A wild ride

Indigo bunting on feeder, has nothing to do with
today's post, but isn't he pretty?

On Thursday I achieved my goal of losing 10 pounds.  I needed two more pounds for this goal and had lost 1.6.  So, Becky had me take off my shoes (one pound) which gave me 2.6.  She stopped me from stripping off the rest of my clothes in my excitement.  Therefore, I am officially down 10.6 pounds.  I suppose that's cheating but we'll do anything for that sticker.  Then I got to rock the baby - the replica of what five pounds of fat looks like.  It's yellow and blobby-quite gross and very reassuring to rock and then hand back.

Later that night my garden group met, always a late night with decadent desserts, so it was late when I finally got to bed.
Friday morning started bright and early with another trip with Ms M to the Twin Cities this time in search of more...yup...more plants.  We spent an hour trying to find our friend who is in a nursing home in Rochester, with both our GPS's up and running for guidance.  It appeared my Maggie Magellan did not like her Miss Garmon and there was quite a fight on the dashboard.  Since Maggie was being rude, she was unceremoniously stuffed back into her travel bag and Miss Garmon guided us the rest of the day.  Sorry Maggie.

Rose breasted gross beak 

We managed to find our friend, who after battling breast cancer and then a brain tumor has given up the battle.  It was sad and unsettling to see her like this, but comforting to be able to hug her and say good bye.  After this somber awaking to the fragility of life we plunged headfirst into our plant pursuits with the zest of two women determined to savor ever second of this life on earth.
Our plant shopping has been somewhat disappointing this year, very few unusual plants being found for sale and quantities are down.  I'm guessing that due to the economy right now garden centers are trying to stay alive and only going with the more common varieties.  Oh well, it gives me something to chase after next year.
On our last stop Miss Garmon had some fun with us and took us over, around and through some strange county roads we'd never seen before and hope to never see again.  
Holy cow!  What was that!?!  I was not able to swerve to avoid it.  A woodchuck had run directly in front of me!  Luckily he had good timing and managed to avoid the tires and sped off unharmed, but it was scary.  On one of our trips to photograph round barns I had a similar close call with a suicidal turkey.  So far I've managed to avoid hitting anything, but it got me thinking. To make as much room as possible for plants I had removed everything, including my little tool kit I carry in the car.  I explained to Miss M that it would torture me to hit something and have it not dead, but suffering on my account, and I would not be able to end it's misery in any way.  Then I mumbled 'I need to keep a hammer in the glove box... in case I need to kill something' and she glanced out of the corner of her eyes and inched a little closer to her door.  I wonder what made her so nervous?

bloodroot leaves with dew

Ms M's directions clearly showed it was only three miles off the highway and well marked. What the ....?  We finally pulled up to the garden center many twisty miles later to find they had just closed.  We missed it by five minutes, but had not yet taken down the open sign, so I proceeded up the road. Thankfully, the lovely lady allowed us to shop anyway so I started tossing plants into my wagon as fast as I could since I'd not had a lot of luck earlier and her plants are reasonably priced and thick.  We thanked her and got her directions for finding our highway again (three miles) and headed home.  

Campanula Miss M gave me because it turned out too purple

Now, part of our plant shopping tradition is to have ice cream on the way home and our sights were set on the Nelson Creamery for some of the most creamy homemade ice cream  available.  But, thanks to Miss Garmon and her treachery, we arrived shortly after they closed and there was no nice lady to say, come on in...what would you like?  Bummer.  So, we headed to Subway for a sandwich and finished up yet another adventure.
We got to her house at 8:30pm and unloaded her plants and I went home and left my new friends in the car until the next day.
Long Live the Queen of Plants