Be of Good Cheer December 2014

Here are the Amaryllis gifts I put together yesterday. I have them all lined up on the stairs to keep them out of the way till Christmas. Pretty much all the containers were picked up used or at very discounted prices. So 1st level is a used metal stand and terra cotta pot. I picked the stand (painted a pretty ugly gold) and well used pot at the Garden Club fund raising holiday luncheon, it didn't sell so I got it free. Ric gave it a coat of black paint and I know my friend (a lover of all second hand stores and wrought iron) will love it.
Basket and glass holder on the second level came from Salvation Army Store, the 2 vases on the 1st & 2nd level came from AC Moore (1/2 price). The basket on the 3rd level from Michaels (1/2 price) has 2 Ams in it and Anchor Hocking Jars with lids (70% off) to hold the ams. The 4th level wire basket from Homegoods with an Anchor Hocking jar. Then the Black utensil holder also from Homegoods and the glass jar (Salvation Army).
I tucked some 1/2 price netting into the spaces between the jars and the baskets.
All the pretty Ams came from Critters Co-op, so I have a bevy of lovely gifts at bargain prices.

I forgot to mention that these gifts are usually given along with gift certificates and other gifts so the low price of them let me give a little more without the extra expense and I have something nice to give rather than just handing them a gift card.
Oh, I got a little carried away with the Co-op so I have 3 ams potted up for myself and and I am putting 3 of them back in storage for another week or two, trying to spread out the blooming time.

Very nice!

Well done Holly! I like the shape of the AC Moore vases they could go on a table and still leave plenty of room for food and they don't look tippy at all. Can't tell what they are made of though...?

Your friend will love the black metal urn...what a great freebie! I can envision lots of different plants displayed in it. Way cool. I like your name tags. too.

Glad you have some 'extras' for yourself. Amaryllis can be such dreamy flowers.

I understand that there are 'early', 'mid' and 'late' blooming varieties of Amaryllis (just like tulips and daffs) so they can all be started at the same time but come into bloom in a season extending sequence. I googled it once but don't have the reference saved.

Holly--

Very decorative--and my kind of shopping....Discounts and Thrift Shops.

I have a lot of ceramic outer pots of many colors that, say, Orchids come from
at the HD. Your tall vases (level 1&2) made me think of these.

They are kind of useless to plant in, as they have no drainage hole.
But--an Amaryllis bulb would not be watered all that much--so they would look nice.

I just collect them when bell is throwing plants out. WITH their permission, of course.

I need to wait until beg of March for mine to bloom. Just in time for my B-Day.

G.

Coleup and Gita you are both right. The vases are heavy made for some type of clay, glazed on the outside and without any hole in the bottom.

THose orchids, when they come in a plastic perf pot that fits snugly into the ceramic. I actually think they're great for orchids. my new method which seems to work well, is to soak the whole pot a few minutes, then drain, maybe weekly. So those ceramic and plastic nesting pots are perfect. Otherwise I have to put the orchid pot into a plastic bowl or pail and it takes a lot more water to soak, and sloppier to deal with after.

So, hm, Gita, if a couple plastic/ceramic combos happen to fall off the dumpster...

OOPS! And land right into sally's hands?

Any color preference? Or--NON-preference?

Need to make a note--or I will forget...
G.

No preference, and just a couple to have on hand as my orchids grow. If you see them, you'll think of me! Don't make it a stress item.

Me stress???????????? NOT over a couple pots...
G.

We've upgraded the cheer here with putting up a fresh Xmas tree. Smelling the pine! We bought it from the vendors at a big produce place, they are getting ready to pack up- 25$. Nice and full.

We always buy our trees at Home Depot; they're always very fresh and their prices would be hard to beat, I think.
I finished decorating our tree yesterday. I didn't put all of our decorations on it, but the thought of having to take off every one I put on encouraged me to stop and put the rest away.

Our last couple came from our local Ace Hardware. They buy from the place we used to go to, to cut our own. It's funny, as the cost is the same as if we traipse over hill and dale, or stand on the asphalt the day after they were cut. Nice Frasier furs, and up to the stress of 2-3 weeks in water.

