Driveway Ramblings

After two nights of carting my girls to their respective volleyball practices, tonight I'm going to relax.  I suppose I'll have to put something together for dinner, but I'm leaning towards nachos...a cinch to throw together and even better, everyone likes them.  We tend to sit in our driveway more than we do our living room, hence Driveway Ramblings. My husband is talking with our neighbor friend, little one's doing her homework and the dogs are aimlessly wondering the driveway.  I'm enjoying watching my lavender blooms sway in the wind, thankful that it's Wednesday and that means the work week is almost at an end!

It's a shame you can't smell them...

Too Close To Home

Spent  Mother's Day reading a new novel called "Too Close To Home" by Lynette Eason.  I woke up rather sore from yesterday's adventure, so I pampered myself most of the day by sitting in my favorite chair with my new book.  Loved it!  If you enjoy suspense filled thrillers, this is a wonderful book.  What makes it even more enjoyable is that it is Christian fiction and so there was not one foul word or scene that left nothing to the imagination! The two books I previously tried reading, were both put down at the halfway point or sooner with, "Why am I reading this?".  It's not that I live in a bubble, but seriously, how many people use the "f" word or "gd" throughout their everyday conversations...get a better vocabulary!  Back to the book though, there was just enough of the romance angle to make you go "ahh..." at the end, but not enough to say, "Really, seriously now."  There's a serial killer on the loose, and as the title describes, they're hitting a little "too close to home".  Needless to say, I'll have the next one as soon as it's October debut gets here!

I have to say though, this morning when I walked into the kitchen, looked out my back window, an immediate smile took over...all my lovely little succulents were right there in plain view!  It was definitely worth the discomfort.

Succulent Wall

Happy Mother's Day to me! My husband made the trip to Home Depot with me...humored my idea and loaded and then unloaded 62 cement blocks for my succulent wall!  It came out pretty much like I envisioned.  Where my pig planters are sittting willl end up being turned sideways, filled with dirt and something nice and trailing will fill that, but in the meantime, they look cute perched there.

My original plan was to have only the solid side facing out, but the more I thought about it, I wanted air to be able to flow through.  Shelby, our 9 year old is really concerned that a crazy cat might try and put her babies in there.  Understand, that we have cat lovers on either side of us...one has just 5 and the other anywhere from 10 - 15 any given day and they keeping feeding the strays.  I think every female in the surrounding area knows that if they're due with kittens, to move on to their porch...free room and board.  The only (ok...one of many) downside is that between the two houses, they seem to think our yard is one large playground/litter box! Click on the pictures below to make them larger.

Happy Mother's Day to all the other mom's out there!  Enjoy your day tomorrow...I hope to be walking straight after this adventure!

A Bloom

For months, my Chocolate Soldier has had bloom stalks waving around with bloom buds.  All winter in the little greenhouse cover more stalks came up with nothing but buds.  Last week I noticed that they looked like they were trying to open, but nothing.  Until this morning...this morning one was opened up and it's the prettiest little thing.  I hope the others follow suite now and open up.

Pig's Ear is Not a Pig's Ear

I pulled a piece of what I thought was a Pig's Ear out of my rather large plant to share with a co-worker.  I was searching some names on the internet and came across what I had thought was a Pig's Ear, but is in fact a Cotyledon Orbiculata type also known as a Cigarette Plant.  Boring....  I think I've seen where it could be called a Cigar Plant as well, so I'm going to go with that one and call her Havana...Cuban cigars sound much better than a stinky cigarette! Now that that's all cleared up, I'm in search for a Cotyledon Orbiculcta 'Oblonga'...which is what I thought I had, but mine didn't look anything like the pictures I was finding.  Lowe's is normally really good with their names, but there's a first time for everything!

Now to the adventure of the day.  Along with a wonderful husband, I've got two lovely daughters.  The oldest who is 13 needed to have some widsom teeth removed.  My wonderful husband has been out of town all week, so I was going to get to tackle this one alone.  We got there only to find out that she really only needed two taken out on the right side...yeh!  It went off without any problems...another reason to celebrate!  She's up and eating ice cream of all things, she was very pleased when she asked if she could get more than normal, I agreed without a lecture on junk food.  The best part of the whole thing is I got to take two unexpected days off to take care of her!!  My house will appreciate the cleaning it's going to get too. 

I can't post without including one of my succulents, so today's pick is going to be my Kalanchoe Tomentosa 'Chocolate Soldier'  ...I have a thing for fuzzy succulents, and this is one of the best!  It has been trying to bloom for what seems like forever, but they finally opened up yesterday.  I'll take pictures of those for later...not like a normal bloom.

Donkey Tail

I've been trying to remember over the past several days which of my lovely succulents was the one that started the collection.  On one of my trips to Rainbow Gardens, I stumbled on a funny looking thing called a Donkey Tail and I couldn't pass it up.  It's like eating a bag of Lay's...you can't have just one!  I think I can safely say there are at least 50 different little varieties on my back porch, but it all began with this cutie.  He's been trimmed back and shared with friends, but he's still growing strong!

More on the New Additions

I found another Cotyledon Tomentosa 'Bear Paw' to add to my collection, he's the short one.  I repotted them so they could share a pot, and so they're a little dirty.  I originally stumbled on this little guy in Walmart in a little succulent dish garden.  This is probably my favorite one!

My other favorite...Baby Toes! I lost one of them over the winter, but replaced it over the weekend.  These are especially cute.  The more sun they get, the more translucent their "toes" are!

Echeveria 'Green Goddess'.  I'm excited to see her bloom!