It's Bloomin' Tuesday!

Welcome!

Today's post is all about yellow. My large wild side garden is just ablaze with yellow right now.
At the top of the garden is yellow loosestrife. It will take over if you're not careful but it is still worth having in the garden. It is about 4 feet tall and blooms for weeks.
Sundrops are at the bottom of the hill.

I love the red buds and the leaves turn red in the fall.

This yellow sedum is also invasive if you aren't careful but it makes a great ground cover. It is also in my shade garden.

I'm not sure what these are but they keep coming up every year and I like the yellow centers. I also have some pale yellow Straw Foxglove. They grow tall like the regular foxglove.

As you can see from this picture the blooms are much smaller than the normal foxglove.

The blooms are interesting up close.

Last but certainly not least, are the Stella D'Ore lilies. They are always the first to bloom and they sure make a statement.
I hope you have enjoyed the yellow blooms today. If tyou would like to show us your blooms, just add your name and permalink to Mr Linky below. Please, add a link to this post on your blog.
Grab a glass of something cold and sit back and tour gardens all over the country.

A Walk in the Park

I took the girls for a walk by the creek in the park today. We tried last week but it was too muddy for the stroller.All I can say about this is....I don't have a clue! LOL!!
Jerzie had fun walking up the stone stairs, watching for chipmunks and squirrels, walking in the mud,

throwing rocks in the water

and building castles in the dirt and stones.

Payton enjoyed the bumpy ride but by the time we headed for home she was tired out.

It's great to have places like this to walk to in our little city.

They got me again!

My sneaky kids got me again! They told me they had decided to take me out to dinner for my birthday instead of celebrating at home. I didn't think much of that because I don't get out to eat much. I thought they might surprise me by having my brother join us. They surprised me alright... ...with about 30 friends and family!

They told me they had all been avoiding me because I know when they are lying and they didn't want me to be suspicious!

I also discovered there had been a few more 'break ins'! My daughter-in-law even snuck in and got phone numbers for some of my customers.

I love this birthday cake (although Laurie was afraid I'd be upset because I usually get homemade cheesecake for my birthday.)

I even got lots of very nice presents and cards.

Some of my gifts were roses,

a couple new summery covers for my pursefrom Kim and his 3 girls,

a cute turtle for the garden and

an adorable sculpture from Laurie and Chris.

I also got money, a gift certificate to Walmart and some other things I'll show you later. It was a wonderful birthday surprise and a great start to another year to spend with friends and family!

Thank you so much kids for this super surprise! I love you all very much!

Break in!

When I went downstairs to work Thursday morning I discover that someone had been in my beauty shop the night before while I was it the store working!They not only got in, they rummaged thru my cupboards looking for my flower vases!
There was certainly no doubt as to what Thursday was

or how old I was turning!

Not only lovely flowers everywhere but even some chocolate chip cookies!

There was also a sign on the outside door to let my customers know about my birthday.

This is not the first time my kids have done this type of thing on my birthday. When I had a shop outside my home, they went there and put up signs and balloons outside.

Thanks Laurie, this was a wonderful surprise!

Laurie says she didn't break in because she had a key! I sure can't complain about this kind of 'break in'!

The Answer!

In this post I asked for someone to identify this object. I'm sorry to say that there was no winner. A couple were very close but not completely right. Don't you wish you had made a guess now?Yes, the top part or lid is an ashtray. As you can tell from this picture the rim of the bottom section is way too thick to be a drinking glass.

Cigarette smoking used to be a sign of sophistication and glamour. Believe it or not, cigarettes were offered as we would offer a nice dish of candy on our coffee table.

There were several kinds of cigarette holders made during this time. Many looked like round or square goblets with beautiful details.. Some were monogrammed and some had a base that served as an ashtray. My green depression glass piece is a cigarette holder! I'm certainly not into cigarette holders but I do love unique items and green glass plus it was half off and only 4 dollars. I think it would make a great cotton ball or swab holder in the bathroom.

For more Show and Tell posts go over to Kelli's House.

Turning....

60!

Yes, that's what is special about today. It is my 60th birthday and my life will be changing for the better. I never thought I would be excited about turning 60 but because of some unfortunate circumstances, I am excited. Most of my regular readers know that my children lost their Father to cancer last summer. As with any family, this has been hard on my kids.

One of my customers told me that I might be able to collect widow benefits from Social Security. I thought she was crazy since I have been divorced for over 35 years. After some checking, I found out she was right! As long as we were married for 10 years and I had not remarried, I could collect benefits when I turned 60.

As an older hairdresser with a shrinking clientele, I had been forced into taking a second job 5 years ago. My shop has been very good to me over the years, having supported my children and making it possible for me to buy our home but my customers are getting older right along with me. I cut back to 4 days a week and started working in a grocery store 4 or 5 nights a week. Because of the change in my financial status and having paid off my house last year, I will no longer need to work so much at the store. I could actually quit but they supply great insurance benefits. I will now be working 1 or 2 nights a week at the store.

We had to struggle when my kids were home because I received no support. This circumstance although difficult at times, also had it's good points. We had everything we needed and learned to enjoy the free things in life like family, friends and nature. Even tho this benefit has nothing to do with back support, I feel like I'm getting my due. I also believe I need the money more now. Since being transferred because of our store closing, I have worked longer shifts on register which is hard on me because of my fibromyalgia.

The best benefits are more time in the garden and more time with my darling granddaughters! All I can say is....
60 is going to be good!

Edit: You need to go over to my daughter's blog and check out the limerick my OLDER brother wrote for me. It's amazing!

Take a guess!

I realized I haven't done a give away in a long time so today is your lucky day! All you need to do is tell me what this object is.

I found this at a household sale and couldn't resist. You know I love the green glass and I also love unusual items.
This lovely tin is what you will win. I also might find some things to put in the tin.

The only catch will be that in honor of tomorrow (I'll tell you tomorrow why I'm honoring tomorrow!) you only have 24 hours! Of course, I wish you wouldn't research it but make a guess. If there are several right guesses I will draw a name, otherwise the right guess by 10:30 tomorrow morning will be the winner.

It's Bloomin' Tuesday!

Welcome!Today I'm going to finally show you my shade garden. First is a slide show of some of the plants.

If the slide show isn't working click on 'View all Images' And you can see it.

This view is from the back of the garden. The tall plant on the right is the Red Dragon.

This is as you start walking into the garden. I put pine mulch on the path area and as you know planted my primroses along the path.

As you can probably tell the area on the left is my original shade garden. Along with the plants I have also transplanted the ground covers like sedum and sweet woodruff to fill in the new area.

I have also planted and transplanted some hosta. There is not much blooming in this area yet but I'm just hoping the plants will get as big as the critters are!

Thanks for stopping by for Bloomin' Tuesday! If you would like to join the tour, just add your name and permalink to Mr Linky and add a link to this post on your blog. Now sit back and enjoy! Happy gardening!