how to spend too much money

Yesterday, Patty and I went to Benhke's, our favorite plant nursery. We looked at the dogwood trees, but their specimens were pretty sad ones. All the good ones sold out early, I guess. I didn't buy a tree, because I am still trying to decide what I want to plant back there. After the trees, we went into the shrub section. They also had a section on native plants that was interesting. Still didn't buy anything. However, next we visited the perennial area - a huge area, partly under shade. I managed to resist the hostas (I have a lot of them already.) and the ferns, but I did buy a wood lily, to replace the one that died over the winter. I'll try to put this one is a better location. Once I started buying, I had trouble stopping. I knew I wanted a few different iris. The iris had just about taken over the front flower bed last year, so I moved a bunch of them and gave many away. Yesterday I bought a wonderful dark blue iris, one in a warm brown shade and one that is both gold and brown. I don't think I can put them in the front, so I guess they will go into the new flower bed in the back. It gets a lot of sun because the tree is gone, so the iris should be happy there. I bought some other odds and ends - perennials and annuals. I hope to get some of them planted today, but my back is still giving me trouble, so I will have to limit my planting to pots or holes already dug!

On our way home, we stopped at Coldstone Creamery for ice cream. We both love that place, but try not to go too often. I'm sure the concoction I ate had at least 1000 calories! It was worth it - strawberry ice cream with strawberries, banana slices, graham cracker crumbs and white chocolate chips. Yummmm.

I hope to talk to both my kids today, as it is Mothers' Day. I talk to Kate nearly every Sunday, but catching Steve at home is a bit trickier. I can never remember if AZ is 2 or 3 hours behind us. They don't go on DST, so sometimes it's 2 hours and sometimes 3. Once, I woke him up, so now I don't call until afternoon, AZ time.

After we got the plants home, Patty and I drove back to downtown Laurel to see what the Main Street Festival was like this year. It had lots of food tents, quite a few tents from local businesses and some crafters selling mostly jewelry. We agreed that it wasn't anything we would go out of our way to attend. However, it was a beautiful day, not too hot, so it was good to be outside walking around. This AM, I discovered that I am sunburned on the back of my neck! It never occurred to me to put on sunblock, and actually it was cloudy when we started out in the morning. I guess I need to be more careful, although at my age, my skin has been exposed to so much sun that I don't suppose a bit more will matter.