I wish Smell-O-Vision was real

[stoney321]

Because the front of my house is SO DELICIOUS. Roses, roses, roses. They're going bananas, and I couldn't be happier. Big ol' pics under the cut. Taken with my phone, so don't expect art. :D



I cut these off of a climber I have over the garage (it was severely damaged twice, so the plant itself isn't attractive right now, but the flowers? *kisses fingers*

These are some of the more "spent blossoms" I cut yesterday to keep by my bed.





These are not roses. It's just a shot of my favorite weeping Japanese maple (I have two) with Japanese Painted Ferns underneath and some purple Oxalis (clover) to the right. There's lime green pennywort around there if you poke around.)





AND MY BELOVED JULIA CHILD. Oh, it is just covered with blossoms, in bloom and in bud. I love this beauty. It smells un-freaking believable.






Turn 45 degrees to the left and there is my Kaleidescope Rose (it's a mish-mash of colors that changes the older the blossom is) and it smells amazing, very "tea rose." I don't like that as a perfume, typically, but on a plant? YES.






This is my State Rose of Texas (There's a yellow rose in Texas - I'm going there to see!) and those blooms are the size of a softball. There are bearded Irises budding behind it. Yellow + blue = springtime!






Last, my swmbo memorial rose, planted when she lost one of her co-workers suddenly (I have quite a few memorial plants in the garden, now that I think about it) and it was almost killed when we put in the pool. It's coming back and looking wonderful. Look at that crazy orange/yellow bleed! <3





I LIKE MY BABIES.


HEY GUYS IT IS GORGEOUS OUTSIDE. I have no books to read. I want something fun, adventurous, and awesome. *chinfists* Whatcha got? I just blew through The Hunger Games for the 5th time (and man, I need to find fanfiction, because the ending is satisfactory, right?) Oooh, maybe I should re-read The Passage since Book 2 is coming out in June? O_O

eta Remember how I'm like really good about admitting that I'm wrong? Like, there have been positions that I've taken where I've had people rationally explain why it was hurtful, etc., and I can say HEY I WAS WRONG and be gracious about it?

I THINK I NEED PEOPLE TO STOP FEELING LIKE THEY NEED TO CONSTANTLY NITPICK EVERYTHING I SAY/WRITE/REVIEW. Give me one effing day off, hmm? Flaming_muse? I love your newly coined word, impupedants.

I mean, I REALLY don't see this shit happening anywhere else, in anyone else's journals or websites, or recaps. At least not to the degree that I get it. STOP PLEASE. Just for 24 hours, please?

Comments

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

OH I HAVE THOSE!! I haven't read them yet. Awesome!! We tend to like the same things, so that's awesome.

SWAMPLADIA? You had me at Swamplandia.

Yes, you can live there. I just found a rabbit warren under my rosemary hedge out front, so we'll either bed you in there (bunny blanket!) or smoke them out and let it be yours. YOU MAKE THE CALL, SAM.

[secondalto.livejournal.com]

Have you read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and the sequels? I just finished the last one. Really good, but some really violent things happen, just FYI.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Yes yes! Oh, I'm okay with violence, as long as it's not steady abuse/children imperiled, that sort of thing.

Excellent choices in reading material! (And I love that you gave a warning. I have such lovely LJ friends. <3)

[oatmellow.livejournal.com]

Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse
by Victor Gischler

It. Is. AWESOME. And you'll totally love it I think.

And WTF? why do people think just because it's on the intertubes they can be all assholery to people on their posts? At least I can blame my incident this week on brain-damage. Some assholes are just assholes. Sigh.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

OOOH! You know me and my love of the apocalypse!

And it's not that they're being assholes, I'm just constantly being challenged on things, stuff that doesn't matter, stuff where I have a resource, or... GOD. I'm just worn out with getting it at HDJM, on fic posts, in comments...

I have a teenager that argues with me constantly THIS IS MY HAPPY PLACE.

