I Just Dropped In... To See What Condition My Condition was in....

To quote an old song title... I had Wednesday Witches here this week.  Then I started cleaning up the back yard.

It was a mess from all of the snow... It stayed on the ground for three days after. I have a mess in the back yard.

The orchids are the ones that I got last year at this time.  Yes.  They are re-blooming!

This is where I spent most of the morning.  I got one and a half bushes trimmed of all of the dead leaves and sticks. This is going to be a two day or maybe three day job.

I have a lot of trimming of dead wood to do.

I covered a lot of the plants and most are doing well. 

The Kumquat did well under a box and a cloth cover. I think that I am going to trim that one branch that sticks out to the right off. It looks strange to me.

Anyway, until I get the back yard back in order, I a going to keep plugging away at the yard.  It should only take a few more days. 

Tessie keeps following me around the garden and pointing out the things that I am doing wrong.  Did you know that that branch is supposed to stick out like that.  She won't let me cut it off.  I think that the next step is getting Tessie to agree that I am in charge of the back yard...

Then I will be going back in here and starting over again... It seems to get worse all by itself if I let it go for a couple of days.

I wonder if there are any professional work room cleaners? If there are, I am about to give up and hire them.  It seems to be getting worse.... Instead of better, like it should.

Hang in there.  I will be back to it soon.

See you in a few days.

Another Quiet Day In Tucson...

Or Maybe that should be another COLD day in Tucson. Right now it is 60 degrees outside.

It is suppose to get down to the 20s tonight.  I am going to be spending the afternoon covering plants. 

I figured that I had better write this now.  Tessie is not happy that I have not started her MANY necklaces yet.  Take note of where all of the smaller beads are being stored.  At Tessie's request... Or should I say demand?

I am thinking that I had better get the plants covered quickly or she is going to be having a hissy fit.

The baby tree is doing nicely so far.  No blooms, but the leaves are still doing nicely.

You may be wondering why I am showing you a hole in the dirt in the next photo...

Walter pulled the fig tree out roots and all this weekend.

He said it came out easy.  For him easy.  For me, difficult.  I went and looked for a new one at Walmart this morning.  They have them, but they are basically a two foot long stick with no leaves.  I am going to wait a few weeks.  I am not buying a stick with no leaves for thirty five Dollars. 

Let them grow the first few leaves so that I will know it is really a fig tree and not just a stick.

I am going back to work now.  Tessie is not getting a necklace right now.  I have other things to do.  Plant covering comes next.

See you tomorrow.

Cheating Just a Little...

I am doing just a few other things today... This sock has to be knitted to the end of the ruler and then I have to knit another one just like it. Seth's brother came back to Arizona for Christmas this year.  He is living in Michigan right now. Not a nice thing to do to an Arizonan!

Anyway, I waited to do his Christmas socks until I could measure his feet.  He and Seth are about the same. Eleven inches long!!! This could take another week or two, but I am determined. Then I will have to start on socks for everybody for next year...  I see a lot of socks in my future.  I want a few for myself too!


I also did a bit of planting this morning.  Actually, I planted this one a few days ago.  I am working on getting some roses back in the yard.  When we first moved here I had four rose bushes and lots of flowers.  Over the years they faded away.  I am starting over.

I also found this one at Walmart this AM. I think that a lot of you have been around long enough to know that I am fascinated with Euphorbias. Unfortunately, the pot that it came in just said Euphorbias/Assorted... I am going to have to see if I can find a photo on line to see if I can identify it.(more time spent out of the workroom!) Nope. I am not going to look for it now.  I am going back in the workroom and start sorting again!

Tessie is following me around with a whip and a chair.  Help! I am being harassed!

Back to work now.  See you tomorrow.

I Did Minis This Morning!

I had both Tessie and Zar yelling at me this morning.  They both wanted work done. So....

I decided to work on their He Shed and She Shed at the same time. 

I painted the inside of each of them. No. I didn't have a paintbrush in each fist.  I did Zar's first because he yells the loudest.

