more of the fennel and baptisia, a different hydrangea blossom, hypericum, painted fern and mandevilla vines.

I can smell the fennel as I write this. I made a small bouquet for the kitchen.

Lucy took a nap and the rain continued.

We love our Sundays around here.
Now let's make it a really good Monday.
Show us what you've got.
Let's start with England and Australia.

You Take My Breath Away

If you are or have ever been part of a 12 Step program you are probably familiar with a gratitude list.

Usually when you are feeling far from grateful, you are gently encouraged to write one.

By the time you begrudgingly come up with lets say,10 things to be grateful for, you're feeling a little better in spite of yourself.

Though you might still want to slug the person who suggested it in the first place.

Tonight I was cleaning up the kitchen after an unusually delicious dinner when I heard Lucy meow.

I walked to the back door to see what she wanted and found her rolling around happily under the bench on the back deck.

All she wanted was to be petted and admired. That was easy to do.

Full of kitten love I walked around the yard and was struck by how amazing it was that I have this garden. Full of flowers and berries and bees and weeds and fireflies.

And I was swept away by a wave of gratitude.

Just Asking

Lucy and I have two questions for you.

#1  What is Gus looking for?

#2 Would you like to join the three of us in a rousing chorus of Flowers In The House next Monday?

Discuss.

Talk among yourselves.
Not so sure I'll have any lambs ears left to use.....

Don't Fence Me In

And then it was Saturday.

What a week.

The tree came down.

The fence went up.

And so did Lucy.

When I saw the fence guys fire up their chain saw I asked them if they would cut up the fig tree and take it to the curb.

For $60.00 they would.

Done. And done.

Farewell dear friend.

In other news, we have a changing of the guard here at SBC.

The Colonel is finished with her assignment and is moving back home on Sunday.

To my initial dismay she put a posting up in the Pentagon gym advertising the room for rent.

To my eventual delight I acquired a new housemate who will drop off his things on Sunday, drive his family to Seattle on Monday and return soon to finish his final 6 months of service. He's a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force.

When we met I showed him around the house. Then he asked to see the garden.

He passed the Jane test.

I also told him I often watch The Rachel Maddow Show at night.

Would he have a problem with this if he was around?

I don't like to make people uncomfortable with my politics. Well, not if I'm sharing space with them...

No, he assured me. He had a two month assignment in the White House last year and he didn't want to leave. Apparently you can help yourself to vegetables from the garden.

Also he reminded me, he's from Seattle.

Sealed the deal for me.

Lucy, not so easily persuaded.

She will watch

and wait

and present a formal report at a later date..

The Summer Wind

 Today's forecast:

Scattered strong thunderstorms. Storms could contain damaging winds. High 91F. Winds SW at 15 to 25 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

At mi casa I am assessing the damage from Monday's storm.

Raspberries: still hanging.

 Sungolds ripening.

Fig tree: down.

When I walked out on the little deck Monday night about 8:30PM my breath stopped.

The back yard was a lake and the fig tree had fallen.

My brain couldn't make sense of it.

That night I had nightmares and would wake up to fret about what the fig tree had damaged in it's fall.

The peach tree? The little red currant that had finally produced its first few clusters of fruit?

Could I crawl over the fence on the berm from the alley and get to the drain to clean it out of the mulch and dirt that had washed there during the worst of the rain?


The cats, who were overexcited beyond belief by the new view from the back bedroom window woke me up at 5:00.

All was peaceful. The back yard was a yard again and the fig was slumbering gently over the garden beds. The peach tree standing tall.

I'm hoping to organize a funeral in the 'hood this weekend. It will involve a chain saw. This is a power tool I don't care to use.

I'll save some cuttings and hope to propagate another.

Just when you think you're having a good garden year, staying somewhat abreast of the weeds, Mother Nature comes along and lets you know otherwise.

Pride goeth before a  fall.

 P.S.How ironic. I'm off today. After a fast hour of cutting down some past bloom plants, I took down the umbrella, the chairs and rushed inside just minutes ahead of the first onslaught of rain.

At which point the fence guys arrived.

Go home I told them. It's going to be impossible to work outside. I would have felt it necessary to hold umbrellas over their heads as they dug.

Though I did fell it was necessary to show them the fig tree.

Que lastima we all agreed.

Then they drove away.

The fence that never was and never will be. I have been scheduled for last Friday, this past Monday and today.

All these dates have produced strong storms.

I'm feeling kind of responsible.

Another Day, Another Dollar

My plan was to tell y'all that even though I worked on Monday, usually the second day of my weekend, it was worth it because I got to see the American Red Cross building.

The Governors Hall to be precise.

 Even with insane weather that fluctuated between flooding rain and bright sunshine, the only constant being temperatures of what felt like a 1000 degrees, it was worth it.

Considering the party was hosted by Weather.Com, you would have thought they could have conjured up a nice day but oh no.

So clad in my rainproof gardening hat and jacket off I went. I heard a customer say, " Jane looks cute, where is she going, hiking"?

Yes, the urban hiker, that's me.

