A change is happening...

I think it's official; I like flowers.  I've spent much of my life hating and boycotting this ridiculous symbol of supposed love and care, of girlieness and obligation, but I think I'm officially converting.  This summer Mike and I planted some pretty flowers outside the condo to spice it up a bit, make it look summery.  Since the winter was so dreadful, I felt like flowers would be a nice touch.  Even though I didn't really like them or want them in the house, I thought they were pretty outside.

To be fair, I did both the planting and maintaining of the flowers, and Mike took care of his sea grass.  The sea grass is not doing quite so well.  Sorry Mike.  But after we planted these beauties and they began to bloom and grow and fill up the little spaces we cleared, I realized that I really liked them. I'd come home looking forward to seeing new opened rose buds and spend about a half hour dead-heading and watering and feeding all of the plants and flowers.  I read up about each type of plant to be sure I knew how to care for them.  And, I started bringing the blossoms inside to decorate our table and bookshelf.  I know... it didn't take much to convert me, really.

I've spent all summer taking great care fo these plants.  I've made sure they are hydrated, but not too much.  I have planted cups of beer in the beds to keep the slugs and bugs away (which really works), and I've weeded and weeded to keep them from being choked by the awful weeds that grow wild near us.  Success!  Or so I thought.  In mid-July, right before we left for Florida, the men who take care of the lawn for the condo complex weed whacked all of my flowers (except the rose bushes) to the ground.  Literally, to the ground.  They came through and just hacked them to pieces.  Now we are talking a lot of $ in flowers that were planted.  I came home from work to find them totally destroyed and all back to ground level.  All that was left were burnt ends where the sun had scorched the plants between the time they hacked them in the morning and I got home from the gym.   I nearly cried.  I had put so much love and time and effort into these plants.  I had once hated this kind of thing, but was really likeing them and enjoying the whole gardening thing.  I spent days trying to nurse them back to life- water, food, shade...  and it worked!

They made a comeback!  Event the seagrass is coming back.  I now leave a note on the wall outside scolding the lawn men about their mistake and demanding it never happen again.  I think Mike is embarrassed about the note, but screw it!  They tried to ruin my summer project.  How could you mistake hot pink dhalias and asltromerias as weeds and grass?  Morons!  So take that, lawn men.  My plants are strong and have deep roots.  You can't whack them down.  And, to add to their resurgence, a wonderful family of small monarch looking butterflies loves my wildflowers and they visit every day to collect pollen or nectar, or whatever they collect.  They are truly lovely.

So with that, I think it's official.  I'm a flower lover.  I even brought flowers in for my desk today.  They are pretty and I like having something summery and bright in here.

Well, that's my story for the day.  Hope you all have a great day!

Yours in pollen sneezes,
Whitney