The Golden Compass

It was with some excitement and a little anxiety that I saw the following link on Yahoo News today. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718640/info The Golden Compass is part of an excellent trilogy by Philip Pullman. After I got the first one I immediately went out and bought the others and had a reading marathon to finish them. It was one of the best series that I'd read in a long time. So on to the movie. There are parts of it that look incredible, but there's always that nagging "But it wasn't like that in the book!" that I will have to get over. I do have to say that Nicole Kidman as Ms. Coulter is a fabulous choice. Something else to look forward to in December. :) Hopefully I can see it before I go into labor. ;)

Crepe Myrtles

Last fall when we bought our house there were two trees that had been planted in the summer. One of them looked to be dead and the other had only one or two green leaves on it. As part of our agreeing to buy the house I asked for the trees to be replaced. I also asked if I could pick the replacement trees. Since there were crepe myrtles that my grandmother had planted growing in front of our house when I was younger I really wanted some. Those had been the bright magenta colored blooms that are a trifle overblown. For those who might not be familiar with them, most of the common crepe myrtles are magenta, lavendar and white. The trees that got put into the front yard actually looked to be almost in worse shape than the trees that were removed and I thought they might die over the winter.

Flash to April when the trees had just begun to leaf out, and the whole area was struck with a severe frost. It killed the top of the limbs of the tree and turned all of the leaves brown. For a month nothing grew on them and finally leaves started coming out. While D and I were out shopping I noticed that there were crepe myrtles in the parking lot of the store and they were RED. I had never seen a red crepe myrtle before and I was in love. Since we didn't have any idea what the color of those that were planted in our yard were I got a flash of hope that they might be red too, but what are the chances. A couple of weeks ago I noticed the flower buds on them, and finally yesterday they opened up and they were....RED! Actually only one has opened up so far I haven't seen the other yet. I'm hoping it's red too, since red and magenta together look like colors a cheap hooker might wear. But I guess we'll see. :)

Roses

Yesterday I got home from work and ran out to take pictures of the roses. My Elle rose was opening up the day before, and when I went to takea picture I realized that my camera battery was dead. :P So I went out and snapped some quick pictures. Since it had just rained earlier I got some perfect dewy shots. I especially admired the intricate bloom on the Neptune bush, up above. I have been really happy with how well the roses have done since they were just planted this year. My previous attempts at growing roses haven't always been successful so it's always a crapshoot with me. So far the most effort that I have had to go to so far this year is assassinating a couple of Japanese beetles that were snacking. I don't really like killing things but sometimes you have to.

The pregnancy is going along pretty well, I don't really have much to complain about....yet. ;) I reserve my right to complain in the future! I'm still waiting for this nesting instinct to kick in that will make me clean the house like a mad woman. Go figure, the one symptom that I REALLY need isn't happening. I try not to get too excited or nervous because I still have a long way to go. I'm getting to the point though that I'm going to have to start making some arrangements...find a pediatrician, take some childbirth classes, pick out a hospital etc. It was nice being comfortably numb and not having to worry about all of that, but I guess I must. :)

Nice Weather

We've had a very nice spell of weather over the last couple of weeks. We've gotten quite a bit of rain, and the temperatures have been a little cooler. We went to Lowe's this morning to get a work bench for the garage, and of course while we were there I had to look at the garden center. I've been keeping my eyes out for a replacement for my peppermint clematis. It has very neat looking blooms on it but unfortunately hasn't been doing so well since it got planted. Almost all of the leaves have fallen off and it just wasn't looking too good. So while we were at Lowe's I found a Butterscotch Jessamine that has yellow fragrant flowers. It was a very well established plant and looks like it'll do good. I also picked up a couple of plants for the bird/butterfly/bee garden that I'm going to be setting up by my bird feeder.

After I got home I went out and planted the jessamine. I also did some tidying up of our back porch area because it was looking a little junky. I had some failed planting experiments, old pots and stuff sitting around so I got it all cleaned up. I also got rid of the failed lotus plant and potted a water lily in its place. After that I was pretty much wiped out for the day and came in and rested.

It has been a pretty quiet and restful weekend. It has been raining some off and on which is much better than the drought that we were having. D.'s parents went home on Thursday after a very busy and productive visit.

One of the main things that got finished was the gravel pathway in the picture above. Before it was part of the flower bed and to get over to the faucet you had to walk around grass clumps and got ant bites all over your feet. Now it is much cleaner and tidier looking. The stepping stones have a neat Celtic knot on them. We also got mulch laid down so maybe the plants won't dry out quite so fast. The mulch helps give it a more finished look also. Note that my pink whirling butterfly plant in the bottom right corner has been corraled. I had the same plant in North Carolina and it was very well behaved. This one has been sprawling all over the flower bed and looking pretty shabby. We got a little hoop to hold it up so that the stems on it cascade a bit and look so much nicer.

What's on the agenda for tomorrow? Laundry, grocery shopping, more laundry and then ending up with doing laundry. We've been behind for the last month or so and getting caught up really sucks.

4th of July

So I haven't felt like posting for a while now. I was feeling extremely fatigued for most of the month of May and the early part of June. I haven't had any problems with morning sickness, but the heat does wear me out really quickly now. I have been busy with work and finishing up my classes. So I've started the next round now and I'm really not at my best with it. I'm used to a few weeks between classes so there was a bit of a break. This set started the day after the other classes ended so I'm still trying to get my bearings with it.

D's parents have been here visiting since Friday. It's been like having a couple of industrious helpful little elves around the place because they have gotten so much done while I was at work. They stained the fence, did some yard work and reorganized the garage. We went to see Transformers this afternoon, and I really enjoyed the movie. Back to work tomorrow, but at least it's only for two days before the weekend.