Just a Thought and a Picture......

The sun shines in on a crystal vase full of tulips.

Below is a peachy carnival glass bowl of Nana's, full of Papa's crystals.

We make altars all the time.

Small acts of love.

They all count.

Diaper Obsessed Woman Spotted Again......

This has been a very high energy week for me.  I'm just about exhausted.  It's been supposed to rain since Tuesday, I've been frantically planting seeds and transplanting plants, and everything is ready for a good rain that has yet to show up.  Every night my hands are dirty and I have to soak in the tub to get the dirt out from under my fingernails.  It's been a great spring!

I grabbed another diaper and put it in the bottom of the pot hanging above the basket of bulbs.  The diaper went on the bottom with all the tab parts folded under.  Then it got filled with water.  To bursting.  I don't even think anybody saw me.  That's what I love so much about this place.  No one is ever out, and if they are, they are doing something that has their complete attention.  Adults!  So refreshing!

I tore off the top liner of the diaper, put in some potting soil, and then threw some white violets that were growing in the yard and had been dug up with a spoon by yours truly.  Is there anything prettier than a basket of white violets in the spring?  I think not.  

I think it will work.  If it doesn't and the violets die there are more in the yard.  If they live I will put them closer to the house where the grass hasn't taken over yet and I plan to hold it at bay forever.  The less I have to mow, the better life will be for me.  Then I can pick something that I usually would not put in this basket because it always dried out so bad.  All because of a diaper.  Pause a moment and contemplate the impact this invention has had on our world.  It's kind of momentous.

So far I have one corner of a vast yard done.  It's gonna be a long summer but that's where the wild flowers come in.  I have Morning Glory and Honeysuckle planted all along the fence in back and the front porch.  You can't lose with those two in Southern Missouri.

Plus there is all manner of climbing vines that is really good ground cover everywhere.  I threw in some of that, too.

There are pots of Lavender, Sweet Peas, Lily of the Valley, Asters, and other wild flowers germinating at this moment in the barrels.  They do not need water, either, thanks to the diaper trick.

.

I also threw down, and I do literally mean that, seeds for Poppies, Bachelor Buttons, Four O'Clocks, Daisys, and only God himself knows what else.  There should be wild flowers and lavender all in front where the shrubs were.

I filled in a little in the front with some Irises that Janine, the heavenly neighbor, having an even more high energy week than myself, had dug up.  She had apparently experienced a fit of what I like to call "spring cleaning" when it happens to me, and it occurred to her that she was tired of "keeping all this up".  So there was a whole barrel of Irises that were old and all tangled up and I had to save them.  IF I didn't, she was going to throw them away!  Ock!!  That woman could run the entire world.  We should clone her.  The strips in the picture below are those long roll-out fabric strips are supposedly full of seeds.  We'll see.

It looks kind of rough but if it ever rains we should see quite a display in a month or so.  Or not.  If it lives, it lives.  If it doesn't, it doesn't.  This is just life and seems to be easier and easier for me to accept as each year passes.  It's quite a relief, I must say.  This being old thing is all right with me so far.

That's also my handy-dandy little "roller alonger", passed down from my dear mother, who spent many happy days with her rear end planted on that little wagon, bringing forth life from dirt.  As does her daughter.  It is probably called a garden wagon or some more logical name.  Whatever it is called, you should get one.  You will never get stuck on the ground unable to get up with this.  Your knees will thank you.  *sagely nods*  The top lifts up so you can store your gloves, your trowels, your bug spray, whatever you like to keep with you.  And it even has 2 cup holders on top.  Did you know that is the #1 thing women google when researching new cars?  It is.  And whoever marketed this baby knew it.  I give them a solid A.

The lilacs exploded as predicted, and the air has never smelled so good.  Just look at all these blooms.  Impressive and welcome!

That reminds me.  I forgot to get gas for the mower.  It's outside time at my house.  Oh well, I don't have to worry about that right now.  Now it's time for another long soak in the tub.  Whatever tomorrow holds will be here before I know it.

Preparing The Soil.........

