I Love Mother Nature!

After two weeks of almost steady rain, Mother Nature blessed us with a picture-perfect day! I spent the day at the first annual Jubilation Day celebration at our City Hall band shell. We had a series of performers all day long and after 5 1/2 hours of Gospel singing, I feel almost righteous.

Unfortunately, no one was shopping, so I had a dismal day sales-wise. I sold two (2) cards, and one of those was a pity sale. I kid you not. As soon a vendor would bail, the guys from the City were right there to take down the city-provided canopy. I joked with one of the guys as he passed my spot, asking him if he wanted my canopy, too. Just give me a reason to pack up and leave! Please! But no, instead he bought a card. I told him I do not do pity sales, but he insisted, so I sold it to him. That made it official: I took in the same amount I paid the Kettle Corn guy for kettle corn (!) and a soft pretzel.

Although, one of the performers did ask me if I would do a custom card for her, and make her about 20 of them. I got her business card, and she took mine, so hopefully that will translate into a sale. I hope!

So I dragged my sorry butt and my lunch bag down my steps when I got home and looky what awaited me on my front walk:


Well, he started out on my front walk, but as soon as I went in to get my camera and came back out, he had mosied on over to the mulch, where it would be almost impossible to capture him on film, er... pixels. But I tried! I know chipmunks are rodents, but isn't he cute?!

And then we have this:


This is a sorry excuse for whatever kind of plant it is (Salvia?), but there is a story here.

I kept seeing all these in full flower, so one year I bought a few and planted them in my back yard spit-of-a garden. Over the years, they got sadder and sadder as the sun got less and less because my tree keeps growing and growing, creating more and more shade.

So last year I moved them to the front of the building where they would get at least morning sun. They slowly died, or so I thought. They were nothing but brittle sticks by last fall, so I pulled them up and trashed 'em.

This spring it was still just dirt. Then a few green leaves sprouted. Then the landscape guys (Condo Association landscape guys, not my personal landscape guys, puleeze!) mulched around it. Then it got tall. And this is what I have now. From dead sticks to a new plant! This thing must really want to live!

So here I am, weary from too much fresh air, and I'd planned to just lie on the couch and watch a movie. But noooo, my DVD remote went missing, and I love the pause button, so I may just have to stamp something. Or I could lay on the couch, watch Food Network reruns, then go to bed early so I can rest up for my LSS trip tomorrow. The options are staggering.