Pink Flamingos

With barely a month left of sunny days, we decided it was about time to get down to some serious madness! And what goes better with summertime silliness than a bunch of tacky, plastic lawn ornaments? Luckily, after an extensive search through the whole house, Burt and Kibitz finally located our flock of flamingos roosting beneath the Christmas decorations.

Since Halloween decor has started popping up in the stores, there is the question of whether we should stick with the traditional pink birds or get a head start on fall with the orange and black duo.

Summer is usually the best time of the year up here in the north, it's the big payoff for all those months of ice and snow. Usually, it flies by in the blink of an eye . . . except for this year, ha! Like mostly everyone else we have been trapped inside by the heat and mosquitoes but some of the plants really like this weather and have been putting on quite a show.

 Still, I can't look at this photo without mistaking those white geraniums in the background for snow.
Yeah, it's coming but that's one season I can patiently wait for!

Meanwhile, back in the basement a heated debate continues on the appropriate color scheme.

So, which color combination of flamingos got the nod?

Both, sort of. Since everyone agreed that pink with black is an interesting combination (and a favorite of mine, along with lime green - when I was seven, ha!) we went with that. The remaining orange one and the pair of skeletal flamingos really won't have that long to wait for their turn.

Besides, even if most of the flowers tend to be yellow and purple at this time of year, there are still plenty of pink ones for sale at the garden center.  

Finally, they were all set up in the perfect spot . . .

. . . until they got bored and decided to wander around.

Now, it seems like there are flamingos everywhere!

Maybe it's time for a game of croquet?

Thanks for stopping by!

Who's up for some summertime madness?

Procrastination and a Profusion of Peonies

Most of the planting and garden projects are finished so Burt and Kibitz have decided to take a little break and relax in the sunshine. Hope they get a good rest because weeding is next on the "to do" list. What am I saying? Pulling up weeds is ALWAYS on the list. 

  

So, now that summer is finally here, it's time to get ready for Halloween!

Just kidding! But I do hope I can keep these black petunias going until November.

This year I was expecting that a lot of the plants in my garden would have been killed off by the worse-than-usual, sub-zero temperatures of this past winter. 

Much to my surprise, not only did everything survive but the plants seemed to actually flourish in the cold and rainy spring that followed!  

Earlier, while the snow was still melting, it crossed my mind that it would be nice to have a few more peonies. So I got busy researching all the new colors and varieties that are available. 

Apart from being a current "it" fragrance on social media, they are pretty decent plants. I love them, they are totally foolproof and great at keeping the ants busy so they stay out of my house - for a little while anyway. As cut flowers they last awhile and it only takes a few to make a big statement. 

Their down side is that they attract little critters who like to hide between the petals. I always leave the cut blooms on the patio for a bit hoping the stowaways will take the opportunity to escape. We had a mass exodus once, an earwig, a spider and a couple of ants decided to vacate my centerpiece in the middle of a dinner party. I'll never forget watching the spider crawl out to the edge of a petal then gracefully dropped down to the tablecloth on it's thread. So cool and yet horrifying at the same time! Luckily, we were entertaining people who were so completely self-absorbed that they didn't even notice. Consequently, there was no screaming that night - apart from what was silently going on inside my head and that wasn't due to the bugs! Maybe it was a sign from Mother Nature that it's never a good idea to try to fit in with people you don't like.

As I mentioned before, following our crappy winter (thanks most likely to climate change - and I do mean "thanks" ironically) we were blessed with a cold and rainy spring that went on forever. All the peonies came up, made buds and then they just sat there, unopened for nearly a month.

Fortunately, once they finally got going, all at the same time, it was pretty spectacular! 

There were a few more plants than I remembered but they also produced way more flowers than usual. So many more that I didn't even get photos of them all! Was this another lesson from Mother Nature? Of course, now that all the sales are starting at the garden centers, I'm back to thinking it just might be possible to squeeze in one or two more.

It looks like Ivy's found the summer lights so it's back to work for Burt!

Meanwhile, Spenser is doing his best at his kitty job, snoozing in the sunshine.

Thanks for stopping by.

Hope everyone is having a beautiful summer.