Friday, June 10, 2005

A Visit To My Garden

Poppy Central!
This always happens every June, the garden is in its full glory and all my friends are out of town or way too stressed to come over for a garden party. So I take copious pictures and hope to save the beauty to share whenever I get the opportunity. Thankfully you are here to visit.

Geranium Buds
My late friend Meredyth always said, disparagingly, that anyone could grow geraniums. Yes, so I do.

Blue Columbine
Most of the blooms hang downward so you can't see their lovely faces, but this one is reaching for the sun, so he gets the picture. Once you have Columbine, you always have Columbine.

Cranesbill or Hardy Geranium
This plant, like all the rest of my cranesbill collection, reseeds itself or sends out plantlets until it forms wonderful mounds of flowers. Its leaves look just lovely when the flowers are over, so it is a favorite here.

Crowds of Poppies
One day they are all green buds and then pop pop pop, they explode and are a glorious red bouquet.

click
The early morning view of the west garden boxes. I have two larger versions on the east side of the deck, which hold many more beauties. To be continued tomorrow.
21 Days of Virtue
Dara and Gerrie are doing this thing, which is like a diet, but without any specifics that I could easily locate, and I decided to join in. I have been a slacker of late, allowing stuff into my mouth that really should have been avoided.
My husband was wearing a pair of very baggy jeans and we both thought he looked like he had lost weight, so he stepped on the scale, after eating dinner, fully clothed, including work boots and he weighed only 156 lbs. He is 6' tall. Yipes! That means he is really about 150. How did he lose this much weight? He got transferred to a store where the manager did not buy donuts every morning. And he is married to a woman who makes him eat salads every night for dinner.
But what about me? I have been feeling a tad bit stuffed into my shorts of late and have been studiously avoiding the scale...so, swallowing hard, I lept upon it and eeuuuooow, I had gained 8 pounds!!! Well, really four, but I want to weigh 8 pounds less than I currently do, so I am leaping back onto the diet in a serious way.
Here's the plan. No wine. Put the wine in the upstairs kitchen, where I can't even see it. (We are such daily wine drinkers that we buy boxed wines, so they stay fresh between glasses, a vacuum process).
Walking every day after dinner. This also gives me ideas on landscaping, and makes us want to shape up the front plantings. Eating dinner before 5pm, which means eating alone since Dave doesn't get his dinner until after 7pm.
Yoghurt and fruit breakfasts. Veggies for lunch with eggs or tuna, and salad for dinner with the famous skinless grilled chicken breast.
It is already working! I didn't want to announce this, read: be accountable, until I had put it into action. I am down 1.5 pounds and already feel less bulgy.
My Mantra: I must not overflow my jeans.

10 comments:

  1. YOu go girl!! Beautiful garden... I love your poppies.

    The details of the 20 days of Virtue can be found at Faster Than Kudzu...http://joshilynjackson.com/mt/archives/000283.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. And you have time to make quilts with that garden...so bad for your sewing hands :) I, also have 3 ugly pounds, creeping up to four....I am distraught.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gorgeous flowers... I love to see people's gardens and yours is beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Good for you!! I checked out your diet on your blog and am sorta following it. I don't know if I have lost weight. I am only going to weigh myself once a week so that I am sensible and don't obsess. But, My pants are fitting better - that is what counts! I have to remember that when I get more exercise, I am loosing fat and gaining muscle and it weigns more than fat, but takes up less space. Does that make sense?

    Lovely flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Melody, glad to see you on the Virtue bandwagon! I do not own a scale hence can only be weighed once a month when I visit the acupuncturist which keeps me from obsessing about every up and down. I have had a few days where I have been 80-85% successful instead of 100% which averages out to about 95% which I can definitely live with.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:08 PM

    Oh Mel...the garden is beautiful....my poppies are popping too. And the Columbines go on and on and on....the iris' are fading but many of the daylilies have buds.

    Ok, between you and Dara and Gerrie....I am going to try the 20 days....but not until AFTER QSDS.

    teri

    ReplyDelete
  7. I love the garden pictures and my plan is to use the ones that you sent me (everyone's jealous of the personal attention, I know)last week for some quickie fused inspirational something-or-others.

    I don't diet. I just try to change how I eat on a regular basis. Mostly we just have to keep the crappy stuff out. I'm by no means a tiny gal, but I'm happy how I am. Melody, you are SUPERFANTASTIC regardless of pounds. Just be pleased with yourself!

    ReplyDelete
  8. My plan is to sweat off a ton of weight working in the garden. Not difficult to do in hot, humid and hazy central Virginia! I like that idea of walking after dinner to look at other's landscaping ideas. I wonder if they'd notice if I took pictures...

    Anywho, loooove the poppies and the columbine!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous10:56 AM

    It is great fun to read all these good blogs. Your's is very nice. I have been looking for information about recipes for low carb pumpkin cookies and have not really found it anywhere but here: http://atkinsdiet.find-it-first.biz

    Has anyone else seen it elsewhere?

    ReplyDelete

Hello,
So nice of you to drop by. I love your comments, and if you would really like a reply, please email me at fibermania at g mail dot com