An Ode to Succulents

Oh, succulents, how I do love thee.
Aloe, jade, kalanchoe and gasteria.
Weeks without water,
But you still love me.
Neglect is nothing to you!
When spider plants turn brown,
Swedish ivies wither,
And rubber trees become leave-less stalks,
You remain.
Green, happy,
Alive.

Blooming Crawfish Tea

Once again, it is that time of year. Memorial Day weekend, also known as Mudbug Madness weekend (you should so go to that page, at least for a minute - they have fun zydeco music playing).

Yep, this weekend we were in Shreveport, Louisiana, eatin' bugs!

Mudbugs - the only "bugs" I'll eat

Dan had at least seven boxes of bugs and I'd say at least that many beers, too. I had a whopping three boxes - which is a lot for me - and no beers (duh).

Dan playing with his food.

Of course, there is more than just crawfish to eat, if you so desire.

Mmm, tastes like chicken.

We had a decent sized group this year to eat, drink and be merry - fourteen people for the whole group.

Part of the group enjoying the music.

Now, we take our bugs pretty seriously, but there are some folks that come way more prepared than we are. Like this guy:

As Dan said, I bet this guy gets all the chicks.

In less timely news (as these pictures were taken before Mudbug), our yard is still in bloom, but different parts - no more irises. Now we have the oleander in bloom.

Oooh, pretty!

And, how cool is this: we have apples!

Mini-gala apple

It's only about the size of a ping pong ball, but isn't it pretty? We have several others, too, but this one is the prettiest.

And in something even more outdated, this is from earlier last week. Found a lovely tea, Adagio's Birthday Tea Blend. It's a mix of vanilla, cream and caramel tea - with sprinkles!

Birthday Blend

It's really good. It smells so yummy and tastes like licking vanilla icing but without the sugar coating that coats your mouth. And it tastes creamy and yummy. It's quite good. And so pretty!

Oooh, Pretties

Saturday, Dan and I went to Graham and spent the day with my parents. We all went to Clark Gardens in Mineral Wells. Wow. Oh so very wow. We were there for probably a little less than 3 hours and saw maybe 1/2 of the gardens. All of the flowers were absolutely gorgeous. And so you know what that means: graphic-heavy post! (Sorry all you dial-up users!)

Formal Gardens

Juniper

Lily Pads

Bluebonnets - also in pink and purple!

Poppies

Rose

And they have a ton of irises (they seem to be well known for them), so you know I was happy.

Ah, so lovely. And I even got to take home two souvenirs - a bit of a sunburn and this beauty:

Another Chinese and some Irises

Hmm, sounds like the beginning of a bad and tacky joke...

Anyway, first things first: tea! Tonight is a lovely Green Pekoe (pronounced "peck-o" apparently) from China.

Loose Green Pekoe

This plus the Dragonwell makes me realize that I really like Chinese greens. I wasn't anticipating that because, honestly, anything China can do, Japan can do better, right? But stylistically, the teas are very different. This green pekoe has that same "wilder" sweetness that the Dragonwell does instead of the "lighter" sweetness of the Japanese greens. The green pekoe doesn't really taste like honey or muscat, but there is something in the taste that neither Dan nor I can pin point. (ETA: On the third infusion and that "something" has come out a bit more I think. There is a bit of smoky flavor to it now. Not overwhelming, but enough to go, 'mmm, new taste, yum!')

I like this one a little more than the Dragonwell, I believe. I still have one or two more Chinese greens to try as well, though, but this one will be tough to beat as far as a good, solid Chinese green. Plus, the leaves are absolutely gorgeous.

Look at those colors! So pretty!

And speaking of gorgeous, that brings me to the second part of my post title: irises.

The irises in my side yard are beginning to bloom and boy, are they lovely!

Our 'ittle side yard with lovely irises and stick-like altheas (that are just starting to bed out leaves)

The ones on the other side of the rose bush aren't doing too much, but I think that is because I need to get out there, dig them up and split them. But then I'd have to find more room to plant them and that means I need to make more bed. Or rather Dan needs to make more. Of course, I did plan to have the corner bed stretch along the back side of our fence to sort of mirror (but not) how it now stretches down the side of the fence. But I'm sure Dan was hoping that the expansion would wait a bit. Because the fence is pretty long. Well, we might have to do it in phases. He's got until September, which is when I'll need to split the irises, to convince me to do a partial bed expansion.

Flowers and Tea... and Cake

Busy post today - lots to say (though none of it important, as usual).

First, tea:

Coconut Tea

The white bits? Coconut, baby!

