Identity Crisis

I know the blogs I enjoy reading...and I know that the majority of them have an "identity"...

Under My Favorites, I separated the blogs I pop in to read into 10 categories so I can Read by Theme :)

I have Religious, Writing, Gardening & Nature, Cooking, Travel, Arts & Crafts, Christmas, House, Life in General and Political...

Naturally, almost all of the blogs move back and forth across the category lines because their contents are plucked from the everyday lives of their writers

ME at those northern skies is in the Art category because, well, her photographs are Art...but she also easily moves into Religion with thoughts that are stunningly simple and yet amazingly cut right to the heart of an issue...

Loretta (did I spell that correctly or is it Lorretta?) at Pomegranates and Paper is in Life in General although Art is a big part of her life...I don't know why it worked out that way...I guess because I love hearing about all the things her children do (since our son is 22 and I'm not so much in the Little Kid world any more) and about work and their family vacations...

Clarice over at Storybook Woods lives in my Life in General category, too, but lives a life filled with art and beauty, too...as does Deb at Homespun Living...

There's a fellow Southern Chic over at Southern Somedays who is in Life in General...

Carolyn of Tumbleweeds and Thyme hangs out in Garden & Nature...and makes me motivated enough by pixs of her lovely garden to get my Rear in Gear and move outside to do more than just think about gardening...

and also hanging out in Garden & Nature is Farmgirl Fare....the photographs are wonderful, making me smile every time I click in...

These are just drops in the bucket...but I guess I'm getting at each of these bloggers has a certain "air" about their places that speaks to something I like, or love...and how they fit into my little categories doesn't really matter...the positioning just comes about from something that came out of my laptop screen and into my heart...

and I feel my blog is not happily defined...first, I thought Just Gardening...then realized 1) I don't do enough gardening for that to be a blast...and then I thought Gardening and Cooking...did I tell you I hate to cook? I love to bake, but cooking...blahhhhh...okay, how about thrifing? thrifting and gardening...well...maybe....but who wants to just look at someone else's junk? Politics? plez...I'd bore myself to death...

Anyhoo...my blog needs some focus*...and it needs more attention that it has gotten since 2007 began...


*I am seriously hoping my blog's lack of focus is not a reflection of my life in general...man....

Cats and Flowers

Not cats in the flowers, thank goodness :)

The two orange kitties are Clara & Christina...they're two of the loves of my life :) who came to live with us (along with their two brothers and 1 other sister) from our son's apartment complex...

The conversation started like this:

Son: "Guess what?"

Me: [thinking to self "oh Lord"] "What?"

Son: "Guess who looked out of the bushes outside the apartment door this morning?"

Me: "a squirrel with a bad attitude?" [DS & myself really seem to run into a lot of BA Squirrels]

Son: "No...a little black furry face"

Me: "That's nice, son...it isn't coming here"

Son: "I was just calling to tell you"

Me: "Okay...well, love you, bye"

Son: "Love you, bye"

Over the next couple of days, the Faces Peering From the Bushes increased until there were 5 of them...and then DS tossed his Ace in the Hole onto the table...

Son: "Mom, they're sick"

Me: "Crap"

Bluff called, fold...

anyhoo...3 months of ringworm treatment later [our beloved vet declares she never has had to treat ringworm 3 times] and 3 months of isolation from our cats...ringworm is highly contagious...and 3 months of hand-bathing all 5 and bottle feeding...and, well, I made the call that Mr G knew was coming from the time I opened up that box and saw 5 little pairs of shining (but goopycrusty) eyes staring up at me...

ah well...

on the garden front, Mr G and I have been slogging through the back-breaking stuff that comes in later winter and early spring...

we decided that we'd try and re-do this eyesore that we don't see often but the neighbors get to see every Happy Morning...last year (our first year here), there just wasn't enough time in the cooler weather to get to this...and once Summer comes on, I don't fool around with putting in new beds and trying to establish tons of new plants...well, last year I sorta did go that route, but only because there were so many problems to be addressed here...but not this year...if it ain't done by May, it will wait until late Fall or next Spring...

I need to get that dirt pulled off the brick some time this week...and we're going to aerate the soil (look how compacted & cruddy it is!) and encourage the bits of centipede that are still hangin' about the place to spread...I'm not a big one for massive lawns (I'm a huge Water Miser), but there are places where a bit of sod helps...

and some flowers that are about the place...I took this photo several days ago...now there is even more blooming going on around here...the dogwood is in flower, my first daylily has opened up (so soon!) and the azaleas have ramped up...

and here is the Atlantic Cedar that has since been planted in the backyard...I love this tree! I can't wait to see it in a few years :) ...and that little bushy thing sitting to the left of the cedar is another pomegranate waiting to go in (it is in)...

and here is a little bed I just started on a whim with leftovers from the bigger beds on the other side of the house...

you see white petunias, purple sage, white night-blooming stock and pineapple sage...and that rosemary went in last year....

I'm going through a "white stage"...the azaleas that went into the beds on the other side of the house are white...and I'm continuing them around the front of the house, taking out the pink azalea and the pink-ish crape myrtle...the bed is seriously compacted, unlevel and in dire straits...that's my story and Ima stickin' to it :)

and last, but not least, the little sprig of variegated artemsia that I planted last year has happily spread...so now I'm taking bits out of here to plant in the countless other gaping holes in the garden...

***Footnote: we tried to trap Mama Cat with a humane trap, but were not successful...but there is some hope...one of the local rescue groups has a feral cat program and that apartment complex is on the waiting list for help with their feral cat population...

Please Spay & Neuter Your Pets!

Little Rays of Sunshine

taken with my new Finger Over the Flash trick...still a little blurry, but oh well...



(although sometimes you do get a weird red light that makes it feel as if you're hanging out in some dive on a waterfront somewhere...not that I would know about that :)




It was a Bad Ponytail Palm...

Two Wonderful Tips

Hey, I just learned a new trick....well, 2 new tricks...



Trick Number 1: Use a dolly to move the Big Blue Jar & staggering about the garden clutching one's back might not be a Required Thing...the BBJ previously resided on the other side of the courtyard and for some reason I decided It Simply Had to Move This Morning...I'm hopin' Mr G doesn't notice that I've done this thing or else I'll get a Lecture...


The other tip I have to share is (and I'm VERY EXCITED about this one) for photo-taking challenged souls like myself who hate using a flash, but cannot manage a non-blurry photograph without one...or a tripod...or both...

Drumroll, please...


Try putting your finger over the flash! hah hah! take that, Blurry Photography...


I have gotten better about the whole LSD Experience photography thing* since ME over at Those Northern Skies told me she had to practice and practice to be able to hold still enough to get a stable shot while not using a flash...but this tip is for when I hold my breath, try not to even have a pulse, and still get a crummy blurry photograph...

*Disclaimer: Have never done (proper verb "used"?) LSD, but have often experienced LSD "effects" done by TV producers...lots of blurry, moving, colourful swirlies, right?