random ramblings week - today: when things look too good or am I really sitting around waiting for my flowers to wilt ....



Three times in the last week someone has asked where we bought our hanging baskets.

One, an old man quite unsteady on skinny legs, talked to hubs and was given incorrect information. Ugh. I felt awful - I mean I realize he wasn't asking about something important, but still I wish he would stop back.

Now, I usually plant these baskets myself with a little of this and a little of that with moss liners, but this year I decided to buy the baskets already in bloom. They have just gone crazy out there. We must have just the perfect amount of sun and the perfect amount of water - something must be just perfect for these baskets, but ...

here is the thing with all of this 'perfectness' - I find myself totally unsettled with it.

Every morning I open the front door expecting to see flowers all over the porch floor and naked plants greeting me with brazen leers (who's your daddy now) - little springtime versions of that Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

Maybe this is because these baskets have been through crazy temperature fluctuations and they could be thinking "It must be August by now, time to croak off" - one day it is 90 degrees and the next it is 40 - the cold temps the other night made me sympathize with every Eggo waffle I'd ever abandoned in the back of my freezer. 

Maybe it is because the color seems lighter than when I first put them up. I'm not sure.

But it is another little aha moment for me - yes, I'm having a lot of them lately - because I am wondering why something that is going good is so hard for me to appreciate - why I am determined to look down the road toward some kind of problem around the bend - why I am spending my time waiting for the other shoe petal to drop.

I am thinking I might do this with other things in my life. I am thinking it is time to stop doing this.

8 comments

DancingMooney said...

Ahh Cat. We can't keep hanging baskets alive to save our lives... and I have the same problem with strawberries too. My neighbor insists I just needed to move them to a better location. LOL.

oops. I didn't mean that. I am all for having roots, and not moving anymore! Maybe your flowers and new fence are trying to tell you, to stayyyy, in that lovely house of yours. ♥

Catherine Ivins said...

well, tomorrow I will post the backyard and you won't be using the word lovely anymore - ugh - I'm the same I can't keep them going all summer- ever.. the fact that these now have more blooms than greenery (they had much more greenery when I bought them) - has me thinking this is not going to last - I did well for a couple years with moss liners, I guess they stay wetter. Well, soon as I got George ready to move (in his head) I start second guessing this whole thing ....

DancingMooney said...

Maybe think about what it is you need or want from a new home, and if you can have it where you are now, if you look at things differently, or maybe tweak the situation... for us, refinancing and having those low payments and such an easy maintenance home, started making us see how much more we could afford to go stay at the coast more often, and such other things like that... less is more sometimes... more or less. :)

KJ said...

Home should be comfortable and visually pleasing. Having said that, home really is in your heart and not a physical place.

You need to figure out why it is you want to move- what is it that is lacking? What are you avoiding? What do you want different? One thing I can guarantee, unless you have that big winning lottery ticket, your new house will have its own set of issues.

My last home was in Cleveland. Cleveland! However, it had beautiful leaded glass cabinets in the dining room, great wood work all over, a washer and dryer free for me to use in the basement, easy parking, and a really fabulous fresh food market in the city (featured on the Food Network.) Now I am living in Jersey City, I have a big apartment, nice hardwood floors, big windows, I am a short commuter train ride from NYC (really what could be better?) but I have mice, parking is a huge pain, and the local grocery stores are awful, and the laundry in the basement takes quarters- but at least it is in the basement.

Balance.

Contentment.

Catherine Ivins said...

I agree Janell and Kathy. I guess we'll see what opens up in us over the next few weeks - it's never really been about the house, although I have spent my entire adult life in this house so just that one thing is a huge change for us. Conservative community, high taxes, all the people we have been friends with over the years (and I shouldn't say 'we' because George still has lots of friends here) have moved on. Backyard a mess after Hurricane Sandy - lots to rebuild there if we stay with money that could go into a new place if we don't. There is definitely a comfort here (raised my daughter, cared for my mother until she died), but also a tightness ....

DancingMooney said...

Ahh... it sounds like you might be ready for change. ♥

Valerie said...

Those are absolutely lovely! We have some potted hydrangeas that have done well for over a month mow and I hope they continue to hang on. A tropical-ish plant on my front porch which I totally cannot recall the name of has not fared so well with the on and off hot and cold weather, and indoor excursions to escape the cold where it met the cats.

Catherine Ivins said...

Thanks Valerie- yes, the in and out thing and pets- ugh! I was going to take my hanging baskets down last night and leave them on the ground until after the morning sun since it's been hot and sunny here and they get too much, but was worried about the insects that have done a number on my zinnias this year (maybe cicadas or slugs- something at night, I never see them) ugh - good luck with your hydrangeas and your tropical! xo