Are you out there?

[cheapdiva]

Where is everyone? I have been remiss lately . . . first vacation and then home to a ton of work! What is everyone busy doing that we seem to be awfully quiet here these days?

Can I get you all interested by taking photos of what is popping up in your yard and sharing? By the way, yesterday it hit 70 - first time the temp had been 70 or higher in 178 days according to the weatherman last night. Can yo imagine - that's half a year with weather below 70. WHY DO I LIVE HERE???!!!:confused:
I'm going out to get photos!!

[Chyna]

I'm wondering where everyone went too. A cyberspace ghost town in here.:eek:

[Thrift Shop Romantic]

I've been reading the posts. I just don't have anything insightful to say.

Not that I do NORMALLY, but less so for some reason lately. :)

[Karinbob]

I took a couple of pics from my garden a week or so ago and now they are in full bloom.
Last week we had a wild tornado here in Texas and it about blew everything away! I am glad that I had not planted anything new. Luckily we did not loose any trees or suffer any damage outside but many of our neighbors did. I only had some flooding in the two front rooms of my house. Water seeps in from the weep holes (in a brick home) and so it always seems to hit us in the front two rooms. I am hoping these next few storms coming up next week won't turn wild on us here again!!

Let's see everyone else's garden pictures!

[Memmey]

I've been reading daily but I like Jenn haven't had anything to say. My yard is coming along, my Dad's doing better and I'm going through my....." I vant to be alllonnne" stage. Maybe it's hormones or the lack of them....Whatever.....but I am confortable just being here and doing nothing but piddling around the house and yard. I dream that the phone will go a whole day and not ring....sad huh?
I still come here and read and I'm sure I'll be back soon with some huge drama...;) I love all of you girlies.

[Lisa S]

I miss you guys! I'm one week away from this huge fundraiser that I'm organizing. I gotta tell you ~ I'm exhausted.

Maria, my foot keeps hitting this swap package for you that's sitting by my desk. I want to go thru my linen drawer for something special before I send it, but I need to just do it.

[RoseMary]

I've been away from the house a lot lately and like some of you others, just don't have too much to say to anyone right now. My dh noticed that I have 73 unread emails:eek:~I told him I just didn't feel like reading them right now. Of course, they are mostly 'junk':lol:!

[SusiesQs]

Ah...I'm here as well..just lurking every now and then. Now I woke up this morning feeling blah and I have some bug that is making me achy, stuffy and tired. Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday. I'm exhausted. But when I feel better I'll post some pics of my garden in progress . :) And make it to the P.O. to mail that swap package :eek: sorry Jenn!

[ChapterTwo]

Lisa S...I can empathize about your fundraiser. I'm on a committee of four, that was reduced to a committee of two (two MIA) and have been up to my ears in work, trying to find over 350 former classmates for our high school reunion. Thank God for the Internet, but it's still a whole lotta work. Good luck to you in this last week!

[gigiG]

I'm here sorta---5 weeks until the wedding. I am going to do a 4 week count down on my blog--showing the before and after pics of what we have been doing to prepare. I miss everyone!

[ChapterTwo]

Oh, gigi...can't believe the time has gone so fast! How are you holding up? I don't do well with stuff like that...I get to be a nervous wreck!

[dedavis]

I'm like Memmey, hunkered down in my refuge. The first week of April I was gone for some training, then stuck in the office, then off to Gramma's. Things are not so well with her, and I am wrestling with a lot of conflicting emotions. Families!

Now I'm working in the office again. When I get home, all I want to do is be quiet and putter around. I've got the cats and the garden, and have been reading a lot.

It seemed like spring was making progress, but today it's cold and windy with snow whirling by the windows. I have a few vegetables shivering under fabric row cover out in the garden, and the rhubarb is coming up. I'll snap some photos, but there's not much to see. At least the big piles of snow are all melted!

Maybe we need one of Tanya's list of 10 questions to get us talking.

[WannaBHomemaker]

I'm here too! Just lurking around plus we've been busy at work so not much time for CLCommunity... lol. But I just found out my sister is engaged! http://www.unitnet.com/tinyMCE/plugins/emotions/images/teeth_smile.gif I'm so happy for her! And she's going to come visit me this weekend, so we can be wedding-planning-happy! lol. Plus, I am going to buy a new digital camera today! I just called and reserved it at the store! I'm so excited!! (my old one has been broken for almost a year!!) So, for the future posts, I'll have much clearer pics to post instead of ones off the video camera!

[Memmey]

Wanna I LOVE your saying at the end of your post page. If you don't mind I want to steal it post in the Beauty Salon. I would love that on a T_shirt or a plaque or whatever it is priceless. Now THAT is the bomb!!!!!:D

[Whidbey5]

Here and checking in.
We went to Arizona over spring break. The Grand Canyon was amazing. There is no other word.

We are in the middle of a freak snowstorm. Parts of western WA are under six inches of snow, which is highly unusual for these parts at this time of the year.

I must admit that the snow has forced us to stay put tonight and just enjoy the quiet. The boys are outside playing, the doggies are sleeping in front of the fire, and I'm here dinking around on the 'net!

Hope everyone has a great weekend. We are supposed to go to an auction for our elementary school tomorrow, but don't know if we'll make it on the roads!

[dedavis]

We have a little snow this morning too. This has been the longest, most malingering winter. We will all go into shock when it turns hot suddenly.

