Weeds & Glasses

I have so much work to do in the garden this weekend, way more than I will be able to get done.  We have a wonderful group of gardeners touring on Tuesday afternoon, the same group who tried to come here in August but were nearly blown back home by a tornado warning.  Such a mix-up it was for their carpool and caravan  the last time; many live over 40 miles from here and they were on their way when the tornado warnings (and sirens, here) were issued.  Some of their group turned around and went home, some of them waited it out, some of them got lost but four of them did arrive here despite the dire weather.  (They brought dessert with them, and it was WONDERFUL!---and a lovely garden pot for my yard!)  And we did not have a tornado that day, thank goodness.

So, they have rescheduled, and I guess nine or ten of them will be here on Tuesday.  Apparently there would have been more, but many are out of town and/or working, but that's ok, I love to visit with our visitors and this way I can talk to them all.  But first, I need to get the garden in shape for them, after all, they have tried so hard to get here, I don't want to disappoint them completely by having nothing but overgrown, ratty potted plants, sprawling coneflowers needing deadheading and WEEDS. After walking through the garden with a critical eye, wow, do I have alot of weeds!!

And speaking of eyes, on Saturday afternoon, I had an appointment with the optometrist and found out why I haven't been seeing all the weeds too clearly; my prescription has changed again (he assured me they can keep making them stronger, but I wonder how much stronger?) and now I'm going to be sporting trifocals!  Yippee, and no sarcasm here, I'm happy about this, believe it or not, I'm tired of wearing reading glasses over my bifocals.  (You know you're getting older when the thought of trifocals makes you happy.)

What didn't make me happy was the price.....and I probably got ripped off, but what do you do?  Can you believe $850 for glasses?  I was having a panic attack.  Carl, bless his heart, wasn't.  He just doesn't begrudge me anything I need.  And if this keeps up, what I will need is a job to help pay for everything falling off of me and wearing out.  (Did I mention I have the start of rheumatoid arthritis?  Have to see a specialist by the end of the month, sigh) But Carl says not to worry, we'll be alright.  Sigh, again.

And the frame styles right now are just a bit toooo much for me, I know, 'retro' is in, but I'm already retro enough, so let's skip the horn-rims and the plastic rectangle glasses in black with the one inch thick bows making me feel like a jittery horse in need of blinders so I don't spook and run amok through the mall. Especially after hearing the price. 

The kind employee was telling me that since my face is, er.....round....(what else is she supposed to say, FAT?) I would be much better with the little rectangular lenses with the humongous frames as I don't want to emphasize the 'roundness' of my fat face.  I wish I had some pictures of my eyeglass buying experience, you would have had a good time seeing me in chunky purple frames complete with rhinestones (Rhinestones?  Really?  Who would think they would bring back rhinestones on glasses???)   Sorry, helpful lady, but I bought wire rims which are very light and light is good when you are wearing a pair of lenses that weigh about as much as a car's windshield. 

I had to do something, my current lenses are in terrible shape, when we burned brush back in May the intense heat more or less melted the anti-reflective coating and/or the transition coating-scratch protection( whatever else they put on the lens to bring the price up to an unbelievable $300+ a piece--I have a 'feeling' they aren't paying that much for them)  I couldn't figure out why everything seemed to have a halo around it, like when I have grease smudged all over the lenses, but it's because I basically melted the coating or the plastic (it was a HOT fire that night) and of course, my glasses are over two years old so no warranty.  Of course.

Oh, I should have shopped around,  someone said they got a great deal online, but when I checked a few sites out, I was rather intimidated, what if I don't measure my eyeball distance right or enter the wrong numbers from the scribble the optometrist wrote down, or what if the frames don't fit?  I handed over the cash and vow next time to do better.

So, we got home yesterday afternoon and I wasn't in a very peppy mood, my new spectacles won't be here for over two weeks and I'm still seeing halos...but despite all that, I headed off to weed.  I had a trailer full after a few hours, but it felt so darn good to get in there and work.  Our weather cooled off dramatically since Thursday, it's now in the upper 60's, which to me, is perfect gardening weather and it doesn't make the mosquitoes very happy either.

I decided to deadhead the hydrangeas.  I have never seen blooms on my hydrangeas as large as this summer.  I suppose it has something to do with the extra two feet of rain we received?

No, I'm not trying to bring a 747 down safely in the backyard, I'm trimming the leaves off the hydrangeas before I hang them to finish drying in the garage.  Joel is burning more brush behind me in the new fire ring he installed yesterday and we were trying to add big rocks to the seating area to make it look more camp-fire-y, so that's why the tractor is sitting there, too.  Those flowers are bigger than my head (who knew there was something out there bigger than that!?)

Anyway, check out the size of these 'Limelight' hydrangea flowers!

Another thing that is really different this year is the bloom on the waterlilies, normally by this time of year they are in a mere puddle and all brown and dead-looking, but thanks to Joel and Ann deadheading them, they have made a comeback at this late date.

I tried to get some good pictures from the shoreline, but the water is so high right now that I couldn't get close enough, so I took a few shots from the rocks on the shore:

Not a great shot of waterlilies, but the tree reflections were kinda neat.

I talked Joel into getting his zoom lens and he took some much better ones; the black spots are flies or bugs or something, apparently they like them, too:

Hard to believe it's September when I see waterlilies!

Carl and Joel worked on placing the big rocks by the campfire all of yesterday afternoon, but then we ended up hauling two of them away again as we decided it would be more to mow lawn (and weed) around.  I should have taken some pictures and showed you how it looked before and after.  Eric and Dale stopped in for awhile and Ann came over after work and lent me a hand in the garden and we ended the night with a campfire.

Ok, I have two days to get this garden under control....so, off I go.

Thanks for listening to my ramblings!