Petunia rambles on and on….

I had a few dumb chores to do – pick up eye drops at the pharmacy, get milk, buy mushrooms.   Ack, what a waste of a day off.

So, while getting all the chores done, I managed to get up to Ronny’s Garden World, which was 15 miles out of the way, but worth the ride.

And I walked around for an hour, looking at all the beautiful things they had on display – and never got miles away from the car, so I didn’t have to worry about the hike back!!   Geez, I’m finally getting smart in my old age.  It’s about damn time.

Found lots of beautiful things to take pictures of, and admire, and wish I had!!!!

Isn’t this one neat looking??

I always had marigolds growing throughout the vegetable garden.  They’re supposed to keep pests away; supposedly, they taste bad.  I never tried any.  At the very least, they grew well with minimal care and were pretty to look at while pulling weeds!

How’s this one for bright and cheerful?  The bright sun really brought the colors out in all the flowers.

And these are my favorite color combinations, blue, purple and yellow.  And there they were!

They had acres and acres of trees for sale.  The common ones that you see everywhere, some weirdly shaped ones, some VERY expensive fancy things, and some I’d never heard of. 

I’ve traded with these people since the beginning of time, or perhaps a year or so before then.

I’m not sure of the reason, but my blog stats show some odd things. Or they just seem odd to me.

I get an enormous amount of visits from Eastern Europe, from folks who have searched out the word “petunia” on Google sites in their own languages. I’m guessing these are non-English-speaking people. I keep wondering. Here, Petunia is a flower, completely aside from the childhood nickname that my older brothers gave me. I wonder if its a term from something, uh, dirty over there. Or, perhaps, a lot of gardeners in spring in the northern hemisphere are planting?

I also get many, many visits from Australians. I’ve gotten to “know” a few personally, with e-mails going back and forth. I do have some sort of pseudo-cousin (twice removed) (he moved to Australia, came back to the US, moved there again. That makes him “twice removed”) out there who may occasionally stop by to see if anyone in the family has died. Maybe there’s lots of people in Australia, now that the growing season is ending, that are trying to get rid of all their damn Petunias. I don’t know.

Anyway, the point here, however far-fetched, is in regard to an e-mail I sent to an internet friend in NSW several weeks ago, telling her the convoluted relationship between me and this removed cousin, and how well I remember the big, big box that arrived for Christmas 1956 (or 1955, I’m really not sure which) with all the goodies from Australia, sent by his mother. My older brothers each got items that have probably long since gone astray.

But my mother got a beautiful woolen blanket. She treasured it as long as she lived (to age 90) for its quality, brilliant colors and mostly, out of love for the givers, her cousin and his wife, who were so very far away. My mother was very close to her cousin’s wife, who, I’m sure, picked out the gift! Every winter of my life, that blanket was folded neatly across the foot of Mom’s bed and pulled up over her on chilly nights. It spent every summer in Mom’s cedar chest, protected from moths that Mom was sure would get it.

While I was bringing out summer weight clothes yesterday, and packing away the heavy stuff, I found Mom’s blanket.

There is a cut in the fabric on the other side of it. And I have a vague recollection that I might be the one responsible, an incident going back maybe 40+ years to when I was a young teenager. As I often can’t remember whether or not I ate breakfast, I’m not going to try remembering back that far now. The cut is clearly there, and I am more apt to be the guilty party than my mom or either of my brothers. Blame is pointing my way.

The label is intact and legible.

Federalia, Geelong, Australia

I found no references when I Googled and the company may be long gone.

When this package from overseas arrived (and hey, back in the day, that was a BIG DEAL, to get a package from way out there!!) I think the neighbors practically gathered to see it. I was 6 or 7 years old (’55 or ’56) (Tom, if you’re reading this, perhaps you can shed some light on WHEN your Mom was first in Australia? When did they first go out?) Whenever it was, my “aunt” as we kids called her, sent me a stuffed toy koala. I was thrilled.

