Just Stuff

Yippee! We finally got a new work kitty! His name is Mr. Man, and no that wasn't my idea.My ideal name for him would be Mr. Evil because about an hour after he came to us he decided to devour one of the caged birds the owners have. He jumped right up on top the cage and somehow got to one of them.Look at this precious face. Does it say killer to you? Actually he's a very, very sweet kitty. Loves people and hanging around them. He'll probably be bringing us little "presents" before too long.At work we have a lot of these whiskey barrels that we pot up. This is one I did using ornamental mustard as the center piece. There is also dianthus, pansies and dusty miller. I'm not a big fan of dusty miller for the summer but love it for the winter.This small lake is on my way to work. Notice the trees haven't turned just yet. I love driving by here. Sometimes ducks and geese are out there floating around.Here's one little bright spot among the green. This chrysanthemum is blooming in my backyard. Sorry I don't know the variety.Remember these blooms from a former post? I wasn't sure if it was a coreopsis or rudbeckia. It's coreopsis 'leavenworthii'. While researching it I found out it is Florida's state wildflower.And on a final note, it's raining again! It started just a little while ago. The drops were so big I just had to see if I could get a picture.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

Okay, Does This Ever Happen To You?

I'm so frustrated right now I could spit bullets. Since I have an unexpected day off I decided I needed to clean this filfthy house(thanks Blogger and Facebook). So I grabbed my little can of Pledge and decided to do some dusting. Bye the way, this is the dustiest house you will ever see.

I'm going along from room to room and dusting and basically enjoying myself at how much I'm getting done. Then my phone rings and I have a 1 minute conversation. After hanging up I start to continue my dusting and all of a sudden Mr. Pledge has disappeared. Okay, where did he go?

I traced my steps back and forth, back and forth and people he has literally taken wings and flown away. I'm thinking, where did he go? Oh my goodness my house isn't that big!

So I thought okay lets take another look for the fortieth time! Can you say aggravated and frustrated at the same time?!?!?

Finally I found him, hooray!Ah, there you are you little booger. Now get this, he was sitting right in the living room floor right where doofus here left him. Now I have to question my sanity. Why did I leave him on the living room floor out of sight and mind? Duh?

A Nice Day

Yesterday it rained so I didn't have to work. So I had a free day with anything I wanted to do. What did I chose? I decided to go to the park and see if I could photograph some baby ducks that I saw there the other day. I had a couple of pieces of stale bread that I decided to take with me.It took me a minute to find them and when I did, I discovered she was sitting on them. See those little yellow fluff-balls? Can you say, oh my goodness?!?!? Momma didn't seem to be in any hurry about moving so I was glad I had brought the bread. After I threw her a couple of pieces those golden fleeces were revealed.Can you see the one sticking out it's little flipper? Is that not the cutest!!?!?!?It's okay, say it with me. Oh my goodness!!! Can I tell you how bad I wanted to pick up one of these little fuzz balls? I had one of these when I was a little girl. They are undoubtedly the softest little creatures.Momma was real nice to let me take pictures. She didn't seem annoyed or anything.This little one was watching momma the whole time. Is this not sweet? Who doesn't love baby ducks? After a few minutes I decided to leave them be and walked on around the pond til I found these guys.
These two weren't as shy as momma and the babies. I think they saw I had bread. The one with the red all over his face wasn't shy at all. I decided to see if he would take bread from my hand. He had no problem doing that. He did it really fast and I could tell his bill was so strong. I thought how bad that would hurt if he had gotten my fingers.Up close and personal. See the end of his bill. Yowsers! I bet that would hurt.As I was leaving the park I couldn't help but notice the azaleas in bloom. And this vine was growing on an arbor. Don't know what it is but I thought it was pretty.After I left the park I decided to whip it into Quiznos to pick up some lunch. I thought about going back to the park to eat but decided to drive out to the reservoir. As you can see it was a very gray day, but for me it was beautiful.

And bye the way if you ever eat at Quiznos try their broccoli/cheese soup. It was delish!

Not Much Happening.....Except The Rain

Today has been a very rainy and somewhat gloomy day. Due to the rain I didn't have to work which is nothing unusual. There is only so much a person can do at a retail nursery. So I have been one lazy person. Luckily I found a marathon on t.v. of "Fame". Remember that show? Loved it!

A while ago I looked out the window and caught this little hummer at the feeder.Maybe I shouldn't say, little guy, because he has obviously put on the weight for his big flight. Which reminds me I'm going to miss these guys when they are gone. We have had so many hummers this year, it's been such a joy to watch. Makes me kinda sad to see them leave.I grabbed this shot out the front window. The Kildee doesn't seem to be minding the rain.This is the end of our driveway. You can see how much rain we've been getting.

I'm hoping the rain will stop just anytime now but something tells me it isn't.

Hope you are having some sunshine in your part of the world.

Something Creepy Going on Tonight

Ya'll I was just on my Facebook page checking things out when I came across something regarding a gravitational pull today. Evidently it occurs only every 62 years. Well my sis had posted a picture of her broom standing up by itself. Weird, huh?Ta-dah! Mine has been standing like this for about 4 minutes now. Is that weird or what?

Backyard Findings

I did a little work in my backyard this weekend and found a few things I wanted to share.My asters that a co-worker gave me earlier this summer was smiling at me. What a nice surprise!I like the way this pink rose shows off against my Autumn Joy Sedum.I forget which salvia this is, but to me the blooms are almost electrifying. Hummers really like this plant.Mushrooms anyone? We've had so much moisture I guess they were bound to show up.Their undersides were almost spongy unlike most mushrooms I've seen with those gills.Not far from the mushrooms I found this pretty feather. Pretty sure it belonged to a jay. Then lastly I liked being able to see the leaves from above reflected in my bird bath.

It's hard to get things done in the yard when you have a camera in hand. Oh well, maybe next weekend I'll accomplish more.

Happy gardening everyone!

Yoohoo, Any Clue?

Working at a nursery gives me many opportunities to bring home new or throw-away plants. We have beds planted around in different areas including one out by the street. Not too long ago we decided to clean it out as it had become taken over by weeds. I couldn't help but notice plants that were growing in amongst the weeds. They were going to be thrown out so I dug a couple up and took them home. I knew a couple were phlox and I thought that's what this one was but I have never seen a yellow blooming phlox.So, who knows what this is? I asked one of the guys and he thought it was some sort of rudbeckia. Well me not being completely sure of his answer asked someone else today at work. We have a beautiful patch of them blooming right now. He thought it was a type of coreopsis. Here's a foliage close-up. The buds do look exactly like a coreopsis. A rudbeckia bud has tiny petals that are folded up together which these do not have.

So in conclusion, unless someone out there in blogland can come up with a better answer, I think this is a coreopsis. I'm very happy about that because I have it in two areas in my beds and they are just now starting to bloom.