Last week in pictures

Lowder-dog continued his constant quest for total relaxation.

 I spent lots of time in the computer lab with my seniors who are finishing final novel projects.

My attempt to dominate my landscaping continued; note the window boxes I'm planting even though serious weeding should be happening in the beds first.

Here's a metaphor for my gardening life - sh*& is always breaking at the most inconvenient of times!

 Date night pizza at Mellow Mushroom as we were entertained by a cool blues duo.

Raindrops on a dreary Saturday as I carted Kelsey to and fro from her various jobs because she was having some car trouble - she's always my baby, and mama likes to come to the rescue when I can.

What was your week like?

Election Day in KY

Today is primary Election Day in KY, and, as such, I'm out of school. (It's state law that we are out of school on Election Day since most schools are also polling places.)

After sleeping late, I have 50 sophomore documented essays to grade. I'd also like to get a little crafty. About 2:00, I'm heading out for a massage and will vote on my way home.

When does your state hold primary elections? Do you usually vote in those? Why or why not?

Tiff :)

Happy Little Planting Pots

Every year, I try to spend some time during Mother's Day weekend to plant the pots/baskets around my house with happy spots of color. Even though I'm hardly ever finished weeding and raking and mulching, this weekend is one where I like to pause and just do something fun in my landscaping. I battled a bit of an allergy headache during the day on Sunday, but I did make a start on planting my pots. My window boxes still aren't planted, but it will get done eventually. I'm trying not to stress about it too much. Here's a quick look at the ones I've finished thus far. 

What's going on in your garden or yard or landscaping? I'd love to hear; maybe you'll inspire me to get off my tush and get busy.

Operation Landscape Control

May, otherwise known as the time of year I must face the jungle my backyard has managed to become in the 45 days or so it's been since we last had snow... You might thing I'm joking, but things can get out of control back there quickly. My house lot is just under an acre total and is right in a neighborhood in the city limits, so it's not a lot of land. It is as much as I can possibly handle though.

Here's a strategically posed selfie from a couple of weeks ago; y'all can't tell that it's a jungle back there, can you? Well, it was - just in the areas you can't see. Hahaha!

This past Sunday, the fella came over, chainsaw in hand, and cut up three giant limbs that had fallen over the winter in my backyard. He chopped and loaded the heavy stuff into my lawn wagon while I picked up sticks and drove the wagon around to the curb for unloading. For three hours or so, we both worked pretty hard AND HE DIDN'T COMPLAIN, NOT EVEN ONCE!!! Do y'all know how rare that is? At least it has been with the men in my life prior to this point...lesson in point, right?

Of course, the chopping and stacking was really just step 1 in my 'reclaim the backyard' movement. On Sunday, I also worked on clearing the three inch depth of wet and decaying leaves off of my patio that had fallen since Christmas. The fella spent the rest of his time using giant handheld weedwhackers on the little trees and bushes that had sprouted up this spring season. Once we'd made a good attempt at that, I called it a day. I'd had enough manual labor evidenced by the beginning formation of callouses on my delicate hands. I wish I were joking.

Here's the ginormous pile of brush we accumulated to put at my curb. It was way bigger than it looks in this picture. (Why does that strike me as something a man might say? ;)...)

On Monday after school, I forced myself to come home that evening and mow the backyard. Who wants to do that after working all day? More importantly, who wants to do that on a beautiful weekend? Workday work was the winner then. I'm probably the only person you'll meet who mows her lawn in a dress from school, but I was like, "Why dirty up something else?" Yes, seriously. Time to get to work, I told myself. After all, I needed to chop up all those decayed leaves I'd swept off into the yard, and things were starting to get pretty bushy lawn-wise 'round back. I don't really mind mowing in and of itself. I have a riding lawnmower, so it can be a pretty Zen-like experience if I put in my headphones and just allow myself to be lulled by the sound of the blades and the scent of the fresh-cut grass. When the weather is mild, it's actually an enjoyable experience. (In July, when it's 104 degrees at 7 pm, I don't care for that Zen experience quite so much.)

Check out Charlie-dog watching me mow the grass as he hid in a flower bed behind the garage that has been sorely neglected. Yes, those are weeds all around him. I told y'all that my backyard was a work in progress, okay?  I don't get many pics of him because he's usually moving or doing something annoying, but I guess I love him a little bit.

As I mowed, I realized two important things.

