In Case You're Interested . . .

I've been tagged by Racquel at Perennial Garden Lover and Carol at May Dreams Gardens to participate in a meme that many of you have joined in on. The rules, very briefly, are:



1. Link back to the person who tagged you.

2. Write 7 interesting, little-known facts about you.

3. Tag 7 other people to participate.


I participated in a similar tag over a year ago when I may have had 10 commenters on a good day, which you can find here. A long time ago, Joyce also tagged me with this meme, so it's about time I finish it. Besides, it gives me a chance to include a few unused photos from the archives.

"Self-portrait"

1. I am not a morning person, which won't come as much of a surprise to Spring Flingers like Carol. It's not that I can't get up early in the morning; it's just that I am not one of those people who hit the bedroom floor running. It takes me a couple of hours just to get moving. Ironically, as I get older, I'm not much of a night person either. No wonder it takes me so long to get things done.



2. I've always wanted to learn how to play the guitar. I played alto sax in high school, played the piano as an accompanist for Sunday School and the school chorus, and occasionally played the pipe organ for church services and weddings. But all that was long ago--before children--and I'm very rusty. My children gave me a guitar, one of my best birthday presents ever, for my 50th birthday. I took a few lessons a few years later, but then stopped practicing. I am determined to learn how to play this instrument before I die! I've signed up for a class at our local community college in October called "Instant Guitar." I doubt it will turn me into Eric Clapton any time soon, but maybe it will give me the motivation to finally take more lessons.

3. I think I'm in the minority among gardeners, but I like expansive lawns. Good thing, because we have a very large lawn that takes Hubby most of every Saturday to mow. It's not fertilized or sprayed with any kind of chemicals, so it won't get any awards for lushness, but it's a great place for Sophie to run and for the grandkids to play a game of soccer or tag.

4. I've never liked housework. Oh, I would love to have my house neat and tidy . . . but I wish someone else could do it for me. I learned long ago that you just can't do it all, and a spotless house doesn't necessarily make a happy family. The sign hanging above my kitchen sink warns any visitors what to expect. My belief that "housework, properly done, can kill you" was further validated when I cut a deep gash in my leg cleaning the bedroom last week.

5. Despite being completely athletically-challenged, I am a big sports fan. I'm a diehard Chicago Cubs fan and a fan of all Illini sports. I'm glad college football season has started, because the Cubs' season might as well be over.

6. I am an incurable clock-watcher. I thought this would change when I retired, and it did to a degree. But I find myself still watching the clock, thinking "I really need to get off the computer this morning and start getting some work done."

One of my eager garden helpers, all prepared with her own garden tools and accessories given to her by her great-grandmother (my Mom).

7. I think I am a good driver. In 40+ years of driving I've never gotten a ticket--those 3 warnings I received for speeding don't count, and none of the fender benders I was in were my fault. I include this last bit of trivia for the benefit of Lisa and Frances who may think otherwise after sharing a late-night trip into the heart of Chicago with me at the wheel during Spring Fling. I get very nervous driving in the Big City, though, and I admit I do have a little night blindness . . .

Toby, my garden supervisor

I am generally a rule follower, too, and I had every intention of tagging 7 people to participate in this meme. But I see that quite a few of you have already joined in, and others I know prefer not to participate in memes at all. So this once I'm going to break the rules and extend an open invitation to anyone reading this to participate if you'd like.

Enjoy the rest of your Labor Day weekend!

Let's Play Tag!

Book Tag


In the past several weeks I have been tagged by a few people with different memes. I must admit I have procrastinated on most of them, and since I'm still waiting on blooms from my garden to show you, this week is as good as any to respond to these topics. The first tag is from Cheryl of My Wildlife Sanctuary, a true lover of nature who, as her blogname suggests, is creating a sanctuary in her backyard for all forms of wildlife, especially the birds and the bees. The rules of this game are these:

1. Pick up the nearest book set in a foreign country.
2. Open the book to page 123.
3. Find the 5th sentence on that page.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag 5 people and acknowledge who tagged you.


Cheryl's post was very thought-provoking because she chose a book explaining the teachings of Buddha. I knew I couldn't find anything that profound, but I felt compelled to try and picked up my copy of the complete works of Shakespeare, thinking I would surely find something wonderful there. Unfortunately, p. 123 was in the middle of Henry IV, and the lines didn't make much sense taken out of context. Then I spied a copy of Wuthering Heights in my nightstand, and decided to go for it. This is what I found on p. 123:


"Mr. Linton had put on her pillow, in the morning, a handful of golden crocuses; her eye, long stranger to any gleam of pleasure, caught them in waking, and shone delighted as she gathered them eagerly together."

If you have read Wuthering Heights you might recognize this passage as occuring during the time that Catherine is very ill and Edgar is trying to nurse her back to health. I thought the lines were interesting because when I first started reading blogs a little over two months ago, most of the gardening blogs were showing their crocuses, excited at this early sign of spring. No doubt Emily Bronte was thinking much the same way when she wrote these lines.


The Bronte sisters, especially Charlotte, have always been favorite authors of mine. I first read Jane Eyre when I was 13, and after that had the romantic fantasy of living in England and becoming a governess, hoping to eventually find my own Mr. Rochester. A few years ago, I did get to spend a few days in London, but I would love to really visit the UK, this time doing a sort of literary pilgrimage, visiting Stratford-on-Avon, Canterbury, Wordsworth's Lake Country, and the moors of the Bronte sisters, among other places.

I am usually such a rule-follower, but Cheryl, if you will forgive me, I'm not going to tag anyone with this. Instead, if anyone would like to join in and share what you've found in a book, please feel free to jump in!


