Chris with the Pink Hair

When I was on college I had pink hair. And I had a professor who's 3-year-old son knew me as "Chris with the Pink Hair". Well, after many years, Chris with the Pink Hair is back. And I LOVE it!

First picture is the "before", and the others are obviously the "after".







Two small pink chunks in the front. They actually look like larger chunks here than they actually are.

Then the back. When the hair is falling natually it covers most of the pink- just a little bit shows at the bottom. Chris moved my top layer a bit to better show off the color.

Vanessa- I chuckled to myself at your definition for Trail Magic. And re Stacy's blog- I was so excited when I saw the plug that she gave me there. I may even get an order out of it. Someone emailed me interested in one, but she's having some Paypal issues and since she lives in Canada she can't easily mail me a check. We'll see how that turns out.

I have more info on the deer from my previous post. There are two deer in the area. Their mother was killed/died and her two babies now roam the area. There is someone in the neighborhod who has been feeding them, so they have completely lost their fear of humans. This one in the pictures is much more this way than its sibling. We did see the other one, but it kept its distance.

In other news.... This past Saturday was our 4th Annual Pinewood Derby (and Cookout). I think we had our biggest turnout yet- 27 people! There were some awesome cars there- Batmobile, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, The beach, the shark, the garbage truck... And the weather couldn't have been more perfect. Sunny, but not too hot. So many great pictures that I don't even know how to narrow it down, so just one for now and then the layout will have more- working on resizing them now. Have a coupon that expires at the end of the week so want to get them printed.

Weekend Review

For your viewing pleasure, we have a post that is NOT about gardening. (Feels like I've blogged about that a lot lately.)

This weekend we went to New Jersey. Chris' family has a cabin there and his parents were going to be there for the weekend, so we went down to see them there.

On the way we had to stop at a convenience store. I went in to make my purchase and waited. And then waited some more. There was only one employee, and he was busy pumping gas outside. He said he didn't see me go into the store, but we made eye contact. However, since I was in the store alone, it allowed time for me to take a picture of the bong collection. I also got to look at the box of porn DVDs.

Later on Saturday while at the cabin a deer came up to me. Literally. I thought he woudl be scared when he saw me, but instead he came right up to me. No stranger danger at all! In this photo on the left you can see me on the right and the deer next to me. For some reason he kept turning his head away right when I was taking the pictures.

I went inside to tell Chris' mom and she came out and the deer was still there. She tried feeding him some lettuce, but he wasn't interested. Instead he ate a cigarette butt that was on the ground. Mmm... tasty. Blech!

She then pet the deer. Personally I don't believe she should have fed or pet the deer, but I certainly understand the temptation. I wanted to but was partially afraid of it biting me, but I also didn't want it to get too comfortable with humans.

Next up is a photo of Chris and I "hiking". The cabin is very close to the Appalachian Trail, so we wanted to do some Trail Magic. We went to one place and were looking at the map trying to figure out what would be a good spot when a park ranger came by. We asked him for his advice and he told us of a shelter a few miles away. Perfect! The shelter was .2 miles from a road and parking lot.

We hiked up with a few gallons of water and ran into some weekend section hikers. One of them (the dad of the group) had thru-hiked in '03 and it looked like he was out with his son and either daughter or daugther-in-law. It was her first time backpacking.

Sunday morning we went back and noticed that 2 1/2 gallons of water was gone, so we left 2 more gallons as well as a bag of Snickers and Skittles.

Later that afternoon we swung by again and found 3 more hikers. Good thing we stopped by because they hadn't checked out the bear box where we had stashed the goodies. They were very appreciative!

As we were heading back to the car I kidded with Chris that we were now section hikers. After all, we had hiked the same section 3 times now. Probably doesn't count though seeing how it was such a tiny section. :)

We also made a stop at High Point. My dad "collects" high points- that's the highest point of each state. He had been to High Point, NJ before with Andrew. I figured that since we were so close I should get this one as well. After all, I've visited a number of the others with him.