This morning's tea was coconut tea. Yum! Not too strongly flavored, but a nice, subtle coconut flavor with a lovely smell and nice sweet aftertaste. Perfect with a touch of sugar but smooth enough to not need milk. Very nice! Not sure how it is iced yet but definitely hopeful!

This evening's tea is a lovely and unusual green tea.

Genmai Cha

Green tea with browned rice and popcorn

This tastes like Japanese osembe with a toasty but slightly sweet flavor. Still working on the best way to brew it (Adagio doesn't suggest brewing amounts of the loose tea which is frustrating but I'm hoping things will get easier when I get my scale that I just ordered from Amazon) but I'm quite liking it. It makes me want some edamame since both edamame and osembe are Japanese bar-style foods. So does that make this a bar tea?

In non-tea news, I made an angel food cake and this time it turned out much better than when I tried to make it in the bundt pan. My lovely MIL sent me a tube pan so it even looks like a normal angel food cake.

Okay, so it is a little crooked...

So woo hoo. And I didn't even ruin a pan like I did months ago.

And in other nifty news, the yard is starting to bloom! I've had a couple of white irises bloom and just this weekend, some of the dark purple ones popped out.

Pretty Irises

My yellow ones opened up yesterday (no pics yet) and my purple and whites are starting to open today. Soon the fancy ladies or whatever they are called - the light lilac, frilly ones, should be opening soon.

Oh, and the Lady Bank's rose is huge. I think it is plotting to eat the house.

Bracky-whatsit

Wow, lots of posts today... But this is (I think) post-worthy so I added it.

My bracky-whatsit plant is blooming. I didn't even know they bloomed!

It's really a Gasteria brachyphylla (but on the label looks like "brackyphilla") and I can never remember anything but the "bracky" bit. So that's what I call it. (Though Google comes up with nothing when searching for that. Instead, it has a Gasteria bateseana which looks just like it, so I guess the lady we got it from had the wrong name. So it's a batesy-whatsit? But Wikipedia does list the brachyphylla, so I guess I'm good. I mean, Wikipedia's never wrong, right?)

Mom and I got a pot of this at a home & garden show years ago and split it. It's pretty easy to take care of, though I did almost kill it once by overwatering. But now I must be doing something right because it put out a stalk with these neat little blooms on it.

The full bracky-whatsit

Close-up of bloom

Hey, fun little fact - the plant is named "gasteria" because the blooms look like little stomachs.

Weird!

Picture Time!

Whee! Pictures pictures and more pictures. Okay, just four pictures. But no chicken purses. You can take that as a positive or negative feature of this post..

Uh, Merry Christmas?
Yeah, I know I used that for a post title a few days ago but whatever. Is the writer's strike still on? If so, that's my problem.

Anyway, my Christmas cactus is blooming. This thing has not bloomed in years but I guess the best way to get it to bloom is not to forget to water it. In the past month I've finally gotten on a plant watering schedule and look at my reward!

Is there such a thing as a Valentine Cactus?

Okay, yeah, so it is just one bloom. But there is a bud on the other side. And it isn't dying (I don't think). So total awesomeness all around.

Awwww, Cuteness!
There is no reason to post this since I actually took it (well, okay, Dan took it - I was occupied) almost two weeks ago. But it was camped out in my camera until just now, so it is sort of timely.

Cocoa is a lovey, wonderful cuddle kitty. She love cuddles. It's kind of hard to hold her and a laptop, but hey, I'll do what I can to get such wonderful kitty cuddles.

Kitty Cuddles!

Must Be Genetic
Princess was always a big box kitty. If a box was on the floor, she was either in it, just gotten out of it, or thinking about getting in it. Ashes hasn't ever been a big box-lover, however since Princess has passed away, I believe she realizes that this house is missing a Box-Love Himalayan and she's trying to fill the gap.

Ashes trying to fill the role of "box-loving himmy"

The Original Box-Loving Himmy, Princess

Scrapbook Crazy

I completed three, yes three scrapbook pages today. Craziness! Two for the kitty scrapbook and one for our scrapbook. Go me! Of course, I had to do something while I was scrapbooking, so I watched three movies and listened to two periods of a Ducks game (they lost 4-0 to Edmonton - ouch). For the movies, Dan and I finished the Die Hard series (he had never seen it - I hadn't seen 4 yet. Good entertainment) and then I watched Van Helsing (not impressed with the ending).

Without further ado, scrapbook pages:

Princess Page
No real explanation needed as colors are good and everything is easy to see. Oh, text is done with Opposites Attact, flowers were done the George and Basic Shapes cartridge.

