2015 May Birthday Card Swap

Happy Birthday!!!

The DG birthday card club is a way to ensure a special day.

We welcome new members to the birthday thread. Our delightful obligation is to send a card to each birthday club member when his/her birthday occurs.

It's best to receive a pile of cards on or before your birthday so we do our best to send each card in a timely manner. This makes the card more meaningful to the recipient and to the sender. We don't have to send expensive or elaborate cards. We can make one or pick up one at nearly any store these days, or buy a whole box of cards at once and be prepared for the whole year!

It's a wonderful experience to receive cards in the mail.

Current Birthday Club Members:

Jokenna / Tina -- February 26
Dragonflys4me / Chris -- February 28
AmandaEsq / Amanda -- April 6
taters55 / Linda Kay -- June 13
Katgroves / Kathy -- October 25
GardenQuail / Michelle -- October 28

Hi, all.
Check out this cool cake, shared by someone on Pinterest, that my husband found... Just perfect for us gardening friends, and there are even flowers for our moms in the group, too! :)
Happy May Day!
Michelle

Thanks for the new thread!
Love the cake!

Cool looking cake!

Hi, all.
:) There sure are a lot of creative-looking cakes out there, and creative people who make them! I asked my husband to find one with flowers for May. He described several that would be great for our group. The picket fence on this one reminds me of my grandmother's yard.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
Michelle

I agree, it is amazing how some can decorate cakes!

Hi, all.
Went fishing today. Caught some rainbow trout. My husband will smoke them in our smoker later today, so we have some yummy meals to look forward to :)
When I got home, I visited my planters on my deck. Most have dried out and the plants either went dormant because they were done growing for the season or they died because it got too hot and they didn't have enough water. But my calla lilies are still alive, and I even have a bloom :) Looks like there was another bloom, but it finished before I discovered it. And I discovered that I have a couple small, struggling cerinthe. Looks like they have even made some seeds! Sadly, I think the others succumbed to the heat before they were able to make seeds (though they had beautiful flowers). So this was an exciting discovery! And, yes, I watered the poor dears! I think I'll go through my seeds to see what I want to plant. Perhaps I can clear a planter at a time, get the soil moist again, and do some planting. At least, that's what I'd like to do. Now to implement my plan...
Hope you are all getting to enjoy some gardening this weekend, too!
Michelle

Glad you were able to go fishing and caught some trout. I have not had that in years. Enjoy!

Hi everyone - I've never had trout, but like most mild flavored fishes. I went on a kick of eating fish tacos for awhile - good stuff :)

Michelle, that cake is so pretty!! I've watched some of the reality shows on tv about cake making and they are so talented.. I'd hate to see what I would do to a cake LOL

We had gone to a Strawberry Festival in FL and they had some neat looking cakes there. Here's a couple of pics that I took of cakes :) The pirate one is so cool!

LK, the stupid pic is sideways!! They didn't use to do that - I don't know how to fix that..grrrr.

Those are nice cakes Chris!

Hi, all.
Cris, the strawberry festival sounds fun. One year when my husband was in our church's choir, they sang at a strawberry festival. Unfortunately, I had too much schoolwork to do then (had gone back to school that year), so couldn't go with them. But my husband got me a nice polo shirt that says Strawberry Festival and has a picture of a treble clef with a strawberry on it :) Perhaps I'll attend one in person some day.
Well, we didn't get to have the fish for dinner last night. We forgot that before you cook it in the smoker, you need to brine it. So, it's been brining all day, and my husband is now getting the smoker going so we can cook it and have it for tonight's dinner.
I have a four cheese lasagne recipe that originally called for ground beef. But some years ago, my parents had given us some smoked fish (husband thinks it was trout; I can't remember). I tried using some of it in the recipe, and it was delicious. Might have to do something like that again :) (When my husband was getting the brine ready this morning, he weighed the trout. The three of them together weigh just over 4 pounds after cleaning, so we should get several yummy meals.)
Michelle

This message was edited May 3, 2015 3:22 PM

Swap closing soon...

