Bogieblog

Flower Gardens 2005

There is another new photo album on the sidebar that contains various photos of the flower gardens. It is called, Flower Gardens 2005. Hopefully I will add more to it soon. There are two rolls of film still out being developed (actually they may be lost - they have had them so long).

Patio Pictures

I have put up a new photo album for the new (future) patio. It is named, appropriately enough, "New Patio" and you can't miss it because the thumbnail is huge for some unknown reason (if you managed to miss it, it is on the left side bar past where the posts end).

At any rate, it has the photos from the start of the work up until the planter was finished. They are actually displayed in the order I want, so just start at the top and work your way down.

We haven't done any more work on the patio because we have been waiting for Harry to finally get his stuff together and paint the front of the house (which was supposed to be part of his putting in the new windows). We certainly didn't want to lay all the stone and then have him drip paint all over it!

The long wait is over and Harry did his thing on Wednesday and Thursday, so Jim is bringing over a compactor to make sure the ground is, um, compacted (WS dug it up several feet deep and removed all the rocks). Then we will be ready for a truckload of sand to make the foundation that the rocks will set on. Then we will finally get to work on getting the two pallets of rocks out of the front yard.

I also have photos of this year's gardens, but that will have to wait for some other day.

Yeah, Right - NOT!

This is not a discussion, so I have turned off the comments. If you have any comments, tough, keep them to yourself or write them on your own blog.

Let’s get rid of the feel-good crap about quitting smoking right now. “They” tell all about the benefits of quitting smoking, but "They" lie.

This is the second time I have quit smoking (if you only count the times I have quit for more than a couple of days). One time I went smoke-free for 11 months, I have been smoke-free for 7 weeks this time. Both times, I have noticed something strange – all those benefits that I am supposed to reap, I don’t.

More Disappearances

Yesterday, when I got home from work, I found a flyer tacked to our mailbox post. It seems we aren't the only one in the area missing a cat. Someone down the road from us hasn't seen their Tonkinese, Henry, since Saturday. That was still within the timeframe that Tory and Shadow stayed in at night after Indy disappeared. Henry, was like Indy, more of a house cat than an outdoor cat. And like Indy, the cat rarely went more than a few feet from the house.

Our remaining two cats started staying out at night on Sunday or Monday, so I thought whatever had them spooked was gone. They stayed in again last night, so I'm guessing the bad** thing has come back to the area. They have no qualms about going out in the morning and staying out all day,so it is a nocturnal something anyway.

Advertising May Backfire

Saw an ad on TV the other night for C*caC*la Zero. I was trying to figure out what it was (besides, ya know, the real thing). At the end of the commercial, their tag line showed on the screen and I saw

"Taste NOTHING"

I started thinking to myself that I wasn't sure why people would buy a drink item that they couldn't taste.

No luck

WS and I spent a good while yesterday afternoon looking for signs of Indy. We tramped thru the woods looking under rocks and deadfall in case she had gotten hurt and had holed up. WS checked the sheds in case he had inadvertantly closed her in one - but no luck. We also checked the ditches at the side of the road as well as the culverts.

If it was Tory or Shadow that had been gone, I wouldn't worry - they are mainly outside cats and are outdoor savy (and they have each been gone for a couple of days before). However, Indy is mainly a house cat (by her choice) and is rarely outside for more than a couple hours. She will only usually go out during dusk, when there are bugs attracted to the house lights that she can chase. Overnight is the maximum she'll stay out and then she is pawing madly at the slider to be let in when we get up in the morning. Even when she is outside, she hangs out mostly on the deck. I have never seen her actually get further than 10 feet away from the house. In short, she is not an outdoor savy cat.

Tory and Shadow have spent the last two nights inside (unsual for them at this time of year). I'm assuming there are fishers or coyotes in the area - they come and go - so the cats don't want to be out after dark.

The bad part is that Wednesday night, before going to bed, I looked out the slider and didn't see any cats on the deck. I thought to myself that I should call Indy in, but she had been out a couple of nights in the last week and she was probably happily chasing bugs under the deck, so I didn't.