[phaeba.livejournal.com]

Ooh I loved The Passage! A little draggy in parts but I'd totally read it again. I'm so glad the second one is coming out soon.

Also completely jealous of your garden.

ETA: I'm currently reading Fall of Giants, which is great, but not light reading by any means.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I read the Passage while sitting up in the hospital, so it didn't feel draggy to me at the time - I might feel differently when not needing to take my mind off of things.

<3

Oooh, I'll look into that, too, thank you!

[poisontaster]

Have you read Feed (and Deadline) by Mira Grant (aka Seannan McGuire)? Zombies, politics, blogging and snarky, codependent siblings. The books read fast and fun. The third book is coming out later this year.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I have not read that! I MEAN - PUT MORE THINGS THAT I LOVE IN ONE BOOK, I DARE YOU. O_O

Thank you so much for that rec!!

[flaming-muse.livejournal.com]

OMG your FLOWERS. So this is what it feels like to swoon. No wonder you love plants so much.

I know it's the internet, the place where everybody's an expert, but OMG with the nitpicking.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I just went outside again and watched the honeybees on the lavender. One of these days I'm going to put in bee hives. (Lavender honey = AMAZING.) <3 I just love flowers, I'm such an old lady. Hahahaha.

I think I just reached my limit today. The Boy is already arguing with everything I say, just give me space, omg. <3 you.

[moosesal.livejournal.com]

Fuck the nitpickers. Your roses are beautiful. But not as beautiful as you, my dear.

I'm so excited to go to B's tomorrow because I will get to see green stuff! Things are still very brown here and we're in drought (our snowpack is terrible and everything is already melted), so I'm predicting a brown summer. *sigh* At least we have evergreens?

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

<3 thanks, Sal.

I AM SO EXCITED FOR YOU BOTH!!! Oooh, and she mentioned that her irises were blooming, I think? Mine are just starting to open. YAY PLANTS.

I love evergreens - you can paint a really pretty picture with different colors and textures that I find fetching. :D

[wickedsin.livejournal.com]

The Flame Alphabet - a glorious and MESSED up trip down the rabbit hole of what happens when language becomes toxic and only children are immune.

Delerium - great book where love is a disease that's vaccinated. The sequel JUST released. (Pandemonium)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

OOOOOOOOOH. I don't think I've heard of either of those, and they sound FASCINATING. Thank you!!

[free-reverie.livejournal.com]

The Monstrumologist trilogy- The Monstrumologist, Curse of the Wendigo, and Isle of Blood. They're fantastic. A young boy is apprenticed to a doctor of monsters when his father (the former apprentice) dies. Set in the late 1880s, tons of creepy, atmospheric, excellent horror.

Or Divergent... a dystopian set in future Chicago where people are divided into factions based on personality traits- the selfless are in Abnegation, the brave in Dauntless, the truthful in Candor, etc. Sooo good, and the sequel Insurgent comes out in May.

Or the Hex Hall series- Hex Hall, Demonglass, and Spell Bound. Our girl Sophie is sent to a boarding school for supernatural types after a couple of spells go horribly wrong. Witty, funny, with great suspense, and a killer romance story that doesn't feel contrived in any way.

Those are all fantastic, some of my favs.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ha, I love asking for books, because I get MONSTER REC LISTS OF AWESOME.

Thank you so much for all of these!! I'm happily strolling through Kindle to find new stories.

[wickedsin.livejournal.com]

I promise I am not trying to spam you, but I just saw this -

http://2busybrunettes.com/2012/03/23/25-series-to-read-if-you-love-the-hunger-games/

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!

[kuzu-no-ha.livejournal.com]

Beoooootifool!

I've been reading the Flavia books. First one is "Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie".

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Thankee sai!

Oh, I've heard of that book!

