I'm NOT 20 anymore

Orange honeysuckle

Pretty purple columbine (I forgot about this one--don't you love those surprises!!)

Well, just sittin here, relaxin and reflecting on the day. The boys go to a Wednesday afternoon church program at our little 'ole country church. Tonight they had their last event of the year. . . a cookout and banana split party--yum! The tradition is to play some games after supper--which usually turns out to be capture the flag, the kids' favorite. Well here's where things go a little awry! It is "THE parents" vs. "THE kids" (Hereafter referred to as US and THEM) Well you can imagine how that works out. My family already makes the odds unfair--it's 3 of THEM to 2 of US. Most of the families there are similar, not to mention, there are a fair number of parents who develop aching joints or volunteer to watch the babies when we are trying to recruit numbers for US. So it was like 8-10 of US to about 100 of THEM (alright, maybe closer to 20-25). The goal is to find a flag stuck anywhere 100 miles down the course without being tagged and sent to jail. Add in the fact that most of us are on the downhill slide to 40 and worse. Oh yeah, it also rained nearly 2 inches here last night, and the "course" was in a shelter belt full of mud and trees. OH BOY. We started on the line looking at the whites of each other eyes. . . and it all went down from there. They were everywhere--like an ant den. As we looked out across the field the ground seemed to be crawling with the critters! So we started. . . old, fat and out of shape alike (oh, and spirited-I mean come on give us some credit for even trying this!!) all went RUNNING (full speed) to try not to get caught on our way to locate the flag. I didn't have time to change between work and picnic so I have on my 2 inch chunky heeled boots (which kept my feet dry today--I know, you are all wondering why I think I must be taller). They don't have good mud traction. . . you can picture me sliding safe under the knees of the 9 year old who nailed me. . Scratched my boots, but saved my new black pants!! SCORE for me!! J plowed over two little kids (we also decided that old people running as fast as their arthritic legs can move don't stop on a dime in the mud, when an unsuspecting kid jumps in front of them to tag them and take them off to jail---they also slide a fair distance. Needless to say, we lost. . . twice. . quite quickly. On the way home we got to chuckling about how fast J was running. The boys hadn't seen anything like that out of him. I was afraid I was going to have to start handing out nitroglycerin in the jail, but everyone recueperated on their own. And after we peeled the youngsters out of the ground and cleaned the mud out of their nose and mouth (you know the ones J plowed over, landed on, and skidded with) they turned out ok too. It was actually kind of fun!! Every once in a while it's enjoyable to PRETEND that we are young enough to play like we used to! Ask me again tomorrow.

Arizona Sun gaillardia (it was prettier the other day)

Sundancer Daisies

I have many different things blooming now. I am really pleased with the new plants and shrubs we ordered in. I have ordered lots of different stuff from many different companies over the years and never have I received plants like these!! The Russian garden has blooms on both the Arizona sun gaillardia and the little sundancer daisies. I saw yesterday that the Russian Sage actually has little buds on its little tiny branches too!! Unbelievable! These came from High Country Gardens. I also noticed the other day that the Braeburn apple tree was blooming--we just put those trees in the ground the week of the blizzard. WOW! Those came from Miller nurseries. I have ordered from the last couple of years and their shrubs and trees are incredible and very reasonably priced! The Braeburn tree is below--that will be a pretty tree in the spring when it is bigger!

May night salvia

I also tried a company that I hadn't seen before called Roots and Rhizomes. The only reason that I ordered from them was because I LOVE Shasta daisies and they had a small collection of the ruffled unusual ones. I noticed yesterday that 2 of them already have buds on them as well. I would highly recommend these companies as their plants were all so healthy and packaged for shipping so well. None of them had been broken and looked like I had picked them from the garden store myself!!

Well, glad to be on the downhill slope of the week. Sure wish spring would return--it's pretty cool here, and cloudy, and windy! More rain in the forecast for the next couple days. We're hoping to meet up with the cousins at the zoo on Saturday if the weather holds--Guess it will be Exploration Place if it doesn't! Have a great one!