The Fish Garden Blog

The Gardens Past and Present, Sparse and Overgrown

2011-05-23T04:51:00.000-07:00

Catching up on the gardens this week we've lots of pics of the plants this spring of 2011. It's good but there's some horticultural editing needed.

Pic of the Day

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So the gardens of Serendipity Shore have matured, changed, gone out of control in some places.

Below, a picturesque tour of the gardens..

First, two older pictures of the gardens, below, the azaleas and the wigelia.

Amazon.com Widgets

Below, a tour of the gardens this spring in this Year of Our Lord, 2011.

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Gardens Then and Now

2011-05-01T15:23:00.000-07:00

The 2009 Garden Success Is a Vertical Triumph

2009-06-21T14:34:00.000-07:00

The gardens of 2009 grow well here in Serendipity Shore.

A native plant helps to create a living fence and a flower that had always refused to grow adds stunning vertical interest to the gardens.

With pics, of course.

HERE

Pic of the Day

glumbert - Women in Film

Gardens Bloom Fine Despite Neglect

I didn’t expect much from my gardens this year in that 2008 was a horrific year here in Serendipity Shore. Husband came down with a terrifying brain infection and I had a quadruple coronary bypass. It wasn’t that working the gardens was forbidden to me as it was, indeed, encouraged for the exercise.

But husband needed intravenous IV’s some six times a day and was so sick that I had to carry the full domestic load. It was enough that I was able to get Fall’s leafage gathered to the compost pile in early spring 2009.

I had transplanted some bushes that were growing lackluster in various places on the lot. A native plant, a Swamp Rose, was moved from the center lawn garden to a spot alongside the driveway where I am creating my “living fence”. I have mixed emotions about this plant. First, it was sold at a plant sale featuring plants indigenous to Delaware and these plants always do better as one might expect. Problem is, the things grow a bit too well. In the first year of its planting the thing was sprouting everywhere as it turns out that it throws out underground tendrils and takes over the world. This would not do in a contained garden environment. So I spiked out all the annoying tendrils and put it in a spot where it can grow bejeesus to create a living, green wall alongside my driveway. Way I figure, it can give the huge hedge rose some competition.

My container garden looks great at street’s edge. The clemantis have grown better than I dared to hope. I’ve tried for years to grow these things and never could do it. I understand that they like their roots shaded and my logic was that the handsome obelisk lawn decoration I have would help to shade the roots of the vine.

In fact it is the leaves and blooms of the clemantis itself that provides shade for its own roots. The obelisk gives it a place to grow vertical and from now on this gardener will tout a vertical gardening feature as a must-have in all happening gardens of our era.
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Here's a well-written book by Edward Humes titled "Mean Justice".

The author tries to make a case that Pat Dunn was wrongfully convicted of killing his wife Sandy via a "mean justice" that includes lying witnesses, runaway prosecutors and a right-wing public with little patience to get at the truth.

Only there's gaping holes in the author's arguments and I take them on in this book review.

HERE
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Bachelorette Jillian keeps looking for a "connection" in The Bachelorette series now with 7 contenders left vying for her heart.

The Wise I tells Jillian what she really needs to look for in these contenders and first she needs to find out what the hell a "pizza entrepreneur" is.

With pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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Two would-be Food Network Stars have been sent packing and in this update based on the episode aired 6/14/09-we review the remaining contenders, who looks promising, who desperately needs to go and the foods they serve get a close eyeball.

Brussels Sprouts Hash?

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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Two fine, fine liberal ladies show us their stuff to the innocent who mistakenly call them…LIZ or MA'AM.

Nasty names them.

In this THOUGHTS post we have the whole story of Elizabeth who shall destroy those who call her Liz and Barbara Boxer must NOT be called Ma'am.

Plus a letter that sums up the tea parties and the feelings of us peons across the fruited plains.

Good Guys of the Week, Bad Buys of the Week, Quips of the Week and it all Ends With a Smile.

HERE
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It's the INDOOR Plants Now Shining in the Gardens. The Birds Make "Doors" in the Shrubbery

2009-05-01T17:03:00.000-07:00

The INDOOR plants are now in their glory in the gardens of Serendipity Shore.

The brown thrashers have another nest in the hedge roses. But what's with these "doors" the bird fellows keep creating in the shrubbery? And does the robin really know when the dog is leashed?

Pic of the Day

Creating “Doors” in the Shrubbery

I am delighted that the Brown Thrashers have again chosen my hedge roses for their nest placement, as they did last year, Blog post about this HERE.

I do, however, take great exception to the “doors” the thrashers, and other birds, keep creating in my shrubbery. The birds however, do not care what I think.

What happens, the birds fly in and out of the shrubbery, in one case my azaleas and in the case of the thrashers, the hedge roses, so much that the bushes simply, boom, do not grow where the birds keep flying.

My azaleas evidently provide fine protection in the winter. The azaleas are next to my front porch and I often hear birds from within the shrubs and/or see them flying in and out. This year I noted a huge “hole” in the front of the azaleas and I must smile ruefully. The azaleas do have foliage year round and in the winter this is of value to the visiting white-throated sparrows and dark-eyed juncos. I am proud that the bird fellows so enjoy my plantings but sheesh.

Same thing with the hedge roses and the thrashers. These guys have a front door and a back door in my hedge roses.

In both cases the shrubbery doesn’t seem to mind at all. The azaleas simply grow bushier in other parts of the bush and the hedge roses, goodness they are now as tall as a small building. The hedge roses use the energy they’d use for the foliage around those “doors” the thrashers have created to just, boom, grow taller.

Heh.

One more item about the bird fellows in my surround. Do not tell me, as bizarre as it might sound, that the robin nesting in my yard somewhere doesn’t know exactly when I leash the dog during the morning exercise routine.

For the worms are indeed fat and juicy in that bare-grassed area that I use for the morning jog and fast-walk along with the leashed dog. Robins love short-mown lawns as well as bare ground for the ease provided in finding the worms.

Except dog does not allow any other living thing in the backyard beyond her own fine self, which includes squirrel-rodents, of course, and any birds that dare land on HER soil.

So when the dog is allowed to run the yard unfettered for that period when I jog and otherwise exercise without bother of tethered dog, the robin does NOT, pointedly, land in the yard. Should Mr. Robin choose to do so the dog in her freedom will chase it away.

Let me attach the leash to the dog for my final exercise stage of the morning routine, boom, there lands the robin who may then avail himself of the worms without bother of dog.

Don’t tell me that robin doesn’t know that the dog is now on leash and that he may now enjoy the worms he could not get to for the presence of the testy and protective dog that worm-hunting robins do not attack her owner’s person.

The robin all contentedly pulling worms causes the now-leashed dog to tug and pull that dog may be free to chase away the pesky robin one more time. I must then curse the gods of worms that this bird is smart enough to know just when to land and pluck the worms at his leisure as the dog causes me so much grief.

As for the gardens this mid-spring 2009, the indoor plants are now outside for the summer and early fall season. I took a picture of the plants and ponder that soon, very soon, they will have to go as they are getting entirely too big to keep inside the house.

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It's down to two on American Idol 2009. One is the beloved of the teenyboppers and one has talent and more talent.

Can the force of the 12-14 year olds really create a talent injustice that will forever cast a pall upon the very soul of American Idol?

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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There's little doubt who's going to win this year's Dancing With the Stars, 2009, competition.

For Gilles Marini is sexy, handsome and a damn good dancer.

So who will be second, Melissa or Shawn?

Some wry observations on this year's contest including a sarcastic little jibe at Melissa and her cute tiny lie.

All with pics and video you'll find nowhere else on the Internet.

HERE
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Celebrity Apprentice and Hell's Kitchen 2009 are over now. We've got some memories with pics and video from throughout the contest.

Along with my own fine rants about why the winner of each is not believable and how this will adversely affect future contests.

Plus a review of BravoTV's newest reality show that leaves me giggling through the night. Not at the basis of the contest but at the contenders!

HERE
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The sorry saga of Miss California should have taught us all about our future and those of us who dare to express our true hearts that would offend the very mean.

If only the Republicans would take the torture bull by the horns that entire joke would soon be past tense and the Dems would fall like dominos against the weight of a wrecking ball.

The Nice Guy of this Past Week, the Bad Guy of the Past Week in this week's Thoughts.

It all ends with a smile.

HERE
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Gardens-Bunnies and Garden Plots Run Wild; Review of a Product You MUST Have

2008-07-20T16:13:00.001-07:00

We take a visit to the gardens during this growing season. We have a pic and a video of a baby rabbit. Okay, so it's not a movie of legend, it is cute.

The gardens grow wonderfully but we have issues with the growth. For a jungle does not a garden make.

Pic of the Day

Rabbits are very common in the spring and those rapid reproducers quite enjoy our gardens.

My gardens this year, with me handicapped with surgical wounds that burn and stab, have grown into jungles that cause passersby to mumble in shock.

A bed of fine clover had taken over a wide area in front of my happening gurgling fountain and one cute baby wabbit decided he rather liked this gourmet feast.

Below a movie of this little Peter Cottontail and below that, a pic.

The problem with my gardens this year is basically that everything is in the wrong place. And this year, what with my heart clogged up worse than a Mexican sewer, I could mostly just sit and watch what I thought were perfect plantings.

My gardens are filled increasingly with what is proudly referred to as "native plants". As a certified National wildlife Steward I monitor a local plant sale on behalf of the Delaware Nature Society. The DNS is the NWF's local representative for that group. So while I am not technically a member of the Delaware Nature Society, I am affiliated and certified by the National Wildlife Federation.

I do, of course, purchase a plentiful and varied assortment of native plants. I then must plant the things. This year, due to a little problem with my heart, I was unable to man that native plant sale booth for the DNS but all of my prior years' purchased native plants are happy and growing happy bejeesus in my gardens here in the swamps of Delaware.

The Swamp Mallows produces pretty white flowers that resemble the blooms of a Rose of Sharon. Both of these plants bloom at the same time as well.

Swamp Mallows are taking over my front porch garden and threaten to take over the world.

I don't want plants over six feet tall in my front porch garden because, duh, I sit on the porch and can see nothing with wild and wooly flora and fauna blocking my view of the world. These Swamp Mallows are not the first plant to be fondly placed in my porch garden to grow into a gigantic plant that catches one's breath.

Well hey, they ARE native plants. This means they're not, like oriental lilies or something which are not, as obvious by their name, native plants. Not that there's anything with oriental lilies but they're not plants native to this continent.

So while oriental lilies grow fine in the swamps of Delaware, a native plant, evolved in this area for many years with genes fine-tuned to the breezes and watery land in which they rest, will grow to heights unknown.

This is a good thing.

I got to get those Swamp Mallows out of there, they are driving me nuts.

I have so far filled my front porch garden with Lamb's Ear, which has to be the ugliest plant in the world if it gets wet and please don't forget I live in a swamp. Bumblebees love Lamb's Ear but is having a hive of hungry bees flying around where one wishes to sit and watch the porch TV a really good idea?

I plant annuals of petunias, marigolds, and red salvia every year in that front porch garden and they do a fine job and are perfect for the flowery, well-behaved garden I seek for that area.

A pretty coneflower, a "miniature" one which I purchased specifically for that garden, grows nice alongside butterfly weed which also keeps a low height and looks nice. The Swamp Mallows from hell threaten to overrun everything.

Out in the center lawn garden I planted what is called a Swamp Rose and this thing is too taking over the world. All year I must constantly pull up bits of this plant that insist on growing everywhere. This thing is invasive but it's a native plant so this is fine.

Except I didn't want my entire center lawn garden to be one great big killer Swamp Rose. I am going to have to get that thing out of there next year.

I try to keep small, well-behaved bushes in the center lawn garden. Mostly I've been successful. There's a pretty variegated Wigelia in that garden and for a couple of years it was happy and well-behaved. With a couple of years of roots in the ground this Wigelia is threatening even the Swamp Rose.

The Clematis climbing my obelisk in my container garden is the flower hit of the season. Clematis want cool roots. I planted a Clematis by each leg of a white obelisk. This was last year.

This year, only the second year for this guy, it eagerly climbed that obelisk like one happy native plant. Only a Clematis is not a native plant.

This Clematis loves wrapping its tendrils around that obelisk. By the time those vines reach the top of that obelisk the Clematis leaves shade the ground below. Cool roots makes a happy Clematis.

What I am going to have to do, and I've done it before, is wait till all my heart wounds heal, which will probably be next growing season at the latest, get me a shovel, and completely empty those flower beds.

With a better garden plan, I am going to move the plantings to a more suitable spot. I have a perfect place for the invasive Swamp Rose and where I want to put the bush it can invade all it wants.

Those Swamp Mallows are going over by the fence.

All of these plants are now over six feet tall so digging them up and moving them is quite the job. I'm going to do it though.

Because I can't live happily in a jungle.

Finally, I'd written before about those Brown Thrashers which built a nest in my hedge rose. Goodness those birds even built their own "door" into the hedge rose and I bit my fingers but let the nest remain. I'd seen three little black birds in the nest but soon enough, boom, they were gone.

Below a pic of the nest. One egg, as one can see, did not hatch.

More Gardens and Bird posts HERE

Gardens and Birds-A May 08 Garden Tour and the State Bird of Georgia

2008-06-01T16:35:00.001-07:00

Four weeks after quadruple coronary bypass and with THAT story told, time to pay attention to things that bring about an upbeat attitude. Not to mention an emotion so strong that it equates to nothing less than what life is all about and the joy of being able to live it.

First, the state bird of Georgia decided to build a nest in my hedge roses. I was just so honored. We've got pics of both the hedge roses what took over the world and the Brown Thrasher which so availed itself of that thorny bush.

Second, a video garden tour. My gardens won't win the prizes from Better Homes and Gardens but I built it with plantings from the old homestead and new native plants. This year, the fifth year of my handiwork, it looks right nice.

There's also plenty of garden pics for those without video capability.

Pic of the Day

The Garden Matures

It's now been five years since I moved to my homestead of Serendipity Shore here in the swamps of Delaware. I'd left a plot of land in neighboring state Merryland that I called Critter Cove. Critter Cove had the benefit of fifteen years of my gardening ministrations. My Delaware home had a lackluster garden with no lawn whatsoever when I moved in. Over the five years I've planted various plantings from the old homestead, plenty of new ones from native plant sales, and I've added a few new gardens.

In this year of our Lord 2008 I finally discover that I've achieved my first gardening goal from that moving day of five years ago. Only now I've got to un-do a lot of my handiwork in my Serendipity Garden now run slightly amok.

For a perfect garden would be one that has perennial blooms that bloom happily for each segment of the growing season. Said garden would be neatly planted with plants that have enough room to grow without crowding out the others with space for a few annuals to accent the collection. The plants should attract the birds, butterflies and critters to use, opportunists that they are.

If a garden matures well, blooms will accent the space in each applicable garden season, the plants will wax and wane with those waxing taking over for the waning. The necessity of mulch will be a minor thing as the properly spaced plantings prevent a wild undergrowth of noxious weeds.

So I don't have to mulch every other day as I used to but now I face gardens that are, let me admit the truth, almost running away with plants wanting to grow and a few of them are selfish and don't want to share the soil.

This means, next year when my heart has healed and it is ready for the challenge, I'm going to have to dig out some of those plants and put them somewhere where they have more room to roam.

Below is the video of my garden tour of May 2008. Enjoy.

What's the State Bird of Georgia Doing With a Nest in My Hedge Roses?

I knew that rusty, reddish bird with the speckled breast that had been hanging around my front yard was some kind of "thrasher". I'd seen these birds before but always during the March period of migration. They were mostly just passing through is what I'm saying here.

Yet this thrasher didn't appear to be moving through back home to Georgia. I noted it was hanging around the front yard and that, to my complete surprise, seemed to be spending a lot of time entering and exiting the thorny depths of my famous hedge roses.

Those hedge roses do defy the laws of Physics. They were little scraggly things when I ripped then out of the ground from Critter Cove's shadowy lot and gave them a new chance in a new state. As yon reader can see from the pics in the garden post above, the things have grown into a veritable mountain.

They are filled with thorns but fortunately I planted them in a real nice spot and hey, the hedge roses like it there too.

Birds regularly flit in and out of the depths of those thorns and I often sat on the front porch and marveled over this. I couldn't even reach over a branch to snip a spent bloom without burying a nasty thorn somewhere in my skin but the birds love that bush, winter too!

It was right before I went into the hospital for my surgery that I realized that this very handsome pair of brown thrashers were, to my amazement, surprise and delight, actually building a nest somewhere in the depths of that hedge rose mountain! In fact, there was located, at the bottom and far right edge of the bush, what I referred to as a "door". It was an area where no branches, blooms or leafs of the hedge rose grew. This lack of growth was, as I figured out after much observation, was caused by birds endlessly flying in and out into the bowels of the bush.

By the time I got out of the hospital, those thrashers had babies in that nest and I spent many recovering hours sitting on my porch swing and watching the fledging.

It was mesmerizing to watch, as bird fledgings always are. I watched a parent bird sit on my Serendipity Shore sign and call the reluctant youngsters.

For reasons I don’t understand, I never got a chance to see one baby Brown Thrasher. I saw the parents all over the place and I heard their loud call and the soft warble they sent to their children, depending on conditions upon.

But they’re still out there so given time I might see the children thrashers.

This was one of the more delightful nests I’ve ever entertained in my yard and I intend to make a nomination that the Brown Thrasher be made the state bird of Delaware.

”Loving My Heart” Posts

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”American Idol” 2008 Posts

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True Crime Posts

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The Bird Fellows Posts

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Gardens Posts

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Kaitlyn Posts

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Movie Reviews

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Book Reviews

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More Gardens and Bird posts HERE

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Gardens-The Indoor Plants Come In from the Outdoors; Delaware in the News Again

2007-11-09T12:57:00.001-08:00

The gardens begin to wane as autumn blooms. This is the time of year, however, when the indoor plants come back in after summering in the outside gardens.

They are huge, folks, and beautiful. I'm going to start selling them.

Pic of the Day

The Tropical Plants Come Inside

There are few words needed here. For this is the optimum time to take a picture of the indoor plants that must now come inside after a summer outside. They are at their most beautiful after a season outside, protected a bit by the shade of the house’s overhang or the porch.

Indoor they do fine and the windows in this house shine enough on them that they stay happy and pretty. But there’s no comparison to the growth, shine and fullness that comes from living where a proper plant oughta live, and that’s outside surrounded by other plants.

The Fall 2007 Gardens, a Restaurant Review-Jerry's Seafood, and Delaware's Next Governor

2007-09-24T16:27:00.001-07:00

The days are getting shorter while the mums begin their bloom. We've got a visit to the Fall gardens of 2007.

Pic of the Day

Fall 2007 Comes to the Gardens of Serendipity Shore

September has been the prettiest garden month of the growing season everywhere I have lived. Which includes only two states as of this writing but I’m just saying …

The days become shorter, the nights cooler and breezes begin to blow the fading leaves from the trees. The grass quite enjoys this weather combination and will glow brightly green before falling leaves cover the blade fellows.

The garden annuals have, by the September month, healthy roots and have grown tall. The heat of August takes a toll on them so the refreshment known as September spurs them to a new and vigorous growth. Annuals that sprout happily in the fall include marigolds, impatiens and begonias. This year even those pretty multi-colored Mexican things called portulaca too seemed to like the September sun.

Chrysthanimums, asters and decorative grasses are the plants that come into full glory in the fall. In the front porch garden I have two mums that grow so big that the branches must be staked for the weight of the many blooms.

Below a montage of pictures of the fall gardens here at Serendipity Shore. Soon the leaves will cover all that grows. Soon the days will darken before the dinner hour. Soon the winter winds will blow.

For now the melancholy that is autumn ends the growing season.

A Garden Video Tour of Serendipity Shore; Kaitlyn's New Poncho

2007-06-04T14:16:00.001-07:00

Also, a garden update for the mountain of hedge roses are abloom and we also have...TADA...a video garden tour of Serendipity Shore!

Pic of the Day

Quote of the Day
Classic Quotes by Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. writer

A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures; it is the finest of the fine arts.
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A chief event of life is the day in which we have encountered a mind that startled us.
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A child is a curly, dimpled lunatic.
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A fly is as untamable as a hyena.
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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do.
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A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
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A good indignation brings out all one's powers.
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Web Site Worth the Visit
Cheapest gas station near you

If you've turned on the news, picked up a paper, or eavesdropped on a conversation between just about any two people recently, you've probably heard someone talking about gas prices. They're going up at a record pace. In fact, experts are predicting they?ll top a mind-boggling $4.00 A GALLON in many parts of the country this summer.

But someone sent me this useful link. It finds the cheapest gas station near you, without you wasting a gallon or two driving around looking for it.

Just plug your zip code in and it'll tell you the lowest ? and highest -- price in your area. Check it out.

ABOVE SITE HERE

TIDBITS

RANDOM TIDBITS ON SESAME STREET

During the 1969–1970 season, Oscar the Grouch was orange.
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Aloysius Snuffleupagus's, Snuffy, birthday is August 19th.
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Linda Bove- Neighborhood librarian and was one of the first deaf actors in a recurring television role.
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Tickle Me Elmo was the fastest selling toy of the 1996 season.
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In 1970, Ernie's "Rubber Duckie" song made #16 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
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Sesame Street premiered on November 10, 1969 on the National Educational Television network. More than 4,000 episodes of the show have been produced in 36 seasons, which distinguishes it as one of the longest-running shows in television history.
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(1979-1992) Was a cowboy with a memory problem, he rode in the saddle with his darling, Clementine. Both characters were "retired" in 1992, when Richard Hunt died.
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In 2002, Sesame Workshop announced that an HIV-positive character would be introduced to Takalani Sesame, the South African version of the show. Many conservatives and religious groups wrongly presumed that the American version would be getting a "gay Muppet", but the HIV-positive character is only present on this international version of the show. The character, Kami, contracted HIV from a blood transfusion as an infant.

Yes, We Have Hedge Roses

They were just three half-dead barely recognizable bushes that would fit inside of a scrub bucket. But I'd just purchased these hedge roses from famous rose growers Jackson & Perkins and they'd only been in the ground a few months in the gardens of my old home in Merryland. Once we purchased a new house in Delaware I got a shovel and dug the struggling bushes up and determined I would plant them in my new gardens in the swamps of Delaware. The huge oak trees of the Merryland lot smothered the sun the roses desperately needed to grow.

In the swamps of Delaware the three struggling straggly bushes seemed quite happy. My daughter, who helped me dig the things up, claimed I was stupid to even think that those pathetic pieces of green would do anything but curl up and die during the three hour trip to their new home.

Below, three years after their trip from the sandy shores of Merryland's Critter Cove, those small hedge roses bloom again.

Heh. Sometimes when you're a gardener, you just gotta believe.

Finally, below a video tour of my new "container" garden. Be patient with me folks, I'm just learning all this video stuff.

More Gardens and Bird posts HERE

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The Gardens of Midspring 2007; Miss Universe Review-Yes Including the Famous Fall;Crufts Dog Show

2007-05-31T04:13:00.001-07:00

Here's an entry re the gardens of Serendipity Shore mid-spring 2007. For the roses and peonies bloom wildly and we've got plenty of pics.

Pic of the Day

Quote of the Day
DISCRIMINATING AGAINST INTELLIGENCE

"Since Teddy Kennedy's 1965 Immigration Act, more than half of all legal immigrants have been unskilled, non-English-speaking Mexicans. America takes in roughly 1 million legal immigrants each year. Only about 30,000 of them have Ph.D.s. Why on earth would any rational immigration policy discriminate against immigrants with Ph.D.s in favor of unskilled, non-English-speaking immigrants?"
- Columnist Ann Coulter

Web Site Worth the Visit
The Blue Angels

Here's a site posted about the navy's famous Blue Angels, posted by a former Blue Angel. The opening pics of planes flying by the World Trade Center will take your breath away.

ABOVE SITE HERE

TIDBITS

RANDOM TIDBITS ON ANTS

Ants have six legs. Each leg has three joints.
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Ants can lift 20 times their own body weight.
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The average life expectancy of an ant is 45-60 days.
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Red ants (found in the western United States) steal larvae of other ants to keep as slaves. The slave ants build homes for and feed the red ants, who cannot do anything but fight.
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The jaws open and shut sideways like a pair of scissors. Adult ants cannot chew and swallow solid food. Instead they swallow the juice which they squeeze from pieces of food. They throw away the dry part that is left over.
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The common Black Ants and Wood Ants have no sting, but they can squirt a spray of formic acid. Some birds put ants in their feathers because the ants squirt formic acid which gets rid of the parasites.

The Late May 2007 Gardens

The gardens are lovely here in Serendipity Shore in this year of our Lord 2007. There are some disappointments. A cherished Coreopsis bloomed wonderfully last year but was nowhere to be seen whilst other plantings were busy returning for the 2007 season. Some critter or another chewed up my climbing rose, separating the plant's base from its roots. Just damn.

Still and so, I remember four years ago when there were no gardens here on Serendipity Shore. For that was when husband and I moved here to the swamps of Delaware. Now various gardens and containers decorate the lot and disappointments aside, I'm very pleased with the results so far.

Pop Culture-Hasselhoff-Another Celebrity Who Shouldn't Have Children; First Garden Post of Growing Season 07

2007-05-18T04:06:00.001-07:00

A premiere garden post of growing season 2007. The buds promised and they bloomed. With pics.

Pic of the Day

Quote of the Day
On the Republican Contenders for 2008

"If he'll lie to two wives, what makes you think he wouldn't lie to you?"
- Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention on why he's not impressed with GOP presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani's promise to appoint strict constructionist judges if elected, Wall Street Journal, 4/28/07

McCAIN LANE A BIT ROCKY

"So, how did Mr. McCain fare in his visit to Jon Stewart's show? Let's just say things are looking pretty rocky. . . . The love affair Mr. McCain once had with the media is over. Gone and dead. Dead and gone."
- New York Sun columnist Ryan Sager

Web Site Worth the Visit
All About Roller Coasters

Here's all the dish on the latest and greatest in the world of roller coasters across the fruited plain. Remember, summer's coming!

ABOVE SITE HERE

TIDBITS

Animal Trivia

Mammals are the only animals with flaps around the ears.
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African elephants only have four teeth to chew their food with.
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A house fly lives only 14 days.
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Sheep are mentioned 45 times and goats 88 times in the Bible. Dogs are mentioned 14 times and lions 89 times, but domestic cats are not mentioned.
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A snail has two pairs of tentacles on its head. One pair is longer than the other and houses the eyes. The shorter pair is used for smelling and feeling
its way around.
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Sharks and rays also share the same kind of skin: instead of scales, they have small tooth-like spikes called denticles. The spikes are so sharp that shark
skin has long been used as sandpaper.

The 2007 Growing Season Begins

It's the fifth growing season here in Serendipity Shore and I'm pleased. For when I first moved here to the swamps of Delaware from the sand of Merryland, the entire front of this lot was torn apart for installation of a new septic drainage system. This even though the house was only two years old at the time. First, Delaware is famous for failing septic systems and second, I could see with my own eyeballs that the woman who had been renting the house totally abused the fragile septic system.

Husband and I had endured a complete installation of a new septic system and drainfield our own selves in our former home. That home's septic system was over fifty years old and before we had a hope of ever selling the place, we knew we'd have to update the water and septic system. Thus we knew a thing or two about delicate eco-systems and the sight of the disheveled front lawn didn't cause us fear.

Happily, we've had no problems with the septic system here on Serendipity Shore since we've moved. I took advantage of the torn up yard and installed a few new gardens that were not there with the original owners.

Now the center lawn garden grows handsome with a bevy of flowers and bushes, most of them native Delaware plants that I purchased specifically that they would be happy here. The hedge roses that I dug up from my old home in Merryland took to the Delaware climate and soil quite happily and we've now got a veritable wall of happy green branches soon to be groaning under the weight of blooming roses.

Last year I installed a "container" garden because every garden eco-system should have a container garden. I've also had the yard certified as a National Wildlife Federation Backyard Wildlife Habitat. My lot in Merryland was also certified and I myself am a NWF certified Backyard Habitat Wildlife Steward.

Below, some pics of the gardens as they proudly begin their fifth growing season in this year of our Lord, 2007.

More Gardens and Bird posts HERE

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Review Lifetime's "The Staircase Murders", NBC's "I'm Glad You're Here". The Spring garden

2007-04-23T14:38:00.000-07:00

Finally, finally it's spring. A visit to my early spring garden with more promise than flowers.

Pic of the Day

Quote of the Day
HEADLINE OF THE WEEK

From Sunday's Reno Gazette-Journal: "Global Warming Rally Cut Short by Cold Weather."

The paper noted that the freezing cold weather in Reno on Saturday "prevented the use of solar ovens for a potluck picnic."

Web Site Worth the Visit
Red Skelton's Pledge of Allegiance

The elder amongst us will remember the famous Pledge of Allegiance by comedian Red Skeleton. Here's a site with that pledge written, complete with appropriate artwork and emphasis.

