I'll let you in on a little secret...

I should have been a gardener.

As much fun as I've made of horticulture majors over the years, I would love to be a gardener... well, except for pulling weeds, that is. PB and I took the Force to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond last Saturday. What a cool place! They had gorgeous flowers in bloom, a Japanese Tea House, and an awesome Children's Garden, complete with tree house. It was freakin' hot that day, but we had a very good time. Anyway, being there definitely got me in the mood for some spring planting, so on Sunday I got crack-a-lackin' and bought a bunch of stuff to pretty up my porch. I've long been a fan of window boxes, so I got two of those for my porch railing (as you can't get the screens off the windows to have them there). After some significant frustration over not being able to get them to stay stable (so as to not break the head of some innocent passer-by, or the pot-smoking frat boys downstairs) I remembered that zip-ties aren't just for stalkers anymore! A quick trip to evil WalMart and I was set! So I poured dirt, dug, planted, fertilized and watered... and voila! Beautiful boxes full of flowers.

Now, how exactly am I going to get the 2 giant hanging fuchsias to hang when I have a metal cover on the place I want to hang them? Oh, wait, that's easy... I have a drill! So drill I did, and now the fuchsias are hanging there pretty as a picture. I left the porch light on tonight just so I could look at them a little longer. The hummingbird feeder is up, too, and those little suckers are coming in droves! One was so impatient that it fed about 2 feet from my face while I planted the window boxes. I may or may not be afraid of birds, as we all know. Somehow I feel that the hummingbirds and I have an understanding. You know, they understand that if they peck my eyes out I won't feed them anymore. Anyway, I flinch a lot when they're around, but they don't seem to mind that too much.

Oh, and Skinny Marie is doing great, thank you for asking! She's gained almost 2 pounds in a week and has settled into life at Casa de Crazy Cat Lady without a bump in the road. Yesterday she was actually awake for a while (mostly she'd been eating and sleeping until that point) and today she started to play with some toys (which went largely ignored until now). I guess all signs point to go for her. She's completely comfortable around other cats, and thinks Pooh King is the best rubbing post a girl could have. He still follows her around, worrying that she'll get in trouble, but so far he's got nothing to report.

Okay, pictures of the pets, birds, and plants will be posted soon!