Baby Burgundy Amaranth

Here’s the picture I promised you of the tiny, new burgundy Amaranth springing up:

Close-up – it’s about 1/4 ” tall – 🙂

♪ While Blazing Through the Jungle One Day….

♪ In the rainy, muddy month of May….

♪ What to my surprise,

♪Appeared before my eyes…

♪Once all the grass & weeds were cleared away…

Pic Post of Before, After, Projects, Unknowns

Flash flood and thunderstorm warnings last night until 9:34pm – Waited till 9:30 this morning before firing up the power tools, in hopes things would dry out some.

Fired up the weed whipper and started in the southeast corner of the north-side backyard – confused yet?    Before I got really to work, took a pic of one of the plants that grows here and there on my place, that sort of look like Nasturtiums, but aren’t and I thought might be Creeping Raspberry after reading the post by fellow blogger over at My Food and Flowers.

(Thanks for offering to help identify – most likely a weed, but hate rip out if it isn’t…  🙂  )

Creeping Raspberry? don’t think so, as it doesn’t stick around all year –

Then I realized that either the salsify or Welsh Onions I companion planted with the hastily built beds for strawberry plants received last year (1 – one stinking strawberry plant survived out of..like..138 of em’….) are coming along nicely – – Think it’s the onions, but after looking at pictures for both salsify and welsh onions, content to wait and see what kind of bloom appears, or wait and dig one up, so I’ll know…for sure…

Believe the tall stalks to be of the Welsh onions I planted last year, but never made an appearance until now.

And the other bed, which was planted with strawberries, welsh onions and 3 various types of lettuce last year have zilch, nada, oh -wait – there’s some volunteer lettuce…  🙂

Lettuce that was planted last year, and never seen to harvest, now is showing up this year….

The man-child-unit stopped his mowing activities and called out to me,

“Mom – do you want me to mow around this?   Is it a keeper?”

Unknown Pretty I hope a bloggy pal can identify –

To which I replied,

“I have no clue what it is, but it’s pretty – mow around it and I’ll see if I can find out what it is….”

Here and there, mushrooms are popping up – some local wild ones are edible, some are not, need to call Mr. Gardener Extraordinaire to have him come identify which ones are which:

I think this is the one he told me last year was good sauteed in butter – but will double check, first….

I think this is the one that either kills you or makes you wish you were dead after you awaken a week later to a fuzzy dream of running through the local park, naked, while bystanders stood in shocked amazement –

After the man-child-unit got one side cleared, decided to take a grand-sweeping picture of no-longer-such-a-jungle against the backdrop of my Golden Currants and Sand Cherries planted last month:

The Golden Currants are leafing out faster than the Sand Cherries – but they all have green appearing – Yay! I didn’t kill ’em while planting ’em!

And here’s a close-up of the Golden Currants and Sand Cherry bed –

Back row – Golden Currants – Front Row – Sand Cherries – yes I planted ’em close so they’ll fill in faster – my local extension office mentor said I could. 🙂

Remember 2 years ago, when I finished the north side of the house on grading/mulching, weeding just before the gully washer storm appeared?

Ground Elderberry and Vinca birthday plants – north side graded/mulched/planted – 2013

And 20 minutes after I collapsed on the couch from exhaustion:

August 3rd – Rain, Rain and some more Rain – the river is the drainage ditch

Well, back to the north side – – the Vinca and Ground Elderberry are coming along nicely – a nice ground cover that is still not clearly identified, but plays nice and puts up beautiful spikes of purple, that was carefully left alone has now spread from it’s little corner located about 25 feet away to move it’s way to being a beautiful ground cover across the entire north side of the house:

I love the ground cover that has so steadily grown – without being a hog or in need of mowing -the leaves with purple blossoms is the vinca.

And, a pretty, I didn’t plant it there, white tulip raises it’s long head over another clump of purple vinca

Purple and white – without me half trying –

And finally, a shot of one of the Chokecherry bushes:

Chokecherries coming along nicely

Oh, and remember how I left my Amaranth of last fall to naturally drop it’s seed?

This is what the west fence bed looked like last fall

Well, I despaired my lazy plan had worked, but noticed today there are tiny burgundy amaranth sprigs poking their heads up out of the ground – I forgot to take a pic and it’s raining/lightening again – so will try to remember to do so tomorrow.

Happy Green Growing Things Season! 🙂

Email In Real Life…

Stumbled across some cool short videos that encapsulate the issues I’ve witnessed for years – – Have fun laughing to real life over the next 5-6 minutes.

(BTW – the second “out-takes” video – you’ll get to hear a rousing rendition of Barbara Ann, a cappella…

Book Promotion Opportunities for Authors (It’s Free)

Chris is always posting his finds, sharing his knowledge or starting great conversations/opportunities for the Indie Author world – Chris, thanks for all you do to support Indie Author World! 🙂

chrismcmullen

Images from ShutterStock

BOOK PROMOTION OPPORTUNITIES

Marketing books is hard. I will try to help.

