Late to the Party... and You Can't Make This $#@!# Up

I tried to make it to Bloomin Tuesday on time - I guess technically I'm not late yet.

Please bear with me - first I need to vent about our stalker before I move on to flower time.   Another crazy week at work and in Stalkerville.  Hubby was able to get a Harassment Protection Order, but now the problem is finding the Looney so the police can actually serve her.  Two local police depts gave us copies of police reports to take to court - 30 pages worth and these are SMALL towns.  The highlights of the reports are:

• She feels that she and my husband have several test tube babies together and that they are meant to be together for life (dream on Crazy Pants!)
• Someone put morphine in her yogurt and is attempting to murder her.  She has a hunch who it could be and thinks it stems from a letter her oil company sent her to notify her that they had been purchased by another company (must have been one of her other personalities)
• Called to check on her attempted murder case.  She then decided that the local and state police were not equipped to handle this kind of case and would contact the FBI
• Insists police dept thoroughly inspect her vehicle because someone put drugs in her vents which caused her to get high while she was driving  (umm, that's called an air freshener Loopy...)
• Called to report that someone at our address is selling drugs and that she posed as a DEA agent and told him not to buy drugs from my husband.  In retaliation, he is now selling drugs (she was reporting my brother-in-law who lives in the other side of our duplex - and yes, she really tracked down his phone # and left him a message stating that she was a DEA agent)
• Reported someone broke into her house.  She could tell because she heard someone whispering her cat's name (Hey, maybe it was the cat whispering!)
• Reported someone broke into her house.  She could tell because they left a piece of paper with lines drawn on it (that's definitely what I would leave for a sign if I broke into someone's house)
• Brought in a flash drive as evidence of a puncture wound to her breast where someone injected her with drugs.  Upon inspection of the flash drive, there were only pictures of her cat, the weather and her house (damn cat again). 
• Reports someone broke into her house and stole a phone # off an envelope on her desk  (if it was the # for the mental ward, please - whoever it was - bring the # back!)
• Called to report that a chiropractor in town is selling cocaine out of his office.  She called him and left him a message to call her back to discuss (yeah, I bet he called her RIGHT back)

This girl is certifiably crazy... scary because she is out in public, driving a vehicle and is a licensed RN!  Obviously not working at the moment but we checked - her license is currently valid.   All joking aside, it has been a nerve-wracking couple of months.  To escape the madness, we went to the air show in Rhode Island  - I love military planes almost as much as flowers.  The Blue Angels and the F16 demo gave me goosebumps, even standing in 80 degree sun.  Wanted to see a Stealth bomber, but no dice.  Hubby saw one before and said they're incredible. 

OK, sorry for long winded intro..... time to move a way from Crazyville and jets and find some relief in my flowers.  There are a few new things blooming this week:

Gaillardia:  I know the colors clash with the hot pink of rose campion but matching isn't that important to me so I left good enough alone

Echinacea Baby White Swan with an asiatic lily behind; the camera captured the orange / red color of the lily in an odd way.  It really isn't glow in the dark flourescent orange:

Shasta Daisy 'Snow Lady' and veronica:

Bella Donna Delphiniums (I think? My memory is shot tonight):

Lavendar ' Blue Scent':

To end the post, a few pics of overall gardens.  I love when people show pics of their entire gardens:

Thanks for stopping by! 

Before and After

My biggest project this year was to create a dry space under our deck, install a walkway and patio area outside the pool fence.  I definitely bit off more than I could chew with this one, but finally finished it! 

I had a hard time finding 'Before' pics... what can I say, it looked awful so I avoided taking pics in this area:

BEFORE:

AFTER:

(you can't tell from the pics but we installed plastic panels & gutters under the deck so now we have a perfectly dry area to sit.  Good thing since all we get is rain this year!)

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AFTER:

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TAH DAH! 

Stalkers and Grubs and Graduation - Oh my!

I can't believe how long it's been since I last blogged.  I have thought about it since March but am just now finding time to type something (I just finished typing that sentence and my Dad stopped by unexpectedly. That pretty much sums up my life since October.  It was a nice surprise though - my parents lives 45 minutes away so I don't see them as much as we'd like).  

I believe it's also Bloomin Tuesday and coming up is Fertilizer Friday; I'm joining the parties if I can remember how the hell to get there......   Here are the reasons for my blogging neglect (keep in mind that I handle the accounting for my company as well as our sister company)... this is a summary of my life since October:

1. Company bought out
2. Bank Acquisition Audit
3. Year End Prep Audit
4. Year End Audit (six weeks of torture)
5. Purchase of new sister company
6. Bank Acquisition Audit
7. Grubs destroyed 60 % of our front lawn; moles created their own race track around the entire lawn tunnelling for the grubs (ie: reseed entire front lawn project)  (The extent of my hatred for grubs cannot even begin to be expressed here with out the profanity police having to step in)
8. Built patio & finished under deck area (will do a separate post for this with Before & After pics.  I love Before & After pics! This was a huge project considering our yard is Boulderville New England.  I will have to post pics of the pile of rocks we dug out for this #$%#$5 project)
9. My daughter graduated from high school (ie big graduation party)
10. A stalker - yup, you read that right.  We are in our 40's and an ex of hubby's from 15 yrs ago went off her rocker and is contacting friends, employer, neighbors, random people trying to contact hubby, pretending to be the DEA and warning everyone that hubby is a dangerous drug addict.  WOW... Shouldn't we be past that crap by now?  Yeah, she's in the same category as the grubs. Still ongoing drama so stay tuned...

So my brain is a disaster but I am trying to remember how to blog.  I didn't even take pics of my yard in April, maybe a few in May.  Here are a few pics from this week, will try to keep the pics / rambling to a minimum. 

First is the side garden; my delphiniums bit the dust this winter but everything else is doing great so it isn't too noticeable.  I replaced them, but they won't bloom for a while:

Garden at back of pool fence.  The Knock Out Roses have gone nuts this year (figured out at the end of summer last year that fertilizing really does make a difference).  Also Sweet William bloomed this year - love it! 

Here is this year's project - the new walkway leading to pool gate - it used to be that fake green grass carpet crap.  I couldn't look at it any longer....  my next post will show before and after pics but here's a sneak peak, a picture taken from each end:

The patio area at the end of the walkway with gas fire pit, new wall, mulch and walk way:

Outside of pool fence:

To end this first-of-the-year blog entry, this is my view as I sit here blogging: