Yesterday I saw flowers blooming, and tomatoes on the vine!

No, it wasn't a dream.  My daughter called and asked if I'd be interested in going to the garden show in Kansas City.  Listen, with the winter we've been having, I'd pretty much go anywhere somebody wants to take me.  By the way, we're starting to see brown grass where the snow was a week ago.  I never thought brown would look so good!  

Green growing things looked even better.  

So did tomatoes.  On a blight-free plant, even, which is something I don't expect to see on my property any time soon.  I'll settle for the hard-won tomatoes, in spite of blight.

I did not realize there were so many varieties of orchids.  

Yes, those are real birds.  I find owls to be among the most beautiful of creatures.  

This is some sort of hawk.

There's a sucker born every minute, and I'm the one who bought one of these.  After I got home I googled this thing, and there were more complaints than praises for it.  I just get so desperate to rid my yard and garden of moles that I'm willing to try anything.  Truthfully, the best remedy we've found is to use grub-killer in the spring.  It doesn't totally get rid of the pesky critters, but it reduces the population by about 95%.  If they can't find grubs to eat, they tend to move on.  

Rachel and I both admired this state-of-the-art fire pit.  Of course, if it were in my yard, somebody would have to pull weeds or weed-eat around it.  So it's probably a bad idea.  

These folks were drumming up business for their dog-training enterprise.  There were other people giving free samples of dog food and some kind of dog chewie stuff that is supposed to clean dogs' teeth. Iris didn't care for the sample of dog food, but she loved the tooth-cleaning biscuit, totally devouring it within five minutes.  She loves it when I bring home a treat.  

   I seriously wanted this sign, but for ten bucks?  Nope.  I spent all my mad money on a mole-chaser that probably won't work.  

I took a picture of this chicken-house to show Cliff, but the more I look at it, the more I realize the design is flawed.  Back to my chicken tractor plan.  


After the show, we went into an Aldi's store so my daughter could do a little shopping.  I didn't have plans to buy anything, but there was still money in my Dave Ramsey grocery envelope and I saw some bargains.  I had not seen thirty-nine-cents bananas in a long time!  Aldi's round snack crackers are $1.39, and Cliff prefers them to Hi-Ho or Ritz crackers.  I noticed their canned tomatoes were forty-nine cents, as opposed to the Walmart brand for over eighty cents.  It's a shame we have to travel twenty-five miles to an Aldi's store; we just don't buy enough groceries to justify the trip.  
To polish off our outing, we hit Sonic for their happy hour.  I got myself a 44-ounce low-calorie cherry lime-aid for a buck.  That's a huge drink, and I surprised myself by drinking every bit of it right down to the cherry.  
Thanks for a fun day, Rachel!