constance blackwood

*dies, wheezing*

I'm glad Operation:CuddleGracie was successfully executed. ♥

We have to talk Auntishness and visits and BSG!:O

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*resurrects you in time for Easter Week by stuffing you with chemicals*

Oh, Amy, she is fabulous. It is a fine thing to be an aunt. :D:D:D:D

And we cannot talk BSG until I catch up! I've missed several weeks in a row. I am a bad, bad fan.

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imkalena.livejournal.com

AHAHA POLLEN MESSAGES! THERE ARE MESSAGES IN THE POLLEN!

Don't spend too much money on pots of daisies if they're Shasta. The things spread like wildfire and reseed like crazy. They're so amazing they have infiltrated my entire back lawn -- they will crowd out grass. Simply leave them some room and scatter a couple packets of seed around them. You'll have more daisies than you know what to do with next year. :)

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Daisies and azaleas sound very cheerful. I am just so sick of impatiens everywhere. Bleah. One very satisfying annual to put in is cosmos. It's very gratifying to start something from a tiny seed that grows taller than your head in just a few months.

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I'm sick of impatiens, too! The way they're used in virtually every landscaping scheme around here, I've dubbed them "The World's Biggest Flower Cliche".

I second the cosmos. There's nothing more satisfying than tall, vigorous flowers, they sprout more quickly than any other flower I know, and they reseed themselves freely. Zinnias would be nice, too, and Heavenly Blue morning glories are splendid as well.

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I guess there'll be a locked post for those of us who adore baby-cuddling stories told in loving detail, right?

That pollen is unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. Does it come from everywhere, or is there one particular THING that's churning it out like that? We get sycamore pollen that sometimes gets thick, but not thick like what you've got. That's just unreal.

I'm hopping the next Greyhound with my post hole digger (let's hope buses aren't as picky about carry-on luggage as airplanes are) to help you with the gardening. Are you going to throw some seeds out, too? My sister's been casually sowing handfuls here and there while she's been out toddling around with her 2-year-old, and already has pumpkin seedlings, tomato seedlings, baby cosmos and a giant nest of nasturtiums. Your house would look lovely blanketed in vigorous annuals! I love daisies and especially azaleas; our house gets too much sun for azaleas, but I admire them on shadier properties. I wish I hadn't spilled all my spitting cucumber seeds behind the stove, or I'd send you some.

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Ooh, yeah, zinnias are so vigorous and colorful. I'd be careful with morning glories, though. They can really take over. I wish I could remember which of my friends once proposed to plant morning glories on one side of her yard and mint on the other and let the two of them duke it out.

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I am now having these visions of just seeding my entire backyard in annual wildflowers -- shastas amongs them, of course. (I found a place online where you can buy seeds by the pound, and I have visions of strewing them about and watching them take over my yard -- and, very importantly, never having to mow again.

*_*

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Ooh, there are cosmos in the gigantic seed packets I mentioned to

imkalena! Being a horticultural ignoramus, I had to look them up by picture, and they're very pretty. I think I must give that seed packet a try.

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I wonder if maybe they're more suited to your zone than mine? Around here, impatiens is more a potted sort of plant, AFAIK, than a bedding plant. (Admittedly, my knowledge in these matters is limited.) I kind of like them, though, for the same reason I like azaleas -- they're kind of blowsy and unstudied-looking.

I agree about tall, vigorous flowers (and especially those that are light on the maintenance. They give us laypeople a chance, too.

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hahahahahaha, your friend should totally do that -- or maybe I will! My lawn is in three terraces, and it might be good to try on one terrace and watch for results without having one or the other get too out of hand. The experiment would be more or less contained, in other words. :-?

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Oohhhh, you are more than welcome to bring your post-holer! I will keep you supplied with veggie wraps and iced tea.

And I wasn't planning on making another Gracie post -- but I will tell you all about my visit, and just make this comment a little mini-post. :D

She is quite beautiful, and just getting to the age where she is alert and becoming aware of her body in space. You can put her on a blanket on the floor and she'll entertain herself by wriggling, but she loves it when you participate -- she especially loves when you move her feet around in a little air-dance. And she coos and sings to herself, and smiles a lot, and sleeps a lot, and spits up a lot, and eats and eats and eats, just like a baby should.