Tree is finished all but the crystal icicles. JR came over and helped on Sunday. We had a great time listening to Christmas music and baking cookie bars.
This thing is close to 9ft.
JR thought we should watch Sharknato while decorating the tree..........NO

Lovely tree Holly! JR is so tall! Glad grandparents still have some veto power lol. Sounds like JR might enjoy something my 8yo dgs found really great in the Christmas Care Pkg I sent up there.
Each year we send a box filled with art supplies, books, little projects or interesting things to keep kids 'entertained' and busy and out oif parents's hair pre Holidays. We usually include yard sale finds and used books. This year our 'score' were several books from the 'Adventures of :Captain Underpants' series from these titles:

# The Adventures of Captain Underpants (1997)
# Captain Underpants and the Attack of the Talking Toilets (1999)
# Captain Underpants and the Invasion of the Incredibly Naughty Cafeteria Ladies from Outer Space (and the Subsequent Assault of the Equally Evil Lunchroom Zombie Nerds) (1999)
# Captain Underpants and the Perilous Plot of Professor Poopypants (2000)
# Captain Underpants and the Wrath of the Wicked Wedgie Woman (2001)
# Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 1: The Night of the Nasty Nostril Nuggets (2003)
# Captain Underpants and the Big, Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy, Part 2: The Revenge of the Ridiculous Robo-Boogers (2003)
# Captain Underpants and the Preposterous Plight of the Purple Potty People (2006)
# Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Re-Turn of Tippy Tinkletrousers (2012)[3]
# Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers (2013)[4]
# Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000 (2014)[5

He was so excited and read an entire one complete with sound effects to me over the phone! Though initially skeptical to these books (tsk tsk) I can see their appeal and I laughed out loud numerous times during his reading. Especially liked the way the toilets that were eating everyone and everything in sight were finally defeated by pouring gallons and gallons of cafeteria food (creamed chipped beef) into them until they were totally stopped up.

Seems cheer comes in many sizes and forms.

Beautiful tree, yes JR is getting so big! wow.

coleup, there's a lot there I didn't even know about, must be the whole series! Dav Pilkey is so silly and fun, one of my favorite kid authors. I think humor is underrated intellectually. What a great sneaky way to teach vocab like preposterous to an 8 yr old.

Hehehehe. I may have to check out Cap't Underpants.

Pretty tree, Holly

Isn't it amazing how fast kids grow up?

We can't keep JR in books. He flies thru them. Not just the newer kids books but the classics like Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe and some adult SciFi.

I was always lost in books. I still love to read.

I am the only one in my original family that is NOT a reader.
I "read" magazines....newspaper articles (very selectively), but not books.

I think it is that i am very slow at reading--just about as fast as i speak.
Then I loose track--and my brain kicks into other thinking--but my eyes keep on reading.
Then I realize I have 'read" a whole paragraph but have NO idea what was in it. (ADH)
Have to go back to catch up. This was very hard in my College courses.

Cannot do the eye-scan and flash through a page in 2 minutes type of reading...
Soooo--I do not read. I GARDEN.

G.

Since I got my Kindle, that weighs almost nothing, I've become a voracious reader, nearly to the point of distraction. 2-3 novels a week, most of the time. Mostly fiction steeped in historic, geographic, and traditional facts, Mitchner easily come to mind. I can also easily consume a Nat. Geo. or Smithsonian, cover to cover. When we travel, I love to read about the place before and while there to get the feel of the people and things we encounter. With an understanding of the people, traditions and local historic places makes the escape all the more fulfilling. To actually feel the ambience of your environment, enriches the whole experience.
My friend, whom we often travel with, says I should be sent as the "advanced party", when we travel to make everyone's trip better, but by the end of 2 weeks he is warning, "watch out he's going native". LOL I take that as a compliment.

I wanted to post this pic of our shore birds. Ric thought they needed a bit of Christmas cheer, I think they look adorable.

Those look really nice, Holly!

I've been taking advantage of this wonderfully warm weather by doing some direct sowing, a nice way to relax after a busy Christmas with ups and downs.

On the up side, my oldest DD came for a visit from Utah; her boyfriend was able to spend a few days with us; and most of the presents I picked out were hits.

