I bet you thought I wouldn't do it...

A week or two ago Jane, at Smallbutcharming, mentioned she had a lot of weeding to do in her garden, whereupon I said I thought I might have more weeds than she did.  More than anyone could imagine, maybe.  A few days later Jane threw down the gauntlet, shall we say?  Well, Jane, here you go.  Proof that I just might have more weeds than you can even dream of.  At least I hope so, for your sake.

Yikes!! Scary, isn't it? Granted, this is in the very far back corner of my backyard, the one that nobody ever visits.  Inluding me.  One day this area will be the bf's shed/workshop, so I don't really want to spend a lot of time on it.  Right now it is used mostly for temporary living quarters for plants I don't know what to do with. And by that, I don't mean the weeds!

I did spend the better part of the weekend cleaning this area up, and after I add the 5 bags of mulch to this area I will take new pictures and post later this week.

To redeem myself to all the gardeners out there I give you this:

The Salvia is blooming.

And how about this:

Equisetum

I'll be back with updates later this week.  Hope y'all had a great weekend?

This is what is going on in my town this weekend:

The annual Azalea Festival.  One of the biggest festivals in the south, honoring these:

Of course, because of the very mild and dry winter we've had this year, all the azaleas bloomed weeks ago.  Oh well, who needs azaleas, when you have these:

And these:

(These are Azalea Belles.  My oldest Lovey was one when she was 15.  I think she thought it would be a lot of fun, but it ended up being a lot of work.  They are lovely though, aren't they?)

But most importantly - and one of the reasons we will be in Charlotte this weekend - the Azalea Festival is all about this:

Have a wonderful weekend - hopefully without 25,000 visitors!

and another thing

Here's another thing that has kept me busy.

I am, by nature, a pretty organized person.  I'm one of those people who drive others crazy (I'm looking at you, family members!) by having to have a "place for everything" and always putting things in their place.  It's just how my brain works.  I honestly don't care whether your home is organized or not,  and I don't make judgements on other people's organizational skills.

Having said that, I have had one very, very embarrassingly unorganized place at my house, for quite some time now.  I can't even believe I would show you  pictures!  I'm hoping you won't judge either! C'mon now!

This side is even worse:

The only thing I can offer by way of an explanation is that we don't have a garage.  This shed is approximately 10x12 and has to store all of our bikes (the bf has three, I have one, and then there's the tandem, which is about eight feet long and takes up a huge amount of this space - I had to take it out just to get in here for a photo.

After several hours and two big bags of trash, here's what it looks like now:

See the bike seat at the far left of the top picture - the one that is vertical?  That is the new pulley system we set up to store the tandem up against the wall vertically!  It is amazing how much more room we have to store all the other stuff we have in there!

The big plan is for the bf to build a much larger building out back which will house his woodworking space and tools, with another area to store all the garden tools and the bikes, and then this little shed will be mine.  All mine!  At which time it will become a yoga studio/reading place, work space and all around girls only spot. Someday.

Til then I have a clean little tool shed.



But what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day. ~Benjamin Disraeli

Once again, time has gotten away from me.  How does that happen? I don't know.  For one thing I've been busy (who hasn't, right?).  First there was this:

The a$$hats who are our county commissioners were recently offered a grant by the state, no matching funds necessary, the only stipulation was that the money was to be used by Planned Parenthood for IUD's only.  The five members of the all-male commission decided to refuse the money, on the grounds that "if these ladies were so irresponsble that they couldn't be trusted to take the pill, then they just shouldn't be having sex."  Humph.  Well, that pissed me right the hell off.  When I was much younger, but already married, I was at a point in my life where I wasn't ready to have children, in fact wasn't even sure I ever would be ready.  I of course went to the doctor and got a prescription for birth control.  Five different prescriptions and many, many sick days from work (to the point I almost lost my job) later, the doctor determined my body just wouldn't accept the pill, so she suggested an IUD. That IUD served me well for several years, until I decided I was ready to start a family.  How can that ever be construed as "irresponsible"?  How could I have been more responsible?  Anyway, after this demonstration - which was attended by about 250 people, young, old, men, women - the commissioners decided to re-vote the issue and this time the vote went 3-2 infavor of accepting the funds! Not because they regained their sanity, but because two of the five are running for a higher office and the other three are running for their current offices. *sigh*  Didn't we already fight this fight?


But it hasn't been all work and no play.  Like most everyone else around the country, after a very mild winter we've had a beautiful and early spring. So we've gotten out the tandem and dusted it off. 

As evidenced by the leather racing seat, and custom gears, the bf is a bike enthusiast.  He's one of those guys you see whizzing down the road (on his single person, very fancy road bike, obviously!) in the fancy racing outfit.  But sometimes he will settle for a nice little easy ride with me and then we take this baby out. It's an older, not very expensive bike that we got on Craigs List a few years ago. Other than the changes the bf made to make it snazzier it's a good old comfy bike and it is so much fun to ride.  Children love it and it's my job, as the backseat rider, to do all the waving to them. I love that!

Hope y'all are having a great start to Spring as well?