First, my lawn is a veritable minefield of poisonous plants. Check out all the pesky plants of evil poison I found as I cut the grass. (At least I'm pretty sure they're poisonous. Isn't it, leaves of 3 leave them be and leaves of 5 cause you to hive? Idk how accurate that is, but they just look like they're itching to, well, make me itch.) Have I ever told y'all about the time I had poison ivy for THREE FRIGGIN' MONTHS one summer? Oh, no? Well, we'll save that for another rant at another time. (And yes, I do see a lot of leaves there too. Dang those giant trees of mine! I never get all of the leaves picked up.)

What in the world should I use to get rid of them? I'll have to wear long sleeves, long pants, socks, and gloves to even try to treat the dang things. I'm THAT allergic to yard fauna and flora.

Second, my peonies are starting to bloom. Happy, happy, joy, joy. The bud that hasn't fully opened makes me happy, but I love that fully opened flower the best. They're just a fabulous shade of blush, almost like the color of a newborn's cheeks. If I could just figure out how to totally denude the peonies of ants without denuding their blossoms, then my life would be complete. Also, notice how I managed to use nude twice in the sentence just before this one. I crack myself up because I'm 12 years old on the inside...on a good day. Let's face it: I'm afraid to bring the flowers indoors because of the ant factor. I'm soooo not a fan of critters.

Sidebar - anybody ever notice how risque the stamen and pistil of a flower are? I guess I'd never really thought about it. Wowsa - it's getting like National Geographic up in here. ;)

On the happy note of peonies, I think I'll stop my update of Operation Landscape Control at Maison de Lowder. This weekend, I plan to continue to beat my yard into submission. Stay tuned for another update soon!

Peace out my gardening peeps.

What was your Sunday like?

today, I did a lot but accomplished almost nothing. It was a dreary, rainy, chilly day here in KY - perfect for a bit of lazing.

Started the day at the fella's house with orange sweet rolls and Battlestar Galactica.

Stopped by Dollar General on the way home for a Coke and ran into a former student during my walk of shame - party clothes, smeared makeup, crazy bed head, wristband from concert, and all. Lovely, as you can well imagine.

Watched two episodes of Grey's Anatomy & washed/dried two loads of laundry.

Took a midday nap with Lowder-dog.

Mopped dining room.

Cleaned & mopped hall bathroom.

Watched two episodes of Criminal Minds.

Washed and dried two more loads of laundry. (Haven't put any of it away though.)

Surfed the Internet.

Bathed and changed clothes finally - like 4:00. Haha!

Changed bedding and picked up my bedroom a little bit.

Went to the grocery.

Cooking dinner for the fella - homemade nachos.

Plan to veg in front of the tv tonight.

Didn't make it to Mass, didn't finish laundry, didn't scrapbook, but it was still a very lovely Sunday here at my house.

Peace out!

My 10 Fave Instagram Pics from 2015

On the last day of March, I thought it might be fun to look back at my top 10 fave pics that I posted on Instagram in the first three months of 2015.  Most of these are the IG version, so please excuse any graininess. A couple are the unaltered files that are rectangular instead of square. If you already follow me on IG, these will look familiar. If not, feel free to follow me @lowdertiff. (Yes, I follow back.)  It's a pretty good mix of people and places and things, I think. I'm trying to do better about not only posting selfies. Hahaha!

Merry end of March, people. I think spring is finally upon us.

Wordless Wednesday - Frozen March in the South

Here was my view last week after the second big snow event our town had in less than two weeks. While it wasn't as bad as our 12+ inches of snow of two weeks before, a full 5+ inches fell and shut down our little town again. We missed school on Thursday and Friday, and I didn't leave my house from Wednesday afternoon until Saturday night. I'm so ready for spring; who's with me?

The backyard 'swinging' tree from when Kelsey was small

My back deck

Looks like I won't be using my grill this week

 The view from the front door - notice you could at least see where the road was by Thursday afternoon

And another view from the front door

Charlie-dog was willing to play in this snow a little bit

And a kind of cool bridge photo that I snagged from a friend on Facebook

All hail spring!

Snow in the South? Um, nope, thanks though

We do not get much snow in Kentucky; this snowstorm, in fact, has beaten all the records held here since 1968. The official snow depth at the airport (about a mile away) was over a foot of snow.  Yeah. Here's the view from my front door as of Monday afternoon. I thought y'all might like seeing a little bit about our storm and how I've managed during that time with the pups.

Here's a view of my patio set from the back door. Isn't the happy umbrella incongruous with the weather happening here? It kind of makes me laugh.

Another view from the front door looking down my street to the left...