Let's Decorate The Garden Swap
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1391983/

Hi, all.
The trout came out very tasty :)
I heard that Monday, May 4th, was the birthday of the inventor of the piano. My apologies... I don't remember his name. Pretty cool invention! Gets me to wondering who invented all of our other instruments that we enjoy today.
Have a great Tuesday!
Michelle

Bartolomeo Cristofori invented the piano, I had to Google it.

Glad the trout was good.

Hi, all.
Ah, yes, that's who it was! Thanks for looking that up, LK. Until this week, I don't think I had heard who invented the piano. It got me to wondering who invented all of the other instruments we enjoy. Hadn't ever thought of that before. Perhaps I'll have to look some of them up.
Getting a bit more rain today. Plants are happy :)
Michelle`
Have a great day, everyone.

We have been getting a lot of rain too.

Good morning everyone!

We've had some rain here, but not enough to drown any plants lol.. my vegetable garden is going bonkers, which is a good thing! My tomatoes took a hit from the last frost we had last month, but I think they're going to recover - keep your fingers crossed!

We had our first hummingbird a few days ago - of course, it was DH who saw it as I was over at the daughter's house lol.. every year I swear I'm going to be the first one to see it, but it never happens! We did have our first ever cardinal at a feeder here at this house and I was the one who saw that, so at least I'm even with him :)

Hi, all.
It's always exciting to see and hear the birds returning! I really enjoy listening to all the lovely bird songs :)
Oh, Chris, I do hope your tomatoes recover. Fresh, out of the garden tomatoes always taste so delicious!
Have a wonderful weekend!
Michelle

Hi, all.
To all of you who have children, happy Mother's Day!
Michelle

Happy Mother's Day to all the mother's at DG's. Hope you have a great day. I will after I leave work.

Hi, all.
Kathy, great to hear from you! :) Sorry you had to work on Mother's Day.
I hope all of our moms here got to do something special yesterday!
I spent some time pulling weeds from my planters and clearing out the spent foliage from bulbs that died back at the end of their growing season. Still more to do, but I need to find my work gloves. Don't usually like wearing gloves, but some of the weeds are a bit prickly when you grab hold of them. ouch!
Have a great day, all!
Michelle

Hi, all.
I'm quite pleased... I got all of the weeds and spent foliage cleared out of my planters yesterday! Several need new soil added, and all of the soil needs to be moistened, but then I should be able to plant some seeds. We are expecting some rain in the next few days, so I'm holding off to see how much rain we get before I water any of the planters. In the meantime, I'm thinking about what I want to plant. Might do a combination of flowers and vegetables, but not sure yet.
What kinds of things are you all growing this year?
Have a great Thursday!
Michelle

I have a new raised bed in the front yard for my roses and one huge sunflower the birds planted, and in my raised bed along the fence line, hubby built a few years ago, I have mexican petunia on the two ends, there are 3 rows of asst. canna lillies in the back, and in the center I have a pride of barbados that blooms a pretty orange and yellow bloom.

I was al to get s of my planters done last night, am now looking for vining flowers to put on my cinder block wall along with the climbing rose that Linda Kay got me in the rose swap. want to have them trailing down both sides and on the top.

Hope that you ladies have a great day and weekend, I am off work until Monday and will play in the dirt in between rain showers.

Kathy

Morning everybody!


Been super busy with nearly ft hours.at my new nursery/part time job. Haha. Just the thing for summer.

Hope all's well out there. I have a few.hours.to spare so I am going to savor.this Friday morning. :)

xo
A.

AmandaEsq has the 2015 Mug Swap OPEN.
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1394508/

Congrats on the new job!

