Happy Saturday!

Hello! I hope you have tons of wonderful plans for this Memorial Day weekend. Me? I'm sitting here with my three boys, just puttering around the house. Working in my flower beds, making cards, watching movies...that sort of thing.

Chris is gone on the first BIG run of his many biker runs over this year's ride season - he's gone to Southern California - left yesterday morning and will be back late Sunday night. Today is also my 13th wedding anniversary. Haven't celebrated it in 7 years, though, because Chris is usually out riding somewhere. He keeps waiting for me to be upset with him, which is probably WHY he won me the entire 4 seasons of Dr Who on DVD from eBay this week, but I'm so used to him just taking off that getting upset would just ruin my day, so why bother?

This morning, I slept in till 9 (for the first time in YEARS), popped a Nexium, threw on some grubby clothes and went out to work in the front flower beds. Chris TRIED doing it for me a couple weeks ago - thought he'd "help" me since I've been so sick the last couple of months. He dug up 4 of my favorite miniature mums, 6 tulips, and a thriving set of hen 'n' chicks. Left all the chickweed, clover, mallow, and dandelions for me to deal with today. What REALLY twisted me off was when he said something to the effect that if it wasn't taken care of by the time he got back, he was digging all of it up and pouring concrete out there. If I wanted flowers after that I could put them in pots and set them on the new front patio. {rolling eyes} Yeah, okay, whatever you say, Skippy!

Here are the "before" pics of SOME of what's in my front flower beds:
This is Betty Boop, my floribunda rose on the East corner of the house. She desperately needs a haircut...I trimmed her back last fall & she's already shot up another 2.5 feet!
I really like her because she's not a "traditional" rose. She sure looks like one starting out, though!Her buds are nice and tight, creamy yellow at the bottoms & deep burgundy/red at the top...But when those buds open, she looks more like a wild rose and the blooms are creamy white & deep pink! She loves puttin on a show!This is Lemon Drop, a miniature rose in my front bed, sittin right next to the front porch steps. As you can see, it's loaded with buds.And so you can see how small these beautiful bloom heads are, here's one in my hand...As for "miniature"? Yeah, right! This little yellow darling was only SUPPOSED to reach a maximum height/width of 3 feet. She's actually 4 ft across and over 5 ft high (the top of those steps when I'm standing at the lowest point, hits me at my shoulder & I'm almost 6ft tall!). Next to Lemon Drop, you can see my white lilac.
My "dwarf" white lilac (tossing in another "yeah, right!" here). If this is a 6ft maximum height with a 4 ft maximum diameter, then you can kiss every acre of my big, white, dimpled tukus! *ROFL* Just so ya know...the bottom of that window bay is almost ELEVEN FEET off the ground! The Spruce twins that it's hiding are both 6ft tall. I planted my lilac here, because directly behind that beauty, there's a window that used to be my she-cave (now Cordell's bedroom, well, it is until I take it back sometime this year). When the window is open & there's a southerly breeze, the entire lower level of the house smells like lilacs. My favorite floral fragrance of all time! It's so stinkin tall now that when the living room windows are open (that's the bay there) you can smell them. *LOL*
Here's Lemon Drop today. A lot of those buds opened this morning, but it looks like there are TONS left to come on in the next week or so...
And this is my lilac, now that I've trimmed the undergrowth, chopped dead tulips down to ground level (I never dig up my bulbs), pulled out the clover, mallow, and some stray Mexican Primrose...you can actually SEE the Spruce twins AND the lamb's ear! *LOL**sigh* This is the carnage left in my West-side flower bed after Chris was done digging up my mums. Those mums this year would have been about 4 inches taller than the gas meter & LOADED with shades of peach, orange, and deep rust. I loved having them in this location because not only did they tolerate the heat well, but the oils & fragrance that they put off are a HUGE deterrent to spiders (FYI - chrysanthemum is one of the main ingredients in the spray that the pros use around your house perimeter). Oh, well, at least the grass, clover, and snails are all gone. Maybe I'll put some lavendar and shasta daisies in the empty spots. I'm thinking that the miniature powder pink rose (that one, waaaaay back near the fence there under the electric meter - bought it the same time I got Lemon Drop) needs to be dug up and put into a patio pot for my back deck...'K! I'm off to feed the munchkins, then run to Sears. Seems that my asking Chris to drop the mower a notch for one week has made it MY fault that he ran over a tree root and now we need a new blade. OY! I wonder how he'd react if I brought home one of those old-fashioned reel blade mowers?
I'm just guessing, but I'd probably be the one "volun-told" to do the lawn work from now on! *ROFL* I'm also stopping by the DI Thrift Store to look for storage jars to go in my she-cave, then when I get home, I'll work on a few cards after I have supper with my boys. If I don't end up watching a movie with them till Doctor Who comes on at 11pm, I'll share the cards with ya just as soon as I'm done. If you don't see me here again tonight, I'll catch y'all tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!