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Rearranging the Plants: A Welcome Home Surprise

Rearranging the furniture was a favorite pastime when I was a girl.  My sister and I would move things around while Mom was at work, then yell surprise when she walked through the door.  This week, I decided to rearrange some plants.

In March we planted five glorious pink Azaleas beneath the living room window.  Sadly,  once the temperatures rose, one of them rapidly dried out.  Hoping for the best we held on for another several weeks.  I hate giving up on plants. We finally laid it to rest in the compost heap last week.

My husband has been wanting to buy more Azaleas for the back corner, to intersperse with the hydrangea. I suggested we move the surviving plants, then buy pink hydrangeas to go under the window.  Azaleas make me happy, but blooming hydrangea make my heart skip a few beats.

While I was away, Mike made the switch.  He tucked the Azaleas around the sword fern near the blue hydrangea, then planted pinkish purple hydrangea under the window.  The plants will grow taller, doing a better job hiding the house’s foundation, and as they grow they’ll pop their pretty pink heads above the window.  Can you feel me smiling from ear to ear?

New Hydrangea

Azaleas (Back in March)

Relocated Azaleas

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Miniland Wonders: Bonsai meets Legos

Can’t you just see the job description:  ‘Lego builders wanted, must play well with others.  Patience and math skills a plus.’

Without further ado, today’s blog is brought to you in pictures. All of the models are built from Legos.   The trees and flowers are real but pruned to scale:

San Francisco, California

New England

New England meets Bonsai

Star Wars Episode IV: Tatooine

Las Vegas, Nevada

Historic Ferndale, California
(This one’s for you, Bonnie)

Not pictured: Washington, DC, New Orleans, New York and Southern California. There is also a Star Wars Miniland, featuring scenes from all six episodes.

Blending The Two
A. Bison
B. Golden Goose
C. Elephant near succulents
D. Bison close-up
E. Dragon tail

What’s Growing at LEGOLAND

Native Wildlife
(That lizard tried to impress me with push ups)

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LEGOLAND: Our Miniland Sendoff

We’re happy to be home with stories to share and a plethora of photos for the scrapbooks and Facebook.  I love traveling but I’m happy to come home, too.  I miss the garden and our cats and this time my husband and older son who stayed home.  It was a great trip.  We laughed a lot, shared some nice meals and enjoyed the novelty of a theme park based on Legos.

Our day drew to a close in the midst of the amazing miniature village known as Miniland, filled with incredible scale models of the real and the imagined.  Here is a quick peak at Miniland from the top of the hill.  More pictures to follow tomorrow.

Miniland: The Long View

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The Heart of LEGOLAND and a Dash in the Splash

LEGOLAND’s® heart lies toward the center of the park, known as Mini-land USA. Meticulously detailed Lego models recreate, on a miniature scale, monuments, neighborhoods and landmarks. Mini-land brims with recreations of  New Orleans during Mardi Gras, the White House, complete with marching band on the lawn, Las Vegas and downtown San Francisco to name a few.   It’s amazing to see the creativity on display. Each scene captures the essence of the original, using lights, sound and movement, such as a cable car going up and down the hill in San Francisco or a fire crew rescuing a cat from a tree.  Mini-land is full of charm, appealing to all ages.  In recent years they’ve added a Star Wars series, with displays from various Star Wars movies. In addition to the fixed models, buildings are surrounded by miniaturized landscaping.

If you look closely at the photo below, the trees are actually small plants, pruned and shaped to look like pines and spruce.  The red barn and green house are built entirely from Lego bricks.  They stand about eight inches tall.

Three years ago, LEGOLAND added a water park and a small aquarium. The current Sea Life Aquarium exhibit featuring crabs and other crustaceans.  The tanks were breathtaking, with an eye toward beautiful design and sea life preservation.  It’s small and intimate, a nice way to start the day.

We spent the rest of the day at the Water Park.  Cameras safely locked away, we donned bathing suits and floated anonymously on individual rafts along the Build-a-Raft-River. The water was warm and relaxing.  We shook things up by careening down the Orange Rush in a family raft.  My son talked us into a turn on the water roller coaster, a ride culminating with a steep plunge into a wall of water.  To say we were soaked is an understatement.

Trivia for the day: LEGO started in Denmark in 1932. LEGO comes from the word “Leg Godt” which means “play well.”

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LEGOLAND: Green Amid the Bricks

We’re here in sunny Carlsbad for a few days visiting LEGOLAND California.  My youngest son is 12, so this may be our last visit.  He commented early in the day that he thought there would be more “mature people” in the park.  Like me, he remembers the good times we had when he was younger.  He’s been cutting his teeth on daredevil roller coaster rides back home, so finds the rides here rather tame by comparison.   That said, it’s a wonderful place to bring children.  Several rides are interactive, allowing the rider  to participate.  LEGOLAND is airy and uncrowded with several outlets for spontaneous creativity.  Water figures prominently throughout the park.  They’ve added a separate water park since we were last here, which we plan to explore tomorrow.

We’re traveling with friends who are easy-going and fun so we’re enjoying each other’s company.  It drives the boys nuts when the moms stop to take photos.  If you’ve spent time in the company of a 12 year-old you know that annoying them is easy.  It’s an adolescent right of passage.

We took pictures anyway!  Here are a few highlights of the day:

Miniland: Las Vegas, Lego Style

Tall grasses line the edges of the lagoon

Rock Concert: Singing Rocks
We will, we will, rock you!

Tasmanian Tree Fern ‘Dicksonia Antarctica’

Trivia for the day: 53 million LEGOs used to build models throughout LEGOLAND California.