On the down side, my father was in and out of the hospital in South Carolina with heart and lung problems caused by a viral infection. He's doing better, but might need a month of rehab after he's released. Fortunately, we already had tickets to fly to South Carolina and were able to see him and help him and my mother.

I got food poisoning from something I ate at a holiday party and felt crappy for a week, and it rained pretty much the entire time we were in SC! Not exactly the ideal Christmas, but it could have been a lot worse.

Oh boy Muddy! Hope your dad continues to get better and doesn't hate rehab.
You sounds REALLY ready for some relaxing seed sowing.

I felt very ' cheerful' with our recent sunny days, and today's mild temps. I sowed columbine. I was also cheered by a bunch of foxglove seedlings, and tiny tips of daffodil- spring is right around the corner!

well, around the corner and down just a few doors ...

Praying your dad's rehab goes well and that you are feeling better.

Imagine, spring around the corner!

Thanks, Sally and Jan.

It was so nice to have warm sun this morning, and the afternoon mist wasn't too bad.
I sowed seeds for white and purple coneflower, cardinal flower, Culver's Root, Bugbane and, most importantly, seeds for "Kate's Sunflower", a western sunflower growing in my daughter's yard in Utah.

You all make me want to go outside and sow some seeds too....
just don't know which ones and where...

I love Cosmos--wonder if they would do well in my YUK bed???
I have lots of Cone Flower seeds--could I throw some down now?
The ones I planted have not done diddly.

Would, what is left of winter,count enough as striation?
I seldom have sowed seeds on purpose--should try it...
I know I will be pulling up hundreds of Butter daisies. Never again!

Sally--do you prepare the beds in any special way--or just go out
and throw some seeds around?

Yesterday--it hit 60* here--and I went out and finished mulching all the plants
that I MEANT to mulch--but never got to it. That was all I did that counts as "gardening'...
...
Just had to recover from my lengthy trip to NJ. Drove about 460 miles total--
plus putting up with all the festivities and pigging out. Arriving late (my fault).
Being with my sister is always stressful. That will never end....

OK! The HD was almost dead today! Almost no people in the afternoon--
as the Ravens were playing. They WON! GO RAVENS!!!!

Gita

I love how the roads are empty when the Ravens are playing.

Gita, I raked off leaves, and scratched up the soil surface a bit. Just don't ask me if that's exactly HOW I was supposed to sow columbine seeds. I figure, they grow by themselves with NO help, so it seems a reasonable guess.

A friend just sent me this explanation of The 12 Days of Christmas:

"From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote this carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning: the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code word for a religious reality which the children could remember.

-The partridge in a pear tree was Jesus Christ.

-Two turtle doves were the Old and New Testaments.

-Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love.-

-The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke &John.

-The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament.

-The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation.

-Seven swans a-swimming represented the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit--Prophesy, Serving, Teaching, Exhortation, Contribution, Leadership, and Mercy.

-The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes.

-Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit--Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self Control.

-The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments.

-The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples.

-The twelve drummers drumming symbolized the twelve points of belief in the Apostles' Creed".

Interesting!

Added a whole new dimension to the song!

I'm a skeptic--------------
I wonder if this is real--or someone's creation, like people that create 'forwards",
that encircle the globe in 2 days or get 2 million hits on Facebook in 2 hours.???

Just wondering.......G.

Interesting story, but not historically accurate. :)

http://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/music/12days.asp

Whaddya know? Still interesting, (but I love Snopes too)
Does Snopes believe in Santa Clause lol?

My good wishes to you all in the New Year. Gita


This Year

mend a quarrel.
Seek out a forgotten friend.
Write a love letter.
Share some treasure.
Give a soft answer.
Encourage youth.
Keep a promise.
Find the time.
Forgive an enemy.
Listen.
Apologize if you were wrong.
Think first of someone else.
Be kind and gentle.
Laugh a little!
Laugh a little more.
Express your gratitude.
Gladden the heart of a child.
Take pleasure in the beauty and wonder of the Earth.
Speak your love.
Speak it again.
Speak it once more!

Anonymous

That's very nice, Gita

Warm wishes to all our friends here. There was a pretty good hoot and holler from a couple houses around here.

Now go write 2015 on a couple dozens checks in your checkbooks. I always mess that up!