Quiet Weekend with Different Kids

I am enjoying some garden time this weekend. I stopped on my way home from work last night and picked up three new perennials and a bunch of little potted herbs. I had been thinking about a couple of bare spots in front of the dining room and wondering what to put there; and the inspiration was high last night. Besides, my hydrangea and the hostas I separated are doing pretty well (see right), so I had enough confidence to spend a little more money. Besides, I went to my friend, Norma's, house a week or so ago. She has a beautiful garden and admitted she had killed a lot of plants getting to that spot. So that made it easier not to take it so personally when something dies. If Norma kills things, I don't feel so bad!

Here are my three new babies. The first is a Pink Peppermint Phlox. It smells really good. You can't see very well from the picture, but the lighter flowers are pink and white and look exactly like those little mints they give you after dinner that are wrapped in cellophane. The plant is said to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. It looks great right now; but it has been in the ground less than 24 hours. :-)




The second plant is a Foxglove. It has soft, furry-feeling leaves and lovely lavendar blooms. I think I like it because it is tactile. And it's purple; I like that.



The low plant at the bottom is St. John's Wort. This one is more of a low grower that will fill in and be like a cover plant. It has little yellow flowers on it, but the leaves are nice and colorful as well.

I came home last night and planted these and then did a little
watering. Since it is almost July, everything was completely root bound in the pots, so I figure these girls were aching to get into a roomy spot. I must say they look nice and I am satisfied with them. Now I have to flip my water hoses to irrigate two areas. But I have my own personal irrigation engineer, so I'm sure he can help me arrange that.




The herbs I bought went into a pot by the front door all together. This way they are easier to deal with and you can just run out there with the new herb shearers the girls got me for Mother's Day and snip off what you want. Everything tastes so much better with fresh herbs. It is one of the best things about summer.



This afternoon I am getting a pedicure with Dori and we are going out for dinner. It is her birthday! Today is also Emily's 30th birthday! Time really flies. June 30 is indeed a special day in many ways. Enjoy the beautiful weekend!

Our Trip to Pittsburgh Zoo . . . .

Katy brought her mom and dad over to visit Oma and Opa in Pittsburgh last weekend. She was so very helpful in helping me get the weeds out of my flower beds and move the shells around on Saturday morning while were were waiting for a nap and some lunch. I really kind of like this routine of naps between all the meals. Too bad that is not as common for grown ups, because I'm sure I could use a nap here and there. Katy has a nice rhythm going, Sleep, eat, drink milk, take a nap, eat some more, drink some more milk, take another nap. . . . Like I said. It's very calming.

Saturday afternoon we all got in the van and went to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was a beautiful day with sun and temperatures in the 70's. The zoo was really pleasant, and we saw lots of animals and ate ice cream.

There were lots of neat animals, but my favorite animal was this camel. Something about it just spoke to me with the "bad hair day" tufts in strange places and the lumpy body with calluses on the knees. Maybe I just identify with the challenges of looking presentable with some of these things myself. But some of the people at the zoo were almost as interesting as the animals. There was everything from a punky looking guy with black hair standing straight out to a number of Pennsylvania Dutch people with little babies in capes and bonnets and flat hats. An interesting lot in their own right.

Katy liked to pet the deer and look at all the animals that we could get close enough to for her to see them clearly. The only animal she really knows besides a doggie is a zebra; and the zebra at the zoo on Saturday was being very shy and staying back in a corner where you couldn't see him very well. There were some pretty fish and a really wonderful aquarium with beautiful colored fish. Greg and I wandered around a lot reading all the stuff on the walls about the rain forest and the canopy and all the wildlife living in the different strata. We also always seemed to be lagging behind in the African area where there was a lot of information about how long the lions go between meals and then how much they eat when they catch something. So much information . . . .

Katy liked to push the stroller and chase the peacock over into the weeds and do a lot of the other things that make a day at the zoo worthwhile. Since Greg and I had never been to the zoo since we lived here, it was very nice to know that we had such a nice one! The seals in the Waters Edge section seemed to be having a wonderful time just swimming around in circles and gliding along.

Once we finished our trip, we went back home and had dinner. Katy had missed her afternoon nap by this time, and she was really sleepy. She was out for the count very soon after supper. But in all it was a wonderful visit.

This last picture is one of the rare calm moments with a 13-month old when Katy crawled up in my lap to share some toast and a brief snuggle before it was time to go home. Another visit comes to an end, and back to the routine we go. I wonder if my boss will consider adding naps to the Outlook schedule around 2 in the afternoon . . . .

What's cooking in Pittsburgh!



