Last week of Feb

The garden is started to wake up.  There's little bits of greenery popping up all around.

In the Garden:

I started doing some gardening chores.  Winter is a good time to trim shrubs, trees and bushes while branches are bare of foliage so you can really see the shape.  I trim out any dead or crossing limbs making sure that all that's left are nice outward growing branches.

However, please note that the best time to trim flowering bushes and trees is after they bloom.  Trimming them in winter will reduce the amount of blooms.

Rudbeckia or Black eyed Susan and Lychnis or Rose Campion, the tiny pink flower dancing among the daylillies in my June 2015 sunny garden border.

This is also a good to time transplant stuff.  I get loads of volunteer Rudbeckia, Lychnis and Lunaria popping up from seed in the lawn so I scoop them out and transplant them to a better spot inside the garden borders.  I try to get them all transplanted before the first time I cut the grass.  Best time to do this is just before it rains.

Another chore that helps tremendously, but I sometimes forget to do in time, is sprinkling compost or fertilizer around the bulb foliage shoots, ornamental shrubs and perennials to give them some extra va va voom.  If I don't have enough compost I get a couple of bags of cheap plain flower fertilizer from Lowe's or Walmart.  This stuff can burn so it's best to use before the tender shoots emerge.  

What I've been Dreaming about:

During a break from Gardening, I sipped a relaxing cup of tea while I perused the Viking River Cruise brochures, relaxing, studying and dreaming on the veranda.  

My sister, Mary Ann wants to treat me to another unforgettable glorious vacation for my BiG Birthday this year.  Isn't she an angel?

Thrifty Finds:

Nabbed another SK book that was on my
dwindling list of 'SK Books I Need to Look For'.  

Gotta Love that creepy cool cover!

What I See When I Walk:

Love this striking historical home on the corner of Main Street & Cascade in Washington Park.  They've done a swell job restoring it.  It had been hidden behind overgrown bushes and trees for many years.  

Cyclamen are so pretty with their silvery heart shaped leaves and lovely blossoms in shades of pink & red.  I admired these beauties for sale but I only took a photo of  them because I seem to excel at killing them, cannot keep them alive despite my affection for them.

What I've been watching:

We decided to reserve The Martian from Redbox, finally.  

What a great movie!  

I'm crazy about space movies in general and this one was a real favorite.  I was swept away.  It was so good we watched it again before returning it the next day.  It was fascinating, loved the story line, acting and soundtrack.  I noticed how the music lyrics reflected what was going on in the movie ~ Genius!

And such clever dialog, I really appreciate the use of humor when it's done so well.

Fav Lines -
"I am the greatest botanist on this planet." ~Mark Watney
"Mars will fear my botany powers!" ~ Mark Watney
"If we are going to have a secret project called 'Elrond', then I want my code name to be 'Glorfindel'
"Rich Purnell is a steely-eyed missile man!"
"Mark Watney: Space Pirate"
"He asked us to call him Capt. Blondebeard" ~ Mindy Park

 Another one of my biggest thrills with this movie was the Great Music Soundtrack.  Yes, I'm a massive FaN of Disco!

The song, Don't rock the Boat, always reminds me of me of my grammy poppy cuz we'd sing it together back in the 1970's.

Then there's that part at the end when he's pulling 12 G's rocketing from Mars, 

just before he goes all  Iron Man, 

that reminds me of that Disney World ride, Mission to Mars, later known as Mission: Space.  

Boy, that kicked my butt!  

According to Wikipedia that ride was only 2.5 G's -

  "The attraction exposes riders to forces up to 2.5G, more than twice the force of gravity at the Earth's surface (effectively multiplying a rider's weight by 2.5)."

What I See When I Walk in Old Salem:

I took these photos during my morning constitutional, recently, in this wonderful historic area about a mile from my house.  It's really quiet and empty that early, so it feels even more like taking a walk back in time.

So many great views walking down Main street.

I like the way the bare tree branches look against the sky.

   Salem College in the town square

I always feel so inspired after a nice walk.