12 Flowers

One of my "12 12s" for the year is to plant 12 different flowers.  I'm not counting the daisies,

which I planted a couple years ago and couldn't kill now if I tried.  They're rather smelly and they attract aphids, but there's still a lot to be said for flowers that grow with no help from me.

I've tried growing violas from seed several times, and they don't like me.  But,

(purple things on the bottom left) they seem to be surviving nicely in a pot where I put them as plants.  So, that's 1.  Then the petunias (2), the carnations (upper right) are number 3 as I added a second type of carnation to see if it helped with the scraggly can't-grow-upright single carnation I have been getting.  They grew and they're upright...but they don't smell nearly as nice as the vertically-challenged one.  So I may look for a third variety to add.

This is something called Linaria,

these are stocks,

bachelor buttons,

and if you can see it poking out from underneath the big squash plant and the little squash plant that is growing about 6 inches from where I put the seeds,

those lily-pad looking leaves are nasturtium, which are EVERYWHERE because they are supposed to repel squash bugs.  Unfortunately, I don't think they'll be able to help me with my real squash problem (never getting what I actually plant), but at least whatever I get should survive the summer.  Please let them not all turn out to be zucchini.......

So that's 7.  I bought marigolds (they refuse to grow from seed no matter what I do with them), planted several types of zinnias, cosmos (in an area where it's okay if they colonize), cleome, phlox (which the cats already got), heliotrope (cats), forget-me-nots (didn't grow), and 2 others which I have already forgotten because they didn't grow.  So I planted MORE than 12, but might actually get 12 to survive.  That would be very exciting.  I didn't make that the goal because I just didn't know if I could get 12 different flowers to survive the cats and my own black thumb.  If this keeps up, maybe next year I'll attempt a rose...........

One Down, 11 To Go!

One of my non-crafting "Twelve 12s" for the year was to get rid of 12 things.  This morning:

I sorted out TWENTY books from my library to donate.  TWENTY!!!  Okay, that's actually a really small percentage of my library, but all but 2 of these books have been with me a while, so they have survived more than a few book purges over the years and I am rather proud to have agreed to part with them.  A few examples,

2 books by motivational sales writer Tom Hopkins.  While in college, I sold Cutco knives and did reasonably well, but one of the things that happens when you're in tough, commission-only sales like that is that you are given (or go buy) every top sales book available to help increase your sales performance.  While there are some I liked, I now feel empowered enough to admit that I have always found Tom Hopkins an ego-enhanced ass.  There!  I said it.  I have TWO of the man's books, and I always wondered what was wrong with me because everyone else seemed to revere his books and I could never stand them.  Well NOW I am old enough to stand up and say "PHOOEY!" to his books and to him--out they go!!!

1 book by Dave Barry.  I always want to find Dave Barry funny, but just never seem to or not often enough to ever read more than a few pages in his book.  After 20+ years, I'm admitting I'll never read it.

Tuesdays With Morrie.  I learned a lot about ALS from this book, and as a friend of mine died from it not long after I read this, I thought it was helpful.  I still can't help finding Mitch Albom to be shallow and self-absorbed even at the end of the book.  It wasn't a bad book, but one reading was certainly enough for me.

Anastasia: The Riddle of Anna Anderson:  I really found this book to be interesting and pretty well done.  I admit, I hadn't ever bothered much with the "Anastasia" mythology/cult/whatever, but having found this book on a clearance table somewhere, I did find this book pretty fascinating.  I thought the author was pretty balanced and just tried to present the facts of Anna Anderson rather than the chest-pounding, I-am-right sort of treatment these subjects often get.  However, since the time this was written, DNA testing has proved that Anna Anderson was in no way related to the Romanovs, and I believe all the Romanov family bodies were found and identified, so I won't ever read this book again.

I still hope to get rid of more things we don't need, but it is nice--now that we're into the second quarter of the year--to be able to check off one of my "12s."  Now just 11 to go...........

New Thing Number 1

Just because something isn't exactly fun, doesn't mean it won't count for my list.

This week I had my first mammogram.  I was supposed to have one last year since that's when I turned 40, but I forgot, so it was available for New Thing #1 status.  And, to be honest, it isn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be.  It's weird and a bit awkward, but it doesn't hurt.  I was actually shocked at how often I've heard people complain about it hurting.  These people have obviously not gotten tetanus shots recently (which are STILL my least-favorite medical happening, including the "annual wellness exam for women").  It might have helped that I had just come from a really hard workout in the pool so the REST of me was actually hurting, but it still wasn't that bad.

However, I'm going to aim a bit higher for entertainment value for New Things number 2-12....which shouldn't be all that hard, considering.............