Hello, Remember Me?

Yes, I've been out of touch. My apologies to the handful of regular readers (some of whom aren't even related to me) who have looked for a post this week and gotten nothing. The weekend planting is done. It was in the 90's all weekend with about 100% humidity. Great weather for working in the yard if you are a camel. I am not however, I'm Graves girl. The hot weather is intolerable for me. Not just uncomfortable, but chest pains and short of breath intolerable. So much water was consumed, many shade breaks were taken. But it's done.

I got up early to hit the garden centers both Saturday and Sunday. I don't know if it was the weather this winter or the price of gas, but it seems that all the plants were more expensive this year. Now no one who knows me would ever categorize me as frugal, but when it comes to plants I'm just plain cheap. After all, I have to factor in my inability to successfully grow anything green. Unless we are counting mold in the fridge when I forget to throw leftovers. I am also a terrible haggler, I should stay out of flea markets. I just can't do the haggling things. I feel unprepared. I feel as though I should come to the transaction with beads and a goat to throw in if need be, and I don't have either of these. I went to my favorite nursery Saturday morning to find some perennials and shrubs. After all, theoretically they will "come back" next year if I don't kill them and then I don't have to do this planting thing again. I really wanted a clematis. Just one of those plain old purple ones that bloom all summer, not the fancy ones that bloom for a couple of weeks and are done. They had the fancy ones and a bunch that were unmarked, all priced at $37.95. Yikes! So I found the nursery lady (who happened to be one of the owners). Of course she looked like you would expect a nursery lady to look. No makeup, wild curly hair. Very granola crunchy, organic, unshaved legs, Mother Jones-y. Totally my polar opposite. (I'm very high maintenance you know)

Me: What are the unmarked clematis?

Granola Crunchy: Hmm. I don't know. They are left over from last year and the tags got lost.

Me: Gee, I don't know if I want to spend $38 on something if I don't even know what it is.

Granola Crunchy: It's clematis.

Me: Yes, but I'm looking for a good repeat bloomer (look at me with the gardening lingo here!) and I won't know that until it's planted. None of the marked clematis are repeaters.

Granola Crunchy: I can understand that.

Now, here my total lack of haggling skills come into play. I think she's about to cut me a deal.

Granola Crunchy (examining the unmarked plants): Well, if you come back in two weeks they will have bloomed and you'll know what they are!

Needless to say, I left without a clematis. I can drop money on yarn like I'm Paris Hilton buying sunglasses, but plants? No way.

And speaking of yarn, since this is technically a knitting blog, I've done little in the way of knitting this week. When the temp hit 90 I couldn't handle the Sunrise Circle WOOL Jacket any more. I have been working on some cotton chenille wash cloths for my friend Rene's birthday. I always give her Orgins "Gloom Away" soap, which she loves, for her birthday, so I thought some handknit wash cloths would be a good addition. No matter what needles I use, the gauge seems loose so I am blaming the yarn and knitting away.