Les Fleurs

I took some more pictures yesterday of my beautiful tree...Which of course, Jeremiah pointed out as soon as he got home - the flowers fall off, too. So I still don't think he digs it. Those flowers? They fall into the pool, which I thought looked all romantic, but not so much when you've been assigned yard-duty and pool-duty (he got pool duty because I didn't want to do it) permanently. As in, forever. Plus, see the pretty flower? Guess what likes to nibble on them? Slugs. Guess where the slugs fall? In the pool. Don't worry, dear friends & family, I am uber helpful in pointing out all the slugs on the pool floor as I float around on my floaty. "Ooh, there's one! There's another. Get that one!" That's what I say while I follow him around as he vacuums. That is how helpful I am.
For the above picture I used my fancy macro feature on my camera. Jeremiah told me to try it, which started a loud discussion on the finer points of shooting pictures using the macro feature. Our neighbors love us, for sure. Between my teacher voice (you go right on ahead and teach eight-year olds for even just one day and then we'll talk - loudly) and Jeremiah's drum playing (which has left him nearly deaf) any basic conversation is already loud. Outdoor voices. All the time. And then when I get all huffy (it's not just a bike, people) it is even worse. It's like we're Italian. Except we're not. We're deaf Pollacks (By the way, I know that many consider the word Pollack to be derogatory. As a smart, sometimes funny Polish girl, I can use the word. If you aren't Polish, you can't. I won't make fun of your heritage if you don't make fun of mine. Okay?) There's hand-gesturing, too. Just to get you in the moment.
So the tree is really in full bloom now.


That's all.

The Flower Says "I Wish I Was a Tree".

There's this tree at our house. Poolside. The only real tree in our backyard. Jeremiah hated it because the leaves recently started shedding and falling into our pool. Bleh. Pain in the bootay. Then, look what happened after the leaves fell:
Seriously one of the most beautiful trees I've seen. Gorgeous blossoms. All. Over. I don't know what kind of tree I have, but I'm so excited to have it! The hummingbirds are, too. Itty-bitty cuties flying all over my yard!
Close-up of my flowers...
...which brings me back to Kimya Dawson's song, "Tree Hugger":

And the flower
Would be its offering
Of love to the desert.
And the desert,
So dry and lonely,
That the creatures all
Appreciate the effort.

Rather fitting lyrics, no? 'Cause I live in the desert and it's all dry and ugly. And I truly appreciate the offering. Of love. From my tree.

Side dish:
I also have this shrub thing, which flowers in the fall - purple - and I need some advice on pruning. Or whatever. Boyfriend will be doing it, since I've been banned from gardening.
There's also this:
Is it dead? Is it living? I think that's part of the fun. The brown makes it look like it is dying, yet it continues to flourish. I appreciate its effort.

Put the Lime in the Coconut

I went to the old doctor about the ant bite. I said, "Doctor! Ain't there nothing I can take?" Just kidding. But I did ask her what was up with my weird relationship to ants. She didn't even believe it was an ant bite. She asked me condescendingly, "How do you know it was actually an ant?" I told her I saw the stinkin' thing bite me. Then she had to open the bite (I'll spare the details, but it hurt. A lot. I sang la la la la la while she did it.), squeeze out the infectious stuff, put stuff on it, and give me those directions (elevate, soak, ice, antibiotic, cover, pill, repeat). Then she said the worst thing ever. I'm not allowed to do yard stuff. Never ever. She said that if this is what happens when an ant bites me, it could be super sucky if I meet up with spiders, snakes, or scorpions. Apparently those things live in the desert. Who knew?

What she doesn't understand is that I am the girl that planted well over a hundred bulbs at my parents house. I like to walk through the woods. I like to collect leaves and other outdoorsy tree-hugging stuff like that. She told me (sob) I could have, like, a rose bush. Everything else needs to be done by Jer-Bear. Now, I would have lied anyway when I got home and told him that I wasn't allowed to do the weed pulling or icky stuff like that. But, seriously? I get a rose bush and that's it? So we went shopping with that baloney in mind and I got this gorgeous planter:

So pretty, right? I thought it looked like wood or pottery or something. It's not. It's recycled plastic! Love. it. I also got a bunch of itty bitty succulents, thinking that if that beast of a doctor wasn't going to let me toil away in the yard I needed something. I planted them all in my new planter and grabbed some river rocks from the front yard. Our front yard. I didn't steal them. Take a look at the finished product:
Cutie patootie garden, right? I love it. I set it on our table we got on clearance ($17 down from $100) out on the patio. Now I get happy every single time I go outside. I sit and look at it while Jer does the mowing. And weed wacking. And weed pulling. Insert evil laugh...here.