Ah, Hollywood...

Not many pictures of flowers this week for Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday.  Just an update on what's going on.........

Thank you to those who wished me well on the tv interview,  despite my best efforts, I survived!  I'm writing this very late on Thursday night, so being a lot tired and a bit loopier than usual, I thought I'd share with you what I put everyone through on Wednesday night.

We were trying to make the gardens presentable Wednesday evening, but the high temperatures and higher humidity and swarms of incessant mosquitoes made working impossible.  Around 7PM, Carl and Joel decided to spray the yard for the vampires, we couldn't imagine putting the film crew through an onslaught of them the next day.  While the guys were spraying, I decided to try a mini-photo shoot of my two last choices of attire for the interview.


I just want to clarify something, I am as bad as my mom, the Elusive Lucille, when it comes to pictures, I usually do my best to disappear whenever I see a camera, but I wanted to see the various ensembles which were actually purchased weeks ago--I was so proud of not procrastinating for once.

Hamming it up with a bad impression of a British Accent, "Welcome to the Wisconsin Gardener."

Oh, that's not the way I thought it would look  Next:

Is it a bird, or a plane?  No, it's me and sigh, this ain't doin' it for me either.

Two outfits down, not what I was looking for after viewing them onscreen.  I needed something plain.  Then I remembered I had an old black dress in the closet, hmmmmmmmmmmmm...............so I went and tried it on over my work jeans, complete with one knee pad.  I thought maybe I could do a segment on Safety in the Garden for the interview; so here is an alternate use for kneepads when working under trees containing angry, acorn-flinging squirrels, remember, Safety First:

Oh dear..................

Way too long, needs a hem, and despite my goofiness, best I've got.  Carl wasn't crazy about it, Joel said I'd look like a Marilyn Manson back-up singer, but I like black, so off to the sewing machine.  A couple of hours later, and a new hem, trading black pants for blue and really, really tired, here we go:

Off to bed by 1:30AM, where I tossed and turned, wow, my nerves were jittery.  Finally dozed off at some point, but Carl and I were back in the garden by 7AM Thursday morning,  trying to get the rest of the work done before the crew arrived at 8:45AM.

We ran in circles, picking up hoses and weed pails and shovels, pulling weeds that sprang up from nowhere, and trying to make things as neat as possible.  The humidity was so high that both of us were wringing wet with sweat; Carl's shirt was completely drenched.  But there was not one mosquito!

At 8:15, I headed to the house to shower and get ready.  None too soon for the camera crew was right on time.  The first thing we had to do was bring my hair dryer outside to dry out their video camera which had fogged up from being brought out into the humidity from the air conditioned van.

Crew arriving, 8:45AM Thursday--yup, that's me, the big black and blue lady!

The temperature was nearing 90 already at 9:30AM....here they finally settled on the best place to film the five minute segment, in the shade with the quarry behind us.

Left to right: me, getting my microphone, Kermin (sp?) and Shelley Ryan, host of Wisconsin Gardener

Film rolling, Shelley and I, hanging out, talking about the gardens

Did I mention the entire segment we taped today took from 9:30AM to about noon and will result in an estimated 5-6 minutes of footage?  Yup, all that work from  Shelley's dedicated film crew in nasty heat and humidity for five minutes.  We had to go over the interview three times so they have enough footage to edit  and wouldn't you know, the best interview with me was the first one, before they ran the camera.

For some reason (probably the fact the camera was now running) the second time through wasn't as good, and I think the third time through was worse, so they quit while they were ahead and before we melted completely.  I tried my best not to laugh like a hyena and Failed Miserably according to Carl; I tried to remain calm which isn't easy for me as I am a very nervous person by nature (though they said I seemed perfectly at ease--but then, what are they going to say?  'Calm down, you loon?!")  and tried to sound like I knew what I was talking about, which is easier said than done.

  Shelley was wonderfully patient with me as was the entire crew, couldn't ask for nicer people.  Too bad they didn't put a microphone on Carl for an interview and decide which one of was better; I know he would have been, but he didn't want to .  ( And don't worry, I didn't suggest we add my Knee Pad Helmet segment...............)

Filming interview

The crew took a lot of pictures from different places in the yard

They wanted to know if we had a golf cart---they wanted pictures on a slow crawl through the garden.  The best we could come up with was the weed trailer hooked on to the old riding lawnmower with the photographer kneeling in the back holding that big camera.  I took these pictures from the house as the camera would steam up immediately if I took it outside in the humidity:

Making sure the photographer doesn't fall out of the trailer

Parade continues

It was SO hot!!!

 So, they filmed a closing segment (without me, thank goodness) did some long shots of Carl and I walking around the garden and then came in the house to sip some ice water and check out the stained glass.  Teddy Dog entertained everyone with his antics and around 1PM, they were on their way.  It was a very memorable day!

I have no idea when the show will air, but I know it won't be until next spring, at the earliest.  Shelley said I will be able to link it to my blog, so I guess we'll have to wait and see.  Thank you all for the moral support, and wow, it's 3:30AM again....I bet I can sleep much better tonight

Oh, by the way, Screech Kitty will feature prominently in the video, he stayed right next to me on the lawn  for Feline Moral Support through the entire thing!


Karen