It's all about pink flowers right now

We live on a dead end road here in Tennessee so there's not a lot of traffic, which is a good thing as there is little to no shoulder and the road is narrow.  We  take the dogs for a walk every morning and evening unless it it raining.  One morning a few weeks ago I took them by myself and as I rounded the bend I saw these huge beautiful flowers blooming in a neighbor's yard.  I almost couldn't believe my eyes!  Upon looking closer I could see that they were hibiscus plants and not newly planted.  That meant that they had been in the ground over the past winter with temps down to 0, and would have to be hardy hibiscus. The flowers were 8-9" across.

 I had not met that neighbor yet but finally one day she was sitting on heer front porch and we met and talked about her plants. She said she ordered these from a magazine a few yrs. ago and got 6 small plants and luckily got at least 4 different colors.

They are so pretty and are still blooming weeks later.   I saw some for sale at Home Depot but they were different in that they had dark foliage and personally I like the green leaves that don't compete with the flowers.  It's such a lovely sight to round the bend and see these gorgeous flowers. She said when she divides them she would try to get one for me.  How kind!

I realized that I have never tried to grow hibiscus plants in Louisiana.  I see them for sale all the time, but not sure why I never tried one.  Maybe because I've mostly seen red, orange and yellow.

We don't always walk to the very end of the road so that we don't bother the 3 dogs that live there.  The other day the lady drove in when we were near so we walked on up the hill and met her.  She has two different shades of pink morning glories blooming all over the place on the fences and flag pole, She is trying to get purple ones going too.  I told her that I had purple and blue so we agreed to swap some seeds.  I'm excited about that.  I don't think of myself as a pink person at all, I wear blues and purples and aqua, but for blooming plants you can hardly beat these pinks.  Who knew.  ;-)

Daylily Pictures

I took a couple of photos of the daylilies the other day.  Here is Trahlyta.  It was a free plant given from Oake's Daylilies at their Daylily Festival last year.  It is always a fun time, beautiful flowers to enjoy, food, music -- plus they give every visitor a free daylily!

Here is Northfield another gift from a few yrs. ago.

My little wagon and wheelbarrow

Last summer I brought the little wheelbarrow and wagon that I had as a kid and my parents had saved them over the years.  They stayed in the utility room till this summer when I finally picked  a place to put them in the yard.  We had to have a stump ground from a tree that fell (part of it on the roof of the house - right after our new roof was finished).  We added some more soil and it is becoming a flower bed.  I have a camellia planted in the center.  It is a lt. pink rosette flower and I rooted it myself.  Go Me!  Around it I am starting to plant daylilies-some I've brought from La.  Anyway, I decided to put the wagon and wheelbarrow in the middle of all this as plants aren't full in the bed yet.

I took this picture a few days ago and I think they look a little fuller now, or maybe it it just the light. I think that over the winter I'll empty out the dirt and store both of them inside. I bought impatiens plants and planted marigold seeds. They each have a morning glory vine in them.  I guess I planted some seeds in there.....who remembers?  :-)

Hoarder, hoarder, who's the hoarder???

Today N and I went to the library and then to get some lunch.  As we walking into the restaurant, he pointed out that we were walking beside a hoarder car.  Wow, it was full, only space for the driver to sit.
 

 When we went in I immediately starting looking to see who might belong to the car.  There were only a few customers who appeared to be alone.  A guy in the far corner, a lady eating alone and maybe another guy.  Hmmm....then they opened another register and I looked at the lady who was already in line and thought, um hum, that's her.  She was dressed reasonably well, looked clean and didn't smell.  But you could tell.  She was already trying to order when we went in and we ordered, waited, got our food and sat down and started to eat and she was still at the counter doing her order.  The counter lady was patient and seemed to handle it okay, even when she went back over to the order register and had more conversation.  Finally she got her  bag of food and came and sat right behind me and started immediately with a hacking cough!  Soon that settled down.  We didn't get to see her get in the car as she went back to the counter another time and started a conversation with the man at the booth behind her.  Many people coming past the car coming into the building noticed the condition of it and when they got in the restaurant they looked around trying to figure who might go with the car.

I think I've watched most of the hoarder shows and it really makes one stop and think about the items we keep..

 There are times when I feel somewhat sorry for the people as many of them have suffered some major trauma in their lives.  I hate it when they have animals living in the situation. Some of them just do not want to give up any of their "stuff",  giving up their family for it and continue living in filth.  Hard to understand, but it's an illness and they definitely need help.

To clean or not to clean - I think I have my answer.....

Oy, I just watched Million Dollar Listing Miami.`  Sam, the woman agent on the show had a darling Yorkie for 8 1/2 years.  She loved Chloe so much.  She took her to the vet to have her teeth cleaned and there were complications and Chloe died!  This hit me hard as I have vets in Louisiana and Tennessee saying I should have Zippy's teeth cleaned.  I have talked with them both about this possibility and the fact that he is so small and they have trachea issues.  My next door neighbor in La,  said her daughter worked at  Banfield vet at a PetSmart and the  vet convinced a lady to have her dog's teeth cleaned and it died.  I think that seeing this show tonight added to the fact that I'm worried about having this done makes me think that I'm not going to do it.  If he has some other problem that has to be taken care of and he is put under for that, then they can clean his teeth.  Otherwise, not.  Years ago you never heard of dogs having their teeth cleaned. 

The weather has turned cooler and it's so wonderful.  We are going to do a little work in the yard even though it has gotten later in the day.  I know it probably won't last too long but it's so great while it's here. 

Ok, Here I go again.......
 
This Northfield day lily has been blooming for a few weeks. We were fortunate to receive it at Oakes Daylilies  last year when they had their open house It is much more yellow in person than it appears to be in this iphone photo.  Maybe I'll try a few photos with our regular camera.