In The Garden

Share Your World | Butterfly Hide And Seek

/ Ally Bean / 40 Comments

Nothing to see here. No butterfly hiding behind purple salvia. Nope, that’s not what’s going on here. Move along, move along.

• Would you want $200,000 right now or $250,000 in a year? It’s safe to assume all money is tax free.

Considering our recent remodeling wild ride, if it’s all the same to you, I’d like the $200,000 now, please.

• Is it more important to love or be loved?

Off the top of my head I’d say that it’s more important to love than to be loved.  Love, an action verb about giving, resonates with me more than the idea of just receiving love, that to me suggests a passive approach to life.

[Good question. This answer subject to change upon further reflection.]

But wait, it is a butterfly doing its butterfly thing, seeking nectar from the flower, and looking good while doing it.

• List things that represent abundance to you.

  1. flowers in crystal vases surrounded by lighted beeswax candles
  2. rag wool scarves and mittens
  3. a fully stocked refrigerator filled with fruits, vegetables, cheese, and wine
  4. a three-car garage
  5. ingredients on hand to make cookies
  6. diamonds, rubies, sapphires– and garnets, even if they’re only semi-precious
  7. comfortable furniture that coordinates nicely, but doesn’t look all matchy-matchy
  8. lazy Sunday afternoons

• What inspired you this past week?  Feel free to use a quote, a photo, a story, or even a combination.

I find everyday observational humor inspiring because it makes me laugh, not cry, at reality.  So when I stumbled upon the following Shopping Cart Alignment Chart by Rob Beschizza at boingboing, and couldn’t stop laughing, I was inspired.

And because I’m a forthright blogger, I will freely tell you who I am according to this chart.  I’m never LAWFUL GOOD, but instead vacillate between CHAOTIC GOOD [which gives me more joy than it should] and CHAOTIC NEUTRAL.

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Catch up with everyone else who is answering Cee’s Share Your World Questions this week by clicking HERE.

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Share Your World | Summertime, With A Hint Of Autumn

/ Ally Bean / 66 Comments

• How do you like to spend a rainy day?

Oddly enough off the top of my head I don’t have a specific answer for this question.  I just get on with things regardless of the rain, I guess.  Could I take a rain check and get back with you? 😁

• List at least five favorite treats. (They do not have to be sugary).

  1. Zagnut Candy Bar, when I can find one
  2. Fritos Corn Chips, the original ones, please
  3. Lemon Meringue Pie, from a local speciality grocery store
  4. Little Powdered Sugar Donuts, any brand
  5. Fried Green Bean Appetizer, with spicy dipping sauce

• Where’s your favorite place to take out-of-town guests?

If they aren’t insanely uptight people, I like to take out-of-town guests to eat at a unique Tex-Mex restaurant that’s in a haunted former speakeasy, and is known for its pork chops.

[If the out-of-town guests are insanely uptight people then I don’t have to worry about where to take them because they’ll tell me where they want to go.]

• You are trapped in an elevator, who would you want to be trapped with?

Michelle Obama

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Once a week Cee asks the questions on her blog, and I answer them here on my blog.  This post is part of Cee’s Share Your World Weekly Writing Challenge.

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Share Your World | Pretty & Potted

/ Ally Bean / 45 Comments

Calibrachoa, mint + citronella mosquito plant in pots looking summer-y up on the deck.

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Once a week Cee asks the questions on her blog.  Then, when I get it together like this week, I answer the questions here on my blog.

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• What do you do when you’re not working? If you are retired, what do you that is not part of your regular daytime routine?

I like to go to local festivals to see the people and enjoy the atmosphere.  I like to go to parks to see the people and look at nature.  I like to go to speciality grocery stores to see the people and buy the tasty goodies.

• What would you do if you won the lottery?

Probably not much of anything different from what I do now.

Maybe buy a new car [mine’s 14 years old]? Maybe go on vacation for longer than a week?  Maybe give it all to the humane society, on the proviso that they never name a building or fund after me.  That would be tacky.

• What makes you laugh the most?

TV situation comedies that point out human foibles make me laugh the most.  Currently I like The Big Bang Theory + Grace and Frankie + The Good Place.  I like reruns of Will and Grace + Friends + Parks and Recreation.

• What is your biggest pet peeve with modern technology?

< begin rant >

The conceit that modern technology is making my life easier. It is not.

To wit, it’s making communication more immediate, but that’s not necessarily easier.  It’s making cars and microwaves swankier, but that’s not necessarily easier.  It’s making airport check-in and banking more self-directed, but that’s not necessarily easier.

Why?  Because there are more steps + options now when it comes to doing anything. Everything. All the time.

Meaning that, in my opinion, modern technology adds an unasked for layer of complexity to my life that I then have to muddle through to get anything accomplished.

And it wears me out.

< end rant >

• Optional Bonus Question:  What are you grateful for from last week, and what are you looking forward to in the week coming up? 

Last week’s gratitude award goes to an early start to our home remodeling projects.  We weren’t schedule to begin until late June/early July, but our projects got moved forward.  Sure, it’s chaos around here, but I feel better, less anxious, now that we’re in process rather than waiting around for things to start.

This week’s looking forward to something goes to… well, honestly, I’m not looking forward to any one thing.  No big weekend plans.  No small weekend plans.  I’m just kind of living in the moment right now… for the moment!  😉

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This post is part of Cee’s Share Your World Weekly Writing Challenge.

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Talking Daylilies Here: No More Happy Returns

/ Ally Bean / 49 Comments

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Good-bye cervine freeloaders.  Hasta la vista deer buffet.

Yep, after 17 years of growing and tending a patch of Happy Returns Daylilies out front of our house under the lamppost, I had the landscaper remove them all and re-design the area.

The irony is, and there seems to be irony with anything I do, that when we built this house I was adamant about wanting Happy Returns Daylilies, which are a lovely shade of lemon-y yellow.  I paid extra to not have Stella D’Oro Daylilies, which are more golden-yellow, and common around here.

They’re in all the gardens in this subdivision.

Nope, planning ahead, as is my way, I wanted lemon-y yellow colored daylilies because they would look better with our particular brick–and because doing things, just a little differently than everyone else, comes naturally to me.

However, turns out that Happy Returns Daylilies are a favorite nosh of ye olde deer.  Also turns out that these pretty plants need lots of almost daily maintenance during the summer to keep them looking fresh and lovely.

So, with just a tinge of regret, but not much, I decided to embrace Admiral Grace Hopper’s famous quote and let go of my favorite Happy Returns Daylilies [and a patch of Russian Sage + Bergamot– and a few lost Daisies] to make space for a simpler, more modern, design out front of our house under the lamppost.

One that looks infinitely better than that which I thought that I knew that I wanted… years ago… before I became a wiser, and lazier, gardener.

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Here’s the new look: Boxwood [hedge], Fineline Buckthorn [small ornamental tree], Barberry [small bushes] + Liriope [used as ornamental grass].