It’s nice to hear your voice again
I’ve waited all day long
Even wrote a song for you
It’s strange, the way you make me feel
With just a word or two
I’d like to do the same for youIt’s nice to hear you say “hello”
And “how are things with you?
I love you”
But very soon it’s time to go
An office job to do
While I’m here writing songs for youStrange
How a phone call can change your day
Take you away
Away
From the feeling of being alone
Bless the telephoneIt’s nice, the way you say my name
Not very fast or slow, just soft and low
The same as when you tell me how you feel
I feel the same way, too
I’m very much in love with youI’m very much in love with you
Written and performed by Labi Siffre
I truly love this song by one of the most interesting musicians of all-time.
But Thursdays are for flowers. This flowertography collection was taken out at Rinehart’s at the end of August last year. I went out there for breakfast (one of my absolute favorite breakfast spots) and I used it as a chance to photograph their sunflowers (images released last Thursday) and their zinnias. The sunflowers were past their prime, but most of the zinnias were still in tip-top shape.
Here are the pictures:
Next Thursday’s flowertography session will involve Valerie’s zinnias.
The header photo from the email is my favorite out of a great batch!
An actual comment!
While I was gone in Philadelphia and since I’ve returned I’ve been getting nailed with at least 20 spam comments a day on the website. I comes in cycles, so hopefully this one passes soon.
And it was good timing because tomorrow is the first Saturday at Rinehart’s. Which if you haven’t been, I highly recommend, if for no other reason than the breakfast is delicious. Especially during asparagus season. If you like asparagus.
I need to create a zinnia patch in my own yard, but my sister’s friend Valerie has a huge one, so I can rely on her, but it is a flower I like. Not Top 5, but probably Top 10.
That poppy patch can’t be too far into the future though.
So sorry about the spammers! That’s why I pulled Maddie’s blog down a while back. I couldn’t bear that place getting spammed.
I have NOT been to Rinehart’s, and absolutely love asparagus! I’m going to have to figure out a good weekend for it. We popped downtown Ames for just a bit yesterday, but certainly not the same thing.
Zinnias truly are awesome! I love the vibrance of the colors. It is nice to have a patch you can visit without sacrificing other flowers you love, so that’s a good compromise.
I’ll let you know when I see the poppy patch pop up! I really hope they do it again this year. It had been a bucket list item of mine for so long – obviously it’s not quite the same as seeing them in the wild, but I’ll absolutely take it. I always make sure to go at sunset if I can, just because I love the background, but it is really just so lovely.
They come and go. Usually there is a security update for WordPress that will come out and they will go away for a bit. It is annoying but price of being on the internet.
I didn’t actually go to Rinehart’s on Saturday. It was in the 40s Saturday morning and that was just a tinge too cold to sit outside and eat breakfast. But I’m considering going to the Downtown Farmer’s Market this Saturday for my STREET PHOTOGRPHY image. But there is also a small chance I’ll end up at a Renaissance Faire. I’m going to Des Moines for either a crazy early supper or crazy late lunch, so we will see how my day actually ends up.
Thanks for scouting the Poppy field. I probably will be singing this (at least in my head) if it is there and I get a chance to photograph it:
I used to know a girl
She had two pierced nipples and a black tattoo
We’d drink that Mexican beer
We’d live on Mexican food
Yeah, I wish I could go back
Yes, back in time
Esther used to be the kind of girl that you would
Never leave
She’d do anything to give me what I need for my
Disease
She’d do anything
I can hear them talking in the real world
But they don’t understand that I’m happy in hell
With my heroin girl
Yeah, with a heroin girl
For no real reason.
I also could end up at a greenhouse. Now I think about it. Not any greenhouse. Salama Greenhouse of course. The head is dizzy with the possibilities.
We’re also thinking of going to the Ren Faire either this weekend or next! Well, not all of us – Jon and Charlie are not really onboard, but Alice and I went this past fall with some friends and will likely go back. We’ve all been kicking around these two weekends, but not sure. It’s always fascinating people-watching! A different vibe than State Fair, but just as interesting.
