free time

For the past four months my time has been consumed by studying. I would have mere moments of distractions (I exaggerate) to keep myself sane. But now? Now I'm having trouble deciding what I want to do with all this free time.

There's all kinds of housework to do, but I'm feeling a little lazy about that. Sort of the way it felt getting home from school and having my Mom rattle off a bunch of chores to finish befor dinner. (I don't really recall that ever happening, but you know what I mean.) And, hey, now I'm the Mom (with no kids at home), so I don't have to do it right now if I don't want to.

Last week I bought some plants and flowers for my garden. Gardening is something I'm really interested doing. Unfortunately, it's been raining so much I haven't been able to actually put them in the ground. They're just sitting out there in the pots, in the place where I want to plant them. So that's on hold until it dries out a little.

Then there's the books. I have started reading three, yes three, books. At the same time. Two are on faith or the search of it (Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott and In Search of God Knows What by Donald Miller) and The 5000 Year Leap: . . . by . . . . .The first two are easy reads and entertainng, with just a little extra for deep thought. The other is a little too much like a textbook and I've just about decided to read it at the end of the summer; just before I take American Federal Government in the fall.

But I am looking forward to our vacation in a couple of weeks. I started a crash diet and I'm exercising just short of killing myself to get in shape. Because, you know, that was put on hold for the last four months also. So now I'm trying to cram as much exercise as I can in the next eleven days. Crazy, I know.

garden angel

lazy dazy

These daisies usually bloom in June.

This one is definitely a late bloomer.

garden collage

from my garden

butterfly

raindrops

flowers

Saturday my husband took me out to get my Mother's Day gift. I had to go with him, because he wanted to get me some plants and he wanted me to pick them out. He had seen some hibiscus at Home Depot, but wasn't sure what size and color I wanted.

We went to the Home Depot closest to the house, but their plants looked as though no one had been taking care of them. Which is surprising, because usually their plants are very nice. I hated to drive all the way out to the the other store, but I also didn't want to settle for some sickly plants that I was going to have to nurse back to health.

I was so glad we decided to go to the other store! We found a couple of hibiscus that were perfect: lush, green leaves and lots of buds. We also found a hybrid rose tree that is full of buds. Be ready for lots of pictures as soon as they bloom.
These, and the picture from the previous post, are my yellow roses. I only had five roses bloom this year and they bloomed one at a time. These are pictures of the last to bloom. There would have been six roses, but the rabbits ate one before it had a chance.

bunnies

From an earlier post you will recall how much I love rabbits. Well, now there are bunnies. Oh Boy! I'm so excited :

killer rabbits

I've always thought rabbits were so cute. Sometimes we'd see them running and hopping through my Grandma's garden when I was a kid and we'd get so excited. But this year has changed all that. Yeah, sure, they're cute. But don't let them fool you . . . they're killers!


Apparently a neighbor of ours has some rabbits for pets. But instead of containing them in their own yard, they have decided that it is better to let them run free in the neighborhood. This is all well and fine until these stupid rabbits proceeded to eat all of my flowers -- even down to the roots!

And there's no way to stop them. I'd almost have to put up a completely new fence or put fencing around the gardens, but they'd probably still tunnel their way in. Well, we've had some other ideas of how to get rid of them, but I just can't bring myself to do it.

fall blooms

Last year I planted several mums in the back yard. This past Friday my garden was full of beautiful mums, all pinkish purple, yellow and orange. I was so happy. Then Saturday morning I looked out and saw that every one of them were gone. I couldn't believe it. What could have happend? I walked outside to take a closer look. It seemed someone had snipped off each of the beautiful blooms. But why??? Then I realized it was those rascally rabbits!!!

There are three of them. I don't know where they came from and sometimes I think they're tame, because they don't look like wild rabbits. I used to think they were cute, but now they've eaten their way out of my heart.

The good news . . . the next day a friend from church (not knowing what had happened to my garden) gave me a huge basket of yellow and orange mums. They're larger and even more beautiful than the ones I had. I was so surprised!