Just Sayin'

Iris Massacre

As I mentioned in a previous post, my favorite irises - the light purple ones - recently started blooming. I don't have too many of them - this weekend there were only three blooms and one bud out in the beds - so Sunday I had a look-see to pick out the prettiest one to photograph after I finished my yard work. Prettiest iris all picked out, I went to be productive.

About an hour and a half later I had finished all my yard work and went to take a few pictures only to discover - Dan had mowed over my iris!

Oh the Iris-manity!

Some of the irises have a lot of blooms on a single stalk and that weight, combined with the recent wind and rain, has made some of them lean over. The one with the prettiest bloom (and a bud) was one of those, leaning over to almost touch the ground.

So Dan, while doing his yard work, just mowed right over it. Along with one other light purple irises. In other words, when the yard work started, I had 3 and a half (the half being a bud) of my favorite irises. Afterward, I had one.

My Remaining Light Purple Iris

Most of the darker purple irises are gone, too, but not through mower action, just normal dying off of the blooms. A good portion of the yellow are gone, too, but I have a lot more of them so you can't notice the lack yet.

Yellowness Wins

I still miss my light purple ones, though.

In other bulb-related news, I was very productive Sunday while my pretty irises were getting mowed. The church I work at was looking to pawn off the lilies from their Easter service. No one wanted them so last week I took them all home to use them to fill up a naked spot in my flower beds, which I did this weekend. But when I was done planting the lilies, that section of bed was still pretty naked... Since the rosemary had almost taken over the daffodils (again), I decided to dig up the daffodils and put them in with the lilies.

Not Quite as Naked

It still isn't near as full as the other sections of the bed but whatever, it's a step closer to ending up with beds so insanely crowded that I will complain for weeks when I have to dig everything up to separate bulbs. And that's... uh, good... right?

Anyway, aside from the mowing travesty that occurred, it was a good day for the pretty factor in my back yard. Which is good because the tiny thing needs all the help it can get - and anything to distract from the weeds in the grass is a big bonus!

*Blush*

Aw, look, it's me! I'm all ambassador-y!

If you don't know them, Samovar is a pretty freakin' awesome tea company and the makers of the Russian Blend tea that I blogged about on my snowday. They've got tons of yummy stuff so, you know, if you ever need to get me an easy present... (Or, okay, if you want to get yourself some tea... whatever.)

Stuff Bloomed

Ah, spring! Allergies have been totally horrible but my flowers are pretty!

The Lady Banks Rose Bush

First up this year (well, excluding one mini-iris I didn't get a snapshot of) was the rose bush. Right now the flowers are passing and it's growing new shoots but for a few weeks it was a big ball of yellow in the corner of the yard. On cloudy days it looked like the sun was hitting the bush, the yellow was so bold!

The irises have just about hit their peak - the later blooming pale blue ones just opened up earlier this week (need to get pics) - and they are all just loaded with blooms.

Purple Irises

I still need to weed the beds (and our entire lawn, actually) but for now I'm just going to enjoy the pretty. And hopefully my lilies will be coming soon(ish).

2 Years

Dirty Feet!

Sigh. All the kitties have dirty feet now, especially the Gidgie-monster.

Check Out Those Gray Paws

So why is everyone walking around with dirty feet? Because honestly, there is only so much dirt a broom, dustpan and several hours of work will get rid of.

This weekend Dan and I officially opened the porch for spring. Which included a major cleaning. But even with all that work, the porch is still a screened porch - there's dirt. But it's much cleaner than it was before so it was opened up for the kitties. Which, dirty feet aside, they are enjoying quite a lot.

Pretty Gidget enjoying the porch.


Grumpy Bitty really is enjoying the porch. Promise.

Of course, one of the big attractions to the porch (other than it normally being off limits and it being one step closer to the Big Bad Outside) are the birds that are nesting in the Lady Banks Rose bush. Every so often, one will raise a ruckus from the top of the fence and that gives the kitties plenty of porch entertainment. And honestly, with the chattering and quivering the kitties do in response to the birds, it give me a lot of porch entertainment too.

BIRD!

Well worth the price of dirty kitty feet.

Baby Lamb Day

Ah, the joys of the internet! Such speedy sharing of information! I mean, how amazing is it that something can happen and then only one week later, I'm posting it to share with the world!

Yeah, I know. A week. Pathetic. But what can you do? The sad thing is, all this time waiting and I don't even have a video to share. Well, I do, but my video editing program crashes every time I look at it so even though my video is almost done, I have given up totally. Meh.

But at least I have pictures! Of baby sheep!

Four Day Old Baby Sheepage

My parents bought some land last year and their new neighbor there raises show sheep. So when Dan and I visited over Easter, we all loaded up and went to see my parents' land (which is very nifty but no pictures because honestly, not as cool as sheep). And, since we were in the neighborhood, we saw all the new lambs. (Okay, okay, so it wasn't 'in the neighborhood' so much as my parents bribing me to come visit them by promising we'd go see the lambs but whatever. We went to their house, saw their new land, played paparazzi with some sheep. It was great.)

With the Mama

(This might seem like a tangent but it's not, so work with me here - it's totally sheep related.) The one redeeming point Iowa had for me was springtime. Suddenly, little tiny black-faced sheep were running around in fields next to the roads. It almost made going to school in Iowa worth it. For like a month.

But the reason I fell in love with the little sheep was not just because they were adorable little packages of bleeting and wool (though that didn't hurt). No, it's because when they are all long-legged and knobby-kneed, they look like they are wearing bell bottoms.

Groovy!

Now, if I get my video editing software working, I might have a video to share but at the fast and speedy rate with which I share information, it might be next month.

Oh well, sheep never go out of style.

For the Record...

1) I am alive.

2) Life has been sort of boring lately thus no posting.

3) Sunday I got to see baby sheep so #2 is a big giant lie which I will disprove soonish with pictures. And maybe video if you are lucky.

4) I detest the freaking wind.

(Number 4 has nothing to do with my blog or posting schedule or anything. It's just a fact.)