The caterers had commandeered the small elevator so up and down slippery marble stairs I went.

Slipping, sliding, sweating.

 But the ballroom was worth the hike.

Stained glass, original Red Cross posters, beautifully painted moldings. It was da bomb.

 And we made it back to Virginia and I made it home just as the severe weather alerts started to beep over my phone and across the TV screen. They warned us of the possibility of floods and advised people to stay off the roads.

I was off the road and cosy at home with the kittens.

And then the serious rains came. and came. And came.

Can you guess what happened next?

I'll leave you to it.

Time for a shower and work.

Part two coming your way soon.

 

Yes We Can!

Stay with me here, I'm procrastinating tackling all those weeds that have sprung up in the garden courtesy of the constant rain.

I bought two more little boxes at the flea market last Saturday. Two more boxes I had no use for what so ever.

But two for $5.00? Mine.

 Once I got them home I though what cute planter boxes they would make if I had both GG and her drill handy.

But I don't.

Then I thought, how frigging hard can it be to drill some holes in the bottom of a box?

So I borrowed my neighbor's drill.

Easy peasy.

Last night after work I planted them with a petunia or two and a brown coleus I had grabbed at Home Depot.

I'm no plant snob. I'll buy them anywhere. Garden center, farmers market, supermarket, hardware store. Just give me the goods.

And the goods I got.

 Very empowering one's first power tool experience.

Next up, clean and stain the deck?

Who can know.

The world's my oyster!

Watch Now How I Start the Day

Since we are under the weather here, both with the all night/all day/all night rain and Gus still feeling the effects of Tuesday nights illness, I thought I'd bring the garden inside.

It feels like I was just rushing around cutting peonies in the pouring rain and now they are but a memory.

Still the garden is bursting with flowers. Wednesday after work I took a tour.

The first of the hydrangeas is in bloom. This plant was moved from a garden in Pennsylvania 9 years ago.

It missed its home and refused to bloom.

Three years ago I said that sucker's gotta go.  It heard me. It's been blooming ever since.

Talk to your plants, apparently they listen.

Second year clematis creeps up the ornamental plum.

The prickly pear is fighting for space with a  perennial geranium.

And the sweet ever so pink campanula? The aptly named octopus campanula?

Spreading its tentacles over inch of real estate it can claim.

But with such a pretty face, it's hard to be mad.

One more picture and I think I've got my fix for the day.

 Hello Black Jack, deal me in.

There. It's dark now. Time for a bath and a lovely nights sleep listening to the rain.

May you all awake to beautiful sunny days, read a poem or two by Mary Oliver and enjoy every moment of your weekend.

xo Jane

Love In The Midst

On the short but slowly growing list of the perks of living single is a new addition.

When people have an extra ticket for a concert, they invite you.

This is the second time I have gone to Wolf Trap in the past two months.

First was Catie Curtis, courtesy of the women of the pink house.

Last night was the funkalicious Earth Wind And Fire.

This ticket was brought to me by my favorite customer/friend Heidi.

Heidi not only gets weekly flowers ( what ever I want to do flowers) but was the foster mother of Lucy and Gus, back in the day when they were Sunkissed and Tony.  Whaat?

And thank God I was with a cat lover and her friends when my neighbor who was recruited to feed the kittens couldn't find Gus.

She couldn't find him at 5:30, she couldn't find him at 8:56 or at 9:09. She canvassed the neighborhood knocking on people's doors and stopped my dog walking friends on the street.

No Gus.

We left the concert early and I was rushed home to find an anxious Sheila waiting at her door to help me look for the lost kitten.

I had to look no further that the front door as Gus came strolling out of the kitchen.

 He clearly was sick with a hot little nose and bleary eyes. Well sick or high but for the purpose of publication I'm sticking with sick.

I can only take one loss a year.  Guster needs to stick around.

Olga, who cleans the house every two weeks is proud to scoop him up in her arms and defiantly announce to anyone around her :" I love him".

I'm with Olga, I love him too.

After a night spent sleeping under the covers next to me he emerged bright eyed and raring to go at 5:15am.

I was not raring to go but I was unusually grateful to have a bed full of fighting cats and fur flying.

Love, get it where you can.

Oh, and Joan Baez and The Indigo Girls are at Wolf Trap next week.

Anybody got an extra ticket?

Babies At Work

Many things have happened since the big break up.

 Mr. Baby bought a new house and has been very busy fixing it up.

He  painted the living room and hung a new chandelier.

The dining room also has a coat of fresh paint and a new table and chairs.

He tore out the old kitchen and counter and replaced all the units, allowing him more room to give the dogs their treats.

He painted clouds and a bird on his bedroom ceiling.

He also learned to put his shoes on himself. Kind of....but he knows what drawer they are kept in and can get them out himself. This is impressive to me.

I can usually only find one shoe.

He made the dough and presented two different pizzas along with a huge salad.

And best of all, he sat me next to my favorite dinner companion.

That baby sure knows how to throw a party!

Thank you Mr. B and Company.