She's also a little bit fussy, for what my SIL believes is no particular reason but which I suspect is related to my SIL's belief that babies must be basked in heat, like reptiles. She insists on keeping the house temperature set at 78 degrees, and insists on dressing the baby in long-sleeved footed onesies, and as a result, the baby has a constant heat-flush. I'd be cranky sometimes, too. (As a matter of fact, I was feeling pretty cranky, when I couldn't sleep on the last night in Gracie's airless little bedroom -- I only felt better when I opened the window wide, but don't tell anybody!) Considering this, I think she's a remarkably placid baby.

And here is a picture we took on a walk. She's not really swinging, of course, but we thought it made a nice picture.

Note the anarchy sign scratched on the swing. She is my little punk rock girl.

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Squee! What a cutie. And clearly made for rock 'n' roll. Maybe you can send her this (http://thecradlerocks.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=37) to wear on her play dates. As a professional aunt, I can tell you that it is our job to provide the experiences that the parents shy away from. Start them young.

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Man, impatiens are all over New York and New Jersey. They spread right out and fill in nicely, I will say that, unlike some other annuals that always seem gappy. But they're everywhere. The white ones aren't too forward, but just ugh.

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I meant perennial wildflowers. :(

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OH EM GEE I am totally getting her that Blondie t-shirt. :D:D:D:D:D My SIL's favorite singer is Shania Twain, and so I feel that influence must be countered with an immediate and healthy dose of Debbie Harry.

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I love the idea of morning glories and mint battling for world supremacy! You'd think by now there'd be something on YouTube featuring lots of time-lapse photography and a bitter struggle for the best spot near where the garden hose drips. :D

I've found that the perennial morning glories are really vicious power-seekers; they, along with that clock vine stuff, are the ones I always see climbing over entire buildings and up power lines. But I'll be darned if I can get the annual Heavenly Blue to get over its delicate flower self and cover even a good-sized fence. Maybe I'm doing something wrong!

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That is one succulent baby. I'd snorfle her little future neck region if I were close enough and your SIL wasn't looking.

And speaking of your SIL, she and my sister should form a "hot baby" club. I was babysitting my 2-year-old nephew recently and decided to change him from his jammies to an outfit, and I swear, peeling him down to his diaper took 15 minutes because he was wearing so many layers. (2 pairs of socks AND footie pajamas? In California? With the HEAT on at night?) I'd have been opening the bedroom window right along with you. Arrgh.

I'm glad you had a good time and that Gracie was lots of fun, and I appreciate the trip report. I thrive on the details, you know. :D

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snapetoy.livejournal.com

What an absolute honey she looks! I love babies; they're so much fun and you get to give them back when they grizzle if you're an aunt. :D Have fun gardening!

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I want to coo at her!

OK, I will wait. :X MUCH TO DISCUSS HOWSOMEVER.

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I vote for anything but forsythia. There's this monstrous forsythia bush by my parents' house and I've always disliked the unkempt, garish, somehow pubic scrub of flowers that come up every March. Ditto spirea. Talk about a mess!

New England pioneers thought lilac bushes planted in the corner of the yard kept ghosts out.

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:D:D:D:D:D:D

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I tend to associate lilacs with the northeast -- thanks, Emily and Walt -- and I'd love to grow them, but alas, it seems that lilacs don't like being this far south. They are upright Yankee plants. :(

Forsythia! Now, Forsythia grows heartily in my part of the world; in fact, the next town up from us has an annual Forsythia Festival which takes place just before our Cherry Blossom Festival, and is in fact called Forsyth, after, well, guess what. But I shall listen to your strictures and not even think of them! :-x

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*beams like the fond auntie she is* She is succulent, isn't she? And snorfle away; I doubt my SIL would mind in the least. She is justifiably fond of showing off her little one.

What is it with these people who seem to feel that babies don't become warm-blooded until later in life? One of my coworkers suggested that my SIL is probably the one who gets cold easily, and I think this is true -- but even C. doesn't wear footie PJs when the temperature in the house pushes eighty degrees. :/

Yay for thriving on details! I love telling you stories; I know you're always delighted to listen.

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Hahaha, this is true! I don't mind the grizzling so much, but it's nice knowing that if it ever gets to be too much, I can just return to my ultra-quiet house and decompress.

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Ahahahaha. How many flower festivals do you guys have down there, anyhow? :D

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