Flowers

I hear that dianthus is a perennial, or at least it can be.  I didn't leave any in the planters, save one, because they don't bloom that well in my yard anyhow.  I tried again this year and the first production was great.  Then the blooms just die off and it doesn't bloom again for weeks, if at all.  Frustrating.

So the planters are cleaned out and everything is ready to go into the storage barn thing we have in the back yard.

The one flower that just did amazingly well this year was a orange/yellow zinnia.  They got tall but didn't get too leggy.  They were still blooming when I pulled them today, and I brought what was left on the plants inside for one final bouquet.  I'll definitely go with them next year.  And the other was the veritable Alyssum that kept on ticking to the very end. 

This year I just left caution to the wind and brought in a lot of different colors.  It was glorious and bright and cheerful, and just the perfect accent to the gunmetal gray deck and shutters on the house.  It just might be the formula for each year hereafter.  That will make plant shopping a lot less stressful!!

One more thing about Hartville from a faithful blog reader -- Over in the old Hartville Hardware building on the main drag, there is another great thrift shop.  Try it out when you are going about town.  Check it out.

Well, it would seem that bad news has been in play all week, doesn't it?  First, the attack on the NYPD rookies, a new case of Ebola, and today a school shooting (again).  Don't you ever wonder what you would be capable of doing if something happened and you had a chance to react?

I've thought about that a lot.  Truth is, we don't know exactly what we will do in a given situation because if we've never been tested in that way before, there is no way to know exactly what we are capable of.  Some people obviously run and hide and get as far away from the trouble as possible.  Others go towards the problem but don't want to get too involved and stay on the periphery.  And yet others get into the middle of the melee and offer their best to help others.  Adrenalin does amazing things to get a person going -- the flight or fight syndrome.

We watched a film last night called, "Hours," that tells the story of a guy whose wife just died in childbirth in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and the extraordinary lengths he goes to in order to save his infant daughter who is five weeks early and on a ventilator.  It was kind of a stuck to the armchair kind of movie where you didn't want to miss anything.  A dog in the movie was quite the star putting on a very good performance.  It was a large German shepherd. 

We think it was entirely a work of fiction, but the marauders going from place to place stealing whatever they could find had to be true.  A closed up hospital was a prime target for those interested in getting a hold of drugs to sell on the street.

The two nurses are Ebola free which is the best news of the week!!

Honey Boo Boo is off the air -- and oh boy, I am so happy about that.  Don['t know about you, but that whole thing just got to me. 

In fact, there are a lot of different shows that we don't follow, and that's fine by me too.

Take care and have a good one.  A weekend good enough to get the leaves done and a whole lot more!!

Karen