Traffic in Edmond

Well, I just got back from a job interview in Edmond. Boy, if any of ya'll live up there, I don't know how you do it every day! The traffic is enough to make you crazy! I can't believe there are that many people in that many cars on that few streets. For those of you that live and drive in Edmond everyday, my hat is off to you, but I don't think I want to spend much time with you, at least not until after you've decompressed from traffic.

If you have seen my site before you may have noticed that I added some more links (yes, Susan, it was just as easy as you said). You might wonder about the Oklahoma City Zoo being under garden sites. Almost everybody in the country knows that OKC has one of the top five zoos in America because they advertise the heck out of that. What you may not know is that the official name contains Botanical Garden. It is also one of the top ten rated public gardens in the U.S. I've always loved zoos, but in the spring I have trouble keeping my eyes on the animals because everything is coming out and they have some plants that you'll find no where else in town. Anyway, the garden sites contain some of my favorite public gardens. Trust me, that list is in no way exhaustive.

I'm sitting at my computer and listening to Bette Midler singing the Peggy Lee songbook. According to the net it is disc 1 but doesn't say out of how many. Sometimes you wonder how the artist picks what songs go on the album. It has "Fever" and "Big Spender" which Peggy did better than anyone else, but it also has "The Folks Who Live On the Hill" and no offense to the wonderful Miss Lee, but a lot of people did that one better. And it doesn't have "I Don't Know Enough About You" (one of my favorites by Peggy Lee) or "Why Don't You Do Right" (one of my favorite songs period, I even loved it when Kathleen Turner did it in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". Also has one of the best lines of any movie of all time "I'm not bad, Mr. Valiant, I'm just drawn that way.") Do you ever wonder how I get off on these rabbit trails? I used to blame my Sunday School class for getting me off track, but now that I'm not teaching the class anymore I don't think I can do that.

Well, we got a little rain last night but no where near enough. My suggestion is to not depend on the rain clouds. If your gardens need water, water 'em. On the other hand, my almond bush looks wonderful. Little pink double flowers all over the thing. Beautiful! The blooms on the plum tree are a little erratic, I'll be able to tell in a few days if it is going to bloom out all over. Speaking of erratic the Bradford pear trees all over town are looking weird. Some of them are in bloom, others have more leaves than flowers, and still others haven't started really doing anything yet. Bradfords aren't really one of my favorites, they have oh so many things wrong with them, but they do usually give a better show than what we're getting this year.

Speaking of favorites and non-favorites. I have been called to task on my list of favorite trees and shrubs. A friend of mine reminded me that it wasn't the same list from a few years ago, what can I say, I'm fickle. Another friend of mine couldn't believe I would leave Japanese maple off the list, especially since I have 3 of them in a small yard. Well, it isn't my fault! When I said I would do the article for Susan she had size constraints. Just because she didn't want the next 20 years of her newsletters to contain nothing but my favorite plants, you can't really blame her. No matter what all my gardening friends say. One thing I've learned about plant people, they are opinionated. Sometimes just to be mean I'll throw out some off-hand comment like "annuals really have no place in serious gardens," and then sit back and listen to it fly. You can get four gardeners together and get five opinions on anything! It is so much fun!

Well, after being cloudy, chilly and windy all day, the sun is out, so I'm going to go outside and enjoy it for a little while before class.

Be good to yourself and those you love,

Wayne