What's blooming!

So I had every intention of jumping on the train with the weekly blooming post, and here it is almost Sept. and I'm on board... Again- I'm quick like that!

I was looking at the camera I gave my husband for his Bday and it has MACRO! Dude, so excited!!!! So here are some pictures I took today in the garden.

Cardinal vine


Sunflower


Snap Dragon


Fuzzy Wuzzy stage of Clematis


Iris evacuated from Katrina




What in the world is this? Anyone? Anyone?


Indigo Yarrow


Sedum with cute bee's

Philadelphia

So I went home last weekend and it was way too much fun and way too familiar and just way too much for my little heart to handle. I am feeling lost and lonely, but that's for another post...

Here are some highlights from my fabulous weekend:

-The smell of Philadelphia- metallic, garbagy, with a hint of piss- ahhh home..
-Going back to school shopping and eating fried rice with Gabe and the kids at the mall.
-Erik.
-Walking into Craig and Kat's house to a big welcome! (by Kat, Craig and all the booze soldiers lined up so proper like!)
-Playing pool, drinking rum, and sitting around the fire, or should I say passing out around the fire...
-Kat's awesome, most delicious pancakes.
-Trying to leave South Jersey- for hours.
-Craig's directions back to Philly.
-Babies in jars, corset crushed ribs and hunched backs.
-STEVE MATT, the Steve Matt special (cheese steak with mozzarella sticks nestled inside), Steve Matt's wife Kristie, Did I say Steve Matt?!?
-"May I bring you a bucket of ice for your bottle of Jameson?"
-"We fucked that sushi place up"
-Big Ben and his gold chain, good ol' Ben!
-A very clever plan to hit Steve in the face with our new ball!
-taxidermy, god, star wars and "Its so crazy in here!"
-Kristie kicking Craig's ass while Steve talks to my mom and Erik keeping my glass filled...
-Whose idea was it to do back flips?
-Erik turning left while Craig's GPS is yelling "RIGHT, RIGHT, RIGHT"!
-That waitress who did not put up with Craig's crap.
-Rolling into moms house at 4:30 am and passing out on the floor.
-A beautiful breakfast, in a lovely apt, with good friends and family.
-Walking into Tammy's house and seeing the whole family enjoying an old episode of Dr. Who.
-Tammy saying that when she finally move back to Philly from Chicago, "she was home"...

National Night Out

Well, I have recovered from the shin-dig that happened last Tuesday night! We had the craziest party and there are still remnants of it on the front lawn...
The ingredients:
800 water balloons
50 paper lanterns (painted by the neighborhood kids)
pinata
scavenger hunt (for the shredded water balloons!)
72 beach balls (for the biggest dodge ball game EVER!)
Yummy food
And good conversations

Its just cool to have everyone together, putting aside all the tribulations of the block, and hang out...

Went camping last weekend. As a kid I remember how fun camping was, running through the woods, climbing on fallen trees and searching for new and unusual bugs. We would spend the mornings canoeing through quiet waters looking for beaver damns or birds catching a snack. In the evening I loved sitting by the fire with the family, talking to each other and watching the stars. As a kid I would forget all the troubles at home and just live in the moment of those fun days and peaceful nights. Last weekend my kids experienced everything I loved about camping and it made me feel like I am doing okay by them.

After a long day of caring for the children, household chores, running errands, doing algebra homework and four and a half hours of math class, I am done. I pull up at home, on my bike, ready to spend a quality moment with Charlie.
And this is what I am greeted with-



The maturity level around here astounds me sometimes.

Garage sale score!

Well they weren't really a score but what I wanted.... I have been meaning to plant up the boulevard, but with 30 some kids on the block who seem to converge on my front lawn every night, having plants out front is flora homicide. And with these box we all win, however I am the only one who imagines them as plant boxes- So far I have seen them become ships in the high sea, surrounded with sharks. An arena for gladiators to battle till the death. A trapeze so thin and wiggly that imminent death is just a tragic slip (or push) away. A bunker to ambush the enemy with water guns. An archeological excavation to uncover a rare and extinct breed of monster trucks. And a nice place to sit and eat popsicles on a hot summer evening...

My mini rain garden

I finally got this in, only two months after the Metro Bloom rain garden class- I'm quick like that...

The plants I choose :
long headed coneflower
heuchera villosa "caramel
blackberry lily
columbine
2 avalanche feather reed grass
and good ol' karl foester

It will collect the water via gutter off the southeast corner of the house. The only problem is over a year ago we pulled off the gutters to paint the house with plans to put up new soffits and gutters, and the project is moving right along at slug like pace... We almost have the soffits up but no sign of gutters yet! Summer is so hard, you finally shake off that awful thing that is winter and you are set free! but the projects hang over your like a ton of bricks, totally dampering the whole skipping through the meadows image I have of my summer...