Wednesday, August 01, 2007, 04:59
Scarlet O'Hara (Morning Glories)
I am so disappointed. I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for my Scarlet O'Hara Morning Glories to bloom -- and I am coming to the conclusion that none of the morning glories are the Scarlet O'Hara ones.
I *thought* the Scarlet O'Hara morning glories were growing. I dug up my tubs this spring and put more dirt in them to plant the morning glories. I dutifully soaked the seed before planting them. A week later, morning glories were sprouting. And I thought all was well.
Except that now, the morning glories that are blooming are the deep purple, pink, white and light blue ones that I planted 6 or 7 years ago. That's right -- 6 or 7 years ago.
Before that, I always planted morning glories that were sky blue with a white center. They were large blooms and absolutely gorgeous. The only problem was, they bloomed very, very late -- not until well into September. And I wanted morning glories before that, so I got another type of seed for the multi-colored flowers.
Little did I know how well those multi-colored morning glories would grow. They grow in places I didn't even plant them.
I'm still trying to figure out how one of those morning glories got into the tub with my purple pepper.
That particular tub has never even *had* morning glories in it, so I can't say that I must have dug down the seed and stirred it into the soil. But there it was. About a week after I had dug up the tub, added more soil and planted the pepper, a morning glory sprouted. So I just let it go. Since the tub is by lilacs, the morning glory is now climbing into the lilacs. And every morning, it has several deep purple flowers that are quite lovely.
It's just that I didn't plant a morning glory in the tub with the purple pepper.
Even though the morning glories are not the Scarlet O'Hara morning glories I planted, they are still morning glories. And I've got to admire a plant that is so tenacious about growing and surviving wherever the seed lands. And this year, with temperatures in the 90s and severe drought conditions, if it weren't for the multi-colored morning glories, I probably wouldn't have any at all.
I really enjoy getting up in the morning and looking to see which morning glories are blooming and what colors have showed up.
I'm still disappointed about the Scarlet O'Hara Morning Glories, though. Red would have been such a pretty color. . .
I'm kind of disappointed about the name, too. The *real* Scarlett O'Hara spelled her name with two "Ts" although I suppose when the company was naming the morning glories, they had to be careful about proprietary names and copyright and all that sort of thing.
But, like I said, at least I've got morning glories of some kind. And I didn't even have to plant them!
LeAnn R. Ralph
Monday, July 30, 2007, 06:36
Not as Easy at It Looks. . .
I learned something Sunday afternoon. I learned that a shopping cart loaded with five bags of horse feed is a whole lot more maneuverable than a flat cart specifically designed for moving horse feed.
Of course, I learned this *after* I had loaded the five bags of feed onto the shopping cart, turned the corner to the next aisle, saw the flat cart, unloaded the feed from the shopping cart and stacked it onto the other cart.
My first clue that the shopping cart had been more maneuverable was when I tried to turn the corner into the next aisle with the flat cart. I hauled on it on one side for all I was worth while trying to push at the same time and barely made it around the corner.
Great. I only had to move this thing halfway across the store to get the checkout. I stopped and considered what would be the best route. If I went straight ahead, I would only have to turn one corner, and then with any luck, one of the checkouts straight ahead would be open.
I made it down the aisle and around the corner.
Shoot. The checkout straight ahead of me was not open. In fact, the next open checkout was about four cash registers down.
With great difficulty, I turned the corner. Now for the next challenge. Getting the cart into the checkout without taking out any displays along the way or ruining any of shelving units stacked with jars of dry roasted peanuts at the end of the checkout.
Finally I arrived at the checkout.
After I paid for the feed, it was then a matter of getting out to the parking lot. I only had to make one more corner to get to the door. Just as long as I didn't run down any elderly people or small children in the process, everything would be fine.
It seemed like a long, long way from the checkout to the door, but eventually I reached the parking lot.
I like parking lots. Especially when I am pushing a heavy cart. All parking lots are designed to drain *away* from the building, and once you reach a certain point, it's all downhill. Pun intended.
All I had to do was get to the downhill part without running into any of the parked cars, and then I would be able to put my feed in the back of my truck and say "good-bye" to this blasted flat cart.
After what seemed like another very long time, I got the cart onto the straight-away. The truck was just ahead, and soon I would be able to unload the feed.
Just as long as the cart didn't get away from me, that is.
Once gravity took over, the cart began to pick up speed. At times like this, it turns out to be an unfortunate law of physics that the heavier something is, the faster it rolls downhill.
As I practically trotted behind the cart, I wondered if I would be able to get it stopped by the truck.
When I was 20 feet away, I started pulling back and digging in my heels. If only the cart would slow down, I would almost be home free.
By some miracle, I managed to stop the cart by the back of my truck. Without running into my truck.
Heaving the five bags of feed into the back of my little truck was nothing compared to getting the feed out to the truck.
By the time I was able to push the flat cart next to the cart corral, I was sweating profusely. Of course, it *would* have to be 90 degrees outside, and I *would* have run out of horse feed when it was 90 degrees.
Then again, maybe by the time I have to buy horse feed again, it will be cooler weather.
I can only hope.
LeAnn R. Ralph