Despite badly flooded basements and not getting power back until 7pm last night (after losing it 12am Sunday morning), we are all okay & are very, very lucky that it wasn't so much worse right here (as well as at our northern home) and our town as a whole seems okay as well. Other parts of the immediate area and throughout the State are in ruins - your prayers for New Jersey and the rest of Irene's East Coast victims are greatly appreciated!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Friday, August 26, 2011
Prayers For The East Coast
As Hurricane Irene barrels up the coast towards us, my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in her path of the East Coast from the Carolina's to the New England area, especially for all of us in NJ Saturday night through Sunday. It's been some time since we've been through a hurricane (many a tropical storm & nor'easter but last hurricane to make landfall on the coast was in the 80's, last to make landfall inland was 1999), but I haven't forgotten the drill!
We are preparing for the worst (as I hope you are too if you're on the East Coast) and praying, praying, praying & hoping, hoping, hoping for the best!
My love to all! I'll update here as I'm able to. -Jo
(I'll post pics as able, check the slideshow in the left hand column).
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
We are preparing for the worst (as I hope you are too if you're on the East Coast) and praying, praying, praying & hoping, hoping, hoping for the best!
My love to all! I'll update here as I'm able to. -Jo
(I'll post pics as able, check the slideshow in the left hand column).
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Monday, August 08, 2011
In My Garden Today: Morning Garden Walk
Arbor with Morning Glory & Bean vines
Glads
Rosa 'Pope John Paul' hybrid tea
'Scarlet O'Hara' Morning Glory (First MG of the season!)
Be sure to drop by New Jersey Through My Eyes for today's Whispers Of Our Past post!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®
Friday, August 05, 2011
In My Garden Today: "Garden Walk" Comes To Diggin' Around!
Just about daily for the past few months, I have been sharing photo's from my walks through the garden with other like-minded gardening folks on Twitter which is known as "#gardenwalk." Since gardening is such a big part of my blog here, I wanted to share with you what I am seeing during these special times in my garden. (I'd like to promise that future Garden Walk posts here on Diggin' Around won't have so many pictures, but y'all know how I love my cameras!) I hope you enjoy this mornings blooms from my garden! More posts to follow and also be sure to check the slideshow down in the left hand column for Garden Walk photo's as well.
To learn more about #gardenwalk on Twitter, click here & here. To see the tweets that come up under the "#gardenwalk" hashtag on Twitter, click here.
To learn more about #gardenwalk on Twitter, click here & here. To see the tweets that come up under the "#gardenwalk" hashtag on Twitter, click here.
Wednesday, August 03, 2011
Not So Wordless Wednesday: Catching Up
Hello friends & a happy August to you! Hope it's as lovely of a day in your neighborhood as it is in mine.
Started The Day Off
...with an early morning power outage from a transformer fire a few blocks down. I didn't mind because thankfully it's not hot & humid today and because I rather enjoy the quiet! While the kitties excitedly ran from window to window bird watching, I camped out on the shady front porch with my journal, water and box of tissues. (Summer cooties - strep strikes again!) While sitting there, dried (to a crisp) leaves tumbled across the sidewalk and took me strait to Autumns' past: That quiet part of middle afternoon when all you hear is the breezes blowing dried leaves along paved surfaces, tumbling scraping, crickets chirping...
Since the power came back on, a little over two hours after it went off, all I've turned on are the fans. (And the kettle to make a cuppa tea). A hazy/hot/humid free day in August, like July, is a blessing and I've got all of the windows & doors open wide! It's still quiet aside from the racket the cicadas are making in the oak trees! The kitties are sacked out, sleeping peacefully, worn out from their active morning :-)
In The Garden
Since last year was my worst gardening year Ever (because of my incapacitation, 100*+ heat wave for the summer and two+ months of drought) , this year could only be better, right? Indeed it has been and then some! The only thing that hasn't performed well are my Raspberries, yet last year (aka the gardening season from hell) was my Best year for them in my nearly 10 years of having them! (Nature, go figure!)
