Some Miscellaneous Stuff

This afternoon I donated my 120th unit of whole blood. For this achievement, I received my 15 gallon pin to add to my blood donor flair collection, plus a t-shirt and lovely purple water bottle. You know, it really doesn't seem like that long ago when I was celebrating my 100th unit.....

I realized when I was hanging out laundry the other day that I haven't shared any photos of the garden yet this year, so here they are. This garden bed contains 2 yellow zucchini plants (foreground), 3 pepper plants -- yellow banana, red and purple (at the left hiding behind the zucchini), 4 tomato plants (center), and 2 rows of giant sunflowers that I hope to harvest to have sunflowers heads to put out for my birds this winter (far right side).

Here's the other raised garden bed, containing radishes (pretty much done for the year now), leaf lettuce, beets, carrots, onions, and green beans. The orange flags were to mark the rows before everything sprouted, but I could probably take them down now. The white stuff between the rows on both these gardens is horse bedding (wood shavings). I was hoping it would help to keep the weeds down between the rows and I could till it into the soil as compost in the fall.

Remember a few years ago when I did a garden makeover at the front of the house? Here's how it looks today. Now that the plants and flowers have had a couple of years to grow and fill in, this garden has turned out exactly like I envisioned (hoped) it would. The lilies are especially fantastic this year.

I think this sunflower was planted by a chipmunk. It's right outside the basement window and I decided to let it grow. It has a perfect blossom and I'm sure the birdies will love feasting on the seeds later this season.

I finally got my fish children into their outside pond for the summer. They're not at all cooperative about having their picture taken and usually stay under the big rock when they see someone standing by their pool, but I did manage to catch a couple of them hanging out by the water lettuce.

Here's a little bit closer (but not necessarily better) look at them. They've adapted well to living in the backyard pond and I'm sure they won't be too happy coming back in to their 20-gallon tank in the fall after living in 60-gallon luxury for the summer. I have until October sometime to decide whether I want to invest in another larger aquarium for inside the house.......

Sunny Saturday

It's hard to believe we're enjoying our second sunny day in a row, and tomorrow's supposed to be sunny too. Hopefully this will tide us over through the possible winter storm the weatherman keeps talking about for Monday.It's in the 20's and hardly any wind today. The sun is so bright coming in the windows and my pets are soaking it up. I've even got some laundry hanging out on the line and it's actually drying pretty fast.

We visited the Fish & Pets store this morning. Ohmigosh, so many fish! Now I really want to add another larger aquarium somewhere in my house and give my guppies some new fishy friends.

After seeing all those nice clean aquariums at the store, I decided I'd better clean out my goldfish aquarium this afternoon. Their water was starting to look pretty murky and when I took the filters out I realized why. Yucky stuff! I took out 5 gallons of water and replaced it with clean. (Some of the old water goes for watering my houseplants, plus I'm taking a gallon of it to work for a co-worker's and my plants--good aquatic fertilizer!)

I dropped in a seashell I found in Florida years ago. I'm sure the goldies don't care, but I think it adds an exotic look to their home.

I like being able to see these beautiful, huge goldfish up close. Once the weather warms up and I get my backyard pond going again, these fishies are headed back outside for the summer.

Here's a little video of them swimming around in their tank. The little flecks you see floating around is their food.

I got a note in the mail today addressed to "Aunt Ruthie Johnson" from my nephew in California. How cute is this? My brother must be drilling it into little Charlie's head that Aunt Ruthie is nuts about birds.

Thanks for the note Charlie, you made my day!