"I'll show you mine if you show me yours"

Last week Vegplotting had this rather provocative title, which was actually a tag asking people to show what was currently on their desktops. Now this one is pretty easy to respond to; as you can see in the photo at the right, I have a photo that I took in Sedona, Arizona back in January when I visited my daughter.

I thought this tag was a rather unusual one, perhaps even a little silly, until I thought about it a little while. Does your desktop say something about who you are? In my case, I downloaded this photo shortly after returning from Arizona because it reminded me of the wonderful time I had there and the beautiful scenery so unlike the flat prairies of central Illinois. It also reminds me every time I get on the computer of my daughter who I miss very much.

Before I had this wallpaper I alternated between other photos of nature I downloaded from other sites or my own photos of my grandchildren. Both of these do reflect parts of my personality--I used to be a very stressed-out person (before I retired), and I appreciated the scenes of the serenity of nature. And, of course, my grandchildren mean the world to me, so their photos always bring a smile to my face.

Just to prove my point, I thought about my older daughter, the animal lover, whose desktop always has a photo of her pug, Oz. And the last wallpaper I saw on my younger daughter's computer was a photo of Jessica Simpson. I'll let you draw your own conclusions about that, but trust me, it fits her.

Like VP, I'm not going to tag anyone with this one, but if you care to join in, feel free to do so.

And finally, my apologies to Suburbia and VP. I haven't forgotten the original tags both of you gave me, though, Suburbia, you may think I have, it's been so long! I plan to post a response to both of those on Wednesday, so I hope you'll check back then.

So much to do, so little time

The pressure is on! It's spring (finally, I think) and the yard and garden beckon me to get outside and clean up winter debris and plant some color. I have a couple upcoming get-togethers planned at my house, and it needs attention, too. And I want to keep blogging, as well. How to get everything done??
Late Monday night I was working on my last post to ensure it got done in time for the April Garden Bloggers Day and decided to check a few of my favorite blogs before finally going to bed. To my surprise, my friend Beckie of Dragonflycorner gave me this award. Thank you, Beckie! However, I am sure I don't deserve it and that Beckie gave it to me just because we have been best friends for years. I just celebrated my one-month anniversary of blogging last week and still have so much to learn (like how to move photos around or eliminating all those darned spaces that Blogger seems to put in where I don't want them).

Last week when I published my "Rainy Day Blues" post, I think I was feeling a little inadequate after viewing so many wonderful blogs with beautiful photos. So it's time for some true confessions:

1. I have flowerbeds, not a huge garden like many other bloggers.

2. I don't take very good pictures, especially close-ups. I was thrilled to get a new Sony Cybershot camera for Christmas, and it takes great photos of my grandkids. However, it doesn't zoom very far, so photos of moving objects, like birds, are almost impossible to take (see my pathetic attempt to take a photo of a cardinal below). I have discovered recently, though, that it does pay to read the manual first.

3. I am, as my header says, a novice gardener. I do not know the genus names of plants. Up until a few years ago, I couldn't have told you the difference between an echinacea and a rubedeckia, just that one was a pink flower and the other one yellow. So this is not the place to come for gardening advice. (But if you want to give me advice, I will certainly welcome it.)

But enough with the self-deprecating talk (I may not know much about gardening, but I do have a pretty good vocabulary!). The object of the award is to pass it along to ten other blogs that you consider excellent. This presents another problem. Since Beckie is the one who started me reading blogs, I read many of the same blogs as she, and she has already nominated many of the blogs I would have recommended. For example, Cheryl of My Wildlife Sanctuary is one I regularly read, and I think of Cheryl as a good friend now. She always comes to visit me and leaves such kind words of encouragement. Beckie suggested one day I visit Mary of Mary's View, and now I read her regularly as well. Besides her beautiful close-up photos of birds, she is witty and makes me laugh. Then there are the "master" bloggers who post almost every day and share an amazing wealth of gardening knowledge, like Jodi of Bloomingwriter or Carol of May Dreams. I won't mention other names for fear I'll leave someone out, but the problem is all of these have certainly won the Excellence in Blogging Award some time ago.

So, if you will forgive me, I am going to nominate only two blogs for this award. (I intended to make it three, but I just discovered Joey of The Village Voice has already won this award. If you haven't visited her, she takes stunning photographs.) So....drum roll please....my nominations for Excellent Blogs are:

1. Moments from Suburbia--She captures moments in everyday life and writes about them in such a witty way. I am often laughing out loud after reading her posts.

2. Vegplotting--another UK blog I enjoy. She shares the obstacles of trying to garden in the city and writes about a variety of topics, usually in a humorous way. Besides, her cats are adorable.

Congratulations to the two of you! Now you get to choose who you would like to nominate. The rules are that when you receive the award, you should pass it on to 10 other nominees (or you can break the rules, like me, and pass it on to however many you choose). Then leave a comment on their site to pick up their award.










Thanks, Beckie, for nominating me. I do appreciate it despite all my reservations. Now I guess I'll have to work harder to earn this award. (The first step will be learning how to take better photos than this one.)












In addition to that award, last week Suburbia gave me the "good chat" award. Thank you! I must say I am flattered by this one, too; I like the idea of a blog being like a good chat with a friend. I'm not sure about whether I am supposed to pass this one on, so for now I'll wait to nominate anyone until I hear from her.
And there's more...earlier this week, Suburbia "tagged" me for a meme.

However, it's a beautiful day outside and I want to take advantage of it, so I think I'll postpone the meme for another day.
Happy Spring, everyone!

Wise advice from Toby: "Chill out. Enjoy the day."