Everclear! I just looked, and the first time I visited was 6/9 last year. My friend who told me about it went a few days before, so I’ll start looking late this month. I don’t know if they have to burn all of the old stuff that was there, or till it maybe? I assume they’re not making heroin or morphine, but who knows.
I’ve never been to Salama! I love greenhouses, and I love flowers… but I have zero green thumbs. I’ve TRIED, and I think I’m following the directions, but I manage to even kill ferns and the fall flowers whose name I’m trying to remember right now but blanking on. I’ve specifically looked up “hard to kill” – and I still manage to do it. So I always feel a little guilty spending too much time at greenhouses when I’m just a spectator.
(I think it’s likely the same gene or attention span issue or whatever that also makes it hard for me to cook. I just don’t tend to things well unless they breathe.)
The O’Gorshes are dancing on Saturday at the Renaissance Faire. My attending mostly depends on whether or not I can score a free ticket. I don’t think it is worth $25 to me to go. I hate to put a price on it, but that price is $25.
I’m sure poppies in Iowa are like marijuana in Iowa. Not really good for recreation.
I’d be shocked if you’ve never been to Salama’s. Probably under the old name of Northwest Greenhouse. Are you doing outside plants or inside plants? It is really hard to kill ferns. You basically just ignore them. I think you have to try to kill them.
The tickets are SUPER steep. And if you’re just going only for the girls to dance, that’s a big order- even for the world’s best funcle. We sort of do all of the free things – but the thing that pisses off Jon is that EVERYTHING costs money. Crappy hot dog? $10. And Charlie isn’t big on, like, wienerschnitzel or anything, so it’s hard to pony up for him to go. It’s also a little chaotic for much in the way of photos – you can get some, but there is a lot of crowding that makes it less than ideal.
I wonder if they’re called “ditch poppies.” Whatever they are, they give me hives. I’m pretty sure heroin would be fatal to me for more than the regular reasons.
Oh! Yes, we went to Northwest Greenhouse when I was younger! Yeah, I have done both inside and outside, and it’s just… I either forget and kill them, don’t use enough water and kill them, or water them too much and kill them. I would guess part of my problem is the quantity of water – they don’t tell you, like, “put 1/4 of a cup in a cubic foot of sand each day for a fern” or whatever. I need some strict instructions, because I have no natural instincts. Alice really wants to have a green thumb, but thus far she also has murdered anything she’s tried.
We DO have some lilies that came with the house and we don’t have to do anything to them each year except pull out the old crap. Those ones evade my attempts at murder, knock on wood.
If Jen can snag me a free ticket, I might be mostly going because I want to see if they joust and if they do if there is a bunch of fake blood like they had last time I went. I wasn’t prepared for it and didn’t get a good picture of it last time and well, it was a lost opportunity.
I didn’t think about how everything costs money while you are in there. That does kind of suck. But I’m pretty good at not spending money and I have Korean Barbecue waiting for me after I leave… if I go. So I won’t eat much of anything there.
Allergic to poppies, well you wouldn’t have landed long in the Land of Oz.
As for plants, you mostly just have to make sure they are getting the proper amount of sun and make sure they get the adequate amount of water. But annuals like lilies can mostly take care of themselves. Just water them a bit if it hasn’t rained fora week or so.
Have you tried hostas? They are ugly, but they are really hard to kill.
Charlie always wants something that’s some form of weapon, and since it’s all cosplay-type stuff, it’s SUPER spendy. We have not given in (to date), but some friends bought Alice some elf ears as a joke that were absolutely ridiculous… and super spendy.
I would NOT have lasted long in the Land of Oz! I would have fallen asleep and just stayed there. I never really put together until just now that they fall asleep in the poppies because it’s morphine/heroin.
I haven’t tried hostas! I think we have some under our deck that the rain just sort of takes care of, and they never die. I definitely don’t involve myself in the interaction, because then that would ruin everything. I’m sure it seems like hyperbole the amount I am saying that I suck with plants, but it’s legitimate.
The main thing you have to worry about hostas is that they will over grow. And then you have to split them. Which is honestly too much work for me, cause I don’t really like hostas that much. But they are good ground cover plants in places that don’t receive much light. You can mostly forget they even exist and they will do fine. At least most of them. I have a lot of hostas on the dark sides of my house or where plants don’t get much light. I don’t think I’ve ever had a hosta die. Not do great, but never die.
