In my Garden (June 2009)

This month has been filled with a lot of cloudy skies and RAIN! The sunny days have been far and few between which has been a little disappointing for me. I live for this time of year! Fortunately, the rain has produced some beauties for us to enjoy. Long live the summer;)

A November Rose

I thought I would share something I learned this week while searching for an object lesson to go along with my RS lesson on "Standing Fast through the Storms of Life". I loved the comparison using roses but wondered all week how I would find a true garden rose given that it has been below freezing quite consistently here. I was grateful today when I realized my neighbor had several surviving roses in her yard. Grateful again when she agreed to let me have a few roses for my lesson. Here is the object lesson:

Roses that are grown in a greenhouse are very beautiful but their scent is weak. Why is that?

Greenhouse roses don't have to develop a heavy scent to attract bees in order to flourish. They are fed, watered, and watched over by the gardener, all in ideal conditions.

Outdoor roses face much harsher conditions: wind, rain, cold, heat, and bugs. Outside, roses must develop the strong rose scent in order to attract the bees. Roses raised out of doors are both beautiful to see and to smell. If we lived under perfect conditions without the storms of life, we would not develop our "scents" as best as we might have, had we been strengthened through adversity. It is those who are tempered in the heat of the Lord's oven of adversity who develop a beautiful "scent". They bring joy and gladness to all around them and are beautiful spiritually.

It is so true! I have the outdoor rose and beautiful rose that I purchased (one that has obviously been grown in a greenhouse). Hands down... the scent of the outdoor rose is much stronger. Next year I will be planting a rose bush or two!

Self Reliance

The strawberry patch.
Homegrown berries.
Dessert.

Need I say more?

In My Garden June 2008

Despite the fact that we hit freezing at ground level last night we have lots of coreopsis to enjoy...

Anybody know what these pink flowers are?

My all-time favorite.. Shasta Daisy

The berries are coming along too! Yum.

When it Rains... it Pours!

Today it is raining.... both literally and figuratively.

Crew started getting congested over the weekend and by Sunday night he was miserable. Monday was a scheduled Audiology visit and we weren't able to get new earmolds made because his ears are infected. Tuesday, I made another trip to Logan to see the ENT. Yeah for antibiotics! Little Crew has been pretty lethargic and eating is a battle but today he's a tiny bit better than yesterday.

Today, we had our routine visit at the Childrens Hospital with Dr. Rehab. They took us back to our little room where we waited for an hour and a half. Crew was totally ticked at that point. He was screaming and biting his self. I went back up front and asked if they had forgotten us. The staff was waiting for the Dr. and offered everything (new toy, blanket, DVD player) to help us pass the time. Finally, the PA came in to get started and explained that Dr. Rehab was downstairs with the "inpatients". I thought it odd that she would spend so much time down there when she had patients upstairs waiting. Well.... we did finally see the Dr. and she apologized. Apparently, there was a child with a brain tumor that she was attending to. My heart goes out today to those who received such an awful diagnosis.... to the child and their family.

We scheduled Botox for July and another hip x-ray.

A couple months ago I signed my aunt on as a Respite worker for Crew. She has been great and the boys love her. Also, it has been fun getting to know her better. My Uncle Del, her husband, had Heart Surgery yesterday... a SIX BYPASS. I've never even heard of SIX before. I really hope he recovers well.

Oh, and Friday we have Ophthalmology.... Please let us be done with the eye drops already!

KEEP BLOOMING!

It's always sad to say goodbye to summer. It's not that I don't love fall or winter but the autumn weather is short lived and the winters way to loooong!

It's hard to believe the flowers still look so great considering everything nearly froze last night. Luckily, "nearly froze" isn't the same as FROZEN. Maybe we can enjoy these creations for another week or two.

Like I've said before the Shasta Daisy is a favorite of mine. The yellow flower is called coreopsis or "tickseed". I love it too because it spreads like crazy and the blooming season here ranges from June until first frost.

It's inevitable that the flowers will fade and die out in the near future and we will look to spring for another display of beautiful blooms. Luckily we have the long winter months to continue to watch our little Crew grow and develop. I know in my heart that we will see him progress. Each day is an improvement and we continue to see his personality develop, grow and BLOOM. Happy Autumn to you all and for those bloggy friends on the other side of the globe... think of us during your sunnier days:)

June Flowers

The flowers are Blooming

This is an exciting time of year for me!














The daisy is a favorite of mine: Beautiful yet Casual.













