Surprise Evening Out

Yesterday, a friend of mine (Janice) and her DIL (Angela) came by to see if I was interested in going to a performance in Valdosta. It was an annual Customer Appreciation event hosted by a local Christian Automotive store. They offered  food and various Christian/Gospel singers and a comedian.

It started at 6 pm and we didn't get back home till 11 pm. We all had a really good time and some great laughs.

Janice (R) is partially responsible for me having a car today since it was one of her friends who was selling it and she told me about it first.

This is Angie (L) who is a very sweet young lady.

Me and my stupid flat hair (pulled back) again because I didn't get a chance to get ready properly since it was having to leave "now-or-never" kind of a deal.

We met some very nice ladies who were sitting across from us. It was grandma (pictured here) her grand daughter and daughter - three generations of ladies enjoying an evening out.

Since it was Memorial Day weekend, it was a very patriotic affair honoring our flag and saying prayers for our men and women in the armed forces.

This singing couple is called "The Bridgemans" and they are from Cummings, GA.

This Gospel singing family called "New Tradition" is from Nashville, GA and they had a couple of girls in their group. The smallest one was just four years old and was a very good performer.

This last singer's name is Mike Upright and Janice is a big fan of his. She has all of his CDs and has met him before at another function. I wanted to take a photo of her and him together, but she was too nervous.

At the end they held drawings for all sorts of things, like gardening gloves, tires, gift certificates for car washes and oil changes, a big cooler caddy, steering wheel covers, a gas grill, turkey fryer and tools. Both Janice and Angie, won a small gift bag. We had so much fun! I almost didn't go, but I'm glad I went, only Gizzy was confused because I rarely leave him home alone for that long, especially at night. Needless to say, he was very happy when mommy came home.

Wishing you all a happy and blessed Memorial Day weekend!

Here's your cuteness for today!

This will start your day out right:

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone - and be safe! 

Banks Lake visit with Arlene

This morning I called my friend Arlene (the lady who makes the nice wooden Treasure Chests) to see if she wanted to go to Banks Lake National Wildlife Refuge with me and the Gizzy. She had been feeling under the weather and welcomed the opportunity to get out of the house. Now that I have a car, I can drive her around for a change. It's less than a mile from here, so off we went...

Here's Arlene holding the boy, squinting into the bright sun...it was already very warm at 9 am.

We took a walk out on the boardwalk to look at all the blooming water lilies. There are so many of them...

Arlene walked ahead while Gizzy dragged his "tail" so that I had to pick him up and carry him (he always does that here because I think he senses the alligators and dogs are alligators' favorite snacks.)

Here I am in my big, fat glory (and ugly, pulled back hair)... but I'm hoping that since I'm smiling and Gizzy looks so dog gone cute, there is redemption in this photo somewhere...

Arlene looking down onto the water lilies.

This is the very end of the short pier where people like to fish from. If you stand at the end of the railing and look out onto the rippling water, it feels like you're floating on a Pontoon or boat. I love it, but it makes Gizzy very nervous to be out here, so we didn't stay very long.

One more shot of my handsome boy.

The weather was iffy today, cloudy, rather windy and at times it even looked like rain, but no such luck!

Off in the distance there are fields upon fields of floating water lilies. I'm always impressed with the look of these Bald Cypress (or Swamp Cypress) trees growing right out of the water...I really like them!

After we returned, we were going to take a walk on the nature trail, but it was getting too hot and Gizzy just kept pulling towards the Outpost where he knows it's air conditioned and they have beef jerky...so, his Auntie Sandy (who runs the Outpost) gave him some water and fed him a beef jerky and then he floppped down on the cool cement and snoozed while the three of us talked - in between customer service.

It was a very nice little visit.

102 Degrees at noon...

...and we are NOT happy campers. In fact, the only thing I can do to cheer Gizzy up these days,  is to leave him alone for half an hour or so and then come back. That always gets him going for a few minutes before he's right back under my computer desk where he sleeps all day. When we do go out for a quick potty break, he hurries and stands by the door, waiting to go back in.

I like him on top of the little table next to the dining room window while I am on the computer so that I can see him and he can look outside if he wants to, but more often than not, he just sleeps. He's been sleeping a lot lately, but I suppose it's better than itching and keeping me up at night like he did a week ago.  He had Dermatitis and the Vet gave him a steroid injection which helped...eventually!

He loves his beefy sticks and in the photos below I'm feeding him one, ok, two:

Look, Gizzy, what moma got you...

A beefy-stick, your favorite!

Mmmm-mmmm, that was good!...now what?

Ah, yes! Zzzzzzzzzzz...........

I'm not really complaining because it could be worse - just look at those poor folks who are afflicted with the tornadoes. My heart goes out to them!

