Celebrating the last day of Spring...iced tea and a good book...playing in my flowers...and bringing a bouquet of my Fairy roses inside. Tomorrow marking the first day of SUMMER!
Enjoying the tip I received to "force" roses so that they will have long stems suitable for a vase. Simple actually. When the lead bud arrives trim all the secondary buds and greenery except for the leaves you want with the bud. Voila! Worked like a charm on both my American Beauties and my Fairy Roses.
"Growing"
"Cut"
And a perfectly lovely End-of-Spring day!
Amazed at how quickly my Tributes have taken hold. Having only planted them last week (dried bare roots) I have a double row of 10...for a total of 20 plants...there will be fresh strawberries before "Idgy's" arrival and hoping to make jam before I leave for the Pennsylvania Gathering!
And in the news...although there is so much to see and shake your head about these days...I found myself smiling and encouraged...having at least some of my faith restored in Humanity...and...yes...laughing out loud.
Foremost...researcher believe they have discovered a breakthrough drug in the treatment of leukemia using the pill ibrutinib which specifically targets Lymphatic Leukemia...the same type my late husband battled for over a year and a half. Using ibrutinib instead of chemotherapy to destroy the cancerous cells without destroying the healthy ones. This is a huge breakthrough. Although it has arrived too late for Bill who passed in 2010...it gives so much hope to the patients and families now fighting this deadly disease. 75% of adult patients with C.L.L and A.L.L die. Sobering statistics we were given at the onset of treatment.
The restoration of hope for my fellow man came after a news article about the Beaconsfield Mine collapse...when two of the trapped miners, while waiting to be rescued...asked that in addition to the food and water that was being lowered if there could be an MP3 player with music...and specified...maybe something from the Foo Fighters. When they lowered the requested MP3 player...there was a note attached from David Grohl (lead vocalist for the Foo's) hand written letting them know that when they arrived on the surface there would also be tickets to the Foo Fighter Concert of their choice...and two beers waiting! Like KV would say:
"If that isn't nice...I don't know what is!"
And lastly...and the one which made me laugh out loud...alone...in a public place...is, of course, the FBI's wacky game of "Where's Waldo" they have been playing with various Mafioso over the past several decades. Apparently if you need a field ploughed, a barn leveled, a crypt opened, or the football stadium astroturf is getting a bit ratty all you have to do is tell your favorite agent that Jimmy Hoffa is buried there. Who knew, right?
This has became such sport with the old guard of the Mafia that I can envision several aged mobsters around a table in a cigar-smoke filled room laughing their asses off with Zerilli...and nudging the next 88 year old wiseguy
"Hey Vinnie...next time it's your turn...capisce?"
Of course we can't laugh too loudly...after all James Gandolphini (Star who parodied an anxiety-riddled therapy-seeking Mob Boss: Tony Soprano on American television) died suddenly of a heart attack in this week.
In Italy.
"Da Boss...yeah...he would likes to speak to youse. Nah...he didn't think it was funny at all...go figure...."
Like Dave Barry says "You can't make this stuff up."
In related news Generalissimo Francisco Franco remains unwaveringly dead.
The compost tote is coming along...highly caffienated red-worms I am suspecting, given the amount of coffee grounds added daily. Chris, joking if we took a handful of these with us fishing they would jump on the hook by themselves and the fish would eat them just to shut-them-up.
Red-worm: I like fishing...don't you like fishing...I could fish all day...fish fish fish fish...man could I use a batch of coffee grounds right now...do you like coffee...I love coffee...they say it makes some people jittery but not...
Huge Bass: "CHOMP"
And a slightly different fishing (well...water) tale from the oldest who phoned me excitedly a couple night's ago with
"Mom! You are NEVER going to believe what I DID today!"
Dare I ask?
"We were swinging off a rope into the nearby canal...brackish water...
(...okay...I am on FULL-Mother Alert at this point...because my Hoosier-born son doesn't seem to realize how prevalent the gator population is around these canals...)
and right in the area we were dropping swam two ginormous Manatee...We got to swim with Manatees, Mom!...I even was able to touch one!"
And for the next fifteen minutes he was my little boy again (instead of 26 y/o...been there-done that...not impressed...) and he chatted away about how huge and gentle they were and how cool the whole experience was...and despite my imminent fears of him being consumed by an alligator...when we got off the phone I had to smile
"Swimming with The Manatees"
No blood test required.
He is MY son.
