O'Visionary

In keeping with the senses theme...

For the Soundovision, here is a song that I love.

For Smellovision, the lilacs are in bloom right now!!!  Much to the chagrin of Robb, who only tolerates the scent for the couple weeks out of the year because he loves me. :)  It's a mad dash to the car with the heavy scent in the air between the overgrown lilac bushes.  As soon as they're done blooming, I'll be trimming them.  They've gotten too big for their britches.

Ignore my Christmas ornament...

Can you smell them?

For Touchovision, here is some fabric.

Go ahead!  TOUCH it!

Now go get a wipe for your screen.  Donuts and computer screens do not mix.

Lilacs can be dangerous to your health

On late Saturday afternoon, we had some excitement.

We're boring people... Lilacs jazz up our day!

Someone was here to buy Bear Bear and another was coming in ten minutes to see the last one available to sell. That one, (aka Bruno) was playing under the lilac bush while the prospective puppy owner was cuddling with the other.

All of the sudden, Bruno yelped out and acted like he was in great pain! Tiffany and I held him and found that a lilac branch must have smacked him in the eye because Tiffany pulled a twig out of his eye an inch long. Yikes!

The guy left after paying half for the female pup. He'll be back on Friday to pick her up with his wife. And just then the other buyer drove up to see her little Bruno, who was still acting like he was dying... She seemed concerned... I told her we would get him to the vet and find out what's wrong, the entire time thinking that now we've got a blind pup on our hands. We were to keep her updated on his condition.

I called our vets office right away and it was of course his day off so he had to call me back and did in just a few minutes. He said, Come in and let's take a look!

Meri and I drove Bruno over and the vet plucked another smaller twig out of the puppies third eyelid. Did you know they have 3? He put a couple drops is the pups eyes and gave him the all clear!

And the best part was... He didn't charge us! Cool!

I called the lady that had just left and she came back to purchase him. WHEW!

Here is Meri with the one that left on Sunday to go to a friends. I think Tiffany will take it the hardest on Friday because Bear Bear was her favorite...
So now we're down to one pup left until Friday and Meri is attempting to talk us into purchasing Bear Bear back from the buyer. Um nope!

I'm ALMOST out of the puppy poopy business!!!

At least until next spring.

Caution: Slow Blooming

All the other lilacs in town are blooming... I'm so jealous. We've got 4 or 5 big lilac bushes that grace the front of our house and they're not even close to blooming yet. We were told they're of the Japanese variety and tend to bloom later. About 3-4 weeks later than everyone else.

But when they bloom....! Wow. Color galore and when you walk up the path to the front door, the wonderful sweet aroma is thick in the air. You can practically feel it on your skin.

The ones in front of our dining room window needed some trimming one year. They had gotten so tall and bushy that we couldn't see the road when we stood up. This pic is about 6 months before I trimmed them.
So after they got done blooming, I went out to see if I could trim them back a little or thin them out. I got a saw... I had read up on trimming lilacs and read that if you cut out the larger stalks, it will allow the smaller ones to fill in. So I cut out a large stalk. Suddenly the lilac bush looked crippled. And not in a good way. This shot is about 6 months of growth after my whack job...

So after panicking, I read up on them again and found that if I trim them close to the ground, they'll grow back! Apparently they're hard to kill. Whew! So I trimmed it close to the ground and left it. It looked pitiful. Like short stumpy things in my careful landscape... Yuck. I was so embarrassed by them, that I bought some potted plants and set them around in the barren yard. That might have made it look worse. Oh well... When eating dinner, we suddenly felt SO exposed! After my mishap, I left the ones in front of my office alone.

They did grow back. With more smaller branches than before, and finally after a couple years of no blooms, we got billions more than we ever did before! The other set of bushes is in front of my home office windows. They're still blooming pretty good, but when they do, I can't see the road... or anyone walking up to the house. dang. I'm thinking about trimming those this year and starting from scratch on them. hmmm.My husband hates them during the bloom season, but likes the privacy they give us in the dining room and my office. If he can put up with the fragrant blooms for 2 weeks, then we're ok... He just has to dash from the car to the house holding his breath during those weeks. He can enjoy their privacy the rest of the year.As long as I get my 1-2 weeks of intoxicating fragrance, I'm happy!

Ready... Set.. Go...! My daily view...

This was last Thursday 4/23 and my view from my office. I can see if anyone comes to the house... at least until the lilacs are in full force.
This photo was from Tuesday, 4/28. We had some fierce rain over the weekend and all the plants are greening up and starting to look good. The hostas are pushing up thru the dirt and starting to spread their leaves.
This is the view from today. The leaves are opening a bit more and I see the little nubs that will eventually be lilac blossoms. These are Japanese Lilac bushes, from what I've been told and don't bloom until later in the summer than regular ones. But the fragrance is intoxicating and you can practically feel the scent on your skin as you walk past them.

Robb hates them.

But my favorite thing to do, is to sit on our front bench when the lawn is just getting a bit shaggy. I'll sit behind the lilacs, inhale the scent and it reminds me of my grandmothers house when I was a little girl.

I'll share that with my girls this summer. Maybe they'll carry it forward to their kids.