Where does the time go...

I am back! We are all good. Updated my blog for Fall and changed the photo in the previous post. The other one was animated and I decided to change it. Nothing out of the ordinary happening, Mom is healing from her surgery and going to therapy. But most of you read her blog so you already know.

We had a visit from one of Paula's turtles a while back. I went out to go pick up Jarin and there was a turtle on the driveway near the side of the house. I called Cori out and she took it back to the wooded area behind the house. I told her it looked like it turned around to come back toward the house. I left to pick up Jarin and when we got back the turtle had already made it back to the front and was by the road. We watched to make sure it got across the road okay, I guess it was bound and determined to get back to Paula so she could feed it...ha.

We still have some bell peppers growing along with some other peppers, one is jalapeno, not sure about the other. Got 4 eggplant off the plant a couple of days ago, but mine are narrow, more similar to a cucumber shape. Parsley still growing. Chives are still there but haven't grown any bigger. The parsley and chives were covered up by the squash and zucchini that took over. But I pulled it up after I got some to cook. Hubby had one watermelon that grew, it was about the size of a football, but it was good.

Jarin and I went to see 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' and 'Madea's Witness Protection' Sunday. The first had Judi Dench in it. I had wanted to see it but it never came to the regular theater near us. I noticed on Sunday that it was on at the $2.50 theater as well as Madea's so we went. We enjoyed both of them, Jarin wasn't to sure she would like the first one but she did. I told her I'm a good movie picker...ha.

We are having nice weather this week, sunshine and temps in the 70's and 50's.
Take care,
Sheila

Happy 4th of July!

We are still around... We have celebrated an anniversary, the 26th, on May 31st. Hubby celebrated a birthday on June 5th. Mom broke her hip on June 9th, no, we're not celebrating that, but we are working on getting her healed up. The girls and I have been here in Alabama since June 13th, that is the day she got out of the hospital. My niece came to spend the night so she would be here until I got here. They replaced the ball of her hip as that is what cracked. She went out to get the paper that morning and it was raining, Millie, her newest dog, jumped up on her and it caused her to slip and fall. She is doing well and the doctor said she could put full weight on it this Friday. She's not allowed to bend over yet since they had to cut the muscle and it still needs longer to heal and strengthen. She'll be back to her usual self before she knows it. My Dad is doing well also.

My brother and his family from Texas got here Saturday. They went down to the beach for the day today. We're just taking it easy today, some of the young ones will probably pop some fireworks
later. Hope everyone has a great 4th!

Take care, Sheila

Tomato Monday...

Got a couple of pictures to share of our first two tomato plants ( we bought 2 more since these) and one planter of our strawberries ( we have 2). I took a couple of the vegetables in the planter but they've grown since I took them so I'll wait and take another picture. I've seen one squash starting to grow, that's one more than I was able to grow in Alabama...ha. They would bloom but never made a squash.

These are the celebrity tomatoes

This is the Roma's. It is loaded down with them.

One planter of strawberries. A bird got my first strawberry before I did...

I don't think the tomato plants have grown any taller since they put on all the tomatoes.

Thanks for the Mother's Day wishes. I hope all the Mothers out there had a great day.

Take care,

Sheila

In memory of Mr. Ray 'Dad' White...

I just wanted to pay a little tribute to Mr. Ray 'Dad' White (http://tomatogardeningwithdad.blogspot.com/). He passed away on Wednesday May 9th at 98 years old. He was a sweet man, who loved the Lord, his family, his friends and his blogging family. He also loved his garden, especially his tomatoes and roses.

I wouldn't have known about this blogging community if it wasn't for Mr. White. Around October of 2005, our local paper in Mobile, AL had a story on 'Dad, America's oldest blogger'. This was back when it was still AOL Journals. I started reading his journal and from his journal I found others. Then, they shut down AOL journals and the ones who still wanted to blog moved mostly to blogger. I didn't decide to give it a try until after it moved to blogger. So thank you Mr. White for introducing me to this blogger world and all the wonderful friends I have made here.

Rest in Peace 'Dad'

We'll miss you.

Sheila

Plants, plants and more plants...

I waited a day later to post my last entry so I could take a picture of the Broom shrub. I went out that day to water the tomatoes, bell peppers, blueberries and everything else that needed watering, and I put my arm down on the top of the deck rail. When I moved to water something else I noticed that area was burning.....I looked and I had picked up a boat load of splinters...well maybe not a boat load but a lot. Thankfully, later on, my new favorite daughter Cori...ha... picked them out for me.

This past weekend the project was building a raised planting bed. Hubby got to use his new drills again (Jack they're Makita's). So now we have more vegetables growing. More bell peppers, squash, zucchini, cucumber, onions, parsley, purple brussel sprouts, eggplant, watermelon, cantaloupe and strawberries. I may have left something out, but that is all I could think of off the top of my head. I think I will get a couple of jalepeno plants. We got the broom shrub planted and he bought two dwarf azaleas. Maybe that is all for now...

Take care,
Sheila

April showers bring May flowers...

Hello, hello, hello! We are still here. Hubby is still in a little bit of a plant buying frenzy. A couple of purple fountain grasses (actually my request, if he seen any), a couple of fireworks fountain grasses (red), a couple more tomato plants, and another hibiscus and some type of evergreen shrub. We decided to put the two large blueberry bushes we bought in large planters and put closer to the deck. We put the purple fountain grass where we had the blueberries.

 This is the evergreen shrub called broom.

Don't know where we're going to plant it yet.

We hired someone to cut our grass, but the last time they cut it they scalped our grass in a few places (they sent a different guy with a different lawn mower). So Hubby decided to start cutting it again. I've been doing the trimming while he does the cutting. I think he was hoping the lawn mower wouldn't work so he could buy a new one...ha. It had been in storage almost two years, but he added gas and a little oil and I pressed the primer butter a few times. He went to put something up in the garage and I asked him if he wanted me to try to crank it. He said yeah, so I pulled the cord and it started the first time...ha. We were both a little surprised that it did. But so far it has been working like a charm.

Thanks for the birthday wishes! Mine was the 12th and Cori's was the 21st. She is 19 now, I'm only two years older...ha.

Take care, Sheila

Spring has sprung...

I don't intentionally stay away this long. I keep thinking I'll do better and time passes way to fast.

A lot of you read my Mom's blog and know about my Dad breaking his hip. Thank you for the prayers and encouragement for her. He is doing fine except for driving Mom crazy with his stubbornness...ha. She doesn't want him to end up back in the hospital.

We have been a little busy around here. Hubby wanted to add some plants to the front flower beds so we spent a couple of weekends on that. He's bought a few trees to plant out back, a red bud, a Japanese maple (the deer liked the new leaves on that one, we had to move it closer to the house), an ornamental plum, some type of oak, some type of pear (not Bradford) and a cedar. We bought a couple of tomato plants and two big blueberry bushes.

He tried to play golf a couple of weekends but kept getting rained out.  But he made up for it this weekend and played both Saturday and Sunday...he's been battling a cold and ended up staying home from work yesterday. He worked today, said he wasn't coughing as much but sneezing more. Hopefully he'll get cleared up soon...couple of years ago he ended up with bronchitis.

We are supposed to be cooler tomorrow, 50's for highs and 31 for low. I'll have to bring my tomatoes in.

Take care,
Sheila