Pissy Pissy Princess

Text:

I used to think Princess was one of those "special" cats made entirely out of evil.

When she lived with my grandma, she would hide from everyone. If we sought her out, she would bite, growl and hiss. When she was being held, she growled constantly.

When she first came to us after my grandma passed away, Princess would scream, hiss, spit and bite at our ankles. She eventually turned into a sweetie, but she will always be known as the Pissy Pissy Princess.

Ashes Page
Okay, this one is hard to see - the colors are pale, but the title says "Big Girl Cuddles" in light blue, edged in brown and there are little blue flowers with cream centers to each side of the title (similar to the one in the bottom right corner). The title was done with ZooBalloo, the flowers are from the Walk in My Garden cartridge.

Big Girl Cuddles

Text:

Ashes is a friendly and lovey girl. She will wave to get attention, becomes a loud purr-box when she’s getting her chin scrubbed and can usually be found in the same room as her people.

But as lovey and sweet as she is, Ashes has never been a big cuddler. So the few times she decides to get on a lap are really special. Sometimes she will just stand and purr then leave. But there are times when she gets the urge not to stand on a lap, but to settle in and take a nice little nap.

And if that doesn’t make a heart melt, nothing will.

Yard Page
The colors are off just a tad here (the green isn't quite as acid) but close enough. Text is with Opposites Attract, critters with Walk in My Garden.

Spring 2007

No text, but aren't the little buggies cute? I so love my Cricut!

Picture Time!

My computer is back and you know what that means! I was able to transfer yard pictures from my camera to my laptop to share and I was able to get a hold of Cocoa's toothless pictures. So, without further ado, pictures!

Yard Pretties
My irises have done really well this year so far. Of course, that was before this cold front came in. I'm not sure how they'll be after this weekend. *pout* I don't think irises are made to bloom in 34 degree weather. But hopefully they'll survive. If not, I still have some pretty pictures.

Last year we stretched the corner bed all the way down one side of our house. We got a ton of irises from a neighbor and planted then in the new addition. Those irises have really done well and are absolutely gorgeous.

Part of the new side bed in bloom

When our neighbor told me they were mostly purple irises, I was pleased thinking they were the "normal" irises you always think of when someone says "Iris". Most of mine were yellow from my parent's house, with a few more interesting ones from my grandma (though most of those have yet to bloom) so the idea of adding some "regular" irises was neat. But they weren't the "regular" variety, but this gorgeous fancy, white-with-purple-speckles-and-edges purple irises. I LOVE them.

Our not-so-plain purple irises

Tons of them are blooming or about to bloom

I just find them fascinating and so beautiful

Of course, not all of them are that speckled purple. I have a few that look like this white and lilac combo (though not all have bloomed (and after the cold weather, I'm unsure as to if they will bloom) so some could be just lilac).

A few of my irises are like this delicate looking one

Aren't they gorgeous? Almost all the ones I have in the original corner bed are yellow. There are some darker purple ones and supposedly some other fancy ones from my grandmother, but I suppose I need to dig them up and split them because they haven't bloomed in the past 2 years. I think they are supposed to do better (have more blooms) when they are split and trimmed in fall. Maybe I will do that this year. Because I love how our yard looks in bloom.

I can't wait until our bed is overflowing with irises. I hope to add some more unusual ones in the future, too. I also want to extend the corner bed the other way, along the back fence, and plant with bulbs (mostly irises but also daffodils and daylilies. Maybe some gladiolas and dahlias if the ones I planted last year do well). When we stretch the bed along the back fence, I want to incorporate the two apple trees into the bed, too. Ultimately, it would mean that almost 1/2 of our back yard was bulb bed. But hey, gorgeous flowers and less grass to cut and water!

Cocoa Time!
And now it is time for the toothless Cocoa. I actually have her teeth in a plastic bag beside my computer. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it. But before they go to their final home (which will honestly probably be the garbage), I think I might take a pictures and post them. Because I'm icky like that.

Anyway, here is where that bag of teeth came from:

Gummy Kitty

The little purple bits are her stitches. They haven't come out yet but they aren't bothering her so we are just leaving them in for now.

She's still doing great with no teeth. Though, have I mentioned?, it is so sad to see her try to eat a spider plant without teeth. She just gums it but eventually gives up because she can't tear it. So sad. But not as sad as she was with a feeding tube in, so I know removing her teeth was the right thing to do!

Sucks For You, Dial-up Users

Turns out this post is going to be pretty picture intensive. So sorry about that to anyone who's still on dial-up. You should get DSL at the very least just so my blog updates load quickly.