While I was out for garden therapy yesterday (digging out quackgrass, wearing wool sweater and a hat), I heard hummingbirds go zinging by. Time to get out the feeder. I don't know what I would do without a patch of dirt--slowly go crazy I guess. In spite of the worry and grief that fills my days, I feel happy to have my hands in the earth and see life coming out of the ground.

[ChapterTwo]

Oh, Deb...I'm sorry to hear you're still having snow, even though it's just a llittle bit.

I know what you mean about "I don't know what I'd do without a little patch of dirt"...when people ask me if, once my kids move out, I'd like to get a condo, I always say, "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!! !" I have always had a yard and cannot imagine not having some place to dig and plant, and just "be". I'd go stir crazy, for sure.

I hope the nice weather finds you soon.

[CohenCottage]

I feel terribly guilty for posting when so many of you are still having snow and cold...We will be jealous of your cooler climates when it is 102 in the shade in July! We had rain last night, so it was nice and cool this morning, and it was 78 and sunny by lunchtime. DH went to the nursery and picked up 9 dwarf wax myrtle, 7 itea virginica, and 4 huge carolina jessamines. We are planting a hedge with the wax myrtle to screen off our crazy neighbors and are putting the itea (henry's garnet sweetspire) in front of the myrtles. Nothing is in the ground yet, but we placed all the plants this evening and it looks GREAT! The vines are going in under our deck to grow up on the trellis we recently installed. Will post pictures tomorrow!

Our foster dog also got adopted today (yay), and the family that adopted her commented that they had always wanted to redo an old cottage. This made us really happy b/c our house is only 1 year old and we are trying to make it look not so shiny new!

[gigiG]

Hi Chapter two~ Holding up? Kinda, sorta~ actually the yard is torn up, the landscapers didn't show last week, came in today~ left early **;---and we have some painting to do on the front porch where the wedding will be performed~ but on the good side~ the weather is nice, spring like here in Maryland...so I think we will be able to get done what we want....:eek:


Oh, gigi...can't believe the time has gone so fast! How are you holding up? I don't do well with stuff like that...I get to be a nervous wreck!

[WannaBHomemaker]

Memmey - I stole my phrase from the bottom of someone else's email so I don't know where it is originally from! I'm guessing it's a quote from an inspirational book or speaker. But use it all you want, I thought it was great too!

[Chyna]

thanks alot deb that d*mn snow showed up here on Sunday! :( For someone who didn't get alot of snow this winter I'm awfully sick of it! We are supposed to get some rain later in the week which I'm looking forward to. I do like rain. :D By the looks of your hyacinth I'd say you're about a week or two ahead of me for growing season. that or I have my plants in the wrong place. :()


Gigi

Just a warning/heads up but make sure your guests aren't putting their cigs out in your potted plants. Not something I would have ever imagined but potting soil is flammable and must burn very hot. That is what caused the apt fire that my friends lost their home to. The news did a little thing on fires in the past year that was caused by planters and cigs left in them. It catches the peat on fire and it smolders until BAM!:eek:

[Polly Snowbush]

Enjoyed the postings on this one - snow would be nice right about now. ;)

Most of my yard is so heat stressed but the bananas love it. They develop some huge bunches but never make it to ripening. Fried green bananas is not too bad if you use some cognac and brown sugar.... Been a bad year for the veggie garden. Looking forward to Fall planting!

[gigiG]

Bananas! I don't think we can grown any here :(. Is that a pic of bananas?

[Memmey]

Polly, do you cut your bananas plants down in the winter?
I used to do that and I never had a crop that matured. I heard a gardening spot on the Baton Rouge TV station and they said not to cut the plant down. The growing season here is to short for the plant to re-grow, set fruit, and then ripen. I stopped cutting mine down and they set fruit and grow big bananas. They taste wonderful. I have had people here argue with me about cutting them down and tell me they are not real bananas but the proof of what I am saying are my bananas in October.:D

My banana trees are huge big trees. Of course when they fruit they die but another comes up to replace it.

[Lisa S]

Fall planting... oh you lucky women!~:)

[Polly Snowbush]

Yes Gigi - that thing hanging is the pod - each bloom hanging off that pod creates a new banana -look at the top of the picture - there they are.

Memmey - don't know what else to do but cut after the freezes are over - during which the leaves turn to paper and the stalks to mush, no matter how one wraps to protect. Then they are planted too close to the house. Transplanting from the tightly knit cluster has not been successful. They thrive in morning sun, afternoon shade. Limited on that space. When they fruit they die? Mine didn't. They seem to be taking turns. Had read that they each only produce every other year. Then there is the original uncut (cut down to a third of original height) part that is still an ugly brown peely mess - you try to peel and only create a new 'scab'.

Lisa - it is the motion of planting but actually achieving a crop is another story. Who knew you needed shade for a veggie garden. The UV burns up everything I grow. Have to erect a screen. This year went straight from freeze to sweltering heat, drought to rain every day.

[cheapdiva]

Polly, where are you that you have bananas? I'd kill for a banana tree! I could glue some fake ones onto a real tree!!:D
Fall planting? What the heck is that? You live somewhere that you can plant things in the fall and they will survive?! You southern gals . . . you slay me with your stories!

[Chyna]

I think they are just making things up. :lol: