New Plants

Just as I parked in front of the library this afternoon my phone rang. It was the landscaper saying that they'd be over at my place later this afternoon to fill in the gaps in the plants on top of the retaining wall. When I talked to him originally I told him that I wanted red, orange, and yellow flowers. He brought purple and blue because, he said, all of the red, orange, and yellow plants looked crummy. He said that I'd have had lilies and daisies. That sounded good to me but there they stood with a wheelbarrow full of plants in pots so I shrugged and they planted them. I found the hose bib where the two soaker hoses buried in the mulch come together, hooked up the hose, and turned it on. The soaker hose on the left started dripping immediately, the right hand one not so much. I let it run for a little while then I turned off the left one to see if that helped. It did--a little, but not enough--so I went over to Home Depot, bought a new soaker hose, and installed it. By installed it I mean I unrolled it on top of the mulch and wove it around the new plants. I just turned it off and I'll turn it on in the morning and let it run for a few hours. We're short on rain so hose water it is.

There was only a couple tables of books to be sorted at the library today. I got through a couple boxes and bags of books. I threw a lot of them away because they were old and smelly which seems a shame but no one will buy them like that.

The Hummingbird female showed up today and hovered long enough for me to get her picture. I heard the Oriole a few times and saw a flash of orange a couple times but wasn't lucky enough to see him on the feeder or the crook.

I am not going to show you the two pictures I "painted" using the new colored pencils today. They're terrible and I'm glad that I drew them in the sketch book and didn't waste paper on them. While I waited for the landscapers I drew a few things out of the Things With Wings book (Draw 20 Butterflies is its real name). The horse is an odd drawing with all the circles and I like the pterosaur drawn with dots. I'm constantly amazed that my drawings turn out at all.

I got lots of packages from Amazon today. Most exciting was the carton with copies of Horizon and Better Than Mom's with the new covers. Better Than Mom's is a small change, I just re-cropped the photo I used so it looks less like a cookbook, but Horizon is a huge change. It's much brighter and shows a painter in a sunset. I like the way they look. I got them all signed, stickered, and put a bookmark in each one, now they're all ready to be sold. I miss the excitement of the bi-weekly farmers markets but every week all summer long outside is too much of a commitment and I'm afraid that I'd soon run out of customers since many customers are repeat visitors.

It was still cool today (63 was the high), cool enough that a cotton sweater was the right thing to wear, but it was a whole lot less windy. It's supposed to hit 75 tomorrow and be sunny and warmer all the way into the middle of next week. Guess I'll leave the hose attached to the soaker hoses. Give the new plants a chance.

--Barbara