I have a few book promotion opportunities for authors.

Participation is FREE.

(1) Meet the Characters

I have a page on my Read Tuesday website called Meet the Characters.

On this page, readers find short creative pieces featuring one of the characters from various books.

The idea is that readers can learn about books without first seeing the cover or price.

Their first taste of the book is a character’s personality and the author’s writing style.

Many authors and readers have expressed positive feedback about this idea.

(If you like the idea, please tell a friend.)

But we need more authors to participate. Signing up is free.

The earlier you participate, the better the reader-to-book ratio works in your favor.

Once submissions grow enough, Meet the Characters will grow onto multiple pages, different pages…

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Choose your Business Tools Carefully….

I’m deep in research/conference calls, etc., this week, as rural businesses, governments & organizations hit Spring Fever and after months (or years) of quiet desperation, decide they are ready – NOW!

There is always some new, bright shiny object to try out – – set-up, implementation and maintenance cost for each option can differ wildly –

Ran across this video, recently, which made me laugh…

And I, in my skewed perspective, think it perfect illustration of what happens when you have cool technology and no idea how to effectively use it…

 

BTW – You’re Trailing –

Remember some weeks ago when my little number crunching/pattern luvin’ mind realized…

You and I are on the near-future brink of Bally Bin publishing 500 posts just about the same time it might achieve 500 followers, if only we coordinated it, the perfect moment – just a tad?  Not that it has to happen,

But what if… I asked you?  How would we all celebrate the big 5-0-0?

Given my lil’ strive-to-recognize-the moment heart, which sometimes deigns to inform me when I’m missing something…

I just figured out why I’ve delayed hitting the “Publish” Button on so many posts – when I didn’t know what not I was doing – –

I’m at 491 posts –

Followers are at 489 – –

Had I actually published every piece of drivel I’ve struggled with for weeks – and was tempted to Publish during a Wine-Hazed moment of Bravado –

I could have messed up the whole synchronicity of the Universe – and doomed us all – without realizing it –

Glad that whole mystery is now solved –

I feel better now- You forgive me my unrecognized-for-so-long-sins?

Ummm.. Yeah –

It’s all connected – I’m sure.

I ain’t really all that saintly or enlightened, just yet, but I promise to keep you posted –

Even when I have to publish some long-arse nonsense in order to get the message – myself – –

After all – we’re in this together – right?

 

You Think You Have Writer’s Block…

Special Report – We Interrupt this somewhat irregularly scheduled broadcast to expose the stubbornly held views of this station’s CEO… who was captured on tape weeks ago, ranting, in the direction of Heaven or North, (take your pick) and is expected to be fired or resign later today:

Why!, Why?! I ask You! What did I ever do to deserve this?

It’s been a Rough Few Weeks –

I sit here, frustrated over trying to edit nearly 100,000+ words saved in the draft posts section, and only ever manage to create about a million more squiggly symbols -without ever making more sense of it all –

I admit, I’m still trying to justify my position on all of it – cuz I think I’ve researched, read, pondered more than those arguing with me about several different perspectives –

I’m arrogant, that way….

It’s Raining – Wait, Hailing – Nope, Raining Again…

I’m not coping well with a change in the seasonal weather I’ve come to depend upon for more than 3/4s of my life –

I don’t do Gray/Overcast/Drizzle for days on end – which is why some places are on my “Visit, but never move to – Map”

Noah’s Ark comments and complaints over the weather took nearly 3 weeks to emerge  -longer than 5 years ago – shorter than 10 years ago – am I listening better, or hanging out with more pragmatic folks?

Who knows?

What have I written… but not published lately?

• Never Judge a Jelly Bean by It’s Color
• The Tire Experiment is Over
• You Could Drown, all while Bursting into Flames  –
• I Fell in Love this Past Weekend (I was NOT in a bookstore….)
• Labels – Version 1515.16.32.42
• Why Hackers love You’re Sleep Deprived trying to stay a Step Ahead of Them –
• “Sex, Money, Value” and other Misinterpreted Words of the English Language
• Why I Suck at “Reviews”
• Is your “IT” Important Enough to hang Your Hat On?
• Not Motivated?!?  Congratulations!

And multiple other posts I’m still trying to make sense out of –

The 6Ms have dominated my life for nearly a month now – and I was in no way prepared for them to hit all at once – and I figure, I’ll offend someone by sharing the list – so don’t take it personally, it’s just my whine….

Moisture, Mud, Mosquitoes, Misfits, Morons-

I’m open to the possibility the “Misfit and/or Morons” label is due only to my own current outlook, the stress of dark grey skies, day in – day out – and a climate change I wasn’t prepared for – that seems big, but I’m assured used to be the norm – by those 50 years older than me – who learned quite some time ago to be more adaptable and flexible than I –

Maybe –

Which is the 6th M – just in case you were counting -and wondered where the hell #6 was –

and thought a 7th should be added –

#6 – Maybe….

# 7 – Maybe Not….