2008 April « From the Bedside

Archive for April, 2008

Pictures

Miss Hanlie challenged her readers to post pictures of them selves as kids and teenagers. So here we go.

My hospital picture

This is me and our dog Duke.

Look at those pudgy legs. haha

This is my 7th grade school picture. Man, oh, man. What is with my bangs?? And the braces, with blue bands. And that shirt? It looks like I stole it from my teachers closet.

This is my 8th grade picture. What a difference a year makes.

This was taken I think my sophomore year.

I don’t have a lot of teenage pics here. They’re all out at my parents house.

OK everybody! Post your embarrassing pictures!

1 comment April 27, 2008

Garden Update

I can’t believe how quickly my plants are growing.

I took this when it was still dark out as I was leaving for work. I wanted to get a shot of the tulips before they opened.

My white grape hyacinth, just starting to pop open.

My strawberry just turning pink.

A pic of my jalapeño plant starting to come up. SPICY!

If you’re a friend on Facebook you can see a bunch of my other pics there.

Add comment April 24, 2008

Happy Earth Day!

Maggie and I spent the day at our favorite dog park.

Maggie’s always up for a game of tennis.

This big guy was so funny.

Maggie looks pretty happy…..I wonder why.

Probably this collection she had going.

I hope you got to spend some time outside today!! It was beautiful out here.

New pictures of my tulips coming tomorrow.

1 comment April 22, 2008

Did you feel the earthquake??

That was the question everyone was asking everywhere I went yesterday.

My answer?? Nope, we slept right through it. Even Maggie our “watch dog” didn’t wake up to warn us.

Oh, and check out the new post on my photography site.

Add comment April 19, 2008

She was in big trouble yesterday. She loves to go upstairs and out onto the roof with me to check on “her” plants. She sticks her nose in the pots and sniffs the dirt. Well, yesterday she ate a baby seedling. BAD DOG!!

But…a few minutes later she redeemed herself. She ate a bug climbing up the inside of the window. GOOD DOG!

1 comment April 17, 2008

A Few Pic Updates

My bulb container is really blooming now. The Irises, Iri? Iriseses? What is the plural word for Iris? Anyway, they have started to wilt. They were already blooming when I bought them. The tulips haven’t formed buds yet, but they haven’t bloomed in people’s yards yet either, so they must usually come up later.

All of my pots are inside right now because we had a cold snap. Hopefully I can get them back outside into the warm sunshine later this week.

Yeah, baby strawberries!! I can’t bring myself to pinch off all of the blooms. Hopefully they will start turning pink soon. I wonder if I will have enough later this summer for strawberry shortcake. Yum!

One of the first sprouts from seeds. This is a baby Marigold. I started shouting that we had baby green things last night. Brian wasn’t as excited. So far I have Marigolds, morning glories, basil, and violas sprouting.

Some of my “potting soil” has turned to a solid mass and I don’t think plants can survive in it. I’m thinking that I’m going to dump it and start those few pots over with new dirt. I guess that’s what I get for buying the cheapest bag of dirt at the store. I have to work a four hour shift tonight that I picked up for one of the girls at work. So, maybe I’ll go buy some new dirt and seeds today and plant tomorrow.

2 comments April 15, 2008

Gardening is in my blood.

And under my fingernails.

My grandparents were farmers, actually their ancestors were farmers too. My Granddad grew corn and soy beans. My paternal grandma and my maternal grandparents always had large gardens that they grew their vegetables in. My maternal grandma still puts out a garden every summer. My mom has always had tons of plants all over the yard. I always believed I had a black thumb. But, I think that’s because I never took the time to actually learn what I should be doing with these baby plants so that I wouldn’t kill them. I did some more planting today. I’m so excited that everything around me is starting to turn green and bloom. It almost makes it worth living through the cold winter. I need to get out and take some pictures of the tree lined streets around here. There are dogwood trees and other flowering trees all over the place right now. Unfortunatly it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, hopefully I will have another day off when it’s nice out before the blooms are gone. Anyway, here are some pics from today.

Here’s a new pic from my kitchen window. I’m sorry that these pics are through a screen, but if I leave it open too long little animals try to escape. They don’t know how good they have it around here. To the left, the small rectangular pot is the one with marigolds in it that you couldn’t see in the picture yesterday. I’ve added another blue pot with sage in it. I still have one more to fill. The round pot to the left will hopefully have jalepenio peppers later this summer. I’ll have to be patient for this one, I’ve read that they grow very slowly. The middle round pot with the actual plant sticking out of it is a strawberry plant. YUM! It already has mini strawberries starting to form. I have pinched some of them off to help the plant get bigger.

This steel pot is outside our front door. I just happened by these in the store and had to get some. They are all flowers that come from bulbs that were planted in the fall. I’ve been really jealous of all the yards with daffodils and tulips coming up because I didn’t get any bulbs planted last fall. Now I get to enjoy them anyway, and hopefully they will bloom every year. It has yellow tulips, a white hyacinth, purple hyacinth (I got this one free, there were 2 plants potted in one pot by accident), daffodils, purple crocus, iris, and white grape hyacinth. Even Brian who thinks all flowers are techniquely weeds liked it when he came home. I can’t wait for them all to be blooming! There are also 3 rectangular pots and 3 round pots with viola and impatient seeds on the front porch. I think I’m done planting for now. I still want a dwarf blueberry bush, but I think I would have to order it from the internet. Maybe next year. I think I’ll have my hands full keeping up with what I’ve got.

Oh, and if you want to give gardening a shot or even if you’re an experienced gardener check out You Grow Girl. I love her site and book by the same title.

2 comments April 8, 2008

Planting Season

I planted some seeds today. Last year was the first year that I managed to keep any plants alive. I don’t really keep plants in the house because our cats eat them. I am however considering getting some orchids that I would keep out of their reach. I really miss having our deck, but I’m going to make the best of it. Our deck and outside area in this house face South and the sun is blocked by the building next door, so it is in the shade all day. I’ve had to be creative about where I’m going to put my plants. Thankfully we have windows that face the north east where they will get lots of sun and I can put pots out onto the roof.

This is a view out of our kitchen window. There’s one more pot off to the left that isn’t in this picture. So far out this window in the blue pots are herbs. Basil, oregano, chives, parsley, and thyme. I have a couple more blue pots like these to fill when I buy some more seed. The large pot has two kinds of chives, thyme, and viola flowers. The other pot outside of the picture has merigolds in it. I still want to get a few more fruit and vegetable plants to put out here. I’m thinking about a mini blueberry bush, strawberries, jalepenio peppers, and maybe a mini tomato plant.

This is a view out of our guest bedroom/my craft room. I don’t have anywhere to place the hanging basket that would be in the sun, so it’s on the roof too. This picture makes the basket look really tiny, but it’s actually pretty big. I put purple petunias and white verbena in it. The ceramic pot with the white flower painted on it has periwinkle in it. The blue pot has daisies in, and the rectangular pot has morning glory seeds in it.

I still need to buy seeds to plant outside the front door that will be in the shade. All of the seeds except for our herbs were taken from the plants I had last year. I can’t wait for them to sprout!! The one problem is keeping the animals from escaping onto the roof while I have the windows open. One cat already went onto the roof and Brian had to go out after it. I have to run, we’re going to watch my cousin play in Ohio State’s baseball game today.

2 comments April 6, 2008