Tomorrow the Boone Gardener’s Club is having their annual plant sale, which I like to check out because their prices are hard to beat, so if I plant something and it doesn’t make it, I don’t feel bad. Plus they are a non-profit, so it goes to a good cause. I guess. Maybe not the best cause, but a good cause. But I’m kind of running out of places to plant stuff unless are start digging up more ground.
I’m sure everything is expensive at the Renaissance Faire. I haven’t heard that there will be a free ticket for me, so don’t think I’ll be making it. Which is good cause opens up part of my day.
I’m going to have to check out if the ones we have in back that I don’t touch are hostas. They do take up a lot of space – they are surrounded by rocks, though, so they can’t go too far. Are hens and chicks also easy? I feel like they also have to be split, though – my bio dad used to grow those. Prior to the brain injury, anyway. Maybe I’m getting ahead of myself with the splitting of anything, though – it has to thrive before it gets that big.
I might try and wander over and see if I can grab some! I want to say Reiman Gardens is also having a plant sale this weekend (maybe starting today?). That’s also a sort-of charity. But I’m absolutely okay with getting plants that I can try out and murder without a ton of expense – great idea!
The Reiman Garden’s plant sale is so expensive. But I might hit Reiman Gardens because Stink Floyd might bloom this weekend. See if my reciprocity thing with the Iowa Arboretum really gets me in for free.
Have you been to the Iowa Arboretum treehouse yet? It is really cool. At least I think it is. I think Charlie would love it anyways.
I don’t know anything about hens and chicks, but I’m pretty big in favor of planting plants as a way of remembering somebody. A huge portion of my plants either came from my Mom’s yard or my Grandma’s yard or was purchased and planted with my Mom.
Ugh, that’s good to know it’s expensive. I was just reading an article about Stink Floyd! I was also wondering if the tulips are still in bloom, or if they’re in rough shape by now. They look okay from the road, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re great in person.
We haven’t, but it’s been on my list! I had wanted to hear a first-hand account first before taking the drive, just because Charlie gets sort of frustrated in the car. I wanted the payoff to be worth it. I’ll get him down there, because the photos all looked amazing! And I’d love to just walk around.
Scott may not have been my favorite person, or even a good person, but I do think it’s not bad to remember him that way. I miss so much every day that we moved away from our old house, where a charity that’s now gone planted a tree for Maddie. I did take some of the leaves and dry and then frame them, and they’re hanging in the living room – but it kills me that I can’t just walk up to it every day. So I absolutely love that you have plants from your Mom’s and Grandma’s yards – that makes my day to hear. (Well, read.)
Did you go there? Stink Floyd still hasn’t bloomed. I did go there on Saturday on my way to the Global Entry interview. I didn’t check out the tulips though, but I bet there is a fair chance that some are still blooming. The Tulip Festival in Orange City isn’t until this weekend. Although the time I went a good portion of their tulips were already done and they had a small fraction of the Pella tulips to begin with. But it was still a cool festival. I’d like to go back again. Maybe next year. This weekend I’m hitting the Houby Festival in the Czech Village.
I got there for a little bit, but not over to Salama just due to time! I’m super bummed Stink Floyd hasn’t bummed. I tried to entice Jon to go with me by mentioning Stink’s presence – while he absolutely loved the name, going to see a stink flower somehow wasn’t as much of a draw to him as I find it. There’s no accounting for taste, I guess. Some of us are just agents of chaos.
I keep wanting to get to Pella for the tulip festival – although maybe around the days, rather than on them, as I’ve heard it is crazy there during that time.
You’ll have to let me know how the Houby Festival is! I want to get down to the Greek Food festival in DSM coming up – I lived on nothing but gyros for a solid two weeks of my pregnancy with Charlie. I tried every gyro in the town of Ames during that time. Pammel Grocery is the best, followed by Flame & Skewer up at the mall. The hot dog stand is probably #3, depending on the time of day/cook. I feel very solid in these rankings.