And here's a view toward the slight right - it snowed for about 15 hours straight Monday.

Charlie-dog didn't want to get his feet wet in the snow, even though he kept coming out of the doggie door in the back.

There was a tiny path where the overhang of the gutters protected the dirt. Charlie-dog trekked that path to use the restroom and avoided wet feet in the process.

Apparently, one of my flowerpots fell off the patio during the weekend; it's the extra large size from WM or Target - notice the snow is deep enough to almost bury it completely.

Here's a side view of the patio. I tried throwing the ball to entice Charlie-dog to come play in the snow with me (mainly so I could take pics), but he wouldn't comply. He looked at me like I was crazy...

Yeah, he was ignoring me basically. Lovely side view of the grill here with snow mounded atop of it.

Notice that you cannot see the road at all. Not even a hint of blacktop. Idk what made those footprints since I hadn't been out yet. Maybe a giant squirrel? I shudder to think of it.

I quickly realized that Lowder-dog would not be going outside willingly unless I let him go out the front door. Adapting to the situation like a champ, he found a bit of a plant as a place to do his business. Notice he does not look happy. This was actually early in the day Monday; as the day progressed, he couldn't go to that spot anymore because it was over his head!

Ignore the snowflakes and wet nose prints on my glass and look how cute they are! I had shut the front door to keep the house from getting too cold, and they panicked at the thought of being left outside. As if!

Here's a shot of the backyard on Tuesday morning. Notice the drifting of snow as the wind had been blowing rather hard.

Tuesday morning shot of my road. Again, I don't see any asphalt; do you?

Here's a glance out of my studio window on Tuesday afternoon. I can see a little bit of my road since the sun has been shining. Fewer than 5 vehicles passed by today, and I live on a main thoroughfare of our neighborhood. There are lots of little squirrel and doggie footprints in the yard in this pic.

Here are some of my footprints on the patio in the snow. I was shocked at how deep the snow was, even after seeing all the pics and comments on social media. This is more snow than I've ever personally experienced in my life. I didn't take a pic of it, but the fella stopped by on Tuesday afternoon to see me after having to attend a funeral. He backed his car into my driveway and stayed pretty close to the road, but he still got stuck. It took 3 grown men pushing and me driving for 20+ minutes to get him out of my driveway. Then, on his way home to his house, he got stuck twice more and spent more than 2 hours digging his car out before he finally made it home. Can you imagine? Granted, he drives a little car, but that's still just crazy stuff. Needless to say, we did not have a date night that night as planned. We've only been able to talk on the phone since Sunday night; I'm missing him.

Thanks to our neighborhood facebook group, I arranged for some teenagers to come shovel my driveway on Wednesday morning. They were junior high age, so I didn't know them personally, but I did know their older siblings. For $24, they shoveled my driveway and a path from my front door to the driveway as well.

After they'd worked. I had them take their shoes off and come in to get warm before they headed off to their next job. It was a balmy 18 degrees at this point, but the low forecast for tonight is -11. (That's not the wind chill; that's the actual air temperature. Keep in mind that I live in the South.) Anyway, we chatted about weather and BGHS and world travel as they drank mocha coffee from my Keurig. Hey, I don't have hot chocolate since I don't have little kids. They were super polite and respectful and just impressive kids all around. I'm so glad I have a contact person in case I need yard work or help with other things around the house. I sent them over to my 90-something neighbor's house, Miss Daisy, across the street so they could work for her as well. As I suspected, she had them shoveling in no time. :) I bet they made a killing in our neighborhood this week since many of the residents are elderly. (I'm not elderly, but this girl does not shovel.)

After they left, Charlie-dog decided to go on a bit of a walkabout. He was so excited by the prospect of being able to travel further than 5 feet from the front door. He paraded down the driveway and then down the street and then into several different neighbors' driveways while I called his name and cajoled him the entire time. My right and left hand neighbors happened to be out with their dogs at the same time, and they joined the chorus for Charlie-dog to come home.

After his walkabout adventure, he finally returned home. Charlie-dog is no fool; he knows exactly where his toys and food and warm bed are located.

After the taxing few minutes they each spent outside, it was time for some snuggles on the chaise lounge and another long nap for each of them. I've spent the last few days taking naps and watching tv and getting crafty, and I've enjoyed every minute of it thus far. If it weren't so cold and miserable, these would be the perfect snow days. Hahaha!

I hope you are safe and warm wherever you are. Winter will come to an end eventually, right? That's the thing that gives me the most hope right now. :)