Too Much To Do ( Read: I'm Overwhelmed )

It was 30 years ago this weekend that we moved into our house. Married just over two years, this was a very happy occasion for us, never dreaming we would live in a house like this at such a young age. It came at a price of course, as most things that are worth having do, whether it be monetary or laborious. And houses are usually both.

c. 2004

But work is a good thing to do and Romie and I were both raised in homes where a good and hard work ethic was taught. It's the German way! My parents taught me and we tried to teach our own girls that if you don't go above and beyond what's required of you, you aren't doing enough. It's called 'teamwork' and that's the only way things truly get done. Everyone has areas where they excel and places where they don't, so by everyone doing what needs to be done and at the same time taking up the slack for each other, it's amazing what can be accomplished!

That being said, we're both feeling a bit overwhelmed and a lot tired on this Labor Day weekend. We're still getting ourselves put back together after the flood, which feels mighty good, but the main floor of the house remains a mess, because we are having a garage sale this coming Friday and Saturday.

Good timing, you might say. I would say that too if we'd had a little bit of a break from the clean-up, but we're having this sale alongside our next-door neighbors so it's been planned for awhile (unlike the flood). And you can just guess what happens when you have to take everything out of a basement then put it all back again. It's like cleaning out an attic. You find things you'd forgotten you had and wonder not only why you kept them, but why you ever bought them in the first place. Things that make for good garage sale material.

So this Labor Day weekend, we labored. We moved and sorted and moved and threw away and moved and cleaned and moved . . . you get the picture. Jenna came today with her contributions for the sale and joined in on the fun of it all. She's a real workhorse, with a penchant for cleaning and organizing, so she was a godsend. I've always told her that she's not normal with her "I love to clean!" attitude, but we never look a gift horse in the mouth. She kept us at it when we wanted to give up and go take a nap.

We made great strides today and things are starting to come together. The basement is 95% back to normal, so tomorrow we can concentrate on getting the garage organized for the sale. The biggest job will be to price things and I hate doing this. It's hard to put a price on things that you personally feel aren't worth keeping yet hope others will buy. Oh, it's not that we don't have any good stuff, because we do, and it's not even a case of "one man's trash is another man's treasure" either. But still, we want to be rid of it, and what doesn't sell will go to Goodwill.

So, if you don't have anything better to do this Friday and Saturday, and you're in the area, venture out and visit us. I'm just sure we'll have something you can't live without.

Monarch Chrysalis Sighting

Mom called me yesterday to tell me she'd seen a Monarch chrysalis in the Children's Garden while she was out there weeding and watering. It was hanging from the kale and was quite hidden, so she was fortunate to notice it. I wanted to run right down there and see it immediately, but knew we were going there today, so I exercised my patience.

< Black Swallowtail in the Children's Garden

Kara and Adam came down today and we all went together to Van Wert to eat lunch at Sonic. It's one of my favorite fast food places, not only because they have great burgers, but they have those Cream Slushes that are The Greatest Drinks EVER. I always get strawberry.


After stopping at Mom and Dad's we all headed out the Children's Garden. It was Adam's first visit and Mom gave him the tour, telling him of all that was there and what was yet to come. She showed us the chrysalis and it was just beautiful.

After we got home, we worked on getting things moved back into the basement after the flood mess. It feels like this won't ever be done, but I have to keep remembering, "Inch by inch, it's a cinch..."

I wonder if the Monarchs feel like that when they are making their trip to Mexico.

Angelic Blossoms

Brugmansia

My foray into the world of Angel's Trumpets began last November, when a couple of gardeners from Dave's Garden were generous enough to send me some 'sticks' for rooting. When I received those foot-long stalks, I had my doubts as to whether anything would come of them. Woe to the unbeliever...

They quickly rooted in water, I potted them up, and they grew under the lights in my basement until spring, when I could put them outside. Only hardy to zone 8, they're a tropical well worth growing in containers, or planted in the ground once it warms enough. I didn't plant mine in the ground until mid-summer, but next year they'll go in as soon as I can safely put them there. In the containers, they were much slower growers; in the ground, they went NUTS.




Earlier this spring, as I was walking around Stuckey's Greenhouse in Ft. Wayne, I spied this variegated brug. Healthy foliage and variegated, which I'm a sucker for anyway, this one came home with me and hasn't disappointed me.

I had it on the front porch most of the summer, which has a shaded western exposure. It did okay, but wasn't showing any signs of blooming, so about a month ago, I moved it to the back deck, where it gets morning sun and afternoon shade. Just this week, it let me know how happy it was that I'd moved it.

Twelve trumpets, an intoxicating rose scent, and even the blooms are 'variegated' in that they are varying shades of apricot. The cultivar wasn't listed on the ID tag when I bought it, but I believe it to be 'Sunset' due to its growth habit, scent, and pattern of variegation.

The other brugs have done well, too, and we've seen blooms of white, yellow, and pink. Most of those smell like lemon soap, and like all brugmansias, the scent is intensified in the evenings. You can smell them just by walking in their general vicinity.

They are prone to white flies, which I discovered while they were in my basement this winter. (Just WHERE did those come from?) Outside, they've got them too, and I'll want to take care of that problem before I dig them up and bring them inside for the winter. Neem oil seems to work fairly well. Outside, the white flies don't seem to harm the plant, but inside on the smaller plants they really yellowed the leaves by sucking the sap from them. I've noticed outside they only seem to bother certain plants of the brugs, not all of them.

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