Friday, May 23, 2008

A brief update

I had a busy week. I'll spare you most of the details - or write about them later.


First:





All right, which one of you sent me this great postcard? I thought I could decipher the initial on the back, and thanked no fewer than three separate people, in turn, who all then denied having anything to do with it. So who do I thank? The back says "Make these for the family next time you want to avoid cleaning. We're here for you!" That means that A) the sender is a reader; and B) they are my kind of people.




I was puttering in the garden the other day, and ambled over to my iris patch to admire the emerging flowers. They are far from open, as yet.




But......what's that?





OH CRIPES THOSE BLOODY DEER HAVE EATEN FOUR OUT OF SEVEN OF MY IRISES.


Wait a second...do deer bite off the flowerheads and then drop them behind the plants?



No. They don't. You know what DO, as it turns out? FREAKING FOUR YEAR OLDS WITH SCISSORS. She must be stopped.

13 comments:

Ames said...

Does the said four-year-old have accumulated birthday/xmas monies to buy you more irises?

Gwen said...

ooooh, Amy, you do mean business. How ingenious.

Annalea said...

Oh, your poor, poor irises! (And poor, poor Shan!) I love irises so much, and look forward to them blooming all year long. Luckily for me, my children love flowers, too, so when I explain to them that certain things (like cutting off the buds) kill the flowers before we get to see them, (or greatly shorten their bloom time), they're usually pretty good about keeping their hands off.

And I totally agree about having said 4-year-old replacing the irises. What a lovely learning opportunity . . . especially when she finds out that the iris she's buying won't bloom until she's five or six . . .

Annalea said...

Oh . . . despite the iris's demise, the centaurea and heather look lovely!

Anonymous said...

She has a future as either a seamstress or a hair dresser, me thinks, considering the history.

I feel your pain.

Dave Hingsburger said...

um, Joe and I sent the post card, we thought that you'd love the recipe ... couldn't read the signature huh? sorry it's just boring old us ...

Anonymous said...

Aaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!

And I was just thinking that I need to bring the Ninon out to take some pics of the lovely irises before they are gone.

Anonymous said...

Whoops, I meant Nikon, obviously.

Shan said...

Dave and Joe!! Thank you!! You're marvellous...I couldn't read the signature at all but next time I'll know it. You'd think, watching you sign all those books, that I would have clued in.

Thick as ten planks.

Stace' said...

When my middle child was 3 he "pruned" my hydrangea. I was devistated! It was in FULL BLOOM. I think I had him cut a large patch of grass with his "kid proof" clippers. No more trimming from him.

Ames is GREAT for a good ole' fashioned kid jack up. Listen to her!

Aaah, I had hoped that one of the diet gals sent you the post card. What a hoot that would have been.

Anna said...

I used to be that child. My mother was not amused, she did not think cutting the nap off a blanket and watching it float out the window was a good idea. But it was so pretty, I must have been about 3 or 4, but I still remember that fuzz floating away.

Jo said...

Oh my goodness. Did she have an explanation? Thanks for the recipe :) Oh - package to be mailed this week ;)

Shan said...

Well, she and I had been dead-heading the cosmos a few days prior, taking off all the faded blooms, and I guess she was just carrying on.