Updates from around the house...

My tulips in the back yard really did turn out well.  I had quite a few and only two "duds" and they may still come back better next year as they ended up only being about 2" tall and didn't flower this year.  ONE of my red ones did two flowers.  Loved it!  they are all gone now, and I miss them!

Here are the tulips from the bloom fields... they are so pretty!  I stopped twice to pick up tulips while they were still blooming.  I have no idea what is blooming now... it's been a while since I have swung by to see them as I have been going to work Monday/Tuesday and Monday on alternating weeks.  Some weeks I'm just pure wore out by the time I get to head home and I do NOT want to drop in and do anything... So I don't!  I just drive home and call it a day.

Here are the blooms from the last stop.  It is always mystery colors as I get them when they are closed buds so they last a lot longer.  Loved the deep purple on this one.  I guess when I get home I'll have to order some from Kukenhoff and get them delivered to the house... or to Liz's house just in case we're not back in our house by that juncture.  I have PLANS for the house in Georgia when we return.  I'll get into those at the bottom of the screen.

I don't know how to rotate this picture now that it's loaded onto the web site... but this is the box of flowers I picked up from a garden center here in Germany.  It was a matter of demand at that point I ordered them.  They were not considered essential so were closed at the time I ordered them... then it took me 4 weeks to get them in.  Sigh... so by the time I got them I COULD have gone to the store to have picked up some on my own anyway... oh, well, saved me some money as I would have purchased a LOT more had I been in the store I'm sure.

What was in the box?  5 sets of 3 petunia plants (wave petunias)... a bag of soil and a planter... I thought I ordered the wall hooks for the planter... surprise... I didn't.

It is now sitting on the table instead and these petunias are now a bit perkier after being watered.

AND I dug out one more pot from the garden shed and put some in there... and a few more petunias now surround the big planter (you can see the last pitiful red tulip in the background).  I have NO idea what that cone flower is in the big pot.  I liked it when we first moved here, bought it and hoped it was a perennial.  It was!  Yay!  There is one lonely heather in the front pot as well with additional growth showing.  I think this winter we'll be moving these pots down to the window well to avoid freezing and cracking.  I only lost one of the smaller pots last winter to cracking, so not too shabby as the ones in Georgia that I left out that froze peeled the exterior of the pots... and add insult to injury these are drilled on the bottom so are compromised for moisture to get into the pot themself and make them expand and contract.... so they are not long for this world, but they are the 30 or so pots that I bought last year for a whopping $20 euro - well worth it for all the pots I picked up... I can afford to lose a few at that rate and not be upset.  

Tandy - the one on the left is one of the ones you bought - regretfully the other committed suicide off the 3rd floor balcony... and I probably won't replace it as I am "short" for growing... I only have one more summer then it will be a purge of planters in preparation for the winter and our inevitable departure.  the tall skinny purple flowers are from last year as well.  I cracked up because there was a weed on the right of that flower pot that Butch thought was a flower.. yeah, it was a weed.  Not even a pretty weed... he was all offended I had pulled it.  ha!  It was replaced with petunias instead.  There is a LOT of purple in my backyard now.  Not by choice as I didn't get to choose color of the petunias, but I ended up with majority of purple and a few white ones tossed in..

On to life outside of the house/yard and into work force.

I had only one mask - one left over from when I had chemo and needed them to get around, but they are white with anime mouths on them.  They were fun, but I needed something a bit more subdued and "adult" so I bought some masks from a gal here... and actually planned for Butch as well with the gray at the top of the screen... and the gray floral the back side is a plain gray as well... so there are options for him as well.

AND I bought a rug for the basement as well.  It's just to dampen the noise down there and cover the floor... and it actually "goes" with the color of the couch, so it's a win/win for that effort.

This downstairs really does need some help - no curtains hung and there is junk everywhere in there.  Sigh...