Things are really busy this month at Sojourner House. Our Executive Director, Norma Raiff (pictured with me on the right), is retiring on June 30 after 13 years leading the organization. The last six months have been really busy doing an executive search to find and hire her replacement. I'm excited to say we made an offer to a wonderful candidate in late May, and the transition to the new leadership is in full swing.


Sojourner House is so much a part of my life these days. I was a member of the Succession Committee to work on the executive search; and earlier this month, I succeeded our Board President, Joanne LaRose, to become this year's president. This is a great honor as well as a great responsibility. I have a great heart for women who are recovering from addiction. Sojourner House is a small agency that helps women AND their children to recover from addiction. We not only provide apartments where the women can work their recovery program and have their children with them, but we stress that lasting recovery means relying on faith in God and loving people to hold you accountable instead of substitute drugs and medications. So this work is a passion as well as a calling for me. I believe I am here at this time for a reason!


The next few months continue to be busy as we complete Phase 2 construction of three additional apartment buildings in East Liberty's Negley Place adding 10 more housing units to the transitional housing side of the organization called Sojourner House MOMS. These units should be ready for occupancy in September, and there is a lot to be done in the next few months.


I'm also excited to be the Co-Chair with Michelle Reese of Nova Chemical (and a former board member) to plan a benefit called "Jazz Explosion at LeMont" for August 16, 2007. The evening features a full dinner at Pittsburgh's famous LeMont Restaurant on Mount Washington overlooking the beautiful skyline of the city. Our emcee is Tonia Caruso of WQED Multi-Media; and entertainment will be a jazz ensemble provided by George Heid and a quartet of local jazz musicians as well as a student group from CAPA. The evening will end with fireworks at PNC Park over the river against the backdrop of the city. Tickets will go on sale on the Sojourner House website in mid-June. This will be a great way to treat yourself or out of town guests to a fabulous look at life in our great city.


Of course, none of this will keep me from my visits to Columbus or welcoming people to Pittsburgh when they pass this way. So let us know if you're coming. There is so much to see and do here! We hope to see you. We also have the best baseball park in the National League and a wonderful children's museum.


I'm looking forward to a BEAUTIFUL summer!

Workin' On the Yard . . .

Last weekend I cleared out a lot of weeds and roto-tilled the "flower beds" so I could find my perennials. So this week I had 3 yards of mulch delivered so that I can keep the weeds under control for the rest of the summer. At one time, I thought I liked to have annuals and putz in the yard every evening. I gave up on it. There are too many other interesting things to do. So I am sticking with perennials and mulch.

Well, Opa Greg threw me a curve ball a couple of weeks ago. There was a big blue spruce at the corner of the front porch next to the driveway that had grown HUGE over the last 2 or 3 years. It was spilling out into the driveway and trying to crawl up on the porch. Worse yet, it was very close to our basement; and we were starting to worry about leaks from the expanding roots. So Greg cut the tree down Mother's Day Weekend. This left a big hole in the weeds. It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Hence . . . my charging into a clean up program.

Once I got the yard started, the covers on the porch furniture were looking faded and drab. So I sewed some new slip covers for the rocking chairs and the papasan chair. It really perked up the porch and made the place look spiffy. That was my "relax" project last Saturday evening after I was done in the yard. This week was trying to finish things up a bit out doors.

I have always wanted a hydrangea bush because I love the flowers and the way they are different colors based on the acidity of the soil. I tried to start one a couple of years ago, but Greg accidentally stepped on it with his 12-1/2's when he was cutting the grass. That was the end of my bush. This time I got a bigger, more mature plant and put it out in the middle of the flower bed near where the blue spruce had been. I have been watering it a lot this week, and it looks like it is pretty happy out there. I'm hoping it makes it. (We have a one-year guarantee from the Lowe's nursery. I'm saving my receipt.) Now that I cleaned up and mulched, you can see that great OSU ground cover that Brian gave me a couple of years ago. It is spreading nicely and happens to be blooming right now. You can see the white flowers in the picture. I also divided some hostas that were growing under the deck to supplement my plantings. I divided several other perennials from elsewhere in the yard to fill in the spaces. I'm quite satisfied and pleased that I only ended up buying the hydrangea and the mulch and a small start of the spruce looking ground cover for my whole project. I think I also should have earned a number of Weight Watcher activity points for all the shovelling and sweating I did out there.

Greg is taking me down to the Three Rivers Arts Festival this evening and we are going to see a short play down there as well. That should make for a pleasant and restful end to this warm sunny day. Maybe tomorrow I'll write about the things I bought at the festival!