Then I did Tessie's.  They both need a second coat.  I will do that as soon as I finish here.

I did have to show you a couple of things for the garden while I am on here. 

This is my adopted baby saguaro.  Yes.  It is legal!  There is a place here in town that digs them up when builders are doing new developments. They then put them out for adoption.  The kids got him for me for Christmas... Unfortunately that's when the cold spell started.  It is now over so I will probably plant it today or tomorrow.


The other garden thing is... My baby kumquat tree made it through that cold spell with a little bit of help from a big box, a table cloth and a big piece of plastic.  I may have kumquats yet!!!
Wish me luck! I am looking forward to that. They are really tasty.

OK.  Now I am going back and see if I can remember how to install curtains in Tessie's She Shed.  She is not happy.  Zar's has lights and hers doesn't.  Oh well.  At least she is getting one. Maybe I will see if I can hunt up a battery operated one for hers.

Back to work.  See you tomorrow.

The Loco Weed Is In Bloom!

Jimson Weed, around here is known as Loco Weed.  The stuff is only around for a few weeks during the rainy season here...

It supposedly makes cows crazy when they snack on it.  Since I have no cows in my yard, I let them grow. The flowers only last a day and the plants only last a few weeks.  If you have cows, you don't want the weed. 

I let these grow every year. I don't have cows and I think that the plants are beautiful.

My kumquat tree is coming along nicely. After the set back, I was not sure that I was going to get any fruit. It seems now that I am going to have some after all. The little white blossoms are the start of new fruit.  Wish me luck!

OK. Now for what you really came to see.  I have the tower covered with rocks!!!

I still need to cover the top and put some fancy stuff around the edge of the top, but essentially the tower is covered. 

No. The Terrible Two didn't help.  They just sat there and watched K-Dramas and heckled me while I worked.

Anyway, I am almost finished with the tower as of this afternoon. Back to finishing it. See you tomorrow.

Not a Lot of Minis Today...

 Walter and I went to meet some old friends for lunch today.  I had not seen either one of them for about forty years.  Walter played golf with Dick a couple of times this week... Neither of us had seen Cindy in forever...It was fun to catch up with what they have been doing. 

When we got home, Tessie was waiting. She wanted to see how her tomato plant was doing.  This one supposedly Has tiny yellow tomatoes on it. 

Then she clamored up the new Palo Verde Tree that has come to live in our back yard.

I am not sure where it came from, but she is excited to have her very own tree to support a couple of swings for her and her friends. 

This should be interesting... The next thing that she will probably want is a tree house... Hush! Don't give her any ideas.  I still have to build a castle!

Please don't tell her that I know what her plan is.  And please don't tell her what I am going to do to the trailer.  Little does she know that I also have plans for how the second story is going to look...

I came back in and watched TV for a while.  Then I went back to check on her.

She has decided to adopt some of the baby lizards that we have running around in the back yard...

I found her out there scattering mealworms around for the babies.  We have a few lizards that are way bigger than she is... If she's not careful, she could end up being someone's lunch.  I guess that I should tell her not to feed the babies if she doesn't want to end up on the lunch menu.

Back to work...  See you tomorrow.

Drawing Straws...

I spent a lot of the day in the back yard... See the line of little red flowers along the walk? There are eighteen new plants there.  I am hoping that they will grow and make a little hedge of periwinkles...

Wish me luck!

I cleaned the bird feeding area and it is starting to attract all kinds of birds now.  It's fun to just sit at the table on the porch and watch them close up and personal.

Seth is out of town this week. Chile by way of Peru.  So April and Amare are coming over on Saturday.  We will have something to watch!

This is my latest freebee. I have a Palo Verde Tree starting to grow in the corner of the yard.

I am a bit allergic to them, but hey! They grow all over town. It's not like I can get away from them. and this one is going to be a nice one.

As for the Terrific Three.... Yes, I am changing my tune. They decided among themselves to draw straws.  The longest straw gets to go first. Middle sized will be second and the short straw will be last.

