Flower Friday: Out for awhile

Holy purple Iris, Batman. I'll be taking a break while I heal!

Corn anomaly

Last summer, I posted a couple of pictures of flower anomalies around My Two Acres. One of the last things I said in that post was, "I love flower anomalies. I like to think it's a message: When the growing gets tough, the tough get growing!"

It kind of gave me pause when I reread that post, because of the breast cancer surgery that I will be facing in a few short days.

I hope I'm as tough as these flowers. Or this corn, which I just took a photograph of this morning.

It sprouted in my poop flower bed (I call it that because it is the one that has the pipes to the septic system that we have camouflaged with a bird bath and a plant stand, the latter of which is the tall thing at the right of the photo).

































When it started coming up, I thought it was a shoot from the day lily next to it, but as it grew, I realized it had to be a left-over Indian corn seed that the kids put in the bird feeder.

Tough little seed!


So this year, I have a corn anomaly, instead of a flower anomaly.


Now, my question is, should I move it or let it stay there?


I'm really torn. If I move it, and it dies, I'm going to be so bummed.


Should I just let it be to grow and see what happens, amidst the lilies and snap dragons?


The more I think about it, the more I just want to leave it.

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Monkey times two

My daughter, who I call Monkey, with a painted hand.

Monkey flowers that look like they have been splashed with paint!

Orange poppies

I just read a blog post that says bloggers should check their stats frequently and give their audience what it wants.

My audience, apparently, wants information about orange poppies. Orange poppies make up, by far, the largest source of visits to my site.

Ego crusher? Yep. People are NOT visiting my blog to read my self-effacing humor. Apparently the only person who thinks all THAT is funny, is me! Nope, my readers want information on orange poppies.

So, in the spirit of giving readers what they want, I have done a little poppy research and I'm sharing links that I think will give you more information about poppies...

Here's a page devoted to poppies at Renee's Garden. I don't know Renee, but her information seems like good information to me.

Here's my go-to site, Wikipedia, and its Poppy page, which has links to all kind of poppy varieties.

Oh, wait a minute. After a closer examination of my stats, it appears it wasn't poppy information that brought people to my blog, but rather a picture of my orange corn poppy plant.

Those particular poppies are no more. They ended up getting tilled under because I had a nasty infestation of common yarrow.While some extol yarrow's medicinal purposes, it just made me sick. Well, actually, it made me mad, because we had to till up the whole wildflower patch to get rid of the darn yarrow, and it's still sprouting up all over the place.


And because I didn't want to chance spreading any more wildflower seed that could contain yarrow, most of the bed is still barren. But one day, I was strolling through the Wal-Mart flower section and there they were. Poppies. Well, I bought three....

Okay, these are mostly daisies, but if you look to the top of the picture, those little
orangy-pinkish flowers are the poppies.

Here is a closer shot of one of the poppy plants.

And a close-up of the best of the blossoms!

Now watch, no one is going to be searching for orange poppies anymore! Oh well. It gave me an excuse to go out there and photograph my poppies!!! : )

Dawn

Life-changing or a blip on the autobahn of life

I don't know how many posts I've started and then stopped because I thought they were either too silly or too maudlin. I don't know. Is breast cancer a life-changing event? Or is it just a blip on the autobahn of life?

I feel like I have lost my internal barometer of what normal is.

I mean, I always felt like I was a pretty regular, normal person. Middle of the road. Not a big risk-taker, (I have NO desire to bungee jump anywhere for any reason) but more than willing to change things up, especially if it sounds like FUN change.

Am I being too glib about a serious thing, or too serious about something that is far less life-threatening than many people have to go through?

Why have I not cried more? Am I extremely well-adjusted or in MASSIVE denial? Or am I somewhere in between? I honestly don't know.

I do know, however, that when my husband showed me a t-shirt that says, "Yes, these are fake. My real ones tried to kill me." I giggled for a long time. In fact, it still brings a smile to my face every time I think about it.

I haven't asked why this happened to me. In fact, I have prayed for the strength to NEVER ask why because I don't think it's productive. And I'm ALL about productivity. (Okay, not really. But measured productivity is good!)

I am a little impatient, however. Have you ever been in a place where you've made an important decision and you just really want to get it done before something makes you change your mind? That's where I am. Take the plunge, get 'er done. Because the longer I have to wait, the more uncertainty clouds my mind.

Like this morning an ant got inside my shirt, somehow, and bit me. Not once, not twice, but three times, all in the chest area, one of which was right on the edge of my right breast...you know, the one that is trying to kill me.

Really?

My chest?

And on the right side?

Would this happen to anyone but me?

And how many more dumb things like this are going to happen this week? Is this some kind of omen? Ant revenge? (I dumped Sevin on a colony in my flower bed yesterday.)

I feel like I should put myself in a plastic bubble from now until next Monday so I don't end up doing something so they can't do the surgery. But knowing me, the plastic bubble would burst and I'd get plastic shrapnel lodged in places that would require the surgery to be delayed. So I guess I should just walk softly, carry a big stick, and stay away from sharp objects.


Because, when it comes down to it, I really want this over with so I can get on with my life. I know there will be several more appointments and I will be changed, both physically and psychologically. But I'm determined to make it a positive change. 


Dawn


P.S. And anyone who hears me whining, remind me of this, please?

I'm the same age as...

You know, I always think of myself as younger than I am. I don't know why. But when I look at a list of the things that I'm the same age as, it makes me realize just how much life has changed in just 50 years.

I'm the same age as:

Wal-Mart. Quick! Which one of us SEEMS like we've been around since the dawn of time! : )

The audio cassette. I hope I have more relevance at 50 than the audio cassette does!

SpaceWar, the first computer video game. I remember Space Invaders, but not SpaceWar.

Light Emitting Diodes or LEDs. "The effect is a form of electroluminescence where incoherent and narrow-spectrum light is emitted from the p-n junction in a solid state material." (from the Wikipedia '60s inventions link) Ummm. What? Incoherent is the operative word in that sentence!

Glucose meters. Probably one of the best tools ever for diabetics.

And here's a little co-ink-i-dink....I'm as old as silicone breast implants, which is what I will be getting following my mastectomy. I never expected to say I would be thankful for this invention. Funny how breast cancer can change all that.

But the things that REALLY shock me? I am older than....

The computer mouse (1963)

Buffalo wings (1964)

Snowboarding (1965)

Hand held calculators (1967)

I'm even older than racquetball, for heaven's sake, (1968) and the lunar module (1969)!

Want to see what you are older than? Wikipedia has an interesting timeline to make you feel young or old, depending on your mindset. But even though I'm older than most of the technology I think I couldn't live without, I'm sure glad someone was smart enough to invent it all!

Dawn

Clover redux

This is almost freaky! Last year, on June 1, my daughter found a four-leaf clover in one of our flower beds. I posted the photo on June 2, 2011.

On June 2, 2012, she found yet ANOTHER four-leaf clover. In the same flower bed.

Either she has a very good eye for spotting four-leaf clovers, or we have a lucky, blessed flower bed! This is the same bed that spawned my St. Francis and the flower miracle post.

This four-leafer is even better than last year's, which I'm hoping is a sign of good things, despite some new difficulties.

I took a picture of it and then taped it to the piece of paper that has last year's four-leaf clover taped to it. If she keeps this up, we might have to start adding dates to her four-leaf finds!

Dawn

Wordless Wednesday: Can't get enough of these

Early spring sunset from My Two Acres