Friday, June 22, 2007

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Today Em gets her stitches out. I took the bandage off this morning; a moment I've been dreading. It's not as bad as I feared it might be, but neither is it my beautiful unblemished child of five days ago. But I'm hopeful: I'm thinking regular application of lavender essential oil in some Vitamin E will work wonders.


Please note the lack of any bruising or bumping -- and for that we thank homeopathic Arnica, administered within half an hour of the accident and again at bedtime.

As to Mr Half-Soled Boots, a biopsy was performed on Tuesday morning, but we haven't received the results. Officially, we don't even have a diagnosis yet, although the heavy-dose steroid treatment is in full swing (wow, there goes Mr HSBoots, leaping tall buildings in a single bound!!). Thank you for your prayers and good wishes. And I must say it was a novelty to receive 17 actual comments. I felt faint for a minute when I saw that.


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Now that I'm home and everyone is recovering, I am starting to feel a bit more Myself. I have a lot to do this summer, once summer actually begins (and yes, I know it was the solstice last night - doesn't change the fact that I have the heat on today, people). I have put a few things into the island bed:



and am quite happy to see these for the first time in two years. The deer got them last year but I carefully fenced them this time. Take that, you ravenous bastards.



I'm in high hopes that with a few days of sun I will see my echinacea purpurea magnus open...I can't wait for that.



Also, I should have a few shasta daisies soon. There's a story behind this. I put these in a year ago, but didn't get any flowers on them because they were first-years. I was very excited to see them this spring, and watched with glee as they got higher and higher. One day a month or so back, I came home from somewhere and did my routine check of the garden. I was devastated to see all my shasta daisies cropped off close to the ground. I stood there in shock, and of course started cursing the deer in every tongue I know (so, English). Mr HSB came to the door, saw me, and said, "Oh.....so those weren't weeds, then." Apparently that's what I get for nagging my husband to please, please weed-whack the edges of the driveway. Luckily, a few of them hadn't really stuck their necks out yet, and those ones have grown and put out a few tentative flowers.


Lastly, I was pleasantly surprised to see the first flowers I've had on my rambling rose. When we moved into this house I thought it was one of those little volunteers that don't put out blooms, so for two years I tried (and failed) to rip it out from amongst the root base of the ornamental cherry in which it grows. Last year I didn't quite get all of the branches cut, and Lo and Behold, roses. I looked it up, and it turns out that particular plant is a biennial, which means it blooms on last year's canes. Trial and error, people: this is why learning to be a gardener is a lifetime study.




Tomorrow (yes, really: tomorrow edit: make that today), I'll show you what I've been working on, needle-and-thread wise.

4 comments:

clumsy ox said...

Glad to see you guys returning home to some relative normalcy (as you know, everything is "normal" for some sufficiently lenient value of "normal").

We're still praying for Mr. HSB and y'all.

And your baby will doubtless recover fully with sufficiently large doses of home-remedy-quackology

Anonymous said...

I love those roses - not least for their name. Baby girl's face looks much better than I thought it would, too - it seems like it will heal very well, and not leave much of a scar. Boy, it's a good thing they make children out of resilient materials. All that bouncing around on their heads they do...

And oooof on the delayed diagnosis. If I didn't know better, I'd say Mr. HSB's doctor was in league with a gastroenterologist trying to drum up more business by giving all of you ulcers.

Shan said...

Lizbon....ha ha ha!! Good one!

It's sure working on Mr HSB.

Clumsy: I bought a few live chickens to take to Tony for sacrifice next week. That scar should clear up in no time.

Cynthia said...

Glad to hear things are settling down a bit. I love your Google list -- has it worked?

Those stockings are great! I'm planning on working on my tree skirt next month (Christmas in July, hah). The slow progress is not exciting but I want the finished object while my kids are still young enough to be thrilled.