I am not going to argue.  They have all decided to help each other finish their respective abodes.

I may have too much help! The drawing is tomorrow morning.

See you then.

Rain and More Rain...

The rainy season is here.  That makes it nice and cool in the morning.  I spent most of the morning on the back porch and in the back yard, planting and repotting things.

The photo to the left is only part of what I did. 

And there is still more to do.

By noon, the sky was looking like this and now the wind has started blowing... It won't be long until it starts raining once again.

So I came in the house and started cleaning once more.

I am determined this time to get everything out of here that doesn't have a purpose or doesn't belong. 

The cat stays. The fabric also stays if I can get it away from Kota. He seems to like it for some reason. In case you can't see, the fabric is a brick pattern.  I have a yard.  I should have bought more.  This is going to be the easiest way to make a brick wall that has ever been done in miniature! Poke the photo and look at it up close! 

All I am going to have to do is glue it to a wall, use a stylus on the grout lines and instant brick wall!!!

For the rest of the afternoon, however, I am going to be fixing a hole... Walter's favorite bracelet has an Ouchy. He never takes it off unless I am fixing it.

It happens now and then.  It only takes a little while to fix.  I don't think that he lost any beads this time, so it will be quick. Now where did I put that needle, beeswax and thread?  See you tomorrow!

The Last of the Gardening...

For a while...

This morning April and Amare came over to go shopping...

When they got here, Tessie was baby sitting a new dinosaur for Amare. He gladly took the dinosaur off of her hands...

And Tessie took off like a shot, to get away from said dinosaur.

I had something to show April today..

 Last week I read instructions for producing new tomato plants from cuttings. 
It worked!!!

Tomorrow, I will be potting these cuttings up and waiting for them to "take" so that I can plant them in with the other tomatoes in the big horse tank. 

They are looking quite nice and one of them even has a few flowers on it.

I will probably take those off. That way the plant will put all of it's energy into making more roots. 

If that works, I will have four new tomato plants!  For free!!!

Tomorrow it is back to minis! Maybe even a tutorial of some kind. See you then.

Another Point of View...

I am going to need a bigger pot and a fluffier plant in the middle... This one was just to see how a plant would look here.

I am unimpressed with this one... Needs to be bigger for sure!!!

 It totally disappears when you step off of the porch.

I am not impressed!

I came back in the house to get the camera and this hit my eye.  I am now debating if I want to sacrifice this to the outside world.  I am sure that it will get ruined if I put it out there...

It would make the whole thing much better than it is right now... The question is... Do I want to sacrifice this piece.  I am going to have to think on it for a couple of days...

Maybe I should work on a rug or a pair of socks for a while so that I can debate with myself over the sacrifice...?

Back to find something else to do until I decide.  It sure would look great out there!

Somebody push me in the right direction... I am on the fence!

See you tomorrow.

I Think I Can....

I found Shims... Their cost was under $2.50. One package got me going and got me finished with what I want to do with the old tree stump.

I used the whole package and a couple of nails and I was ready for the table top. 

I love it when things come together!

I wanted to turn this area into bird feeders and birdhouses.  It may take a little time, but I think that it is going to look good when I finish.

Now that I have a foundation for the things that I want to put out here, I am on my way.

I am just using the glass box to see how things are going to look. I also added a plant in a pot behind it and to the left. It is on another piece of the tree trunk.

I will probably make all kinds of changes as I go.

It is a good start.  I do believe that there will be some minis involved before I am done.

I am a bit excited about this.  It could be the start of a whole new backyard.  Wish me luck. I am on my way. See you tomorrow.

A New Day....

Walter was supposed to get home about 12:30 AM.  I was going to stay up until he got here... But then I found out That his plane was going to  be more than an hour late.  I gave up and went to bed. 

Both of us have been falling asleep all day, today.  I keep going out and doing garden things when I am awake.  Then I come back in and fall asleep again. 

I managed to get the Sweet Broom Tree in the ground. I think that it will be pretty when it gets it's full height. It will grow anywhere from six to ten feet tall and when summer comes, it has small yellow blossoms all over.

