Love of Hosta

I love hosta, there are about 50 to 70 species, but the number of varieties from these runs into the thousands.  Above is my Winter Snow.

Here is my Twilight I have also planted George Smith on my Simla Patio, Paul's Glory by my Oak Patio and Winter Snow by my garage door.  I saw one variety called Mouse Ears, it's a tiny curled leaf variety, the one I saw was at an expensive nursery so did not buy it, but will keep it in mind, love that name.

Hosta seem to do well in my gardens, I have them in pots too, they come through our winters very well even in the pots.  I love them because they are a perennial, and have those wonderful leaves all summer, along with a flower later on in summer.  Such a lovely backdrop in a garden.

Isn't this the prettiest little columbine?  I do love them so dotted throughout my gardens in various forms.

A little iris.

My new hydrangea.

Zarzamora Blackberry, Zarzamora is the name of this blackberry, but actually is the Spanish word for blackberry.  I should have fruit this year, I think this is the second summer.

I just planted this Heritage Everbearing Raspberry which is a favorite for its flavor, firmness, and large fruit size. This bush has two harvest seasons with a moderate yield in July and heavy yield in September until frost. Self-pollinating, dark red raspberry that spreads fast and produces a crop in the first year. Extra-sweet, juicy fruit that is good fresh, canned or frozen. A hardy plant doing well in the cold climates where other raspberry may not grow. Self supporting. 5' to 6' tall.

I planted this down from my blackberry, but then I read you should not plant blackberries and raspberries within ten feet of each other, so I will have to look into that.
 

One of my grape vines.

Cherry tree, although the birds seem to get to the fruit before I do.

Just a view things going on in my garden.

Christy

Net Yarn Shawl

I'm trying to think what to name this shawl.  The boy said "mum it looks like something that would come out of the ocean."  Maybe 'Ocean Depths' or 'Wave' I don't know, but here is the finished crocheted shawl that I said I would show you.

It's very flouncy and full, so I think needs to be worn with something quite plain, so here again in my French navy linen shift dress, I think this shawl goes very nicely with this.

I have to start another one, sit down, take photos and write the pattern up.

Christy

Rob's 2014 Graduation Professional Photos

These are the professional photos of Rob in low ress.  I think I will buy the top photo, will look at the packages offered.  The background on the photos below are too dark with the black gown and cap.

A mum can boast right?  Rob ticked every academic box that was written on the programme, one being Honor Student which was on his stole.

Christy

What's Going On?

Today I went out at lunch time and bought five different hosta to plant in pots in the garden, they seem to make it through the winters very well.  I have spoken to several people and they all lost their butterfly bushes this winter for some reason.  I guess the combination of rain, snow and freezing did not suit them.  I had three and lost all three.  Some people’s lilacs did OK, but mine did not, and were nowhere near their normal glory.  I also treated myself to a fuchsia; I do love them but have not bought one for several years.  This one is deep purple and deep pink, will hang somewhere near my back door on a shepherds hook.

Last weekend we did yet more cleanups, but really the work in a garden never ends, but I do like it under control.  I just remembered I should have bought cherry tomato plants; I will just have to make another trip.  Jack gave me several plants and they are all in, but no cherry toms and I do like them, plus they produce much earlier.  The little tree rats are sooo bad, known as squirrels.  After I planted flowers in pots on my patio, they were into every pot digging; I had to replant several flowers that had been uprooted and not just once.

I have been working on my crochet skirt to match the circular shawl that I made.  I have started this skirt four times.  The first time I was a long way down, undid that, two nonstarters and now I’m on my fourth try, I think this combination of crochet stitches will work.  Just very plain, will put a scalloped edging around the bottom in a slightly different shade of grey that I have left over from the shawl, if I have enough to go all the way around.  It’s been cool enough that I have felt like crocheting; in fact it’s been cool enough to have the gas fire on.

I am still working on my Japanese flowers, and will make these into a shawl, I have to work out how I am going to do that, I am thinking some kind of green leaves and chains.  I want to get some more yarn in different colours, but will probably have to send away for it as they do not have all the colours that I want at the shop.

I want to de clutter, but need time to do so and that is something in short supply.  I am thinking of the garage and a yard sale.

