Get Thee Behind Me, Stein's

On Wednesday morning the newspaper has a full complement of ads.  All the food stores but one start their weekly specials on Wednesday.  A few of the random furniture stores join in, maybe Ace Hardware, a Dollar General, and, most dangerous of all for me, Stein's Garden & Gifts.  In the lower right corner of the front page of the Stein's ad are two coupons for two different plants for less than $3 each.  When the weather was crummy in early May I could easily ignore them because it was too chilly to plant tender annuals outside.  Now that it's warm and sunny and not down to freezing at night I can't resist.  Two weeks ago the coupons were for a geranium and Shasta daisy.  They were out of geraniums but I got a daisy plant that I put on the west side of the house.  Last week the plants were chrysanthemums and a perennial purple salvia.  I planted the mum against the front of the house where all the other mums are and I gouged out a place in the mixed gravel and dirt up on the retaining wall for the perennial salvia.  This morning when I saw the coupons I knew I was a goner--lantana and butterfly weed.  I love lantana.  My Grandma Angermeier planted lantana and I've always loved the clusters of tiny flowers in red, orange, and yellow and, better yet, hummingbirds love them too.  And one of the reasons I won't let the lawn service put pesticide or herbicide on the lawn (all weeds are thriving, thanks) is so that the caterpillars and butterflies come--so butterfly weed was a no-brainer.  I left early for my haircut appointment so I could stop at Stein's to redeem my coupons, then I was way early so I went a mile or so farther to the east side Stein's and bought two more butterfly weed plants.  Guess what I'll be doing tomorrow.  Now I just have to figure out where to plant them.



Yesterday I spent a few minutes packaging up the rest of the chicken burrito parts into nine happy little burritos that I wrapped (in clear plastic wrap so as not to confuse them with the pink-wrapped breakfast burritos), froze, and bagged to have on hand for days when I want something different for lunch.  





Poppies.  What can I say?  They bloom for such a short time and who knew that red-orange and deep purple went together in such a compelling way.







I'm happy to see that the sole remaining Asiatic Lily is blooming.  I'd like to have words with the rabbit or rabbits that dined on the rest of them.  *taps toe angrily*  And there are at least 20 buds on Dad's rose.  Pretty soon there'll be a raft of deep red roses that smell like all roses wish they do.  Can't wait.







 
Tonight I tried to lure back my knitting mojo.  I got the last stitches increased on sleeve #2 and have five more rows to add before binding off and deciding whether to start the back or one of the fronts.  Maybe a front...  It might be more productive to knit all of the smaller pieces so that knitting the largest piece, the back piece feels like it's the home stretch instead of the start of a long slog.

June 13--Edward Hicks, Peaceable Kingdom.  The children lay among the animals, tucked against the leopard with one eye and the toothless lion.  Their parents never worried about them.  They knew that the stock treated Matthew and Emilia like they were their own and, in a sense, they were.  While their parents were performing they left the children in the menagerie.  Emilia lay between Leo's great paws playing with her doll and sometimes she painted the lion's claws a pale pink.  She had trained him to extend his claws so she could give him a manicure.

I got a haircut this morning and I feel like every tiny hair schnipple is digging its way under the skin of my back.  It's too late to take a shower and I'm running the dishwasher so there isn't enough hot water anyway but you'd better bet I'll be in that shower nice and early tomorrow.  Sayonara.
--Barbara