Too Much Trimming

I've got a good number of trees and bushes running along the front of the house.  They do make the house look good, I guess, but it does take a decent amount of time to trim them all.  This year I worked on it for two days... maybe 9 hours altogether.  But, it's done :)

I've got three holly trees/bushes/whatever like the one at the corner of the garage here.  When I moved in they were up/above the lower roof line and every year I cut them back shorter.  My advice to anyone thinking of planting these things is... don't.  I guess one good thing about them is that for some reason robins like to nest in them, if you think that's a good thing.

 

Now that's another holly bush at the left corner of the house but different from the others.  This sucker is big, well over 10 feet tall now and perhaps 7-8 feet in diameter.  I've never really trimmed this thing as it just doesn't get in my way or bother me... yet.

 

The front door is pretty much just for decoration.  To the best of my memory no visitor/guest has ever entered through this doorway.  There have been a few solicitors that have rung the bell and I kind of get a kick out of the fact that the first thing they say, before they even say what they're trying to sell me, is "Boy... that's some driveway to come up."  It doesn't help them... I still say 'no' to whatever it is they made the trip up the driveway to sell me.

 

Little Table

I have been in need of a very little table for use out on the deck.  I wanted something less than two feet tall and somewhere around a foot square.  I looked around at a few antique stores in the area but didn't see anything small enough.  While visiting the kids last week I stopped in the antique shop there and found one that would have worked but the proprietors wanted $19 for the thing and wouldn't budge.  As my daughter-in-law Samantha says... "They're very proud of their merchandise."  I didn't buy it but I took a couple pictures of it because I really liked the design and figured I could duplicate it without a lot of trouble.  I liked the way the legs were mounted on the outside of the shelves but angled, not square to them.  So, the last couple of days I gave it a shot.  It's been a long time since I did any woodworking with small stock.  Making something out of a 2x4 is pretty simple.  If you don't like where the first nail goes, or need another one, just pound the sucker in... lots of room.  Making something with quite smaller stock provided some challenges.  After cutting the pieces to size I found some difficulty in putting them together to say the least.  Getting it to square up had me talking to it in what might have been perceived as a derogatory manner by a bystander.  Next time the shelves will be square which is the way they were in the antique one.  Boy, did I learn a lesson!  In the end it turned out to be just what I wanted. 

Bushes In The Ground

I got a couple of little bitty butterfly bushes from a nursery early this spring and have been growing them in pots in front of the garage where they did quite well.  Today it was time to put them in the ground.

Sitting nicely on the bench.

 

I've mentioned it many times before but digging a hole around my yard is just an awful fight between me and the inevitable rocks!  As if the heavy clay 'soil' wasn't bad enough.  Digging these things up just takes all the fun out of digging.  And, they're not pebbles as you can see.  But, both holes have been dug and I'm still standing :)

 

Ta da... all done.

And the view from the porch.  Supposedly they're supposed to grow to be 6-8 feet in diameter and judging from the size of the original growth thus far, I haven't the least doubt they'll make it.  I had to remove the rose bushes from this area so hopefully the animals will leave these alone and this back 'desert' area will be filled in nicely.  The wildflower beds are actually showing growth this year as well... yippee!

 

 

 

Samantha's Big Day

Just about a month ago I joined the kids up near Sylva, NC where they had rented a cabin in the mountains for a long weekend.  The occassion for this adventure was Samantha's graduation from college with her full 4-year degree.  I was rather happy that she had made a point of inviting me to join her, and the rest of the family, in the celebration.  Samantha had first thought that she would pass on attending the ceremony and walking across the stage due mainly to her thinking it had taken too long to get this "4-year" degree... about 10 years.  When I was in higher education, particularly when I was teaching, I had encountered others with this feeling of "taking too long" or whatever you want to call it.  I talked to Samantha a bit just as I had talked to the others and reminded her of just what took place in those ten years.  Marriage... moving here and there including a move to Italy and back... working... having a child... and then another... a move to Illinois... and back... being the first in her family to earn a college degree... raising two wonderful children, and a husband... and all the while never giving up on the goal of getting a bachelor's degree and working to get it.  I was happy when she changed her mind and decided to celebrate her hard work and ultimate success.  So, a few pictures in celebration of Samantha's Big Day:

Samantha and David prior to leaving for the graduation ceremony.  David had bought Sam a large bouquet of daisies... her favorite.

 

Samantha with two of the reasons for her not getting her degree in four years:  Big sister Hannah and little sister Riley. 

 

May 10, 2013

The happy and rightfully proud graduate!

Of course this is just a step... she's already looking at preparing for and taking the LSAT's.  To be continued :)

 

 

 

Family

Up to now I have pretty much kept specific information about my family, particularly names and pictures, off this site.  My thoughts were centered on safety for the most part.  In chatting with my son, David, and my daughter-in-law Samantha, I have decided to go ahead and include more family doings and pictures.  I am rather happy that they are my family and proud of each and every one of them.  So...

