Bedtime stories

We had an almost perfect spring weekend. It was warm and sunny both days. It was the sort of weekend that makes you believe that spring is actually here and that it wouldn't be unreasonable to put the winter coat and boots away for the season.

I went a step farther than that. Michael and I went down to the local garden center and purchased plants for our window boxes. I hope I am not tempting fate too much. I'd hate to get a nasty storm and have the temps drop to freezing and kill everything.

We did things a little differently this year. Most everything we bought are perennials. We picked up Columbine, Anenomes, Lilies, Johnny Jump-Ups and a bunch of other things I can't remember. We saved the labels to help with that.

I hope at least some of these plants will flower at different times over the course of the summer. I figured we would need to fill in a little bit with annuals to keep color going all season long, but I'd like to keep that to a minimum.


We even got a little silly and bought a "Topsy Turvy". It's the upside down tomato planter that's been all over TV lately. One of the staff at the garden center said that their tomato supplier told them that they were a good idea. I've got my fingers crossed. My hope is that it will make it harder for the squirrels to reach the fruit. The first squirrel I catch with one of my tomatoes in his grubby little fists is going to be one sorry little rodent.






The deck looks pretty inviting doesn't it?

We thought so too and once everything planted, we called a couple of friends and asked them to swing by for a bit.

We got to talking and somehow bedtime routines came up. I was surprised to learn that I was the only one of the group that reads every night before bed.

I can't remember a time when a book wasn't part of the drill. Even before I could read, one of my parents tucked me in and read to me for awhile. Once I started school and didn't need someone to do it for me, I picked up the habit for myself.

Now, if I don't have a book or magazine, it's really hard for me to get to sleep. I need something to help me transistion from all the excitement of the day. And if I find myself awake in the middle of the night, all it usually takes is a few minutes or reading to send me back to the land of nod.