Web Post HERE

TIDBITS
15 Spectacular tricks to teach your body.......

1.) If you've got an itch in your throat, scratch your ear.
When the nerves in the ear get stimulated, they create a reflex in the throat that causes a muscle spasm, which cures the itch.

2.) Having trouble hearing someone at a party or on the phone? Use your right ear…it's better at picking up rapid speech. But, the left is better at picking up music tones.

3.) If you need to relieve yourself BADLY, but you're not anywhere near a bathroom, fantasize about RELATIONS. That preoccupies your brain and distracts it.

4.) Next time the doctor's going to give you an injection, COUGH as the needle is going in. The cough raises the level of pressure in your spinal canal, which limits the pain sensation as it tries to travel to your brain.

5.) Clear a stuffed nose or relieve sinus pressure by pushing your tongue against the roof of your mouth…then pressing a finger between your eyebrows. Repeat that for 20 seconds…it causes the vomer bone to rock, which loosens your congestion and clears you up.

6.) If you ate a big meal and you're feeling full as you go to sleep, lay on your left side. That'll keep you from suffering from acid reflux…it keeps your stomach lower than your esophagus, which will help keep stomach acid from sliding up your throat.

7.) You can stop a toothache by rubbing ice on the back of your hand, on the webbed area between your thumb and index finger. The nerve pathways there stimulate a part of the brain that blocks pain signals from your mouth.

8.) If you get all messed up on liquor, and the room starts spinning, put your hand on something stable. The reason: Alcohol dilutes the blood in the part of your ear called the cupula, which regulates balance. Putting your hand on something stable gives your brain another reference point, which will help make the world stop spinning.

9.) Stop a nose bleed by putting some cotton on your upper gums…right behind the small dent below your nose…and press against it hard. Most of the bleeding comes from the cartilage wall that divides the nose, so pressing there helps get it to stop.

10.) Nervous? Slow your heart rate down by blowing on your thumb. The vagus nerve controls your heart rate, and you can calm it down by breathing.

11.) Need to breathe underwater for a while??? Instead of taking a huge breath, HYPERVENTILATE before you go under, by taking a bunch of short breaths. That'll trick your brain into thinking it has more oxygen, and buy you about 10 extra seconds.

12.) You can prevent BRAIN FREEZE by pressing your tongue flat against the roof of your mouth, covering as much surface area as possible. Brain freeze happens because the nerves in the roof of your mouth get extremely cold, so your brain thinks your whole body is cold. It compensates by overheating…which causes your head to hurt. By warming up the roof of your mouth, you'll chill your brain and feel better.

13.) If your hand falls asleep, rock your head from side to side. That'll wake your hand or arm up in less than a minute. Your hand falls asleep because of the nerves in your neck compressing…so loosening your neck is the cure. If your foot falls asleep, that's governed by nerves lower in the body, so you need to stand up and walk around.

14.) Finally, this one's totally USELESS, but a nice trick. Have someone stick their arm out to the side, straight, palm down. Press down on his wrist with two fingers. He'll resist, and his arm will stay horizontal. Then, have him put his foot on a surface that's half an inch off the ground, like a stack of magazines, and do the trick again. Because his spine position is thrown off, his arm will fall right to his side, no matter how much he tries to resist.

15.) Got the hiccups? Press thumb and second finger over your eyebrows until the hiccups are over - usually shortly.

The Gardens of Spring 07 Tempt and Tease

April of 2007 was a horrible month. In the entire month, up until the day of the pics below, there had been not one single sunny day. Sure, the April month is notorious for wild weather, including rain, snow and in the year of our Lord 2007, one spectacular Noreaster that spanned over four days.

The gray bleak began to wear on my last gardening nerve.

Finally a sunny day showed up and I was surprised. Of course I have a head cold that won't quit but still I work the gardens.

Roses tempt and wave thorny vines. Azaleas allow magenta blooms to peek through. The Wigelia raises its limbs to the sky and promises pretty pink bloom to come. The daffodils already bloomed and these were a blessing during the endless gray. A few tulips raise their bright red blooms as acknowledgement that no mind the gray, it is STILL spring.

So the leaves are raked and the gardens tidied. The sun has finally returned to Serendipity Shore and even as the mucous in my head swirls around with each movement, I feel the warmth of the spring sun and my gardener soul comes alive.

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