Hi, all.
Amanda, that job sounds great! I'm sure it can be a lot of work, but I hope you get to have fun helping with all the plants, too :)
LK, thanks for such a lovely description of your garden! It sounds lovely :)
Kathy, I hope you were able to get a lot accomplished this weekend! :) And, I hope you found the vines you're looking for. That should look really cool with the roses and vines!
We got about half an inch of rain this last Thursday! I think it was more than they were expecting. And there's talk that we may get more rain off and on throughout the summer. That would be unusual for us, but at the same time, we really need the rain. So, perhaps it will help me keep my plants watered this summer!
This weekend has been busy, so I haven't gotten to do much with my planters yet. I rearranged a couple planters, and I thought about moving more around, but then I wouldn't have had as much space to walk between them. So, I decided not to make as many changes as I was thinking of doing.
Anyway, I hoping to get more soil added to my planters tomorrow so I can start planting seeds. It's supposed to be cloudy this week, so that will help the soil not to dry out so fast while the seeds germinate. In the meantime, I'm still deciding where I want to plant everything.
Most of my seeds are a few years old, so I'll plant extra and see what comes up. Once I get things planted, I'll tell you about what I planted :)
I hope you all have a great day tomorrow!
Michelle

Hi, all.
I'm getting excited... I got new soil added to my planters and refilled their reservoirs (they're self-watering). Now I just need to finalize where I'm planting which seeds and get them planted :) Hoping to do this tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to having a garden again!
Have a great Tuesday!
Michelle

I sure hope you gardens grow for you this year!

Good morning everyone, I may be absent for a while as these next few weeks are going to be crazy busy for me.

I have 3 grandkids graduating from 3 different schools here in Iowa on 2 different days (still figuring the logistics of that!) and another grandson lost his mom in a motorcycle accident Sunday night, so we're waiting to find out when her funeral will be. His dad (my son) flew in from Houston yesterday and is with him now, so I'm doing a lot better than I was yesterday.

After all of that, we'll be leaving for a 2 week vacation to the Grand Canyon/Utah.

Please keep Austin in your prayers as he deals with losing his mom.. thank you.

Sorry to hear that Chris.
Sending prayers!

AliKat32 has the Alikat's June Plant Swap OPEN
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1394779/

Hi, all.
Chris, I'll be keeping you all in my prayers. Do take care of yourself and your family. We'll miss you while you're away, but we understand. Stop by when you can.
Hope everyone else is doing well. Do stop by to at least say hi when you can :)
Well, I haven't gotten the seeds planted yet, but I'm thinking Friday will be the day for planting. Finally decided where I want to plant things.
Take care all, and have a blessed friday!
Michelle

It's going to be pretty here today, around 70 degrees so as I am off are planning on getting some things done outside, like mowing my front yard so son doesn't mow down the flowers and still have a few flowers to take care of and also seeds to plant. They are not calling for any rain until sometime Monday evening and as I work this weekend and also Monday hope to have the most of them done by Sunday evening as we are getting Dad after work Monday and bringing him home for a few hours for our cookout.

Everyone enjoy your day.

Kathy

Hi, all.
It was beautiful here today, too. Unfortunately, too many things required my time, so I didn't get to plant my seeds, after all. (grumble, grumble) Oh, well... perhaps some time this weekend.
Hope you all have a great Memorial Day weekend.
Michelle

I hope you all have a wonderful Memorial day weekend.

Thanks LK. I had yesterday and todayoff. I'm working tmrrw and Monday. Need to get those.Dr. Sholl's inserts! :)

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Hi, all.
Yay!!! I finally got seeds planted! Spent some time planting seeds this weekend. Got about half of them planted on Saturday, and the other half planted Sunday afternoon. Since most of my seeds are older (some very old) they may not all come up, but I'll just have to wait and see. I planted a little creeping thyme, some green beans, chamomile, and basil, and I planted several kinds of flowers: two varieties of salvias and dwarf sunflowers, some moon flowers, cosmos, dwarf French marigolds, heliotrope, phlox, helichrysum, anda few four o'clock seeds. As you can see, a little of this, and a little of that :) some fragrant, some not. Lots of different colors, shapes, textures, sizes. It will be fun to see what grows!
Thank you to all of our veterans for your sacrifices so that we may enjoy the freedoms we have today!
May we each take time this Memorial Day to remember the many who have given so much!
Michelle

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Just waiting on 12:30 to leave work and go pick up my Dad.

Hi, all.
Kathy, have a wonderful visit with your dad!
By the way, Kathy, did you ever find a vining flower to plant by your new rose?
Hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday!
Michelle