Bugs, Flowers, Technology & A Rant

I just last week, planted some Lamb's Ear in my garden. I was at a nursery 40 mins away and I only bought one. Like a dope, I realized I needed 2 so a few days later, I got back into the car drove another 40 mins and picked up the second one. My dog groomer has them in his yard and told me they were wonderful perennials.

I was out watering the other day when this beautiful butterfly above landed on my Lamb's Ear, I raced in the house to get the camera before he flew away. I kept talking to him as I was taking his photo, just asking for another minute to get some more pictures before he flew away.

A bug sitting on the new Threadleaf Coreopsis that I just added to the garden. I had a couple of holes to fill in and this seemed to fit the bill.

I love the thin needle like foliage.

Black Eyed susans that are getting ready to bloom.

Ok, this one is for my friend Dorothy who was just telling me a few weeks ago she had never seen the orange coneflowers. I remember years ago, I read in some gardening catalogs that they were available. You could only get them in catalogs at first I think, unless you were lucky enough to have a nursery that carried them locally. It took some time, but they seem to be available in stores now. Don't remember where I got this one, I think maybe Lowes.

Another shot of this pretty little Hydrangea. This time though, I caught a spider on one of the leaves to the left.

More Lamb's Ear. By this time, the little butterfly had flown away.

Now for the technology part of it all. My birthday is next week and I asked for a Shuffle iPod for my gift. We have a larger iPod, we just love it!! I specifically wanted something very small that I could work out with, something that I wouldn't feel was there, that was lighter then a feather. The Shuffle is awesome, even though my birthday is next week, I did get it early so I could start using it. It is the size of a stamp and so light. It actually holds quite a lot of music. My husband figures about 16 hours worth in this little thing. So now, I shuffle when I vacuum, water the garden and when I go walking. Probably one of the best gifts I've ever received.

Ok, here is the rant part of my post...... back in the 80's I had a Walkman, boy did I love that thing. I still call our iPods the Walkman sometimes, out of habit I guess. Anyway, I used to live in Boston and would always walk around with my Walkman blasting in my ear. One day, I was headed toward the subway down the street from where I lived and I was blasing my music and not paying attention to what I was doing. I almost got hit by a subway car...I was literally one step away from being run over. Since people don't normally fare too well after being hit by a subway, I would imagine that I would have been killed. That in fact is the closest that I've come to being killed in my life and I hope never to repeat the experience.

After that experience, I would never again walk around listening to my Walkman, I would make sure I was sitting down before I listened to it, I never walked around the city any longer blasting my music. In fact, just a few years ago, the idea of strapping a headset on and going walking still was something I wouldn't do. I believe there was a rule, years ago, where I'm currently living, that you couldn't use any type of iPod , Walkman devise while walking or running here. I think if you were seen doing that, you would be asked to remove it. I used my Shuffle for the first time outside the other day....I realize all these years later that what almost got me killed was my stupidity, not the walkman. Just this morning I used my Shuffle on a very long walk but the volume was very low, in other words, I could hear cars, people talking to me, asking directions etc.. I wasn't blocking out my surroundings, I was aware of where I was and what was around me. So if you use these things outside, be careful.....keep the volume low, don't have ear phones that block out all sound, always be sure you can keep aware of your surroundings. Ok, that's my rant....enjoy your modern day Walkman!!!!