unexpected vacation
the past couple days were spent doing "stuff." I went to a bunch of resale stores to find things for our party, with mixed success. I did find a nice green tablecloth to put on the smaller serving table, and I have a newer pair of shorts. I've also found a number of flower holders. my plan is to buy a bunch of cut flowers the morning of the party, and just have them around on various surfaces. that will likely be the extent of our party decorations, because I don't go in for balloons and streamers and suchlike. actually, I haven't talked to David about that yet, so he might want to after all. and we'll probably put some balloons in the front yard so people know which house to go to.
as mentioned, the container garden is pretty well potted. I have some herb seeds I will need to start sprouting, but those will have to wait until I've potted up the hanging baskets (sic). [the plastic hanging planters should probably more properly be called hanging buckets, but I digress.] once I get the annuals out of the little six-packs, I'll be able to use those to begin the herb seeds.
on the way home from a nursery on the far NE side of town, to get a hot pepper seedling because the one we already had isn't looking too healthy, I noticed a sign at a Hy-Vee Drug Store [a.k.a. to my mind forever as Drug Town] advertising all plants for 99 cents. so of course I stopped. they didn't have much, and what they did have didn't look all that great. however, I did take away two gallon containers of decorative grass for the jungle. a gallon container for 99 cents, and they're still lively looking!
it was at that Drug Town, er, Hy-Vee Drug Store, way up on Blairs Ferry Road, that I saw the little refrigerated display with Yummies cakes inside. I grabbed the only Snickers cake in there for David, and got a Black Forest cake for myself. I don't think we've had Yummies since before we moved. as mentioned, Yummies was under water, so who knows when they'll be making cakes again.
yesterday, for an early birthday present, I stopped at Home Depot to look at their 75% off perennials. I got 16 little pots of ground cover plants for both the jungle and in the front of the house under the tree. among the several other plants I got, I also brought home a pretty red asiatic lily which, according to the ones currently thriving in Joe's yard, should be hardy. not sure where I'll be putting that, but I hope to plant everything this evening after it cools off a bit.
in addition to the plants I bought, I still have some iris bulbs, an astilbe, and a daylily plant from Colette that I haven't yet put in the ground. I've also acquired a number of different seedum cuttings that I'm currently rooting, which will hopefully go into the ground early in July when it's wonderfully hot and dry and I'll have to water them constantly. yay. then it's just a matter of watering and letting them all grow.
this afternoon, I've spent baking a bit. I haven't baked in forever, and it's very relaxing for me. there are currently two loaves of honey oatmeal bread cooling on the stove. one will be going to Joe. a storage bin is newly filled with doggie treats, there are six pizza crusts rolled up in the freezer, and a batch of cookie dough is chilling in the fridge. don't know what else I might come up with, but I was kinda thinking about baking a cake, not necessarily for my birthday, but just to have it on hand. we finally [finally!!] finished the pound cake from Thanksgiving, and we found it was pretty cool to have cut pieces of cake in the freezer for the periodic treat. I have a recipe for honey cake I want to try, so... we'll see if I get to it.
as mentioned, the container garden is pretty well potted. I have some herb seeds I will need to start sprouting, but those will have to wait until I've potted up the hanging baskets (sic). [the plastic hanging planters should probably more properly be called hanging buckets, but I digress.] once I get the annuals out of the little six-packs, I'll be able to use those to begin the herb seeds.
on the way home from a nursery on the far NE side of town, to get a hot pepper seedling because the one we already had isn't looking too healthy, I noticed a sign at a Hy-Vee Drug Store [a.k.a. to my mind forever as Drug Town] advertising all plants for 99 cents. so of course I stopped. they didn't have much, and what they did have didn't look all that great. however, I did take away two gallon containers of decorative grass for the jungle. a gallon container for 99 cents, and they're still lively looking!
it was at that Drug Town, er, Hy-Vee Drug Store, way up on Blairs Ferry Road, that I saw the little refrigerated display with Yummies cakes inside. I grabbed the only Snickers cake in there for David, and got a Black Forest cake for myself. I don't think we've had Yummies since before we moved. as mentioned, Yummies was under water, so who knows when they'll be making cakes again.
yesterday, for an early birthday present, I stopped at Home Depot to look at their 75% off perennials. I got 16 little pots of ground cover plants for both the jungle and in the front of the house under the tree. among the several other plants I got, I also brought home a pretty red asiatic lily which, according to the ones currently thriving in Joe's yard, should be hardy. not sure where I'll be putting that, but I hope to plant everything this evening after it cools off a bit.
in addition to the plants I bought, I still have some iris bulbs, an astilbe, and a daylily plant from Colette that I haven't yet put in the ground. I've also acquired a number of different seedum cuttings that I'm currently rooting, which will hopefully go into the ground early in July when it's wonderfully hot and dry and I'll have to water them constantly. yay. then it's just a matter of watering and letting them all grow.
this afternoon, I've spent baking a bit. I haven't baked in forever, and it's very relaxing for me. there are currently two loaves of honey oatmeal bread cooling on the stove. one will be going to Joe. a storage bin is newly filled with doggie treats, there are six pizza crusts rolled up in the freezer, and a batch of cookie dough is chilling in the fridge. don't know what else I might come up with, but I was kinda thinking about baking a cake, not necessarily for my birthday, but just to have it on hand. we finally [finally!!] finished the pound cake from Thanksgiving, and we found it was pretty cool to have cut pieces of cake in the freezer for the periodic treat. I have a recipe for honey cake I want to try, so... we'll see if I get to it.