Garden Picts

Monday, July 30, 2007 | 0 Comments

I know how you all love pictures of my garden, and since I spending so much time there instead of blogging, I thought I could at least bring you on a short tour of it.

The first two pictures are from late June.

This angle of my garden always produces the most full, lush looking shots of my garden and it is the side of the garden that I see the least of.

I love delphinium, and this year, despite the nasty drought that we are suffering, they have been doing quite well. I think the plum tree I had JD dismantle this spring was holding them back.

The next two pictures are from last weekend.


This picture reminds me how I need to finish painting the trim on my house! I do love this sunflower. I almost yanked it out a couple of times because I thought it would get too big for the spot, but I'm glad that I didn't. It ended up being short and full of flowers!

This is our pear tree. We've had it for two years and, boy, was it happy this year! I had already reduced the fruit by 1/3 by the time that I took this picture. I can't wait until they ripen. They are the best pears that I have ever eaten - like candy.

This year is definitely shaping up to be my best garden year ever.

8 comments:

Mrs. Loquacious said...

Your garden looks like a little bit of Paradise. Way to go! :)

Evil Spock said...

Your garden looks awesome. Soooo jealous.

Sylvana said...

Mrs. L, it definitely has become a paradise!

Evil Spock, thanks. This is the first year that I thought that too.

"AG" said...

I LOVE your garden! I'd do anything to have one like that...except gardening. :P Do you have black flies out your way?

Sylvana said...

AG, a lot of other people feel the same way. I actually have my neighbor coming over all the time telling me that I should give up gardening because it too much work!

We have gnats (A.K.A "no-see-ums"), which are nasty little critters that bite painless (most of the time) but leave you with blood dribbling down the back of your neck and a big itchy welt that lasts for a few days to over a week. Sometimes their bites even swell up my lymph nodes, making my neck all lumpy and painful.
Same thing?

Shannon said...

Seeing these pictures just remind me of how my chili peppers, so full of hope, died.

"AG" said...

Ew! Black flies aren't that bad, unless they bite. They do stalk my hair for some reason, though. Even if I take a walk one will follow me the whole way, bouncing on and off my head!

Sylvana said...

Shannon, aw, I'm so sorry to hear about your peppers! I was looking forward to the harvest.

AG, the gnats will crawl into your hair to bite your scalp leaving big, painful, weepy lumps.
I HATE GNATS!!!

[at our cheese tasting party]

Mo: Fry needs a haircut. I told him I'd do it, but he won't let me.

SSB: Jill cuts Obi's hair.

Fry and Mo: Really?

Sy: Yeah, they have the Flowbee.

Mo: Flowbee? I've never heard of it.

Fry: Yeah, what is a Flowbee?

Sy: I can't believe you never heard of a Flowbee! It combines hair clippers with a vacuum cleaner for easy, clean at-home hair cutting.

SSB: Obi is the Flowbee master.

Sy: Yeah, they call him "Flowbee-Wan Kenobi".

8 comments:

Lyvvie said...

They still make flowbees?! Wow!

Sylvana said...

Lyvvie, when I heard that they had a Flowbee, that's exactly what I thought too!! But apparently they do!

Evil Spock said...

Your cheese and wine parties are a lot better than the ones that I attend.

Flowbee-Wan Kenobi, priceless!

Sylvana said...

Evil Spock, you bet your sweet ass they are! We rock the pretentious-party scene!

Shannon said...

Wait- someone actually uses a flowbee?

Mrs. Loquacious said...

I think I would have a hard time coordinating the suction of it with the clipping.

Then again, Hubbs gets his hair cut by a pro. He doesn't trust me with his precious hair.

sideshow bob said...

I think I wanna be flowbeed!

Sylvana said...

Shannon, his hair actually looks good too.

Mrs. L, that's the beauty of it - it sucks while it cuts and has a spacer so you don't even need to worry about measuring the length. It's all automatic.

SSB, they said that we could borrow it!

Conversations At Our House v.26

Wednesday, July 18, 2007 | 0 Comments

[Sy comes home for lunch and catches SSB watching Dr. Phil]

Sy: He's no Pat Croce.

SSB: No, he's not.

Sy: Is he even a real Dr.?

SSB: Oprah says he is, so it must be true.

Sy: Did he get his degree at The University of Oprah, the university that teaches all things Oprah.

SSB: And the school moto is: "If Oprah ain't happy, ain't nobody happy!"

7 comments:

"AG" said...

I'm back. I finally created another google account and fired up the old blog!

Evil Spock said...

Evil Spock wishes Evil Spock was Oprah sometimes.

Sylvana said...

AG, YAY!!

Evil Spock, there are many reasons that I would like to be Oprah, but they are always over-shadowed by her overwhelming adoration for herself and her self-importance - huge turn off.

sideshow bob said...

I'm going to keep making fun of Oprah until she gives me a car.

Mrs. Loquacious said...