Guess I shoulda.

Missing

We haven't seen Indy since she went out Wednesday evening. Highly unusual for her - Damn!

Blue and Green

While at Agway yesterdat, a weekly stop, I got a couple more hydrangea since they were on sale. One, Endless Summer, is the same type as I planted in the new planter. This is an interesting variety because it blooms on both old and new growth wood. Ideally this means that it has a longer bloom time than most hydrangeas. The blue color is achieved by maintaining an acidic soil. Akaline soil will bring out pinkish or purplish blooms. For more info on this particular type The Botany Shopo Garden Center has created a nice web page.

The other hydrangea that I purchased is a Limelight Hydrangea. It starts out with green blooms that  turn pink in the fall. It is supposed to be reliable in any soil, so I decided to give it a try. The two new hydrangeas will go down next to the driveway in the "rock garden" Point your mouse arrow at the corner of the fense and move it down in the northwest direction - when it gets to the mound of green (with weeds), that is the spot the shrubs are going. I have already pulled most of the weeds in that area (which were recently much worse than they were when I took the picture). Now WS just has to use the 4-wheeler to pull the two trees that have taken root there (and I have managed to ignore for the last two years). The very top of that area has been taken over by ferns, which is fine and I don't have a problem with them staying there.

After the trees are pulled, I have to pull up all the rock, remove the weed barrier fabric (which obviously didn't do much good after soil washed down on top of the rock), put in the bushes, replace the weed barrier, return the rocks (which have been washed so they are soil-free) and voila - it will be beautiful.

Alright, I will settle for less wild looking for that area.

Perennial Run-Off

Yesterday I conducted the run-off between the two perennials for the small spot in the new flower box at the side of the soon-to-be-patio. I took each of them up to the spot, set one in the spot, stepped back and took a good look, then repeated with the other plant.

After seeing the beautiful, but startling Rose Campion in the spot, I decided it was way too bold for that setting. Trust me, no picture I have found on the internet does the flower justice - it is so damn bright and bold that it sticks out like zit on a nose. I find it a hoot that some sources say that it only grows well in sun. Hah! I've been keeping it in part sun (more shade than sun) for over a month and it is happy as a lark and blooming non-stop.

The other potted plant that I set up there looked really nice. I went ahead and planted it in that spot. I did not realize, until just now, while looking on the internet for a link to post, that Love-in-a-Mist is an annual (although one source did call it a perennial, everyone else calls it an annual). Supposedly it also self-seeds freely so I'll just have to remember to pull back the mulch to allow the seed access to soil (that is assuming, of course, that the winters aren't too cold for the seeds).

Since I will be collecting seeds from other annuals I have growing in posts (poppies, snapdragons etc.), I'll jut have to remember to gather some of the Love-in-a-Mist seeds too. Next time I'll have to pay more attention!

Fertilizing too Well

Early this morning we had visitors - uninvited guests. They apparently made themselves right at home without so much as a by-your-leave. I missed them, WS caught them in the act.

WS had to work this morning so he got up at his usual time. He let the dogs out, and almost immediately the dogs started barking so I let them in. I went back to bed and to dreamland for another hour or so. WS started hearing strange noises coming from the deck.

He decided to investigate, but weird noises are not uncommon when the cats are out (as two of them were last night) - so the fact that he investigated is a bit on the odd side. He turned on the light out back, but didn't see anything except the cats' food bowl on the deck instead of in the cathouse where it belongs. Then he went over to the kitchen sink to wash his hands and found himself face to face with a chattering baby raccoon. It was sitting on top of one of the recycle barrels that sits outside and staring into the window.

WS closed the window before the baby coon figured out the screen was none too strong (the cats have a habit of banging on it to get our attention to let them in), then went back to the slider to look out. This time he opened the door and leaned out and saw 3 baby racoons chittering and chattering away in the corner. He watched them gambol around on the deck for a while, then had to leave for work.