So let's get started (you can read while you wait for the pictures to load).

The Cocoa News

Toothless Cocoa

Cocoa is doing really great. The swelling in her mouth has gone down even more so now she is starting to look a little like an old lady with no dentures. It isn't horribly obvious, but if you had known her well before, it is pretty easy to see, especially from the side. She no longer has a square little mouth. It is more 3-shaped.

She hasn't seemed to have any problem eating, though we haven't seen her eating much dry food recently. But then, the kitties constantly get food when we aren't around to notice, so we aren't worried. We are feeding her some canned cat food everyday, too, so she won't go hungry.

As soon as I am finished with this blog, Cocoa's primary source of pain killer will be removed. She kept her little morphine patch on for 72 hours. Now, we are switching to pain pills twice a day as needed.

The feel good patch

Cocoa goes back to the vet later this week for a check up to see how things are going along. I'm sure I'll post more after that!

Gesundheit!
Allergy season is upon us, which means things are in bloom - including our yard! The first iris has come out and the Lady Bank's is just going crazy! It's been 4 years, but I think our back yard is really starting to look nice. I'll have to post some pictures from past years later, but for now, here's what's currently going on outside.

The rosemary and Lady Banks have really taken over the corner bed

The first iris of 2007 (for my yard, at least)

The Lady Bank's rose started blooming Thursday

Lady Bank's bloom

Our Gala apple tree has started to bloom

Very pretty, yes? Our grass is another story, but at least we have the flowers to move your eye away from the weed-filled grass.

Well, now that you've seen those lovely pictures, next we have...

Icky Foot Stuff
And this one is a little late, but I just realized I hadn't posted this picture. This is Dan's foot about 1 week after his surgery.

Eew, huh? It looks much better now, but then, that's not too hard.

And those are the updates for today. Do you have DSL yet?

Get Your Spring On

Okay, this post is late, but honestly, the sun has just recently gotten my solar battery fully charged so I've only come back to life the past two weeks. Which brings me to the purpose of this post...

SPRING IS HERE! Okay, okay, technically it doesn't begin until the 20th. But our grass is starting to turn green (some of it isn't even weeds), trees are blooming and leafing out, and my daffodils have come into bloom (though this post is so delayed, most of them are now gone).

Nature at Work (well, really home, but Nature is, in fact, working)

Oh oh! I even have a tan line! One where my watch goes and then on my back where my tank straps go. I've been sitting outside by the pond over my lunch break since it has been so gorgeous lately.

I can't express enough how happy I am that winter is gone. I hate, hate, hate winter. I can't wait for 100-degree days, sun burns, high water bills and brown grass. BRING ON SUMMER, BABY!

My Hero

I keep forgetting to mention... weekend before last, Dan did a ton of yard work extending our corner bed to hold a ton of iris bulbs our neighbors had given us. Now the bed goes all the way down the side fence where the altheas are planted.

Dan pouring rocks into our newly extended bed

Dan is my hero! Now his next project will be extending the bed the other way - along the back of the fence. And no, I'm not evil for mentioning that. Dan was the one who brought it up first! I was just being a good wife and agreeing with my husband.

*grin*

Spring!

Well, I think it is official that Spring has sprung! Dan and I had to actually switch to A/C on Saturday - the house was 84 and that's just too hot.

But the coolest thing about Spring showing up is the flowers. I planted some daffodils this Winter (actually in late Winter so I didn't think they'd bloom since it was several months past when I should have planted them) and now they are popping up - I've got a good 5 or 6 daffodil blooms coming up.

But that's not all! The rosemary is blooming, too! Not the entirety of the two monster bushes, but the front left side of one of them. Still, it is better than last year when only a stalk bloomed a few measly flowers.

And wait - there's more! The Lady Banks Rosebush is starting to put off some blooms. Nothing big enough for me to take pictures of yet, but there are some spots of yellow on that big green mass!

I've saved the best for last, though. Those that have visited our house know that Dan and I have a ton of aloe plants. Sometimes we start to feel a little overrun by them, but that just means we have to meet more people so we can give them away. Hehe. Anyway, one of the big aloes is blooming! I've only seen this happen once before and that is on one of my parents' big aloes years ago. It has just started blooming, so I'm sure more pictures will come as the bloom actually opens.

Neat, huh? Blooming flowers make me so excited! Of course, one bad thing about the arrival of warm weather - I'm going to have to keep my legs shaved so I can stay in shorts! Oh well, I'll take it!