I learned a few years ago that cut daffodils keep their color when dried. But they do fall apart eventually. So I went and cut some from the largest patches where their absence won't be noticed much. They are is glasses of water for now, but will be hung upside down to dry in a week...
The Yellow Forsythia look nice against the evergreen Nandina with red berries.
But I really had to get rid of the Forsythia. They are invasive and keep spreading. I regret ever having planted them 35 years ago. There are some goldenrod cultivars that aren't and the same color combination would be as pleasing in Fall as the Forsythias are in Spring.
There is more than the one Spring bulb bed. I have smaller patches throughout the back yyard. And I'm placing markers for where to plant more come Fall. I want them so thick I can barely walk through them.
And the Hyacinths will need wire cages to keep out the voles. I bet I lost 200 bulbs to them over the first few years.
Daffodils are safe from them though. Toxic.
The Saucer Magnolia flowers are done for the year. 
A series of how the blooms change in the bed... The various daffs were planted to bloom in anti-clockwise rotation. Well, it seemed a good idea at the time.
I used a Norelco Rotary Razor for 4 decades. Bought new shaver heads every 10 years. It finally failed and I bought a new one that was about the same price. I forgot that prices of old stuff don't mean the same today. Well some things get better cheaper. But in this case the same price new one (different brand) was a piece of junk.
So I bought the best I could find this time. Why not? I probably have 20 more years of shaving every couple days.
I smashed a wristwatch a few days ago. It was relatively new.
I don't care for fancy watches. A former friend of mine was so proud of his (actual real) Rolex and never understood why I wasn't all that impressed. I don't do jewelry. All I want from a watch is accurate time and day, and ease of reading it. And that it be digital.
So I'm in the "cheap" category... What is it with cheap watches that they have to be black display on a grey background? That's hard to read. I was gifted an early digital watch as a teenager (a Quasar - sp?). Nice black display on white. Easy to read. Kept perfect time for 40 years (with a new battery every 5 years). Sadly, the innards finally failed. I loved it for the simplicity. All I ever had to do was change to DST and back to EST. It had 2 buttons and each did 1 thing.
My experience with watches has been poor ever since. The best replacement I found at a reasonable cost was black on grey. And too much information on it. I know what day of the month/date/week it is. I don't need an alarm, a countdown function, a countup function, or a timer.
My previous newer watch had 3 buttons. The first engaged "settings". The other 2 let me cycle through options to change the time (up and down).
The newest watch had 4 buttons (and the same black on grey screen). It lost a minute per month so had to be reset sometimes. I had to read the instructions every time. And then the buttons stopped working. Oh, I could move from one function to another, but nothing stayed "set". Except alarm beeps at midnight.
I tried everything in the instructions to stop it, with no success. I finally smacked it a few times on my workbench just to stop the alarm (5 days ago). Today, it started beeping at me again every 5 minutes starting at midnight. The alarm refused to die.
So I whapped it again on the desk until it stopped. Silent for an hour... (hurray) I'm wearing my previous watch for now. I like it better than I did before. 😊. I want a simple to set, easy to read, basic digital wristwatch.
If anyone has a recommendation, I'm listening...
I have been getting my wine, meat and deli stuff from a small specialty store for 20 years. They are great on meat (both cheaper and better quality than chain stores), cheaper and better deli products too. Their wine selection is great. So is their specialty liquors (I found apple liquor there for a 'Golden Dawn' cocktail.
They are even the only place I can dependably find egg roll wrappers. And they are also the only store around who seem to understand that Golden Delicious apples should be gold and not green!
Well, at checkout, confetti fell from the ceiling and a horn blared...
I was their 1 millionth customer! Boy was I surprised! I got my stuff free. They took some pictures too. Manager and me. Cashier and me. Apparently, it will show up in the local newspaper (I'll have to buy a few copies for posterity)! I'll post pictures when I get them.
Things like that never happen to me. So this is a real surprise...
