And the flower is an.........

Amaryllis Belladonna (aka: Naked Lady Amaryllis)
Believe it or not, it is an amaryllis. My mom and I searched and searched the Internet for hours finding out the name of this flower. I see them all over here, and never knew what they were, so off to the world wide web for the answer. Both my mom and I were shocked to find that it was an amaryllis, but after knowing what it is, it made sense.

What is This???

Ok, this is a flower that I have growing in my yard and I see them everywhere around here. I do not pretend to be a flower expert, but I do know many flowers as my grandmother was English and always had different flowers around. Growing up with her around, I had to know the flowers by just looking at them. I had to know what bulb was what, just by looking at the bulb. She was always out in the garden toiling in the soil, planting something. This is one I have never seen before moving to this area. So, what is this flower? Any ideas?
The flower is a light pink color. It blooms on the end of a long stalk, no leaves. It stands about 2 ft tall. The blooms last about 1 week, and blooms at the end of July, every year (a perennial). It is a bulb.

Not a Baby Anymore :(

My youngest woke this morning and wanted to make breakfast for his grandma. He cut a bagel in half, cooked it, buttered it, made the coffee, and then decided he needed to make breakfast for everyone else. This is what he made.....sausage. From fixing a wheelbarrow to making breakfast.....He will make a good husband on day.....long time from now I hope.

Gender Roles

I was always taught that you can do anything you put your mind to. I try to instill that frame of mind into my children. I obviously enjoy doing things that most would consider "GUY" work. It's not that I am forced to do it, since I am a single mom, but I do these type of things because it is "FUN".



My youngest also thoroughly enjoys doing this type of work. We are working on restoring an old rusty wheelbarrow. Currently we are stripping all the rust off, filling in the thinning areas, then will be spraying it with primer and a new coat of paint. A new tire, and new handles and it will be good as new.






Looks like my daughter also enjoys this work. Michelle, loves being outside. She also wants to help mom use the drill to sand the rust off. Do I enjoy teaching my kids to use power tools???? YES!! I am glad that they are learning to do things themselves instead of having to pay someone else to do them, or throwing things out just because it doesn't look brand new. Our next project will be to strip the paint and rust off an old (was my grandfather's) metal swing. Then we will need to replace want might need replacing and prime and paint.



In case you were wondering why I cut down that dogwood tree in the previous post, I cut it down for a few reasons. First and foremost, it was dying. In the spring it hardly bloomed, there were several dead branches (despite the lush look of it in the photo). I know what killed it, and carpenter ants are to blame. Upon cutting the tree down, I cut into a huge carpenter ant nest. I knew they were in there before I cut the tree. I had ant killer standing by. Instead of a live, active nest next to my house.....the nest is dead, and so are the ants. I am very choosy about trees I cut down. Any tree I cut down is either dead, dying, or dangerous (growing at a 45 degree angle).

Wonder Where I have been???

Maybe this will explain it:
This is only a small snippet of what I have been up to instead of blogging.
There are only so many hours in the day after all.

Before
After (almost done, still needs a little more work, but it's getting there)




Yes, my chain saw has been real busy this summer.