Flower-filled Thursday and a Smile

I was out saving my flowers from the weeds and decided to take some pictures to share.

Ok, it wasn't just to share them, it was because I don't know half of what I'm growing out there and I was wondering if anyone might know what these pretty orange flowers are?




We planted seeds in the spring to get them started in the house and, while I can grow pretty much anything outside .. indoors they don't do so well. Only 2 of these survived to be transplanted, but they spread out and have a fringy viney thing going on that I really like. Between them and the hens & chicks, they have taken over the bathtub/planter and I'd love to find them again for next year. Pookie somehow managed to get the packet that the seeds came in .. the only piece of trash that I would actually need later .. to the trash can. It's amazing really, since she rarely makes it to the trash can with anything else.

Aren't they pretty?? :)

My grandmother dug these purple ones up out of her yard to bring to me a few years ago. They get pretty tall and spread more and more every year and have filled up one end of the flower bed. The rain beat them down a few days ago. I have no clue what they are either. lol

This is my lone spider flower. I had tons of them last year and they re-seed themselves, but I dumped a ton of mulch on the bed this year and this is the only one that managed to come up through all of that. It decided to come up right in the middle of a clump of tiger lilies.

I have no idea what this is. I don't think it has any idea what it is either. It looks like grass, clover and some kinda tentacle-y arm. I got a couple of these from a lady that was thinning out her flowers .. they never bloomed, but it looks kinda cool.

That same lady gave me some little tiny clumps of lamb's ear. This is what they did .. from little tiny clumps. That's just from this summer. The clump we started with was like 3 leaves.

And this one .. another one we started in the house. I have no clue what it is. It's the only one I have ... the bugs think it is yummy though.

My cosmos are still trying to bloom and have so far refused to give up the ghost. I had one that grew over 6 feet tall and had a "stem" that was 3 inches around at least. I thought I was gonna have to get an axe to cut that sucker down .. but the same storm that got the purple flowers got Gigantor Cosmo.

As you may have noticed, my shots of the flowers are kinda close up. That's 'cause I didn't want everyone to be jealous when they saw the lushest, softest, loverliest grass in all the land that I grow .... in my flower garden. I can't grow it in the yard .. but boy can I grow it in the flower bed.

Pookie had a science project in school where they made a greenhouse kinda deal out of soda bottles to grow grass. Everyone's bottles filled up with tons of grass in just a few days. Everyone's but Pookie's.

She has 3 little blades of grass. I took a picture, but the flash on the bottle keeps ya from seeing the poor little grass.

I told her to tell her teacher to throw a flower seed in there and it would fill up with grass, 'cause .. ya know .. she is her mother's daughter ;)

I'm back to work now, but I'll leave you with one last thought.

When you have a really bad day and you feel like ripping your hair out, screaming, kicking things, throwing things, having a tantrum, crying or just generally flipping off the world ... when you feel like you may never smile again. Think of my little scarecrow here.

She has been beaten by storms, covered with snow, whacked in the head by an errant hoe, peed on by stray dogs, and always has a stick up her behind

but she can still stand there with a big goofy smile ... and so can you *grins*