I got back to planting seeds inside. Last post, I had cleaned up the spill from "somecat" jumping on the stack of soil-filled trays and knocking half of them over. What a MESS!
So I took the filled ones and planted 2 trays of seeds. "Just 2" you ask? Yeah...
It was all the stuff I had to do before planting them. Well, if you go to a fast-food place, they don't start preparing for the assembly-line when the store opens. They have to have everything ready to use for the first customer, right?
I started by sorting out my plant labels (I don't make new ones every year). First, veggies vs flowers. Then various types of each. Flower labels are easy. Annuals vs perennials. Then common ones (Marigolds and Zinnias, etc) vs "fancy" (the ones you don't find on Walmart racks). I bundled the categories with rubber bands.
Then I had to soak some of the filled trays with water. The dry potting soil I mix myself takes a while to get wet (really).
Then I had to check my list of starting dates. I am behind a couple of weeks (as usual). So I needed to plant seeds that should have been started earliest first. It is 4 weeks til "last frost date", so I planted the -8 weeks to -6 weeks last night. And I planted the common ones, just to get back into practice again.
Later today, I will catch up to -4 weeks and be current again.
After that, I will tackle the more "exotic" flowers. Those are trickier. Those seeds can have some real odd requirements. Some need to be planted deeply, some need to just be sprinkled on the surface. Some need to be planted in soaked soil and then be left dry for a week. Some need constant water. Some need strong light, others want none at first. Some need cool temps to germinate, others need Summer warmth.
There is a reason those flowers are not "common", LOL! I move trays around the house a lot. Some get set above warm floor vents, some get set in the colder garage. Some get direct light on the planting stand, some have a towel other them for initial darkness. It takes some time, but it is a hobby and obsessive attention to a hobby is self-justified. 😎
There is a reward though. The "fancy" ones are fairly cheap as seeds but expensive to buy as seedlings. And the ones I am trying to grow are ones that support beneficial or lovely insects (butterflies, bees, ladybugs, etc) for food or egg-laying. And many support hummers and other interesting birds (some migratory).
So tomorrow, more seed-starting. And some are nearly impossible to grow (for an amateur like me). I have an order of 38 pollinator and meadow flower plants due to arrive in late April. Sometimes, you just have to buy what you can't grow.
I have a routine in late Winter. I soak old planting trays in the laundry tub with a bit of bleach to drown/kill any insect eggs and rinse them thoroughly. Then I fill them with newly-mixed potting soil I make/mix myself. I fill the trays of plastic cell-packs with my mix. And then stack them up for easy access.
Well "Some Kitty" seems to have considered that a good way to jump up onto the old basement refrigerator...
AARGH!
It sure took a while of sweeping, moving stuff around, more sweeping. But everything is clean and the soil recovered in buckets. I'd rather it hadn't happened, but the potting area is cleaner now that it has been for a few years.
I made sure to leave the recovered trays stacked lower and make more stable. Set me back a week (I didn't clean it all up in a single day). But at least I am ready to move forward with planting seeds again...
Catching up to yesterday...
The Saucer Magnolia tree flowers were fully opened. But there was a hard freeze 25F lat night. This will be the end of the flowers. But no reason not to show them on their last day...
The Daffodils don't mind the freeze. Someone should splice the Daffodil "antifreeze" into Saucer Magnolias!
But even Daffodils (and other Spring Bulbs) don't last forever, so I walked around the yard taking pictures. It is always tricky as how to show them off best. I planted most randomly over several years, so even I am surprised at what comes up and blooms. This is just a part of the backyard.
I planted 100s of Hyacinths 25 years ago. The voles love them! One spot of 20 has 3 left. I appreciate them.
This Fall, I will make wire cages to keep voles out and replant Hyacinths. The fragrance is wonderful, so it is worth the effort.
Meanwhile, the Daffodils thrive. So I took pictures...
Some Tulips will come later. I see the leaves emerging.
I like to vote on Election Day itself. It is so easy here, you are in and out in 15 minutes. And I love the "I voted sticker. I hav...
