Monday, March 4, 2019

Gardening and Books

This weekend the sun was out and shining, the grass is green, tulips and daffodils have bloomed.  This can't help but uplife my mood.  I want to work on projects such as butterfly appliques, bookmarks or crocheted coasters.  Yes.  Working on small projects for gratification would add to my cheerfulness.  

Gardening


I'm a person that will collect plants from the side of a road or from a neighbor.  I will offer to reroot a plant for you which of course means I get one of the newbies.  Yes.  I am that person.  These habits I got from my Mother and Grandmother.  I don't ever remember my mother purchasing a plant.  A packet of seeds yes but plants ?  No.  Some years ago a coworker gave me a few snippets of pink hydrangea and white iris.  Last year I didn't Garden so all snippets were thrown into pots with prayers.  The hydrangea looked pretty bad and  I thought for sure it was a goner but no.  It survived. It's budding.  I'm finding hydrangeas to be strong fighters.






 My phlox were close to six feet tall and had been that way for two years then there was a mishap with a chemical and the maintenance man (it's a long story).  After a month or so the phlox began to die.  I had someone cut them down to the quick which tends to rejuvenate perennials.   The phlox fought for it's life and won.  There are a bunch of newbies which won't stretch to even five feet this year but they will at least bloom.  They look rather delicate but Phlox is another strong plant.
 



Early last year I stuck about four in this pot but as you can see they do what iris does best.  They multiplied.  I'm going to wait a month or so before digging an idea spot for them.




Hopefully  my next gardening post will show more progress.
🌱


Reading News



I finished Grisham's "The Racketeer" Friday evening.   It's was an easy read with a fairly mild storyline for Grisham.  I enjoyed it.  Saturday morning I decided to start Anita Shreve' s "All He Ever Wanted".  My instinct kept pulling me to go into Goodreads  and check out the reviews.   I'm a big forum and reviews follower/believer.  The reviews were not good.  Though Ms. Shreve is beloved this book is not.  According to the reviews the main character has been described as flat.  There were debates as to whether Ms. Shreve purposely created that flatness.  The main comment regarding the  storyline was that it is "boring" and that was enough for me to push the book away.  I'll be donating this to the Goodwill.   




I'm at the very beginning of Al Roker's "The Morning Show Murders".  Within the first seven pages I found myself chuckling.  So far the writing is engaging, witty and fast paced.  It may be too soon to say but I'm feeling this book.  I'm enjoying it. 

Knitting

I'm contemplating working on a more significant project.  Either a sweater, cardigan or shawl.  A lot will depend on what my stash has. 

Talk to You Soon !










4 comments:

Dee said...

For the past two years we lived in rentals where there was no option for a garden. This year we have our own home and I look forward to seeing what "crops up" and what I want to add.

Happy knitting (and gardening) to you this week.

Two Cables and a Frapp said...

Congratulations on your new home Dee ! Hope your garden gives you wonderful surprise plants from the previous owners !

karen said...

Sadly I end up killing most plants unless they are resilient! I love that you collect other people's plants and tend to them. Both my sister and my dad are great with plants and gardens. I take after my mother with crafty skills :)

autumngeisha said...

Hydrangeas are just about the only thing that survives in my garden. They truly are hardy and low maintenance! Wish I had some of your gardening skills! My mom has a green thumb and can pretty much start growing or heal any plant.