Friday, June 18, 2010

Bless The Day

This is the latest sunflower to bloom from the mixed seed packet.. It is over 7 feet tall and the flower is five inches across!

These blooms are droopy from all the weight and they don't last long as cut flowers.


I'm afraid the heirloom runner bean plant is not going to make it in this hot weather! It's showing dryness and stress as the temperatures rise.


The bees sure like to gather pollen from this deformed flower! Later in the morning a swarm flew around, waiting their turn to get at this unusual bloom!


The Mexican Olive has continued to bloom and is now higher than the six foot block wall. I understand why the nurseryman said it was one of his favorite plants.


The Sacred Datura is forming spiked seed pods. It still blooms every night and has spread to over four feet across and is growing up into the Orange Jubilee. This is a highly toxic plant so I will remove the pods before they ripen. Turr Tull hasn't eaten any toxic Oleanders, and I told him not to try the beautiful Datura blooms, leaves or any part of it. The plant is dangerous if consumed! Luckily, Turr Tull is spoiled enough that he waits for his daily plate of goodies and grazes only on the Bermuda grass lawn.

Best news of all, Hubby is in remission!! Still have six more weeks of chemo--just to be sure--and also a bone marrow biopsy, but blood test show no cancer now. Even though everything sounds positive we still have to find out about a possible bone marrow transplant because the cancer will come back! Chemo and or a transplant is not a cure, it just buys time. The Doctor did give us a time-line, but we have decided not to focus on that. Life is uncertain even when someone is healthy, so we are not going to waste time thinking about this disease all of the time. I asked Hubby if he wanted travel or do something special, he thought for a moment and said, "I am happy with my life the way it is. I don't have a list of things I want to do. I'm satisfied with my boring life. Let's just go on with living and leave ourselves to the winds of fate". Good words to live by under the circumstances.

I'm waiting for a pair of glasses that I ordered off the Internet! My daughter and a lot of her co-workers have had positive results with their purchases and the price. I have been blessed with great eyesight and I didn't have to wear reading glasses until I was 54. After ten years of having my glasses hanging from a chain around my neck I decided to get a pair of transition + progressive lens glasses that would stay on my face! My first pair cost $560. I loved the freedom of not having my glasses hanging from my neck, but it did take awhile to adjust to them. Six months later on the day we found out about Hubby's cancer, my blood pressure shot up and I was unable to see clearly. I took off my glasses and never saw them again! They were my only pair and not insured so another pair was ordered. To lower the cost I took off the anti-glare and found a much cheaper frame. I saved $200! My recent bike accident destroyed that pair. On the Internet purchase, even with all the upgrades that I got on my very first pair, I paid only $194!! If I lose these, I will just go back to the chain!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fate laughs at probabilities.
~E.G. Bulwer-Lytton

4 comments:

Claude said...

First of all, fantastic news about your dear husband, so glad to hear he is doing well and he seems to have the perfect attitude to get through this.

The pick of the deformed daisy is awfully cool too... I think that particular mutation is called 'fascination' if I remember right. and everything seems to be doing as well as can be expected in the garden!

Julie said...

Dear Pudgeduck,
First, I am so happy for your hubby!!! I do hope you can just enjoy life together and play a lot.

Next, could you e-mail me with the name of the internet site you ordered your glasses from? I have worn progressives for years and mine are always over 500 dollars! You sure have had some bad fortunes with yours!!! Goodness. Anyway, my e-mail is xmasgirl2003@gmail.com if you could ...or you can leave it on my comments (or yours). I just feel so happy that I might be able to get new glasses for that price! I would be interested to get your opinion on them as well, once you get them.

Your Mexican Olive is really pretty! I haven't ever seen one before, that I remember!

The sunflowers are so awesome too! I am seeing patches showing up all over my neighborhood in front yards (and back), and they just bring such a smile to your face and warmth to your heart!!!

Thanks! Julie

Pudgeduck said...

Julie- Glasses----Zinnioptical.com you will be very happy with the price! I should have mine by Mon- Let you know!

Claude--You are so smart!!!! How in the world did you know about name of the mutation??? I can't even remember the name of the flower!!!!!

kesslerdee said...

So glad to hear your husband is doing well. It sounds like you have so much going on in your garden. I so love the Datura..I've read about them, but never seen one to buy.