Starting over with a trinity of potted roses.

I love my miniature roses. Honestly. And I have no real ideas of how to grow these properly ~ so what I do is plant them in good, moist soil with a bit of sandiness to it, feed them with Bayer Triple-Action Rose Food every now and then, water the before they look tired, and move them around into the light until they find just the right amount of happiness and begin to grow. Sounds like good advice for just about anything, doesn't it? The two scraggled ones you see here are two of the three originals I brought back. The third, my mom commented under her breath about me watering them and cows coming home until I rolled my eyes like a hormonal 16 year-old and sighed, "Okay okay, I GET it. It's DEAD. Sheesh!"

Not wanting to give up on the sad, browning stick of a plant left poking up from the dry soil, I decided part of starting over is getting rid of something truly unressurectable. (Is that a word? It is now.) So, two of the plants looked prunable (another made-up word, huh?), I cut back the dead wood and shaped them to create regrowth. With the truly sad, browning stick, most of it snapped between my fingers when I tested it. That meant it was dry and dead inside. So I pulled it up and tossed it in the can.

Then, I realized another part of starting over is planting a brand new start with a beautiful, new plant. This healthy red one happens to be a late Valentine's gift from Ron. Thank you, Ron ~ you know how I love those miniature roses. And the color red. And clean hardwood floors. So thank you for all three.

Out in The Yarden again today ~ the weather here is in the mid-70s. I'm a little tired from my trip to Memphis yesterday, but I think I'm good. In fact, I know I am.

Last Sunday night before we left out the next morning for Memphis, I picked up 1.2 million pine cones. I forgot how much I really, really hate picking up pinecones. It took me back to fourth grade and chores I'd do around the yard for money. I didn't get an allowance. I think I just got respect. Wait, I got neither. But I never hurt for a thing. But man, pinecones, character-builders? Let's hope so...


Well, that's where all the seeds are, So if you want to have trees, you have to have prickly pinecones. Life is funny that way. And thank the sweet God in the sky that I like funny.