This whole side wall is going to be shades of yellow and orange.  The bushes that you see in the center and on the right side of the photo have orange blossoms. I planted those for the humming birds.  They love them. The smaller bushes that are on either side of the bush towards the left I just planted today.  They have bright yellow flowers.  More food for the hummers. I am going to cut the larger ones like the one on the right.  They have been there as long as we have lived here. The ones that I just planted will take the place of the older ones as the tall, feature plants for the wall. I will keep the old ones trimmed short.                                   


The fig tree is finally coming out. I was afraid that it wasn't doing well at all.  The top half of it died several years ago, from frost.

I am going to take the top above the leaves off and see if the rest of it comes back better. If not, Walmart is carrying fig trees right now for $30.00.

It had better behave or it will be replaced!

What I am trying to tell you is... I gardened today.  I did not mini!

I will get back to work as soon as I get a good night's sleep. Wish me luck.  Last night it didn't happen.

If I had worked on minis, I would have probably cut my hand off... Or at least a couple of fingers.

See you tomorrow.

Unwanted and Wanted...

I have been trying to find a place for this table to live for quite some time.  It was priced at $2.oo at a garage sale years ago.

It gets moved from place to place in the house and is never quiet right, wherever I put it.

I decided that it was time for drastic measures...

Is this drastic enough?  I decided that the two circular pieces could be used for bases for mini scenes.  The legs could be put to good use out in the back yard as posts for bird feeders or to hold water dishes.

Meanwhile, I won't be taking up useable space in the house.

Now all I have to do is think of something that they can be used for, that I can't live without.

The Kumquat Tree is doing amazing things. 

See the little white spots? Those are the start of flowers! Everywhere there is one of those, we may be getting a kumquat!!!

It has grown a few new leaves, but I am even more excited about all of the flowers that it is starting!

We may have kumquats this year! Fingers crossed.

The last thing is this... It is the start of a
Palo Verde Tree. I cut it down two years in a row.

It keeps fighting back.  I think that I am going to let it keep growing this year and see what happens. 

I seem to have pretty good luck with trees that just show up and start growing.

I probably would have had a better tree if I would have let it grow from the start, but I foolishly kept cutting it down. 

I give up.  It is going to win, if it keeps growing.
If it doesn't, no great loss. 

Back to the workroom sorting now.

See you tomorrow.

As Little as Possible...

We went to see "Tag" this morning.  It is about a group of men that have been playing tag for the month of May for the past 20 years.  Interesting. It is based on a true story. They showed the real people at the end. I think that they are still playing...

This photo is hard to see, but I put a bird feeder on the center log in the photo.

Tessie and Zar wanted nothing to do with helping, so I left them to their own devices.

Snakes, dogs and rubber chickens...

They ignored me totally.

I went into the workroom.  Covered the chair with a piece of zebra skin material.  Then I took the rest of the day off and watched several episodes of Supernatural. 

Bored much? Yup.  When I am I revert to watching Sam and Dean do their thing.

Then April and Amare called.  I am jealous of Amare.  They went to the zoo with his summer camp group and he got to PET a Rhino! I want to pet a Rhino!!!

Anyway, that's about all that happened here today... Not much in the way of minis.

See you tomorrow.

The Monsoons Are Here!!!!!!!

This is what it looked like in the back yard about an hour a go...

We got this side of the yard pretty well cleaned up...

This is what I saved of the trunk of the tree and some of the larger branches.  As you can see, I still have a lot of branches lying on the ground...

I am NOT going out there to clean up the mess right now. It started raining again, so I opted for other activities...

I am back in the workroom doing more cleaning and straightening...

An hour after the first two photos were taken, this is what the back yard looked like... Just a bit damper than before....

Actually.  A lot damper than an hour ago! I am opting to stay in the workroom today. Thank goodness it is Saturday and that is legal.

I am going in there and keep warm.  I just looked out the window and the water is getting deeper by the minute!!!!

Now where did I put those water wings???

See you tomorrow.