Sami makes a phone call

This past week-end, I was playing with my cockatiel, Sami. I had my phone with me. And she began to nibble around the edge. I held it up to her so she could see the screen.

Apparently the lights and colors appealed to her, and she began to peck at the screen.

And she did quite a bit. She did a word search, pulled up the movie, set my alarm for 8:30 the next morning. And a few other things. I'm glad I grabbed my camera and got the funniest part of it on video. .....She called my husband.

She pulled up my contact list, pecked his name...and hit dial.

I quickly hit "end call", he was at work. And I got to laughing so hard the camera starts to shake

Enjoy :-)

If you knew Melodie...

Most of you know that I had lost my mother on Jan. 8th. I had to fly up to Ohio for the funeral. And I was staying at my sister's house.

I was wearing a charm that Charlene had given me to remember Melodie by.

I was talking to my sister as she was doing the dishes. And she commented on my charm. I was explaining the significance of it. And I was telling her about Melodie.

And I looked down and gasped...When my sister asked me what was wrong, I pointed at her window sill. Mary keeps a glass ladybug on the window sill...but crawling next to it was a real ladybug! Mary said that it wasn't unusual for her to get ladybugs in the house in the wintertime.

But the timing couldn't be better. I almost cried when I explained how Melodie loved ladybugs.

After I got home, I told the story to Charlene. She smiled and asked me if this happened on Sunday. I'm very sure now that it did.

Charlene smiled again, and told me that Sunday was Melodie's birthday.

A private waterfall

This is why my papyrus is growing so well. And why I planted it in this corner. And this is with less than a 1/4 inch of rain too. It really gushes when I get an inch of rain

A Little Bit of Egypt

We had a palm tree by our back door. But it was only inches away from the wall. So we decided that it had to go. I dug it out myself. It took me three days, but don't underestimate the power of my stubborness.
That corner gets a lot of rain too. The roof funnels it right down in. And it can get a few inches of standing water. Thankfully, it drains quickly.
But what do I plant there?




I had seen Egyptian Papyrus about a week before I had dug out the palm.
It doesn't have to be wet all the time. But it does like boggy conditions.
It took a while for it to finally come back to the store. But I was able to get it today.
And I got a few bags of river rock to help keep the moisture in.
I'm really happy with how it looks.
This stuff is the real deal, what ancient Egyptians used to make paper.



My friendly neighborhood toad seems to like it.
















My morning glories are doing really well too

Gardening again

I really enjoy being out in my little yard. And I like to take photos of my progress.
I'd forgotten how much I love being outside until I got some dirt to dig in.

I needed to thin my swiss chard. And in the process, I had a bowl of the greens.
The first day, I put them in a salad. They were a little bitter, but nice.
This morning I sauted the rest with olive oil and garlic, and added two scrambled eggs.
Pretty tasty.
I'm thinking of making a quiche when I'm able to pick some more.




My morning glorys are growing. It's hard to believe I planted the seeds about a month ago. They're blooming already. And when I checked this morning, they were about a foot up the trellis














A cardinal has been visiting my bird feeder. The picture isn't the best, I had to take it through the window.
I haven't seen the red wing blackbird in weeks.
I had two young male cardinals visiting for awhile. I started calling them "The Brothers"
But I've been just seeing the one lately. I think cardinals are territorial. So the other, (and the black bird too) might have been run off.

Hair Cut

I'm posting these for my sister to see (Hi Mary!) She doesn't use FaceBook.
So I finally got all of my hair cut off again. I've been planning on getting my hair cut for months. But one thing clinched it:
I had it done on Monday. I got in the car to drive to the salon. It was a little breezy out, and I had my hair down.
And I closed the car door on my hair!
It's been 3 1/2 years since my last hair cut. And I was really glad to see that Karen still works at the salon. She understands my cow licks
I donated my hair to Locks of Love. It's a great organization that makes wigs for children who have lost their hair to cancer or other diseases
http://www.locksoflove.org

Spring!

A few new pictures around my yard. I have seeds springing! Here are my baby basil and swiss chard. I also have coleus (an ornamental plant) coming up. I just put in some tomato seeds a few days ago.

There's a story on my swiss chard. It's a green. But I've never eaten it before. I have no idea what it tastes like. When I was a kid. We would get seed catalogs in the mail. Mom and Dad never really bought any thing from them. But they were fun to look at. The "exotic" plants always got my attention. And I would tease my parents to buy them.

"Mom! Mom! Get the 3 foot beans, get the hollow tomatoes, you can stuff them!" No deal.

We would get the same boring (But yummy) vegetables every year.

When I went shopping a few weeks ago, I looked at the seed packets. And I saw the "Bright Lights, rainbow of colors" variety of swiss chard. Swiss chard has a stem, almost like rubarb. I believe it's normally white. This comes in yellow, orange and hot pink!

I smiled. It was a dollar a packet and I knew I had to buy them.

I have strawberries! Last month, my husband and I went to the Strawberry Festival at Plant City. And I bought a hanging basket. These are berries #4 and 5.

I was so excited when my first berry started to turn pink. I called it my 7 dollar strawberry. (What I paid for the plant)

It was almost ready to pick. I decided it needed another day of sunshine. I went out the next morning to take a picture of it. And it was gone!

Something stole my $7 strawberry! I think a bird got it. The stem was neatly snipped off. If any more berries come up missing, I'll get some netting to wrap around the basket.

Here is one of the flower pots given to me by a neighbor. I put it by my front porch.

I planted dianthus and dusty millers in it.

You can also see my pink azalias.