Sunday, May 29, 2011

Wind

I haven't listened to news to find out what the wind speeds have been but they're strong enough to knock my favorite tree over, once again! The tree has be re-staked numerous times in the last few years and we thought we finally had it tethered to the ground with a guy wire but early this morning the wire came loose and the stakes were knocked over when the tree decided to take a break and lean against the brick wall. It's times like this that I wish there was another person in the house who would deal with calling the gardener . . .

Last week I photographed a dove perched on an exhaust pipe on the roof behind us. I think it's an exhaust pipe. Anyway, when I received a texture from Kim today I thought it might be the perfect one for a background. I've never used any of her free offerings before and now that I've used this one I'll be trying more of them. Go here for info:

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Another Month Gone!

At 11am the temp was heading for 100 degrees for the second day. Where did May go? Four weeks ago today mom was moved from the hospital to a skilled nursing home; it's taken me three weeks to finally get to a a good place, one of well-being. I imagine she'll be coming home soon. The entire breast cancer/mastectomy episode has been fairly stress-free amazingly enough. Maybe it's because I refused to get emotional over it; it seems that when I become too emotional  over something that's when I run into trouble both mentally and physically. I couldn't do anything about what was going on with mom other than to see her through it and that's what I did.
A couple of weeks ago when I was doing my daily tour of the garden I was greeted by the "conductor of the garden." I had no idea that this tall fuzzy cactus bloomed. It sends shoots out from the side and then blooms.  Four babies are growing at the base of this tall stately cactus that was once planted in an arrangement that Roger brought home about 3 years ago. Every one of the plants has been removed from the low round pot and each of the specimens are now somewhere in the garden. Everything grows here with lightning speed.

Who knew that grape stems look like leaf-less trees? I've been collecting the stems for awhile now; instant trees! I haven't altered a photo in months so I thought it was time to see if I remembered how to play with photos. This one isn't too bad for someone whose skills have become very rusty.

Quote: Another winner from Sally Huss
"Find a time each day when nothing is required.
It makes the other times more effective."