[altyronsmaker.livejournal.com]

I love it when you post piccies of your garden. It tells me spring has definitely arrived - not just the heat of it, but the verdancy of it. (hmm, is verdancy even a word? o.0)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Ha, I worry that people are all EYE ROLL when I post garden pics, lol. YAY! I keep remembering to take pictures in the middle of the day when the light is harsh. But I promise in real life it's pretty. :D

[elizardbits.livejournal.com]

JUST READ ASOIAF ALREADY

DAMMIT

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

YOU JUST WANT ME TO BE UPSET I KNOW HOW YOU WORK OMG.

You get bonus points for your icon.

[lutamira]

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell by Susanna Clarke won all the awards when it came out in 2005 and is the best thing I've read this year. It is sort of an AU historical fiction (not my usual genre) and the premise sounds outlandish, but the author sells it completely.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

I do remember that book! When it came out, it was being touted as "the next Harry Potter." I didn't agree, but yes - it's a fun read!

<3

[roonilwazlib6.livejournal.com]

Your flower pictures are the few things that would ever make me want to move down south! (I can't help it... I'm a northeast mountain girl!)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Oh, stay where you are - we'll hit 100 soon and you'll be miserable. :D

<3

[soberloki.livejournal.com]

THEM FLARES IS PURTY! GOLL-LEE, MISSUS, YOU DO GROW UP SOME NAHSS FLARES.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

FANK YOU MA'AM! I LIKE MAH FLARES TOO!!!

<3 <3 <3

[a2zmom.livejournal.com]

Your roses make me happy. So beautiful.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

They make me happy, too. <3

[lynnenne]

Your garden is so beeeeooootiful!

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

FANKY MISS LYNNE! <3

[wowbright.livejournal.com]

Your yellow roses make me want to live in Texas.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

But would the heat keep you here or drive you away? :D

[timeofchange.livejournal.com]

Those are fabulous roses.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[rolling-scone.livejournal.com]

flames? OH NOES. WAI?

lurker, but. WHY WOULD THEY COMPLAIN? FSDJKHSDFJKHDFG you're awesome. that is all.

also, man your roses are pretty. :3 (and... I haven't seen any japanese maples in japan so far. I'm wondering if I should put together a search party.)

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

Not flames as much as people adjusting their glasses and hem hemming me until I want to scratch my skin off. :D

YOU ARE AWESOME. (And silly boots, they just call them maples in Japan! They're the original cultivars, so they get taxonomy credit. Botanists are nothing if not literal.)

And I see what you did there... *head desk*

[zyrya]

Oh wow, those flares are gawjus! I love the Kaleidoscope best; I adore peach/coral roses. And yellow! I've never met a yellow rose with any sort of scent.

Oxalis here is a terrible, terrible weed and we all spend our lives trying to control it. The world is a very odd place.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

That rose you like has the most amazing antique tea rose smell. It's SO WONDEDRFUL. The Julia Child rose is the only yellow rose that I know of with a smell, as well. And it's UNBELIEVABLE. NUM.

Only the purple oxalis isn't a weed (well, if someone likes something, then it's not a weed) but regular clover takes over, for sure.

I have to baby the purple oxalis to keep it alive in our heat.

[mrmonkeybottoms.livejournal.com]

I loooove garden pictures, please post many many more omg yes. Here in Winnipeg we don't have a very long growing season. We are advised to not plant our veggie gardens until May long weekend. Sigh.

People complaining and nitpicking on HDJM? Pffft. Not cool.

[stoney321.livejournal.com]

OKAY I WILL POST FORTY BAMILLZON. Oh my god, I couldn't take it - I'm SUCH a wimp about the cold, though, I fully admit it.

Oh, they do that all the time. I usually catch it before my writers see it, but yeah. You know how nerds are - gotta be right and prove why they're the authority on ___. I just need to remind myself that their keyboards are covered in cheese doodle dust and loneliness.

*omg, laying on my desk laughing*

[firesprite1105.livejournal.com]

Soooo jealous of your Julia Child! I have never seen one looking so good in Austin. I planted "Republic of TX" and the Sunny Knockout instead to fill my quota of yellow roses.

[chrryblssmninja.livejournal.com]

lovely flowers!