I took a trip over to NC last week to spend five nights and four full days with them and a wonderful visit it was.  They are all very much involved in the activities of their church and they decided to sponsor a church social of sorts to get people out and interacting with one another.  I got to meet some of their friends while at the same time enjoying the company of the family.

My son, David, on the right and his friend Bill minding the grills at the park.

 

My granddauther, Riley.  I have two granddaughters... Riley and Hannah.  Hannah is the best big sister in the world to Riley.  Hannah enjoys reading and math and is pretty much a most well-mannered and lovely young lady.  Riley seems to be developing as somewhat more adventurous.  She had quite a good time at the park just wandering around playing with whatever suited her fancy.

 

Riley is quite fearless and although she's a little thing doesn't let her size deter her from doing what the larger folk do... like eat chips.  The bench seat was about chest high on her but she managed by herself to begin her climb to the treasure.

 

Almost there.

 

Success!!

 

Riley gets quite a kick out of herself and smiles and laughs all the time, even at herself.

 

She's also smart and does things her own way, most of which just crack me up.  Here I asked her to show me her ponytail.  While most everyone would turn their head laterally, Riley without hesitation looked down to bring the ponytail into view. 

 

After the social broke up, David and Samantha's friends, Bill and Amy, came over to the house for a bit of socializing.  I really enjoyed meeting this couple as I found them both good folks.  Here are the two couples going at each other in a game of cornhole (I think it's called).  That's Samantha on the left and Amy on the right.  Notice how the boys dressed alike and the girls pretty much did the same.  I think it's a southern thing.

 

Sunday morning and the girls dressed up and ready for church.  Prior to this shot they had given me the most wonderful Father's Day card.  It's really interesting to watch just how much Riley follows darn near every move Hannah makes.  It's also very interesting to watch just how much Hannah enjoys being the big sister and a wonderful job she does of it, too.

 

Riley :)

 

I will post more family adventures as they occur.  I've also got to get a recent photo of my mom up here.  I'll work on that.



 

 

 

 

 

First Time Watching a Sunset

As just about everyone else on earth I have seen some pretty sunsets.  Sky all kinds of colors and such.  I don't know if it's my imagination or not but it seems that since being in this house in GA I've seen more of these displays than previously.  The house faces west for the most part and the western sun usually does no more for me than cause me to lower the shades in the front windows.  Well, last evening I was feeling particularly happy or whatever you want to call it, I'm sure due to my having connected with my son, daughter-in-law, and two grandkids on a video call via my new computer.  When that call ended I stepped over to see if I could raise the shades and decided to step out onto the front porch.  As you know the house sits on a pretty good hill and I've got a pretty much unobstructed view of the sun going behind the trees in the distance.  From what I could see there wasn't a cloud in the sky.  For some reason I decided to sit and watch the sun set.  I've never done that before... just watch the sun go down.  I've never been real keen on just sitting and watching the world, or the sun, go by.  For some other reason unknown to me I decided to grab my camera and take some pictures of it.  Well, I was like a kid in a candy store!  I was in my own little world... just me and the setting sun.  I was quite surprised by many things that happened during the next 20 minutes or so and ended up taking 107 pictures!  I can't post 107 pictures but what follows is a recap of what I saw.  I recommend clicking on the photos to make them bigger.  You know, get the full effect :)

So, here's the sun just falling into the trees.  I think you'd agree with me that it appears to be a cloudless sky.  Silly observer.

This is no more than 3 minutes later.  The sky seemed to have caught fire and this cloud, or whatever it is, appears.  This is when I started taking pictures pretty much nonstop :)

The sky started getting darker but this cloud just glowed.

I was taking these while holding the camera in my hands but tried to keep the same angle or whatever you call it.  If I do this again I'll set up the tripod.  The way this cloud was expanding really got to me.  I wish I knew more about just what this thing is since it didn't appear before the sun went down.

The sky started darkening more, turning purple.  The narrow band of whatever seen below the cloud thing appeared as a bright red line.  Did I mention I was captivated by this?

Darker still but holding its own.  The 'new' clouds above the main one become more pronounced.

A new band of clouds, or whatever, expands.  The lower line is just the most dynamic red I think I've ever seen in the sky.

The red band disappeared... became dark... but I started to notice that the sky was becoming different shades of color, vertically, and you could actually see the sun's rays or whatever was doing it.

The red is picked up by the 'main' cloud.  The clouds above the main one disappeared... in just minutes.  Why?  I have absolutely no idea.  The bands of vertical light were becoming more pronounced to me though not easily discernible in this photo.