This monument is at the top. There are 292 stairs inside, as you can see below. And let me tell you- a day later my calves are killing me from climbing those steps!


After High Point we headed back to the cabin, packed up the truck, and headed home.

Funny how a 4 hour drive feels so much longer after you've been driving around all morning through state parks, etc.

Insect invasion

NO!!!!! I was looking at my garden yesterday and noticed that I had aphids. Blech. A squirrel had already dug up my hosta in the morning, so I wasn't happy. I went inside and pulled out my gardening books. One told met he various chemicals I could use to get rid of aphids. Nope. The other book gave me some household remedies. So I mixed up some Dr. Bronner's peppermint soap and water and sprayed it on my plants. Hopefully the bugs will die or leave and my plants will be ok.

Garden progress

The plants that I had ordered arrived last week, and today I finished planting all of them. One arrived all slimy, so I'll need to call the company to get that one refunded. Rather than waiting for a replacement plant, I picked something else up today at a local nursery.


I tried waving my arms and saying "grow" in the hopes that all the plants would start to magically grow, but I do't think I have those super powers. I guess I'll just have to wait like a normal person to see how it turns out. The next to last section looks a little bare still, but I planted a number of bulbs that hopefully will come up soon- ranunculus and a summer blooming daffodil. I also have a peony in that section that I hope will come up soon.

More pictures to come as the summer progresses.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer....

First order of business... a gross picture. Open at your own risk. This is what Chris did to his thumb last week at work. The photo was taken on Sunday after he soaked his thumb for about 30 minutes to loosen the gauze from his finger. And then it still hurt to remove the bandage.

Next up- my garden. Already things are progressing well, and things have only been planted for a week! The tomatoes are growing, and are up to or over the first rung of their cages. I saw flowers on one of my cucumbers this week as well as on my peas. Slowly but surely, the garden is coming along!

So what have I planted? Let's go on a "tour" starting at the top.

To the right of this section of garden is the small patio. You can just see the corner of it in the top right of the photo.

In the box is a tomato plant, 3 marigolds and some carrots. The carrots have not yet sprouted, but I imagine they'll come up this week. Next to the box on the trellis are cucumbers. You can't really see it in the photo, but next to the trellis are some cosmos. We'll see how well those do.

In front of the trellis are 6 pepper plants, and in front of those as well as the second tomato are 6 heads of iceberg lettuce. And the final thing in this section are a few flowers along the right hand size- impatiens and allyssum.

The next stop on the "tour" is my herb garden.

Here we have 2 chive plants. I've had these chives since I lived on Myrtle Street. That means they're at least 6 years old, maybe 7. They also have moved 4 times and been transplanted twice. They are thriving very nicely here.

On the trellis in the back are sweet peas, the only non-herb in this section, but I decided I needed some flowers.

In front of the trellis towards the left is some lemon balm. Any thoughts on what exactly one does with lemon balm?

Then we have 4 basil plants and 2 parsley.

And to round out the section we have more impatins and allysum along the stones on the left.


Moving down from the herb garden we have, what I believe is, the thinnest section of my garden.

In the back on beans. I transplanted 3 that I had started inside. Two of them are doing really well and the one in the middle isn't so hot. It was the runt of the group when I brought them outside. I also direct sewed a number of other beans and this morning I noticed that they had sprouted.

In front of the beans we have two lavender plants. I hope those do well because I would love to make some sachets with my own lavender.

In front of the lavender are 6 garlic plants. I planted these last fall and they seem to be doing well.

The final veggies of the group are 6 plants of leaf lettuce along the right and in front.

And for flowers we have marigolds along the left.

The final section of our tour brings us to my sugar snap peas. At the moment that is the only plant in this section (other than a few weeds poking up) but soon I will be planting peonies, ranunculus, and some summer daffodils. Depending on space I may get some more annuals as well.

There is one more section to the left of this one, but at the moment it is full of weeds. I've ordered some other plants for this section, and hopefully they will be arriving soon. A hosta is on its way, but there are others plants that should be coming as well.