Oddly, I just remembered that —- Initially my mother most definitely WASN’T!!! I remember her letting out an ungodly scream as she was reaching and digging through some sort of packing straw, to get out all the goodies. And touched something FURRY. And damn near had a heart attack in the middle of the kitchen, thinking she had touched a dead rat or some other “foreign horror.” Now, how did I remember that, after all these years?

I carried this koala around forever, everywhere I went. I remember wearing his bum quite bald, even back then. And clearly, the years haven’t been too kind to him.

He originally had wee black button eyes, and black leather “feet” on him, all gone now.� The ears were snowy white, and a different sort of fur.� The brown was coarser, the white was silky, soft.� I remember that clearly.

The back side didn’t fare too well, either. I remember his bum getting a bit bare way back when I was still regularly carrying him about!! And you can see still more stuffing falling out of him, every time he’s moved.

He’s been in sad shape for many years. My kids have seen him, but have never been permitted to play with him. Even back then, he was in such shape that he wouldn’t stand the rough handling of children.

He’s worthless now, I’m almost 59 years old, and I still can’t toss him out.

Eye stuff

First – no needles in the eye, which I’m sure is everyone’s favorite theme for a Horror Movie.  Meds, 3X a day, brought the swelling down in the retinal to almost normal levels.  As it’s responding to meds, Dr sees no need to escalate to injections.  At this point, I started to breathe again.  However, all these doses of steroids for the last month have upped the pressure in that eye, so he’d like to get me off that one.  This shit has to be gradually reduced, so a week of both drops, 2X a day, then both once a day, then DC the steroid and stay on the Nevanac, the non-steroid anti-inflammatory.  Of course, that’s the one that has no generic substitute, so a wee little bottle of the stuff, about the size of your thumbnail, costs me $50 AFTER my wonderful AETNA insurance pays whatever they pay.  My doctor apologizes that the cost is necessary; the prolonged steroid use is trouble, and only taking the Nevanac once a day will, duh, make the bottle last 3 times as long as it has this month. 

OK, then

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twins

The twins are now “strange bedfellows,” rather than strange crib fellows!!!!!  Mommy bought them big boy beds and blankies and sheets and CARS pillowcases.  If you’re a boy almost 3, I guess it doesn’t get better than that!!

Lightning McQueen and Tow Mater, their best friends

Nick and Pop, in the tire swing

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

By the time Pop and I left the doctor’s office, with an appointment card for another visit in 4 months, I was able to breathe normally again, and probably the blue color was receding.   I’m guessing there.

We did go over to Brandywine Creek State Park, which is very near by.  In fact, you are struck by the oddity of serene openness, so very close to big city traffic, congestion, red lights, signage, honking horns and such.  For a little while, you can forget how dramatically we’ve screwed up the natural beauty of the land.

We walked for miles, and it was beautiful.  Trails all over the park.  Pop would not stop and check the map of the park  and the trails that were clearly posted on a big damn sign because he’s a man and penis-bearers don’t check maps first.  To get to the creek, and down to the “white water” area, a scant mile away, we walked about 4 miles or so.  Then about 4 miles back.  About halfway back, I remembered the 26 pounds that I’ve gained in the year since I’ve quit smoking.  I had to drag those extra pounds back, and it was a learning experience.  I learned that I never should never have eaten all those damn Star Burst candies.  Ah, well, it was a sunny day  read that “hotter than hell” and I had camera gear with me that translates to another 20 pounds to haul around.  I enjoyed the afternoon, but also was glad to get back to the car and sit down!!!

Stone walls, very common in Pennsylvania, cause they’ve got a lot of granite up there.

Not as common down here.

I love the old stone buildings up in this area.

Some white water on the creek

I tend, at times, to forget that I am getting old and no longer in “fit hiking condition.”  This usually occurs to me WHILE I’m hiking, when I’m about 3 miles from the car.  There’s a lot more to lug around lately!   Now, the issue is no longer “Am I out of shape and getting fatter by the day?”   The issue is “Am I going to do anything about it other than bitch and think about the problem while eating or while sitting on my broad ass and knitting?”