Three on Thursday

Today is for Three Things I Learned in 2017. 

This is not my photo, but I love it and don't remember where it's from so I can't cite it. It's too beautiful not to share.

Change is scary. Just when we think we might have things figured out, circumstances change and that can be intimidating. But change can also be good, a real opportunity for growth and learning. Embrace it.

Say what you mean. No matter whether you're on top of the world or in the depths of despair, don't be afraid to honestly express yourself. I have a tendency to avoid confrontation, and too often I've told people things I thought they wanted to hear instead of being honest. I've embroiled myself in unnecessary confrontations because I didn't pleasantly and simply state how I really felt.

A hot cup of tea, knitting, and meditation are good for your soul. With the zeal of the newly converted, I'm going to say that meditation does have the power to change your life. I've been practicing for only a week now, but awareness, acceptance, a wonderful grounded feeling, improved coping, and reduced anxiety are benefits that even I can't ignore. I intend to continue meditating, and I don't think you can ever go wrong with a warming mug of tea and a few minutes of focused knitted.

By putting these on my list of things learned, I don't mean that I'm crossing them off and moving on. These are three big areas in which I've made some small progress in 2017, and maybe by putting them in writing, I will continue to work on them in 2018.

Head on over here to read more Three on Thursday posts. (Maybe? Carole may be continuing her most wonderful week of doing what she darn well pleases, and that may not include a blog post today.)

That Was Interesting!

The solar eclipse yesterday was more interesting than I expected! The sun was only 73% eclipsed in our area, but one of John's coworkers took this great photograph as a reflection from their office building. I was afraid to attempt any direct photos of the sun myself and thought this was a clever way to do it.

My experience at 2:30 pm yesterday bordered on wondrous. I went outdoors with my pinhole projector, but ended up not even using it after I saw the shadows filtered through the natural pinholes created by the leaves on our oak trees.

The photos don't really do them justice, but the shadows were fascinating to me as I ran around taking photos of the driveway and patio. I did manage to find the one person that may not have heard about the eclipse when my neighbor asked what I was doing. I excitedly told him to look at the shadows that the eclipse was creating, and he said he just thought the diminished light meant it was going to shower, then went back to cleaning his grill. I thought he was crazy for not being more excited, and he thought I was a little nuts for taking photos of shadows, but to each his own!

Last night, NOVA had a really educational program that I wish could have seen before the eclipse. I haven't watched the whole thing (I may have fallen asleep because some guy was blabbering beforehand and NOVA started late), but I'll be re-watching on line. They talked about astronomers being able to study the sun's corona during the eclipse as the main reason for its importance, used some pretty good graphics to illustrate how and why eclipses happen (or not), and discussed science that sounded almost like science fiction. All things I never learned, didn't know, or may have forgotten, but it was incredibly informational and intriguing!

Discombobulated

Hello, and Happy Friday! I'm back, but feeling just a bit discombobulated, slightly disoriented, and not with it. I had some medical concerns to deal with, but then rewarded myself with a visit to Ryan in Colorado. We got back home at 3:00 am Eastern Time yesterday, but my mind and body were still (sort of) on Mountain Time. Three hours of sleep along with the post-vacation chores of laundry, grocery shopping, mowing, and a garden gone wild do not make for a good blog post, so I'm going to make do with a few photos for now, and will tell you more about them next week.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll be back on Monday so I can tell you about all the good stuff!

Peer Pressure

If the mowing playlist and weed whacker are making appearances after a winter off that can only mean one thing ...

it's time to start mowing.

I might have let it go for another few days, but our lawn did look fairly overgrown after the neighbors on both sides mowed last weekend, so I had to give in to peer pressure.

We don't have one of those picture-perfect lawns, but it provides some semblance of grass, plenty of moss, and some colorful flowers that I enjoy, like creeping Charlie and dandelions.

It was a beautiful day and I welcomed the chance to get some useful exercise, appreciate the glowing green of the newly-leafing maple tree, along with the stunning red bud against blue sky.

The only slight negative happened when I was mowing along the sidewalk and the middle-schoolers were walking home past our house. I heard one exclaim, "Hey, look at that old lady mowing!" Not seeing any other old ladies mowing, I can only presume he meant me.

Too bad for you, kid. Old ladies get rewards for mowing that middle-schoolers only dream about.

Ready, Set, Start

The vernal equinox marked the first day of spring a week ago, but for me spring really begins when I start seeds for the garden.

 I tried to pick thirty minutes today when it wasn't pouring to get those seeds planted.

I gathered all my stuff, filled the cups with seed starting mix, and watered them well. Then I started planting. If you look closely below,

you can see little blue Brussels sprouts seeds in the cups on the left and tiny green tomato seeds in the cups on the right.

Next, I used my special seed-pushing tool (obtainable from almost any Chinese restaurant) to push the seeds into the seed starting mix,

and misted them all well to make sure the surface and seeds would be moistened. Even though it was raining lightly, 

it seemed that me, my phone, and the seed packets were the only things getting wet.

I covered the pots with plastic wrap because nobody has yet gifted me with a greenhouse and I want the seeds

 to stay warm and moist in order to germinate.

Finally, I placed the trays under fluorescent lights on my seed-starting shelves in the basement, and gently urged the seeds to get going,

This is actually one of my favorite parts of gardening, and with any luck, I'll see some tiny plants emerging in the next 4 - 14 days!

Patience for Pink

I love seeing all of Kym's garden photos, and I think the photos of her blooming clematis are especially beautiful. So it's no surprise that after a weekend filled with ups and downs, I had to get these for myself.

It's supposed to rain here all week. While this makes for a lot of dreariness, it also makes great weather for newly-planted roots to get established.

I know they don't look like anything now, but hopefully someday I'll have beautiful cascades of pink blossoms, just like the photos I'm sure!

Digging in the dirt also gave me a chance to take a good look at some of the new growth on my existing clematis vines.

I also admired my sprouting bleeding hearts (my absolute favorites) and was excited to have a chance to get my hands dirty.

It's really starting to look and feel like spring here!

Amaryllis Watch

I've been away from home this week, but as soon as I walked in the door I went to check on my amaryllis. 

What I found was kind of a bad news, good news situation.

The two pots in the back (the ones that look like soil with just a few tiny shoots) are amaryllis bulbs that I tried to rebloom this year, with very little success. Neither of the two main bulbs has done anything; there are just the beginnings of struggling green leaves from two little bulblets off the bulb on the left. I'll probably just leave them (ha, ha!) and see what happens.

The pot in the front is my "rescue amaryllis" with the flower stalk that was bent at a right angle when it called to me. It did straighten up quite nicely, which I appreciate since I carried it around from window to window to provide it with maximum sunlight. I did not appreciate that I had missed the flowers, with only dying blooms left. But then I took a closer look ...

and saw a new flower bud emerging beside the yellowing stalk! I'm not sure who the patron saint of flowers is, 

but I would like to express my thanks for this reward and the promise of more blooms!

I do have one more bulb that I may have been slightly more successful with. 

I'm trying not to check this one more than five or six times a day. 

I've also got some backup insurance in my quest for flowers in the winter - hyacinth bulbs! I was happy to find that I had indeed put some in the refrigerator in the fall. They feel a bit dehydrated in places and maybe just the tiniest bit mushy in others, but I'll be watching them closely for root growth over the next few weeks, while imaging their heavenly fragrance in February. Fingers crossed!