Herb Is Here

I always set my posts up the same. I upload the photos. I put them in "center," then I add my text. At work, I paste the text, then add the photos in later. I wanted to try something different tonight. I tried putting the photos in on the "left" and this is what I ended up with. It looks like a big ol' mess to me.

Anyway, to the left is my Sage. I've had this Sage plant for a few years. It got really big this year. Currently, it's gone a bit woody. I don't use a lot of Sage, but I love the way it looks, the silvery green leaves are lovely. Just to the right of the Sage, in the very same pot is a minature Lemon Tree. Last year I got 4 lemons off of it. That is 3 more than I ever had on it in years before.

To the left of this is what is left of my Oregano. I think that there's a little mint in there, too. The Flat Leaf Parsley made it through, as well. I like that stuff, it's pretty, but I so rarely use it.

The Oregano and Mint both go nuts, just trail all over the place. There's a pansy behind it. I put the pansy in a tree start that Mom gave me. I'll grow the tree, but it's so plain right now. I wanted the pansy to fancy things up a bit.

I put up these little Basil starts. I used the heck out of the Basil. I like to make pizza and Pesto with Walnuts, so having Basil of my own saves time and money.

I got an email from a company today that does these redwood planter frames. They were so cool. There's one that is 8x8 and one that is for "city dwellers" and it's 4x4. They asked if I wanted to "sample" it. I'm not sure what they mean. Do they want to ship me part of it? Or to try it and send it back? Or are they going to send me a kit, because, honestly it's a pretty awesome kit. I would love to see that kit out on the patio. It would look pretty and I could grow some actual vegetables in there.

Well, I'm off to bed. I'm reading the book, "He's Just Not That Into You," and I find it incredibly liberating. So, he just wasn't that into me. So what. Maybe the next one will be.

July 5th

Today feels a bit like the day after Christmas. Sarah and I, we did all this 4th prep and now it's over. We still have our flag-themed nails on, here's my feet and her hands. I'm pretty tired. Last night Sarah was wound up after the fireworks and couldn't go to sleep until after midnight. Bay called at 12:30-ish and wanted to come home, said her friend would drop her, but she needed me to unlock the door. I fell back asleep - she knocked at a bit after 1. I checked Max on my way back to bed and found him hot - as in almost 102 temp. I don't know what happened, he was only at school 2 days because of the smoke and there were hardly any other kids there. I changed him, gave him some Ibuprofen, then tried to go back to sleep. It was hard, he kept having seizures and I had to check on him or he'd call "Mom, mooom," and back I'd go again.

He is a bit more restful today, a little less warm. These are the times I wish he could speak, that he could tell me what hurts. He's laying very still.

I didn't use my camera at all yesterday, so I grabbed it and went out to look at my patio garden. I have new strawberries. Yum. I'm going to point them out to Sarah. Okay, I did, she's on her way out to grab one now. She told me that she'd been eyeing it and that Karlee told her that when it was time she had called it.

I am surprised that I don't have any green tomatoes yet. In the past I've grown Early Girls. Apparently, Heirlooms take longer. Happily, I found a lot of little buds.
Lots of mint. Hhmm.....what should I do with it? I like it's blue-green color.
I have a mini lemon tree. The first year, I had no lemons. The second year, I had two. This year, I have a ......okay, not a bunch, but a few. Yay!
Bay just got up, it's after 3pm. She is sick, too. The teenagers always seem to come down with something at the same time. They are so darn delicate.

When I woke up this morning, I was surprised that my boyfriend was not beside me. I must have dreamed that he was here for a visit. His absence, I'm really feeling it right now. I've felt so emotional lately, sort of raw, and he gives these huge hugs. When he's here, I feel like the heavy weight of my life, my responsibilities, that's it's a little lighter. He's my peace.

Peeking Around the Patio

Today was the second day in a row that I talked to a loan-person about my financial situation. I want to buy a house. It's exhausting to think about how much money I don't have and how much debt I do.

I needed a break, so I grabbed my camera and went out to the patio to peek around.
I have so many blossoms on my lemon tree. It's very exciting. Last year I had a whole ONE lemon on the tree. I don't know why it's so healthy this year, but I'm glad that it is. I love lemons. When I was a kid, I used to eat them, not squeeze them on something, but eat the pieces like an orange. This was well before I met a Meyer lemon - those, no problem - but old school tart-y lemons, well I'm not sure what I was trying to prove.
Nobody uses the turtle sandbox anymore. :( I can remember the day Bay got it from Mom. It was her third birthday and her dad brought her home all caked up. I bathed her, cleaned the frosting out of her hair, and the fun began. My brother-in-law was supposed to be delivering the sandbox, but for some reason he decided to go by the Ford store and buy a truck first. He's had a lot of trucks over the years. Another funny day for truck-buying, the day he and Robin moved out of Chico. They bought a new truck on their way out of town.

When I bought my van, my sister talked me through it. I'd call her and she'd say, wait, let me look up those numbers....... and she'd give me the blue book on my little Saturn or the van that I wanted to buy. It helped to have her there on my phone. She knows a lot about purchasing vehicles. I do not, although I do know about a bit about dating a car-man, as S is one. His advice - don't let me (him) talk you into anything. Too late.

Sometime during Max's first year, the seed for this tree landed in a hanging pot of Petunias. It sprouted and I moved it from pot to pot as it grew. It's Max's tree. It sits outside the living room window - right on the other side of the wall from where he lays. I like to keep Max and his tree close. They belong together and some day when I buy a house, I'd like to plant the tree into the ground. Or maybe just a larger pot, but the point is that this tree means a lot to me.
I like to put goofy things around my garden. I have pieces of windchime stuck up with nails - mostly stars, suns, and moons. I found the little Eiffel Tower below outside stuck in the dirt. I stepped on something and it hurt my foot. When I dug around to see what it was, I found this broken tower. I washed it up and it's been in my garden ever since. My friend, Heather, visited the real Eiffel Tower last year. She took pictures of it and told about how it made her feel very emotional to be standing right there by it. I can only imagine how it must have felt - it's such a familiar image and I'm sure it's massive.

I like to put rubber lizards and spiders and frogs in among the plants. We used to take this huge rubber spider and hide it in the house to scare each other. I don't know where it is now, but I think I'm going to look for it, so I can hide it in Bailey's bed. She'll love it.

That Petunia turned out pretty, I think.