Moving into May

 

 It's been awhile, hasn't it?

It seems as though as April drifted away, I drifted right along with it.  There seemed to be no motivation for picking up the camera much less composing a post.  I've done some visiting, but the comments were not forthcoming for some reason.  I surmise that I have arrived at the crossroad that many bloggers seem to come to at one time or another.  What else is there to say when it seems like it's all been said over and over through the years.

Last night we had our own happy hour on the patio enjoying the dappled sunlight, the brilliance of spring greens and the profusion of blooms on the shrub roses. 

Up until a few days ago we were practically begging for rain around here.  Now, after a few days of good soaking rains, things are growing by leaps and bounds.  Here I started sunflowers and Heavenly Blue morning glories in pots.  I was amazed by the growth spurt they had once the rains came through.

 Once happy hour was finished Brett told me he wanted to show me something.  Look what he found behind the A/C unit.  Ugh!

You may remember me telling you about an experience last year with a snake slithering between the bricks shown below:

That was bad enough, but it looks like he squeezed in under the vent this time and left his skin behind.  Is that something like taking your shoes off at the door?  

Thankfully (I guess), these openings lead into the crawlspace under the house.  Although, if I think too long about the whole thing I get the creeps knowing what is lurking below the floors I walk on.  Yikes!!!  Change the thought pattern quick!

I'm sorry.  By now you must be wishing I had stayed "adrift".

How about this?

A peony bouquet.  Yes, I think that is much nicer than unwelcome guests of the slithering kind.

I was recently reading an article about peonies in which it was suggested to cut them at the bud stage.  So, I ran right out there and cut a bouquet consisting of many buds and a few blooms.  I didn't realize that the buds would open while in the vase so I am conducting an experiment here.  It is now three days since I cut them.  The big white flowers are mostly brown and the buds remain tightly closed.  Hmmm???  Not quite sure what to think of this.  Have you any thoughts on the best time to cut peonies?

In other exciting news, last night I was trying on a new shade of lipstick.  Red to be exact.  It came in a free gift I received when I last purchased foundation.  Having never worn a true red lipstick before I put it on and decided to take a picture.  I thought this might give me a more objective view.  While performing this little task it dawned on me that I have never taken a selfie before.  Thinking it might be time to get with it a little, I snapped a few.  When I took a look at them my first thought was who is that old woman?  I'm not kidding.  Guess I don't zero in on my 58 year old neck very often.

So, I resorted to a different head angle and a different lipstick color.

Now I know that I haven't missed a thing all these years.

That was my first and last selfie.

No to the selfies and no to the red lipstick.

: D

Edited to add:

 To avoid any confusion, the selfie shown in this post is the one that happened after the red lipstick was tried and rejected.  This is back to normal lipstick color with the head looking down (in an attempt to hide the neck) and eyes downcast (in an attempt to hide the puffy eyelids).  Brett saw this photo and innocently asked why I took such a strange picture of myself.  Ha Ha.  Men!!

True color of the red lipstick shown below:

Scarlet Siren

Very pretty on the right lips.