Greetings and salutations.
My beloved sunshine is taking a holiday this week, so I’m stuck inside again. I don’t care for it, nosiree. All I can see inside is all the crap that needs done – dust and junk everywhere, paperwork needing filed, dishes to wash, blah blah blah. I do a bit when I can face it. It’s pretty overwhelming.
I fixed the sliding glass door as it kept sticking, but it is sticking again. I fixed hubby’s sneakers but they haven’t been tested for durability yet. Um. I’m sure I’ve done more but my powers of concentration are pretty weak. Someone gave me Kryptonite apparently. Or it could be the depression, or the happy pills trying desperately to work. We will see. I’ve been let off work until June 29. Wow. I didn’t think I was that bad. Doc thinks I am. And while I can’t get fired, I am only getting €84 a week for being out sick. That means I’m worth about €2.10 an hour, or about $2.80. With no tips on the horizon. Pretty much I’m running the household into the negative just by being alive. Ah, I’m all cheered up now.
So! My theme today is anticipation. Me getting better is something I’m still unable to see myself. So I’ll have to go with my garden and all the exciting things about to happen out there, in the slow, green, growing world. Good thing – that’s about the most excitement I can handle right now. I got the shakes just from a dentist appointment – and I’m a very good, non-terrified dental patient.
Anticipation of these babies from last year, whatever they are. iDJ’s uncle knows but I’ve forgotten.
Sorry, I forgot these first pics were taken on our new superduper camera, a Nikon D3100. I can barely use it, so these pics are probably friggin’ enormous.
Smaller, I hope. They all are the same size on my iPad! My blueberries are all a bloom and attract so many bees. Bumblebees, but I’ll take what I can get.
New raspberry plants are just starting to bloom.
…and we just had a small nuke go off in the house, because I broke my only, and 99.8% full, bottle of rum. It went everywhere, as liquid and broken glass are wont to do. Sigh. Won’t be anticipating another rum and Pepsi, I guess. Back to plants. Something’s got to cheer me up. How about a rosebud?
Or a teeny-tiny baby carrot?
My daisy-like weed about to bloom, backed by the mystery plant which now has red blooms to go with the cream and bright yellow?
The orange lilies are getting so close – they are in a big pot and live outside all year around.
The black lilies and whatever else I put in here are growing like mad – up to mid-thigh on me now! We are back to iPhone pics now, as I was getting frustrated with the fancy-pants camera (it was set to shoot raw, by the way. So accidentally I took really sophisticated pics of not-blooming plants).
My California poppies – I swear two days ago there were no flower stalks. Now they are nearly ready to go!
My last photo is not anticipatory. My iris have, boom bam wow, bloomed overnight. And I’ve never seen them so tall!
heretherebespiders 
you dont need any gardening tips, your plants seem to be doing very well…and this rain after the sunshine will help!
Hi Joan! Lovely to meet you 🙂 I went out in a deluge to drag a few pots out from under the porch overhang so they could enjoy a nice warm watering. Thanks for visiting!
Great post, I especially like the very tall iris flowers! Wow, in all my days, I’ve never seen such tall lanky irises! Really quite cool! I think plants are just amazing and wonderful! Good work with cameras. Guess it takes a lot of practice, trial and error, if you aren’t taking professional classes… Sometimes certain sites will tell me the picture I am trying to upload to them is too big! I think that is very funny! (I have no idea…) Glad to see the baby carrot plant! Very beautiful!
Hope you don’t mind I did a wee edit, I don’t use my name on here! I am also well surprised at those irises – I think it might be time to separate them and give them some more room? Or it was just all that sunshine that made them go “ahhhhhhh!” And stretch their green legs upward 🙂 I have no idea on that crazy camera, it is ‘old school’ and requires looking through the viewfinder, but also has all the billion different settings a digital cam has. Whatever… I’ll need more time to sort that out, and a LOT more patience!
I hoped my digital camera had a billion settings. I think mine is very minimal. I can’t even control exposure time or things like that. Mine doesn’t even have a viewfinder. Not that I would use it much, but there are occasions where it would be useful. Such as with the sun in your back, you can’t see the screen at all.
I last used a real, proper camera and a darkroom over 30 years ago. I don’t remember a damn thing 🙂
Back in college (that was 15-20 years ago) I had a friend who took photography as an optional class. He once brought me into the dark room they had there. He did explain me how it worked and I was fascinated, but I don’t remember anything other than the photo eventually reveals after being immersed in a number of basins.
I was introduced to digital photography very early, as one of my friend got one of the first few models. That was in late 1990s. He paid like $600 to get it. These were quite rudimentary, but they worked.
Hardest thing in the world to set aside one’s own vision and hope of feeling well, Spiders. You display the faith necessary to get there along the unknown road. I am so pleased for you that you have several more weeks to yourself.
Once upon a time, when I was 40, I left my job for 3 months, exhausted and crawling around in despair. My lovely fairy godmother sent me a card and her sentiment is one I carry with me now, 16 years later: “do a lot of nothing slowly.” I can’t recommend that enough. (Sounds like you’ve figured that out–whoo hoo!)
You continue to be in my thoughts, girl. I just told a lady who lives in Belfast about your photo of white arms v. tan arms. !! She had been talking about the *blisteringly hot* N. Ireland beach they visited recently.
It’s so hard not to focus on the dust and dirt and financial disaster. I guess if I have any skill at all it is being able, sometimes, to shut out the bad. That’s also what makes depression hard for me, not being able to shut off the voices that are telling me such horrible things.