Johnny Jump-ups are awesome because they spread like crazy and come back from seed.

Oh, I can't wait to see what treasures next month will bring:)

In My Garden

I love Spring! Gardening is therapy for me. I love planting, propagating, tilling the soil. I love the sun blazing down on my back. I like the feel of the soil in my fingers.

Isn't this world beautiful!

My favorite daisy

As a child it was my role to play the family tomboy. I loved getting dirty, climbing trees and riding bikes. I wouldn't be caught dead in a dress. I thought makeup was stupid and babies were annoying. It was cool to hang with my older brother and I enjoyed catching frogs. I remember telling my best friend that I thought flowers were stinky. What a lost child I was! :)

Today my favoritest hobby in the whole world is gardening and I love flowers. After I had been married for several years I realized that I needed a hobby. My interest in gardening didn't come until after we had built our first home. That first summer after moving in we started planting. We planted all kinds of stuff. A lot of it died but some of it didn't. I planted shrubs, trees, perennials and annuals. The plants that died were replaced with something else. I just kept planting stuff. The next spring I had to move some of the perennials around because they were too tall for here or there or too short. It was just a kind of trial and error system.

However, the great thing is that I loved it. Being outside has always been in my blood and working in the yard my personal therapy. Then a miraculous thing happened. I started recieving compliments, "your flower beds are perfect", "the best yard in the neighborhood". Wow, what a self-esteem booster. I would just tell them that I didn't really know what I was doing (because I didn't) but that I loved it. I learned a lot those first couple of years and I am still learning. In fact I keep telling my neighbor that her gardenias look great, when in fact, they are geraniums. "Oh sorry", I say "I knew it started with a 'G' ". Duh!

I've done some research on daisies because that is my favorite flower. It is so beautiful but casual and I love things that are casual. This is what I've found:

There are over 20,000 different species of the family Asteraceae, which is sometimes referred to as the family of daisies. Daisies are a star-like flower. Some members of Asteraceae, such as many lettuces and sunflowers, are not thought of as daisies, but they share many of the same characteristics.

Daisies include not only the blooms most people are familiar with, but also popular health herbs such as Echinacea and arnica, and many edible plants such as artichokes and endive.

The true daisy--that with which the name originated--is the English daisy, Bellis perennis. The word "daisy" is a contraction of the phrase "Day's Eye," and references the fact that English daisies close at night and open their petals again at daylight. English daisies have white, off-white, or sometimes slightly pink petals and a yellow center, with green stems and leaves.

Oh, did you know... Chrysanthemums are daisies too!. Many Chrysanthemums appear very similar to the English daisy, with white petals and a yellow center. Others come in decorative colors, ranging from vibrant pinks and blues to deep purples and reds.

My 3 most favorite daisies are:
1. SHASTA DAISIES
2. BLACK-EYED SUSAN
3. PAINTED DAISIES

The greatest thing about SHASTA DAISIES is that they come in all sizes and shapes. Here are 12 of the most common.

GLOSSARY
1. ‘Crazy Daisy’ 24 to 28 inches tall; 2- to 4-inch double flower; simple or quilled creamy petals.
2. ‘Chiffon’ 48 inches tall; 2- to 3-inch double flower; frilly “cut” creamy petals; long blooming.
3. ‘Aglaia’ 28 inches tall; very sturdy stem; 3- to 4-inch double flower; frilly white petals.
4. ‘Little Miss Muffet’ 12 inches tall; 2- to 3-inch semidouble flower; pure-white petals.
5. ‘Summer Snowball’ 28 inches tall; 2- to 3-inch fully double flower; creamy-white petals.
6. ‘Silver Prince’ 36 inches tall; very sturdy stem; 3- to 4-inch single flower; pure-white petals.
7. ‘Alaska’ up to 36 inches tall; 4- inch single flower; pure-white petals.
8. ‘Becky’ 24 to 36 inches tall; 3- to 4-inch single flower; white petals; late and long flowering; very heat-tolerant.
9. ‘Chuck’s Delight’ 36 inches tall; 4-inch fully double flower; frilly pure-white petals.
10. ‘Esther Read’ 15 inches tall; 3-inch double flower; pure-white petals; early, long-blooming flowers.
11. ‘Marconi’ 36 inches tall; 2- to 5-inch double flower; pure-white petals.
12. ‘Brent’s Choice’ 36 inches tall; 4- to 5-inch single flower; pure-white fringed petals.