Kaseys Korner

proof positive

This past week I've spent a little time taking senior portraits for the daughter of a friend.  We had a lot of fun taking some chances and trying some different poses and I thank her for indulging me.  This one was just for fun and I'm only sharing because her face is turned away.  Today's digital world makes it easy to play with photos and get some fun results.  This one for example became instantly more dramatic and edgy just by taking it from color to black and white.  It looks like we had a wind machine on site and we sorta did ~ the mother nature variety!  Not the best time for a photo shoot, in the dead center of the day with the wind howling but we made the best of it.  Congrats MacKenzie on your new senior status! 

May Remembered

Sharing another layout from my garden scrapbook this morning.  This one created a year ago with a grouping of three favorite photos from the month.  All taken in my garden and all make an interesting comparision of what a different year 2008 has been.  This May, the burr oak is barely beginning to leaf out, I haven't seen a western tiger swallowtail yet and my centranthus ruber (Jupiter's Beard) is certainly not blooming.  Looking at the layout, I am happy I took the time to scrap it and for the information it provides.  Pictures, paper & decorative tidbits are my preferred way of documentation.  It's a little surprising to me that another May will have come and gone in seven more days.  I don't know how it slipped by so fast... I will spend some time this holiday weekend making sure I have the month recorded.  How will you preserve the memories of May 2008?

Refreshing Friday

After violent weather yesterday, (a tornado touched down & caused tremendous destruction very nearby) it's nice to start the holiday weekend off on a calmer note.  Skies are blue and cloudless, hopefully the atmosphere is more stable too.  I have finally gotten all my plants (well, there are a few stragglers but that won't take long to remedy) settled in the ground or in containers.  Now I'm hoping to enjoy a quiet Memorial Day weekend.   Enjoy!

Whiskers

The neighbors cat.  A shot from my latest pet sitting.  I have to say he was most cooperative, which is more than can be said about my own fur baby.  All I had to do was tell him how handsome he was and he was putty for my lens.  Lapping it up and giving me exactly what I wanted.  I LOVE it when that happens, don't you?!!

Cheerio

How are things??  Life is good here.  Busy, but good.  Been planting and trying to fit work in around that.  Priorities you know!  This time of year is really busy, isn't it??  I feel like I have a better handle on my yard once I get all my purchased & seed started plants in the ground or in containers.  Otherwise, I'm watering a zillion places, the garden, the containers & the trays (with the seedlings & plants left to be grouped in containers).  It's taking me longer this year because I'm trying really hard to think outside the box with my containers.  Considering texture, color, height, etc., before settling them in a pot.  oh, and putting thought into the actual pot shape, size, color, etc., too.  It's enough to wear a girl out.  A good kind of exhaustion, I hope it pans out.   I plan to post some photos once they all get settled in.  On that note, I better get back at it.  Toodles!

Ladybug Limbo

I interrupted an intimate moment yesterday when I spied a speck of red on my fence.  The red spot turned out to be two little ladybugs lost in the "limbo."  They didn't even budge when I put my camera lens scant inches from their teeny bodies.  I took my photo then backed away gently although it didn't appear I could disturb them.  Go ahead and do your thing ladybugs.  It's all good.  I want as many of you in my garden as possible!  :-)

sizzle, pop, burst

From an emerging diminutive mound to flat out spectacular is what seemed to occur with my clematis integrefolia this weekend when our temperatures took a dramatic turn upward.  Where did that come from??!  I'm used to a much slower evolution but I guess plants and humans alike were just waiting for a little heat.  I've learned to insert an obelisk over the emerging foliage early in spring to help keep the lovely rounded shape I prefer.  Otherwise, it sprawls all over and falls apart in the middle (kinda like its owner, but that's a whole 'nuther, much less fascinating story).  I have a long and interesting history with this perennial.  I first saw a photograph of it in Lauren Springer's book titled "The Undaunted Garden."  That was approximately 18 years ago, give or take a few??  On sight, I fell in love with its unique bloom and started obsessing about acquiring one for my own garden.  Not knowing where to search, I wrote to Lauren herself, inquiring where I could get one (pre-Internet days).  Unbelievably she promptly jotted me off a handwritten note with a source!!  Glory days!  The rest is history.  I bought myself one that week and the original plant has been with me thru four moves and three gardens, that's how much I love it.  It is amazingly tough as it survived (not sayin' thrived) in a container for two years (during a brief apartment stay).  I  wouldn't think of being without it.  Those pretty, nodding heads always make me smile.  Welcome back old friend! 

Oleander Gamble

Gambling is not my forte.  I don't have the stomach for it.  I guess I can't stand to lose.  But gamble is exactly what I did last fall on my double pink oleander (nerium oleander) and now, I see, I've lost.  I've lost it all.  It's completely dead.  Unless something comes back from the roots, it's over.  At the time, I was on the fence about how badly I wanted to save it.  (I only learned last summer how toxic the entire plant is) I decided not to haul it inside but rather to store it in the garage.  ugh.  I might add I was somewhat cavalier "if it lives, it lives, if it doesn't, oh well."  Why do we make these decisions only to regret them later?  Now I wish I had just hauled it down to the basement and stored it with the other half of my yard.  It wouldn't have been that much extra trouble.  As I was cutting it back, a little at a time last night, desperately looking for some "green" I wondered if I should search for another?? Thoughts??  Anyone have this shrub??  Love it, worry about its toxicity??   

luscious bouquet

Blooming lilacs give me pause.  How can anybody stroll, run, skip, jump, walk, or ambulate in any form, past a lilac bush in full fragrant glory and NOT pause?  The only way I know is if all five senses are completely defunct.  Most especially the sense of smell because oh la la, it's exquisite.  So exquisite that I pilfered this bouquet from an unknown persons yard.  *gasp*  Least you think I'm a completely thoughtless thief, I did attempt to seek permission first.  and I was actually considering the safety of other passersby as the intoxicating purple laden bush was impeding pedestrian travel along said sidewalk.  Okay, okay (hands in the air) I confess, that rationalization is WAY more altruistic than my real motivations!  Here's the truth ~ I'm blaming it on the "pause."  If I hadn't of paused, I could have resisted the temptation.  But I did pause. And all five of my senses do function properly.  And I've been waiting forever for my own buds to open, so I caved.  I see why Adam had no chance if I lose all self control over a bit of lavender heaven.  I'm hoping a few covert clips does not doom me to you know where...  Meanwhile here's a slice of my sap bucket brimming with the cache.

PS.  Forgive me for fabricating a colorful story.  My imagination got a bit carried away and I spun a "wee hours of the morning" tale just for the fun of writing it.  I did snip the blooms from someplace other than my garden but it was from a neglected bush in the back of a little used parking lot, not anyone's yard.  I hope no harm was done?  ;-)   

double trouble

Aren't these two of the cutest, happiest faces you've seen in quite the longest while?   Their "smiles" are so infectious.  One Corgi can keep you grinning the whole day but two of those active little energizer bunnies are totally over the top.  This picture is from a photo shoot I did over the weekend of my neighbors "granddogs."  You wouldn't believe what we went thru to just get a few good shots.  When you want one with both Corgis together, it's darn near impossible (especially considering they are only 1 & 2 yrs old)!  They ran circles around the yard for 30 minutes before we ever got this far.  If only there was a way to harness such vigor!   Sit girls.  Stay.  STAY.  Puh leeze Stay.  GOOD girls.  snap, snap, snap!  hooray!  gotcha!   What adorable little cutie pies.