Thankfully, but sadly, out of all of the losses I thought I had due to the enormous amount of drifting snow & ice storms we had this Winter, only my favorite purple Butterfly Bush didn't make it. (I miss it every time I pass by or look out on our front porch!) My Autumn Joy Sedum, Knockout Rosa 'Radcon,' Weeks 'Mardi Gras' floribunda and other Butterfly Bushes are all doing well.
In late Spring/early Summer, we had two flash floods within a week which ruined my Parsley, Basil, Zinnia, all but one Mammoth Sunflower, as well as some of the Morning Glory & green Bean vines. (Not to mention the water damage to our kitchen & living room just inside of the front door!)
By late August/early September, I should be harvesting round two of 'Early Girl' tomato's as well as my first green Beans. Oddly, I haven't had a harvest yet from my 'Heirloom Crimson' Beafsteak tomato's. Perhaps they've decided join the Gladiola's and wait until Autumn to bloom?! (Just a guess, I haven't had Glads shoot out foliage & not bloom before).
It's been an incredible year for the Roses & many other blooms in my garden. Take a peak at the slideshow in the left hand column for a look-see.
In Other News
I've hit another reading slump most of this Summer so no books to share with you right now. Maybe one of these days it will pass! (I hope so, these slumps are frustrating).
Still writing so that hasn't changed; a lot of it is journaling lately, which is good for the soul. (Well, my soul anyhow). If you missed my guest post on The Garden Chat blog, click here to read it. Another guest post (for a different blog) is in the works but I'm having trouble with it. Trying to write through it so we'll see what happens!
We were supposed to have a cool, rainy day here today but that's yet to be seen! We could use the rain, not like other area's of the Country, but there are water restrictions in our county which I'm sure will take affect locally if the weather pattern doesn't change soon. I'm so glad those 105* days (with a 'real feel' of 120*!) we had in July haven't returned! (knocking on wood)
We were able to get away overnight to our northern home this past weekend; we haven't been up there since coming home from 4th of July vaca! It's getting harder & harder to leave that place...
Thanks to moving tenants who often leave things behind, it's time for me to clear off this old pc desk to make way for the new (aka free!) one. I've wanted a flat surface desk/project table for our pc for some time now instead of the one we have which has an unused drawer (that we're always banging our knees on) and attached shelves that cut down on the work space area of the desk. The 'writing' table I have in the spare room (also free!) would have to be raised up because Hubbs is so tall & we decided against trying to do so because it's old and we didn't want to ruin it. The small dining table (oak top, off white bottom) left recently by a tenant is the perfect height & size and will go nicely with the barn red leather & wood office chair that I now have as a result of a different tenant moving earlier this summer. (Because of my back, I desperately needed a chair one & I'm glad I spotted it out by the fence when I did, it's super comfy, and wouldn't have lasted out there with the number of pickers in this area). Pictures to follow! (The bad side of all this though is having several vacancies that in this economy are turning out to be very difficult to rent which we haven't experienced in at least a few years!)
Autumn is coming. I'm so excited! And relieved. I'm so not a fan of Summer's heat & humidity. Bleah. (Yes, I know it's 'only' August but the leaves on one of our northern trees is changing and I've been unable to shake my glee since seeing it this weekend!)
Enough about me! How are you??
Started The Day Off
...with an early morning power outage from a transformer fire a few blocks down. I didn't mind because thankfully it's not hot & humid today and because I rather enjoy the quiet! While the kitties excitedly ran from window to window bird watching, I camped out on the shady front porch with my journal, water and box of tissues. (Summer cooties - strep strikes again!) While sitting there, dried (to a crisp) leaves tumbled across the sidewalk and took me strait to Autumns' past: That quiet part of middle afternoon when all you hear is the breezes blowing dried leaves along paved surfaces, tumbling scraping, crickets chirping...
Since the power came back on, a little over two hours after it went off, all I've turned on are the fans. (And the kettle to make a cuppa tea). A hazy/hot/humid free day in August, like July, is a blessing and I've got all of the windows & doors open wide! It's still quiet aside from the racket the cicadas are making in the oak trees! The kitties are sacked out, sleeping peacefully, worn out from their active morning :-)
In The Garden
Since last year was my worst gardening year Ever (because of my incapacitation, 100*+ heat wave for the summer and two+ months of drought) , this year could only be better, right? Indeed it has been and then some! The only thing that hasn't performed well are my Raspberries, yet last year (aka the gardening season from hell) was my Best year for them in my nearly 10 years of having them! (Nature, go figure!)
Thankfully, but sadly, out of all of the losses I thought I had due to the enormous amount of drifting snow & ice storms we had this Winter, only my favorite purple Butterfly Bush didn't make it. (I miss it every time I pass by or look out on our front porch!) My Autumn Joy Sedum, Knockout Rosa 'Radcon,' Weeks 'Mardi Gras' floribunda and other Butterfly Bushes are all doing well.
In late Spring/early Summer, we had two flash floods within a week which ruined my Parsley, Basil, Zinnia, all but one Mammoth Sunflower, as well as some of the Morning Glory & green Bean vines. (Not to mention the water damage to our kitchen & living room just inside of the front door!)
By late August/early September, I should be harvesting round two of 'Early Girl' tomato's as well as my first green Beans. Oddly, I haven't had a harvest yet from my 'Heirloom Crimson' Beafsteak tomato's. Perhaps they've decided join the Gladiola's and wait until Autumn to bloom?! (Just a guess, I haven't had Glads shoot out foliage & not bloom before).
It's been an incredible year for the Roses & many other blooms in my garden. Take a peak at the slideshow in the left hand column for a look-see.
In Other News
I've hit another reading slump most of this Summer so no books to share with you right now. Maybe one of these days it will pass! (I hope so, these slumps are frustrating).
Still writing so that hasn't changed; a lot of it is journaling lately, which is good for the soul. (Well, my soul anyhow). If you missed my guest post on The Garden Chat blog, click here to read it. Another guest post (for a different blog) is in the works but I'm having trouble with it. Trying to write through it so we'll see what happens!
We were supposed to have a cool, rainy day here today but that's yet to be seen! We could use the rain, not like other area's of the Country, but there are water restrictions in our county which I'm sure will take affect locally if the weather pattern doesn't change soon. I'm so glad those 105* days (with a 'real feel' of 120*!) we had in July haven't returned! (knocking on wood)
We were able to get away overnight to our northern home this past weekend; we haven't been up there since coming home from 4th of July vaca! It's getting harder & harder to leave that place...
Thanks to moving tenants who often leave things behind, it's time for me to clear off this old pc desk to make way for the new (aka free!) one. I've wanted a flat surface desk/project table for our pc for some time now instead of the one we have which has an unused drawer (that we're always banging our knees on) and attached shelves that cut down on the work space area of the desk. The 'writing' table I have in the spare room (also free!) would have to be raised up because Hubbs is so tall & we decided against trying to do so because it's old and we didn't want to ruin it. The small dining table (oak top, off white bottom) left recently by a tenant is the perfect height & size and will go nicely with the barn red leather & wood office chair that I now have as a result of a different tenant moving earlier this summer. (Because of my back, I desperately needed a chair one & I'm glad I spotted it out by the fence when I did, it's super comfy, and wouldn't have lasted out there with the number of pickers in this area). Pictures to follow! (The bad side of all this though is having several vacancies that in this economy are turning out to be very difficult to rent which we haven't experienced in at least a few years!)
Autumn is coming. I'm so excited! And relieved. I'm so not a fan of Summer's heat & humidity. Bleah. (Yes, I know it's 'only' August but the leaves on one of our northern trees is changing and I've been unable to shake my glee since seeing it this weekend!)
Enough about me! How are you??
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