I put that arm photo up on Facebook tonight – getting attention from people who normally don’t communicate with me! Fancy that. We would be such a pair in the US in the summertime, eh?
I too have to ignore the dust and dirt–I hate it, but I have to make a choice. It’s probably a good thing to learn finally…. ignoring…. Also me too with the financial disaster. My savings is dwindling fast…. but if I want to be well, I have to not worry about *that* too. If we lose the house, well we won’t die I guess….
Isn’t it amazing, those horrible voices that show up?! Where the HELL do they come from??? I fight that everyday, too–variations on a theme with just a germ of truth, which makes it hard to shut them up. But I do. Everydamnday alldaylong–it’s the only way to survive….
Good for you for telling your truth, Spiders. It relieves the burden of hauling it around alone. There is no shame in illness, but there is a lot of sadness, I know.
Love to you and enormous hugs!
Oh, any savings were gone two years ago. Any investments were halved when our economy tanked. I don’t even want to know how bad it is – if I did, I really might just give up.
Ah it sounds like you caught what I caught. Annoying Repetitive I Suck It All Sucks Why Do I Bother Syndrome. Soooo much fun, isn’t it? Sigh. Imma gonna hug a kitty and get some sleep, I think 🙂 You are a great help to me, you know!
yes, may as well not know the details right now. when it’s time to do something else, well, that’s when we do it! rational, ain’t I?!!
SpiderE, it is gratifying to hear that I am a help to you. Thank you for telling me that. You made my day!
Nighty-night. Skritch the kitties and your own self.
Beautiful pics, thanks for showing your part of Ireland!
You’re welcome! And one of these days I’ll get back to something that isn’t just in my yard 🙂
Never seen iris so tall! Bummer about the rum 😦 are the animals keeping you good company?
Of course they are- I suddenly have cats again as my lap is once more warmer than a bed without sunrays 🙂
My Engineer once dropped and broke an unopened bottle of 15 year old Glenfiddich on his cellar floor. One which he was bringing over to share with me. I feel your pain. Actually I feel it more on my own account since, liquor or otherwise, I can drop ANYTHING, and actually seem to throw stuff that I drop — it doesn’t just slip out of my hands, it flies across the room.
Interesting iris — leggier and more spidery of blossom than we see here. I’m dead fond of iris. I have purple, cream, bronze yellow, sun yellow, pink and copper than people have given me at different times and I will have to split them this summer. I’ve never done it. I’m shaking in my boots about that.
Oh! That is horrible! Mine was just cheapo stuff, but I didn’t even have one shot out of it, just had topped up an incomplete shot from the dregs of the previous bottle. Tapped it with the Pepsi as I was putting it back into the fridge, it was slo mo watching it fall and hoping it would bounce but nooooo.
At least the floor is sterilised.
They have never gotten so tall before. They’ve been in the same (rather shallow) planter since I got them – which was so long ago I don’t even recall where or when. I’ve also never split them. It is a scary prospect!
Excuse me for chiming in here–about dividing the iris. Don’t be es-scared. Iris corms are like puzzles, but it goes very fast. (I did a quick Google image search for “dividing iris corms”; the pics will illustrate nicely.)
Have a bucket o’ damp soil ready or a place to lay the divided bits so you can cover the roots while you work on other clumps. (Better yet, do what I NEVER do and have a plot of ground ready for the transplants!)
Dig deep around one bunch and once the soil is loose, get on down there with your hands. Go ahead and rip a clump out.
Break/cut them apart at the seams– be sure each piece has some roots on it. Et voila! Plant the divided bits roots down to the recommended planting depth and spacing.
A thought about dividing seasonally: I just divide ’em when I want to even though there are “rules” about when to do so.
Mine are usually horribly in need of dividing, so have tons of roots. I’m not shy about trying to keep all those roots intact.
Let us know how it goes, eh?
When’s the best time to do this surgery?
Fall or spring. Here’s a succinct article I found: http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/basics/techniques/growflowers_liftiris1.shtml.
You’re the best! Thank you 🙂
any ole time–just like my rules for gardening and dividing and transplanting… <:-D
Beautiful pics bad luck about the sunshine…bugger…it sure ain’t here! 🙂
I have it back today! Woot!
Excellent…bake away my friend 🙂
Hahahha – I don’t smoke marijuana but my first thought on reading this was “wake and bake!”
Baaaaaaaaaaa
Lovely! Anticipation is almost the best part of gardening.
Almost! I’m a bit sad I can’t get more seeds to grow.
I just love your garden!
California poppies ‘popped’ today! First bloom 🙂 I will always think of you!
😀 Love those pretty flowers!
2,10 an hour? When we’re sick here we get at least 70%. 😦
Yeah, I feel loved. Sigh.
That sucks big time.
May I come live in your garden? Please?
Aww, thank you – but there’s an awful lot of nasty biting midges around right now!
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I’m very good at seeing everything in the house that needs to be done, but horrible at seeing everything I think I need to do. I’m constantly stressed about it and thinking about all I can’t do, how useless I am. It’s a horrible place to be which is why I so often list out the things I do on FB, so I can see it all and see I’m worth more than nothing.
Kenton had recently had some issues with over priming his beer… which equals explosions. I’ll be sitting here doing my thing and KAPOW! I’ll run in to find an all to precious beer box destroyed. Now how do I minimize the damage shaking the leftover bottles and creating more explosions? Beers on the floor covered with towels, beers in a cooler, beers everywhere.