We just got the second quote in for the furnace and are still waiting for another one, but now we have reached critical mass as the furnace cannot be started at all and we have been without hot water since Saturday.  I told Rob to take a shower at the gym.  Mr. B. and I will have to figure out something soon, let me say we are washing but with hot water heated up in the tea kettle, oh yes, it’s all very primitive.  Thank goodness it is not the middle of winter. 

Still trying to work out with the oil company who disconnected our furnace after looking at it for a routine service and then three weeks later decided to deliver us a whole tank of oil at over $700.00, and they think we need to pay for it, or we are in breach of contract and will have to pay that too, at $400.00.  Mr. B. is working on this.  I told them to come and suck it out.  Does anything in this world make sense?

Still reading Into The Whirlwind and Within The Whirlwind by Eugenia Ginzburg.  I think I like the second book somewhat more.  There is a movie that combined the two books with Emily Watson playing the lead.  I would like to try and find that movie.  Now that is an era where one did not try to make sense of anything, because it was crazy.  One person was bragging to Eugenia that he had the good sense to get caught for embezzlement and given a ten year sentence, in 1935 and if he had waited just another year they would definitely have had him as a political prisoner and sent him to the mines and that would have been far worse than his sentence at the hospital, to go to the mines was a death sentence.  One never knew what to expect in Stalin's Russia.

The Boy bought himself a reconditioned MAC he has been using my laptop all these years.  In fact he wanted the slightly older version because of some video card that was in it and not in the latest version.  He had it for about two weeks, uploads and adds all the short cut keys, when he noticed that the keyboard was not working properly.  So phones Apple and they immediately send out all the packing, including tape for the MAC to be shipped back.  After three days he gets it back, still the same problem, he is very upset.  Phones Apple, they track it and it seems that FedEx never delivered it just sent it back to Rob.  He was happy about that.  So off it goes again to Apple and they put a brand new keyboard in, and something else they thought was not correct and he is now a happy camper.  At least their customer service stands behind the name, which is more than some companies do.

Christy

New York City Library

Come step into the New York City Library, what a place to read a book.  Above is the entrance lobby.

Looking down onto the lobby area.

Climb two flights of stairs, yes I do remember this it was at the end of a long day.

View of the Empire State building through the window.

How I wish this was my public library.

Look at the detail in the tables.

There is this reading room and the other side of the wood divider is another large reading room, along with many smaller specialized reading rooms, such as law etc.

Outside view of the NYC Public Library.

Setting sun on the Empire State Building.

Christy

Graduation Time Montgomery County Community College 50th Anniversary

Well the big day is here and Rob graduates from College.  He will be going on from here to University, so actually will get to graduate yet again. MCCC was founded in 1964 and is a community college.  These have come a long way from their humble beginnings.  Not only was it Rob's graduation but it was the 50th Anniversary of the College.  It was first located in Conshohocken as an annex from the High School there.  In fact when they started some people even threatened to blow them up, because of the word Community, it was during the height of communist paranoia.  Do not use the words social and community over here, for fear one is a communist.  In 1974 they bought an old farm and moved out to the country, Blue Bell, which now is a very expensive area to live in, so a lovely setting for the college.

You can see the tent in the background which was huge, there were 500 graduates, so I would say that the tent sat between 2,000 to 2,500 people, it had to.

Above you can see the back of their gowns, Rob wore a maroon tassel on his cap, and a silver stole, one side said Honors Program and the other side had the college emblem. Rob does assure me that he has photos of himself in his gown, because I have none.  By the time we met up with him after the three hour program, he was so hot that he had ditched the cap and gown, and only had the stole on him.

It was a lovely evening the program started at 7:00 PM and ended at 10:00 PM with a greet ones guests afterwards.

The orchestra play throughout the evening, Pomp and Circumstance, etc.

Here are some of the faculty in their gowns and of course all those different colours and stoles mean something.

Above is the current president, photo taken off one of the giant screens.

Above you can just see Rob on the screen bottom right.

They had lights trained on the roof , 50th Anniversary and Montgomery County Community College.

All the sweets from the culinary school at the college.  I did get a French macaroon, they were delicious.

Savoury buffet.

The Boy and Mr. B, proud dad.

The Boy and his proud Mum.

Still waiting for the official photos.

It really was a very nice graduation ceremony.  Two down one to go.

Christy