I dislike that Oprah has to be on every O magazine cover. Why can't she share the spotlight with Stedman? Or her BFF Gayle? Or anyone other than herself. I agree w/you that she is self-involved and it is highly unattractive.

sideshow bob said...

Uh-oh...looks like ain't nobody happy...

Sylvana said...

SSB, I think you will be making fun of Oprah a very long time.

Mrs. L, I heard that she is no longer with Stedman - she went all "Thelma and Louise" with Gayle.

The Quakers Are Coming!*

Friday, July 06, 2007 | 0 Comments

There is a Quaker convention at our university campus all week. They've basically taken over our town - and I have to say that they are a little odd. But I didn't realize the extent of that observation until Tuesday when I was asked to go on a delivery for the pharmacy with a coworker. We needed to bring two wheelchairs and a pair of crutches to the student center for the Quakers.

"Wow," I said to my coworker, "those Quakers must be wild!"

When we arrived we were greeted by an older lady who told me how grateful they were to get the items because people were waiting for them; then she started ordering me around - "Come along. This way. THIS WAY!"

I gave my coworker a look and she giggled.

As the harping woman led us through a huge, milling crowd, another woman suddenly ran up to us frantically. "We have a person down! Over here! Person down!"**

I couldn't help feeling like I had just stepped into a war zone. I stopped for second, wondering if one of the wheelchairs was for this person. The woman must have thought we were nurses since we were both wearing what looked like blue scrubs. The woman leading us just kept walking as if she didn't hear the woman yelling at me, or see the woman laying on the concrete steps outside the building. She turned to see where I was and snapped her fingers at me, "Come along! Come along! Here! Here! We have to go inside!"

I scurried forward leaving the frantic woman standing there looking slightly confused. And I have to say, I was too.

When we got inside it was packed with people making it difficult to maneuver with a wheelchair. As I tried to pick my way through the crowd the woman started barking and snapping at me again telling me to hustle.

Man! I thought, there must be someone who really needs this wheelchair!

We made our way through the building, all the while she was yelling at me to stay with her as she thought I just may wander off if she weren't constantly reminding me.

We reached the other end of the building, the end of the line, at what looked like a greeting area. She told us to put the wheelchairs in an alcove and said, "There, now we will have them when we need them. Thank you so much."

What? ...What?

As we made our way back to the car and past the woman laying on the concrete, now surrounded by EMT, I couldn't help feeling like I was getting cold looks from people who had watched us walk away with the wheelchairs - just so they could end up sitting unused in an alcove.

Bizarre.

* This story reminded me of the time that I was at a hostel in Scotland. I had gotten there late and needed to get some laundry done. The guy at the desk agreed to unlock the laundry room for me as long as I promised to be quiet and not let anyone in.

No problem!

I was just finishing up a load when there was a huge commotion outside. When I looked out the ground level window all I could see were hundreds of feet running around. Suddenly the guy who had let me in the laundry burst in frantically yelling, "You need to go! The French are coming! The French are coming!!"

He was so distressed that all I could do was grab my things and follow him running out of the room. He ran ahead to the lobby. I couldn't help but want to see what the fuss was all about. Were we being invaded?

I peaked into the lobby. It was completely filled with children, apparently French children.



** When I was relaying the Quaker story to SSB he started laughing, "Paper dune! We've gat a paper dune!" [Mike Myers - So, I Married An Axe Murderer].

"Yes!" I said. "I was thinking the same thing at the time! It was hard not to laugh. 'Quaker down! Quaker down! We've got a quaker down!'"





8 comments:

Shannon said...

Yikes! That story managed to be funny and creepy at the same time!!! what the hell goes on at a quaker convention? I think it's your duty to find out and report back to the blogosphere...

Evil Spock said...

Reminds of me the Good Samaritan episode on Seinfeld.

You could've been arrested!

Sylvana said...

Shannon, I didn't know whether to laugh or run at the time either. And unfortunately, the Quakers have gone - but they will be back next year!

Evil Spock, I would blame the Quakers and bide my time in the slammer until the day that I was freed and could reap my revenge!!

Rodrigo said...

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Mrs. Loquacious said...

What is a Quaker convention, anyway? Were there displays and booths? Speakers?

I guess any group can have a convention, really.

There was no excuse for the rude order-barking, though. I thought Quakers were supposed to be polite and respectful?

ag said...

I don't have a specific comment other than "hi" and it's nice to be reading your blog.

Elizabeth said...

I have been to seminars (not Quaker ones) at their buildings and I never noticed anything that strange. Fascinating.

Payper dune! Hah!

Sylvana said...

Mrs. L, not sure. I think it was sort of a retreat - but I heard some people saying that the Quakers visited all these schools as a group and then chose the school that their children would go to as a group. I really wouldn't be surprised.

AG, well, you know, it's nice to have you reading it!

Elizabeth, do you find that they raise their hands a lot, like they want to be called on?

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