Until next time! Doris and Gizzy, over and out...Zzzzzzzzzzzz!

Sunflower Delight!

First of all thank you so much for the nice comments about my mother - that gives me hope that I might live to a ripe old age and look fairly decent.

And here's a recent picture of my Papa. He's a year younger than my mother and this photo was taken last year. My dad has been remarried for over 40 years and that's why I have a young, 37 year old sister, Dani.

I'm excited about all the commotion in the air and on the sunflowers today - namely bees of all sorts, moths, butterflies and dragonflies (to name a few) are all swarming around the crepe myrtle and my sunflower garden. Looking at all these pollinators froliking in the morning sun made my heart sing. A couple of times I actually had to duck because something big was coming at me ... just amazing wildlife right next to my apartment!

I live in an end unit (thank God) and this is my bedroom wall where otherwise another neighbor would live. I only have one, but she's enough (nuff said!)

This is a different variety of sunflower. It has extra large leaves and I think it will be a rust color - we'll see. Thankfully they are not opening all at once, but in phases.

The sunflowers are attracting so much attention that the roses below their towering stems are humbled in their shadow...I will have to go and fertilize everything today.

INCOMING! I didn't even realize I captured two bees in flight until I saw the photo on the computer. I couldn't have done better if I tried.

Here's a big ole bumble bee on a flower, but I've been seeing all sorts of bees, including the green carpenter bees..and various kinds of other flying insects buzzing around the sunflowers.

Here I got a two-fer! While I was trying to capture the bee on the foreground flower, I see that there are two others on the sunflower in the back as well...(you may have to double-click on the photos to make them bigger!)

To be honest, I was a bit disappointed at first because all the honey bees were on the nearby crepe myrtle and my sunflowers were not getting much action, but lately it has been a buzz fest out there...a free-for-all. I'm extra glad I deterred the Astro extermination guy from spraying my flowers and plants around my unit, because I don't care what they say, it's all poisonous. I have seen toads hopping in the flower beds, little green tree frogs and lizards on the front and back porch and they keep the bugs away better than insecticides.

I love this crepe myrtle so much - it attracts a lot of honey bees when it's in full bloom. My neighbor allowed her visiting adult children to butcher hers down to the trunk. I wanted to cry! I'm surprised management didn't fine her. She's of the old-school thinking that believes in "crepe murder" by chopping off all the limbs thinking it will come back better the next year. Well, that poor tree is barely producing green branches now while all the others are in full bloom; it simply doesn't have the energy to even think of blooming this spring. So sad! Maybe next year, if they don't chop it down again, it will get the chance to bloom again like it did every year before they butchered it. Nobody better come near my bushes/trees with a saw, I'll take the hose to them - LOL OK, ok! Yes, I'm a tree hugger and not ashamed to say it!

When I stood under that crepe myrtle, I heard and saw all that buzzing...when I snapped into the flowering branches, I captured some of the busy insects in flight without even realizing it. You'll have to click on the photo to see it better, but it was almost impossible to not capture some pollinator or another.

My heirloom roses are blooming in big, bright clusters. These are the ones I bought on MichiganBulb.com when I first moved in here (about 6 years ago) and they never fail. They bloom profusely and I always clip some to enjoy inside. I allow them to dry in the vase and they emit such a honey-like scent that they make the best potpourri.

I also installed a simple, inexpensive sprinkler system (three sprinkler heads on spikes with connecting hoses) so that I can just keep the ground moist till my Kohlrabi get bigger. I keep pinecones on the ground to deter stray cats in my little "garden" and it seems to be working thus far.

Here you see some Kohlrabi plants (inside the green wire) and in the foreground is the musk melon where I just buried some seeds in the ground right after eating a Cantaloupe just to see what would happen - well it's growing....and behind that is the lemon bush I had in a pot and finally set it free. It had one blossom that smelled heavenly and if I'm lucky, I may get one lemon this year! 

Last, but not least, I have to show you my boy, oh, boy, look at that:

"Ahem, excuse me, but you are in my chair!"

"Why are you holding my bunny?"

"MO-OM! Is she allowed to sit in my rocking chair????"

"Happy now, Gizzy?"

(Miss Dolly can sit in your chair when you're napping.)

And finally I'm having a Beanie Blowout in my Etsy shop. I'm offering free shipping on all my basic beanies through the end of May, 2011, many of which are just $10. Normally I offer my blogging friends a 15% discount, but on this deal I can't, because I am barely making a profit at all, but I want to move some beanies and I've got a lot of yarn! I finished this one last night. Please check out my Beanies and Hats Section in my Etsy Shop for more colors! Be sure to click on every listing because each listing has five different photos of more color choices!

Enjoy!