When It Comes To Blogging, Sometimes I Wonder About You People…

October 6, 2015August 29, 2018 / Ally Bean / 30 Comments

ACCORDING TO THE stats provided by WordPress, the following is when you, my gentle readers, most often show up here to read The Spectacled Bean.

I’m happy to have loyal readers, make no mistake. Fans, followers and lurkers are good. But as much as I enjoy writing and connecting with you, I’m a little nonplussed about the day and time that you are most likely to be here.

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AS THE FOLLOWING shows, this is a blog written by an well-meaning, but slightly scattered, writer, who according to Typealyzer, is an artist. This, I do believe, explains how it is that I started to write this post, intending to publish it today, Tuesday, at 8:00 am, but failed to do so, thereby risking the chance of disappointing you, my gentle readers.

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SO I ASK of you, my gentle readers, what say ye about showing up here, oh say, an hour later– at 9:00 am? And allowing for the possibility that Wednesday or Thursday make lovely most popular days of the week?

Not that I want to be the sort of blogger who tells you what to do, but I think you people are crazy. Tuesday? [Tolerable, if we must.] 8:00 am? [Decidedly uncivilized.]

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I Ask You: Where Are My Toad Lilies? Hmmm?

October 1, 2015October 1, 2015 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

• I allowed myself to hope.

When it comes to gardening, I’m usually more cerebral than heartfelt.

I don’t assume that just because I plant something, it’ll thrive. Instead, I focus on those plants that get with the program and grow.

Like this cute little tree in the concrete urn that I can see out the window from our study.

• But there’s something missing from this photo.

Around the base of this cute little tree there are supposed to be 5 toad lilies, which I bought last spring for an outrageous amount of money from an allegedly honest garden nursery catalogue [which I’m not linking to here because I don’t want to advertise for the company].

• I know that toad lilies can grow here.

Years ago, before the front planting beds were re-landscaped, there was a thriving toad lily in this exact location.

That’s why I planted them, right there, uniformly around the base of the concrete urn, anticipating autumnal beauty whilst gazing out my window.

• But do you, gentle readers, see any thriving toad lilies?

Or do you, like me, see one scraggly looking wisp of a plant, barely hanging onto life?

That, my friends, is what $60.00 will get you when you dare to believe the copy in a catalogue. A catalogue that should be named: A Sucker Is Born Every Minute Garden & Nursery Store Catalogue For The Easily Gullible.

Because, really, that’s what the catalogue is all about.

Or so it would seem to me, Ms. Gullible.

Hazy Summer Days & A Less Than Brilliant Idea

September 8, 2015January 24, 2016 / Ally Bean / 20 Comments

Over the weekend we went for a walk on the trails in a wooded, overgrown section of a city park. It was hazy and hot outside, but it seemed like a good idea to go for a walk… at first.

In my mind this walk was going to be a glorious opportunity to photograph the flora and fauna we saw along the way. Yes, I was going to capture, for all time, the beauty of late summer.

I had my camera with me, but thanks to the hazy weather conditions + lens-smudging humidity most of my photos aren’t clear enough to be of any interest to me– or anyone else.

I share these three photos which are, trust me, the best ones of the bunch. No pithy story to go with them, however. Only a realization that I need to check the weather forecast before going on a walk… if my camera is coming along, too.

A Soggy Summer: How Bored Can A Bean Get?

July 13, 2015 / Ally Bean / 28 Comments

Things I have done in the past week to try to entertain myself while it rains almost non-stop outside during July, a month when accomplishing things on my “Save It For Summer” To Do List is a top priority.

1) I rooted for Zen-Den to burn up a waffle while he was making some for breakfast yesterday morning. I thought that the smoke might add a little excitement to the day.

He, however, didn’t burn anything, made delicious waffles, and even cleaned up the kitchen afterward, thereby depriving me of things to complain about here in a blog post.

Yes, I’m bored enough to feel defeated about not having a cooking mishap to start the day.

2) I watched hours of TV shows about buying property in Alaska. Alaska is a state that I adored in Northern Exposure, but after watching these shows, I dunno about these people.

While watching these shows I learned that 33% of the homes in Alaska have outhouses. And that people there seem ga-ga over views of mountains that all look the same to me. And that moose wander around free-range style in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage, population 300,000.

Clearly, no matter how much I loved Maggie and Joel, this is not a state for me, a woman who thinks staying at a Motel 6 is roughing it.

3) I sorted through all the catalogues that are in this house. I ended up with a 14″ high pile of catalogues, unwanted, in my way, yet here, for reasons most varied.

Some were catalogues from companies that I have bought things from online, while other catalogues, unsolicited, seem to magically appear in our mailbox. Then like a ninny, I bring them inside the house.

My conclusion? Catalogues are a plague of locust, impossible to stop.

4) I researched perfumes online. I want a new fragrance, but when shopping in the stores I can’t find one that suits my fussy nose. So I sat here, at the computer, reading online descriptions of fragrances, knowing full well that perfume is something that needs to be sniffed and dabbed before buying it.

Yet all because I cannot accomplish anything around the house like I want to do, I was bored enough to read about perfume, as if that was a good use of my time.

I mean really? Reading about fragrance? I’m doomed.