Out of Control

I freely admit that I'm taking this flower thing to extremes. Seriously, I can't help myself what with all the beautiful variety in the garden centers now. On my way home from bridge yesterday I stopped at a local center, "Palmers", on Corrine Drive in Audubon Park. Speaking of Audubon Park, did you know all the streets have bird names? Now you do.

Perfect segue into a wee bit of bird news around these parts. When you have a plethora of bird feeders, you're bound to have lots of birds. Don't get me wrong, I like them all except for the crows. I dislike the crows greatly. While Bill was here last week he was so amazed at the red winged black birds, but to us they are now a familiar sight. I digress...first, here's a neat shot of Mr. Cardinal in the early morning on the front walk underneath the Nuttery.

The sprinklers must have just finished running from the looks of it. Which reminds me, we are having a heck of a time with our system. Neither of us can figure it out. Yesterday, before Bruce left, he was sure he had it set to come on. It didn't. Flipping it over to manual, I was certain I'd have to go out there when each zone was finished. Surprisingly, #2 zone came on automatically. Bruce went to visit his Lakeland job, I went to play bridge. Doing errands on the way home, it suddenly occurred to me that perhaps the system had gone berserk again and was still running at 2 in the afternoon. Calling Angela I got voice mail. SO, around 3pm, as I drove up to the house, I realized by the puddle at the end of the driveway that my intuition was correct. Well now, that was not only a big fat waste of water, but it will cost a tidy sum to boot. And then it rained to top it off!!!

Alright, where was I? Oh yes, after dinner while standing at the sink I called softly to Bruce. The both of us were so happy to see the babies side by side on the walkway. Sadly, the picture is horrible, but I'm including it anyway because I have no doubt you've been worried as much as I have about baby cardinal #2.

Maybe not quite as much, but I'm fairly confidant that my readers are the sensitive type, so really how couldn't you be wondering if they both survived? Pretty big aren't they?

My order for new business cards arrived the other day. Because I'll soon be doing the Melbourne Art Festival, as in next weekend, not only was replenishing necessary, but I decided to include the Etsy thing as well.

Instead of including the website, which is linked from my own, I put "now selling on Etsy" beneath the photo. I'm happy with that. Not that anything is happening on Etsy, but I'm not abandoning it just yet.

I neglected to include two other flowers that I'm happy with. At one time I had four dwarf gardenia plants, I now have one. For some reason they are very hard to grow and it's not just me that has trouble because Angela's suffered the same fate. Finally though, the remaining plant has bloomed!!

They turn yellow about the second day they are open--fragrance factor--terrific!

When all else fails, plant vincas because they seem to thrive no matter where you put them.

These days they come in such a great variety of shades, from the deepest pink you can imagine, to white, and even lavender!

Having not one thing to do with this post, but I had to show you these crazy little chocolate creatures Matt bought Angela for Easter. The box itself is super neat with the logo Moonstruck chocolates on the face.

The egg shaped one was so weird inside--some sort of greenish goop which I immediately threw into the rubbish bin as Angela would say. I was practicing with my Pancake lens on this, trying to get selective focus down.

Also off topic but it's worth mentioning, by now almost everyone has heard about the Trayvon Martin shooting, right? The news coverage has been over the top for sure. A few days ago we learned that our old friend, Kenny Lester is the newly assigned judge for the case. Perhaps he's fine with that, but I wouldn't  be happy if I were in his shoes. The media will be weighing in on his every little move, with national experts chiming in. Unlike some other local judge who will remain nameless, Kenny does not strike me as the type to crave publicity. Time will tell...

Ending on a prettier topic--yet another flower picture!! I bought some cut flowers and is often the case, I can't just enjoy them, I do my best to figure out a way to photograph them.

Well of course I'd try and photograph them--this is a photography blog. Of sorts.