I pulled the focus of the camera back in the hopes of capturing these bands of light I was seeing when not looking through the camera... and it worked :)  The cloud was apparently now blocking the sun's rays from getting through.  Whatever caused it to happen escapes me but I really didn't care... I thought it was just so pretty.  If you do click on this photo to make it bigger you'll see the sliver of moon now catching those rays and making its appearance.

 



I stopped soon hereafter because I couldn't hold the camera steady enough to get it focused with the diminishing light.  I figured I had enough anyway and was just hoping that they had turned out all right.  For me, they did.  None of these photos has been enhanced, mainly because I don't know how to do that.  As mentioned this was the first time I remember ever watching a sunset.  I think I will be doing it again :)

Techno Geek

Well, as the heading of my blog page states, I am not a Luddite but I am extremely slow to acknowledge that  modern technological advances have any application in my life.  However, I have decided to take a mighty leap forward and make a hesitant move into mobile technology.  I intend to start traveling a bit, specifically throughout GA right now to capture some state geocaches and I figured having a laptop of some type would prove advantageous to me.  Therefore, I have gotten myself a Chromebook and have spent the last couple of days laboriously learning how to use it.  The advances I've made have been quite startling to me as I race to catch up with the computer skills of my granddaughter!  This posting is being done on the Chromebook just to find out if I can do it.  So far, it seems I can but we'll see.

This is my little Chromebook and this is where I'm working at the moment.  Pretty impressed with myself because the photo was taken with my cellphone which is connected to the Chromebook to get the picture from.  

And this is my little Chromebook sitting on the table at McD's, next to a really crappy Egg McMuffin, where I have successfully accessed a wi-fi connection for the very fist time ever, outside of the house.  I know, billions of people have done this for years but they all had to have a first time as well.

That's it and now I will try to publish this post.  I'm getting an error message every time I try to save this as I work on it.  Go figure... is a google system and a google blogging application.

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Rescued Roses etc.

Sometimes it's the little things that have a way of making me rather happy about some of the goofy stuff I do.  Take the desire I had to see my new rose bushes thrive.  In January I discovered that it was a rabbit that was eating on all five of the baby rose bushes I planted in the back... damn rabbit(s).  As mentioned I dug them up and put them in little pots to see if I could prevent them from becoming dinner.

This is them sitting in the little white and slightly larger blue containers I put them in after digging them up.  Poor little things.

 

Here's two of them today having just been pruned a bit.  Bigger pots and growing nicely.

And the other three... growing tall and full.  Before long the lowest flowering branches will be above where the stinkin' rabbits can get to them and I'll move them out front.  I may not rush to do this because I kind of like driving up to the garage area and seeing them.

 

These two might be the ones I fretted over most.  Both of these are transplants from down near the front of the property.  The closer one was nothing more than a dead-looking stalk with no real roots and I was so glad to see the first new growth appear a few weeks ago.  Now, doing pretty good.  The one further down was my first attempt to plant a cutting and it too is growing well now.  These two are in front of the house across the driveway so finally I have something descent to look at in that area.

 

Having trimmed the bushes back I now have these yellow flowers growing pretty well along the edge of the front grass.

More of them growing on the right side of the driveway...

... and the left side.

See?  Both sides :)

Orange things that I think are day-lillies up closer to the house..

.. and back near the garage area.  That's my two new butterfly bushes growing nicely in the grey pots.  They too will have to go into the ground before too long.

 

That's it... the horicultural report as of June 3, 2013.  Once I decide on putting this potted stuff into the ground I will let you know.  I know all my readers just can't wait :)



Morning view from the Deck

I really, really like being on the deck in the mornings and I'm happy to say that the view is improving nicely.  I've got a couple of other things I want to work on but things done last summer are maturing well I think. 

The hydrangea has become acclimated to its new home and seems to be growing quite well.  Blossoms have started to come out and I will be happy to see them at full bloom, and color.

In the lower section some of the flowers planted last summer made it, some didn't.  A couple of months ago I dug up and split some hostas and replanted pieces here.  There are doing well.  I also split the daisies and they too seem to be holding their own... yippee!

The hostas along the back of the house, many of which I split, are doing what hostas do... grow no matter what.  Wouldn't it be nice if that stinkin' grass did the same?!?!?

One most interesting thing noticed is the salmon yarrow plants.  When purchased, they had salmon-colored flowers on them.  Last year not a single flower came in although the leafy stuff grew like mad.  This year for no particular reason I haven't really been watering them and flower stems and buds are coming up all over the place.  I'm thinking I over watered them last summer although I really don't have the slightest idea.  Anyway, I think I learned a gardening lesson and I'm happy about it.  The flowers will grow to about the size of a daisy.  Clicking on this photo you can see the little ones coming in a bit better.