Bunny Business Tip

Don't forget to count the eggs before you hide them.

Have a good day!


Image: The Graphics Fairy

When We Win the Lotto

After we pay someone a million bucks to fix once and for all the broken kitchen cupboard door that drives us crazy, and then pay to keep them on retainer to make sure it stays in working order forever, we will have fresh flowers like these in the house everyday.

This is what $100 flower baskets look like.

We'd appreciate it if one of you could do the math and tell us how many we could have and for how long before the jackpot runs out. Thank you.

Hey There Freckle Face

Polka-Dot Plant, Pink Polka-Dot Plant, Measles Plant, Flamingo Plant, Freckle Face, or Pink Dot - no matter what you call it hypoestes phyllostachya is at home indoors or out.

It Happens Every Spring

Another season, another lovely as can be Bachman's Idea House.

Livingroom and sunroom.

Fresh flowers everywhere.

Architectural antiques.

Information at your fingertips.

Re-purposed hamburger bun baking trays as magnetic message board.

Clever faux faucet planter.

Birch branches and photos on canvas up the stairway walls.

Garden gate as headboard for a sweet girl's room.

Painted canvas headboard for the master bedroom.

Message boards perfect for our favorite three-part, above-the-toilet instruction seen long ago in a home with many boys: "We aim to please, you aim too please, the next guy might be barefoot.

Pretty bottles in the bathroom windows. So glad they steered away from yellow-toned water colors.

The view from inside out.

And outside in.

Fake, but fetching.

Real, cool-weather-loving pansies.

Real and unreal together for a stunning effect not possible in March with all natural material.

And the best idea of all...a short rest stop at the garden center pond for one tired migrating mallard.

KaPow! Blam! Take that Evil Earwig Nemesis!

Found at The Balcony Gardener, green comics April Showers and The Gardener give us just the heroes we need to inspire us to superhuman feats of weed control and pest and plant disease resistance for the upcoming growing season.

Comics Alliance has the scoop on these plantable comic books' superpowers and an interesting alternate idea for comic books as gardening aides.

Succulent

There really isn't a better word to describe these new arrivals at our local farm market greenhouse.

Resist the Urge

Don't bring them home yet.

But when it's time, check out fiery Hell's Bells from the Petunia Panache series found at Hort Couture.

Or for a more demure garden bed or planter consider Vista Silverberry.

Featured petunias can be found locally at Klinger's Farm Market.

For He's a Jolly Good Fellow

What to give the man who has everything?

We're not regular Mad Men viewers, but know enough about the show and the era to feel sure this is just the kind of clever gift* Don Draper might receive from the secretarial pool.

*Purchased for 25¢ at the Presbyterian Church Women's thrift sale. Neatly folded vintage birthday wrapping paper included. If you inadvertently donated it and now want it back you're out of luck. It has been officially archived in the NDL Museum of Kitsch where it will remain forever more (or until needed for the perfect white elephant gift).

Say There Captain

A song from long ago comes into your head. You quiz all you meet to see if they remember it too. The facts are sketchy. Did you dream it, or is it from the depths of your memory bank? If so, how did it stick there for a half century while volumes of other information vanished, leaving room for "A Horse in Striped Pajamas"?




Thank goodness for the affirming power of the internet made possible by kindred baby boomer kids who sat for hours in front of early day educational TV, and then grew up to be creative YouTube uploaders. Captain Kangaroo, Mr. Greenjeans, Mr. Moose, and Mr. Bunny Rabbit made quite an impression on us and we are thinking that it was not a bad formative influence really.



THE HORSE IN STRIPED PAJAMAS

Well here we are at the zoo Mr. Greenjeans
Say Captain, I've never been here before. Do you know the names of all these animals?
Well, I do, Mr. Greenjeans, but do you?

Well, now, let me see…

Say there, Captain, do you see? There's a horse in striped pajamas
No, that's not what it is at all. That's an animal people call a zebra
I see, but it still looks like a horse in striped pajamas to me

Say there, Captain, do you see? There's a bird in his tuxedo
No, that's not what it is at all. That's an animal people call a penguin
I see, but it still looks like a bird in his tuxedo to me

There's a fish with whiskers on
That's a seal, for real

There's a teddy with two black eyes
That's how they planned the little panda

Hey there, Captain, do you see? There's a cat with polka dots on
No, that's not what it is at all. That's an animal people call a leopard
I see, but it still looks like acat with polka dots on to me

Well, look there, Captain, do you see? There's a bird with a big umbrella
No, that's not what it is at all. That's an animal people call a peacock
I see, but it still looks like a bird with his umbrella to me

Well, do you think you know them now?

Well, no matter what you say, Captain, when I get home this afternoon
I'll say to everyone there:

I saw a fish with whiskers on
You saw a teddy with two black eyes

I saw a cat with polka dots
You saw a bird in his tuxedo

And of course, the horse in striped pajamas

©1948 zell/kreeb

It's a Miracle

Bought this pretty violet when it was in bloom and managed not only to keep it alive for 9 months, but kept it healthy enough to bloom again. If you know our history with houseplants at all, you understand how big this victory is.

Thank you. Thank you very much.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

Focus issues aside...on the next to the last day of winter three loads of laundry on the line dried in a flash in the balmy 80°F heat that also made the next door maple burst out in plump red buds.

Records for historic high temps are being broken on a daily basis. Short shorts have been sighted. Picnickers have emptied the bakery racks of buns. Birds and backyard wildlife are going crazy. Windows are open. Fans are running.

It's amazing!

What have you seen this March that you have never seen so early before?

Our Motto

It may seem like it is this...

But really it is this...

Here is the story of how this now iconic and much parodied poster came to see the light of day more than 50 years after it was created to be used in time of direst crisis.

And Then What Happened?

We know you were dying to know the story behind the headline.

Here it is.

Image: The Graphics Fairy