I had a day last week where I thought about being 50, putting in flower seeds, and doing things right.
People will forgive a young person practically anything, but once you are 50 you are in a more responsible category.
To my way of thinking.
I can't be just sprinkling seeds on the ground and then being disappointed when things don't turn out right, anymore.
I think.
Anyway, the electric land of Pinterest has shown me some solutions for the errors of my usual ways, and in a fit of efficiency, I 'prepared the soil'.
Yes.  I did that.  I really, really did.
I drug out my barrels.
I raked some leaves that I had been too tired to deal with last fall into the bottoms, so that all my water won't just run out the holes.
I admired the new grass coming up under where those leaves have lain for 6 months.
I put bags of potting soil (the cheapest I could find.  It's dirt, after all, people) over the leaves.
I realized I had to go vote.  I went to vote, voted, and spent the better part of an hour visiting with the ladies. 
I pressed on to the glorious Dollar General, and I purchased, for $6.50, 31 Medium baby diapers.  Which I enjoyed.  I miss those days.  Again, the cheapest I could find.
Why?  
Because I was going to fill them to bursting with water and then mix the gel within into my potting soil so that my dirt would stay more moist.
Then my seeds would come up and I would have so many successes I would be able to transplant many varieties of beautiful perennials all over hell and creation  my new yard.
And never have to bother with this kind of thing again except for maybe with vegetables.
Of course with vegetables.  They're next.  But I don't have to worry about that on this day.  See how I am focused now?  Staying on track?  It's a whole new side of me. The 50 year old side.  So far, I gotta say I like it.

So, while the people of the villages voted and visited, and the farmer of the cows across the road spread manure on his fields, I laid out 24 cute, powdery smelling diapers on top of potting soil in barrel halves on the south side of my house, which is the optimum sunnage spot.
As any adult lady who knew what she was doing would.  Ahem.
I will tell you that I sorely wished I had a person with a baby close because I could have just asked them for some gently used diapers and not had to buy any.  It takes a lot more than some innocent baby pee to make me bat an eye these days.
However, it was such an intimate and strange thing to ask people who do not know me and may understandably think I was a stark raving lunatic that I opted to just buy new.  I may be honest, but I'm not stupid.  Sometimes that is a very fine line to dance on.
But it was kind of a waste.  Anyway.

While the farmer hurt his neck trying to figure out what in God's name I was doing with so many diapers and no children in sight, and the manure flew all over the field for a great crop of hay, I drug out the garden hose.  This hose was new, a thoughtful birthday gift from my brother and SIL, you know, Superman and Wonder Woman, which is 100 feet long because I'm too old to mess around with anything less these days.  I ain't got all day and this hose will cover everything I need to be responsible for and then some.  

Imagine the farmer's  surprise when I started "watering" the diapers.  I Filled 24 diapers, laid out in neat rows, with water, at a slow rate. It took about 45 minutes and I went over them 4 or 5 times till they absorbed a lot of water and were near to bursting.
Pretty sure it was the dangedest thing that farmer probably ever saw.  But maybe his wife is on Pinterest too.  You never know anymore.

Once filled to nearly bursting, and those diapers will hold a LOT of water, my people, I tore off the top lining.  Tore it off and turned the diaper upside down and inside out, and all that gel came off in nice clumps.
I think it would have held more water, too, but it doesn't matter.
We had rain coming within 2 days.
With any luck, (and who needs luck, now that I'm 50 and do things right?) a lot of that rain will be retained in the gel particles in this dirt and all the seeds will sprout 2 feet overnight.
There is no harm in dreaming.
That's the truth you know:  You are never too old for dreaming.
I should make a plaque with that on it, actually.
Or you could, and send it to me.
Either way.

This is my finished product.  The soil is prepared. The soil is prepared the correct way, with thought and time and seeds.  I did this the right way, at the right time, because I am really an adult now.

It also floated through my mind that I will try a diaper in the bottom of my round hanging basket.  The one with the moss that always dries out so badly.  I'm just going to trim the white parts of the diaper off and have that in the bottom to hold water. *just a genius idea I am throwing out there to you, my friends, because I know you love those pots too, and I also know everything you put in them usually dies.  Older women know these things.*

In my world, life after 50 is lived with more thought, planning, and patience.  With, dare I say it, a plan.  

I think it's the exhaustion that does it, really.  Well, that and the never sleeping much.  Let me just tell you now, these are a very powerful combination.  If you think you can fight it, I won't argue with you.  I fought it too.  I did not win that fight.  I became exhausted instead.  Good luck to you  though.

Finally, I find myself simply too tired not to make, and follow a plan.  
Because I do not have time, or energy, to make 2 plans.  
I know this because this is what I have done up till now.  
Where do you think the exhaustion came from?? 
Nay, now I stick with one plan.  
One plan that will work.  
Because I wasn't born yesterday.
What a relief that is.  
Truly, I thought it would be much, much worse.