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The Joyful Gardener Turns 12

Harvesting his first watermelon

My cheerful, insightful, smart and creative son turns 12 today.  As an infant we joked that he was born with the “happy gene” as he soaked up his surroundings with a positive, mellow and inquisitive outlook.  His tantrums were few, even at two.  When he fell, his cries lasted a few seconds.  My son was joy, personified.

As it turns out, he was also born with the “gardening gene.”  Sure he liked the toy aisle at Target, but the seeds were his favorite.   We came home with many a packet of sunflower, pumpkin and carrot seeds, full of optimism and good spirit.  His grandfather would be proud.  During the Santa years, I mail-ordered his pumpkin seeds so they looked just a little different from the seeds we bought in town.  The jig is up, but the pumpkin-seeds-in-the stocking tradition lives on.

Here are a few pics of my joyful gardener over the years.

The first watermelon

Starting his garden

Reading to his pumpkin plants to help them grow

A little music never hurts either

11, years, 364 days old

Happy birthday, M!

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Father’s Day: Lost and Found

I celebrate two fathers today, my dad who died when I was nine, and my husband, wonderful father to our sons.

My dad was a horticulturist by trade, but loved all things gardening so much that he gardened on the weekends as well.  We took turns on the one-way wheelbarrow rides, while he hauled rocks to our London, Ontario back yard.  He built a meandering brook throughout the garden, then added trees, flowers, and in the short summer, vegetables.  I tasted my first cherry tomato from that garden.  I remember walking through the back door of our kitchen with a handful of tomatoes and giving them to my mom as she prepared lunch.  Is it any wonder I inherited Dad’s green thumb?

Eric Milner
Father, painter, gardener, hobbyist, animal-lover

My husband loves the garden and the gardener, but not the actual day-to-day joy of gardening.  That said, we’ve spent many an hour together planning, creating, digging, and simply enjoying our garden.  Like anyone who truly loves you, my man celebrates and embraces my joy of all things green.  Our sons love and admire him.  He’s smart, kind, clever, generous and most days, a kid at heart.  The greatest gift to any son is to be a stand up guy.  What lucky boys!

Mike Francini
Husband and father, self-described computer geek, Renaissance man
He’s traveled the world, speaks with fluency in two languages, sails, tinkers, and loves his family.

Happy Father’s Day to the dad I lost and to the dad I found.  Happy Father’s Day to you and yours.

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Sunshine Award: Passing it On

Sunshine Award

The Sunshine Award is passed on by fellow bloggers who feel your “positivity & creativity” inspires others in the blog world. Thank you Eleenie who blogs at Denobears who  believes

“Travel broadens the mind they say, living in another country certainly stretches it to the limit.  I’ve cherished every minute of my country hopping adventures and want to share some of my experiences of our time in Greece and more so my new life in Bulgaria with others.  I hope you enjoy them!”

In keeping with the spirit of this honor I’m:

  • Posting the award to my blog
  • Passing on the award to  7 of my favorite bloggers
  • Sharing 7 (hopefully) interesting things about myself.

If you are reading this, thank you from the bottom of my heart for following my blog.  I’m honored and flattered.

In turn I’d like to pass the Sunshine Award to the following seven bloggers.  You inspire me:

A Purrfect Cat:  A blogger learning about the joys of living with a cat.  Stunning photos, fun read.  If you love cats like I do, this one’s for you.

Boomdeeadda: A bit about Kelly “I’m living the dream with Mr Right and two rescue cats, Petals & Blossum. Life and Love is enhanced by the many on going projects.  This is a Journal of these and other bits along the way.”  She’s a kindred spirit and an interesting blogger.  Show her some love.

Golden Hills Real Estate: My friend Bob blogs about real estate.  Dry you say?  Read on.  His posts are fun and informative, altering between practical, informative and funny.  He’s a great writer.  Go take a look.

Greenhousing: “Big plans for a small garden.”  I envy all their rain!

Pillows a-la Mode:  Quick, crafty ideas for the hidden seamstress in all of us.

Sadie & Dasie:  I click on Sadie’s site every day.  She posts three stunning photos based on a one-word theme like Orange, Dots or Dogs.  She has two beautiful pit bulls.  Fun!

Soulsby Farm:  “We believe in sustainable farming from organic heirloom seeds and are strongly against GMO’s. We grow everything organically and let our hens free range around the garden (and sometimes the neighbor’s yard).” Check out the blog and then check out their non-profit Project Garden Share.  Good souls!

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Sharon’s Way: Accessible Landscaping

Our landscape designer recently asked for video of my sister using the garden ramp.  From what I gather, it is fairly unusual to see ramps incorporated into landscaping.  The more I’ve thought about it, the more it makes sense for all of us.  We’ve worked hard as a society to create accessibility in the work place, on the corner sidewalk, in schools and even sporting events.  I think there is a wonderful niche market for creating inviting landscapes that also allow all our friends and family to visit with ease.  It’s also an investment in our own future; a way to age in place.

Do you think this trend could catch on?

Design by Bergez & Associates.
Installation by Natural Bridges Landscaping

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Blooming Thursday: Flowers that Shouldn’t

Flowering Basil

I checked on the basil a day ago and all was well.  Today it flowered!  Maximum production requires more pruning then I realized.  The flowers are pretty but the prize on the basil plant are those delicious leaves.  They are at their best, before the flower.

One of my favorite uses for basil is caprese salad, made with basil, mozzarella and tomatoes.  It’s also delicious in pesto.

So when the sun goes down, the pruning shears come out.  Can’t you just smell it?

How to make Caprese Salad.

Easy Pesto: Step by step

How to dry Herbs: I’ll stick with it fresh, but all you cooking gurus can give this a go.