It was just so gorgeous today! I feared the nurseries may be closed being this is a holiday and all, but not so! There were police managing traffic at Gerlachs and a parking attendant at Plantscapes and they both needed them.

I bought 2 half gallon Salvia (meadow sage) plants and two gallon Lavateras at Plantscapes. We justs can’t locate the Lavatera olbia ‘Barnsley’ so we settled for a different type. These will be treated as annuals. Oh well. I’m going to try and make some softwood cuttings of the one Lavatera that made it and see if I can get some going that way. We decided against the butterfly bush because they grow too big for our space.

We drove over to Nickel Plate Mills again to get some bird seed but ended up just getting suet. There was a HUGE Irish Wolfhound inside the building that was so magnificent! That was the biggest dog I’ve ever seen. It was the size of a pony! Anyway, I had to be very strict with myself about buying any more plants because we were going to go to a somewhat private home nursery to buy some homegrown plants later in the day.

We went back to Gerlachs for the premium bird seed because the Wild Birds Unlimited store was closed. RATS! (my favorite store, too). I found recipes for making my own bird bells and blocks and will try that to save a bit on the bird seed that the squirrels are stealing at an alarming rate. When I make the bird bells, I’ll hang them away from the other feeders so the little birds won’t be scared to come. They sit back and wait until the starlings and those naughty nut-eating mammals leave.

We stopped and got some subs on the way home to eat out on our deck. Our meal wasn’t what we were hoping for. The neighbors had lots of company and the grandmother, of all things, was teaching the little kids to howl like wolves at the top of her lungs while they were sitting next to our fence 5 feet from our table. I thought of the hose, but those were just thoughts, nothing I could carry through with. :-) I grabbed my purse and we left for the quiet, beautiful country gardens of the flower lady.

The flower lady showed us her beautiful gardens and asked us our preferences. She pointed out the ones that she thought would be best and we agreed and bought them. She dug them up and we got some beautiful healthy plants that will bloom most of the summer. We plan on going back to see new ones blooming in a few weeks. I may be able to add a few more plants if I put them in pots on the deck.

We got home and I covered the plant roots with some more potting soil until tomorrow. The family get together was still in full progress next door so we grabbed our fishing rods and headed for Misery Bay. My husband caught 5 nice bass and I caught only 1. (We never keep any of the fish, we always catch and release.) I caught dozens of pumpkin seed sunfish that were so beautiful. That was fun, they fight like the devil.