Sunday, August 10, 2008

Long Weekend


Not a long weekend as in a holiday weekend, the sort of weekend where you have all kinds of free time to work in the garden, or spend time with friends, or maybe fire up the barbecue.

Goodness, no. It wasn' t that sort of long weekend at all.

What it was was a very busy weekend at work, with all sort of special events and guests thereof to host and manage and keep moving on schedule and when possible, happily so.

Fortunately, the weather worked with us for a change. While we had some heavy showers move through Friday evening (as I took that sunset and clouds photos which wrapped up the last post, actually...), the rest of the weekend has been delightful and sunny, but with reasonable temperatures and not lots of humidity.

Having seen the forecast for the weekend, however, I did manage to get out for an abbreviated watering session in the garden early yesterday, before heading off to get things set up for the day's first event.
I'm really happy with this lantana plant (left), which is doing quite nicely in its hanging basket on the front of the house. I'd grown this once or twice before...or tried to, but with only moderate success, since I was working with lesser exposure to full sunshine.

Of course, all the sunshine in the world isn't helping the Early Girl tomatoes live up to their name, as the first of those tomatoes--looking sort of apple-like, I think--are only now beginning to get the slightest blush of color.





Now of course, it's Sunday and all the business of work (save a visit to the office shortly to address some paperwork) for the weekend is happily behind me.

And it wasn't all bad, really. Certainly, it was a long and tiring string of parties, but for the most part, all of our guests were quite lovely and some very memorable and fun.

The events biz is, of course, rife with uncertainty and the need to adapt schedules and think on one's feet. Like when you have to delay dinner for over an hour because half of the guests speak a language other than English, which you've learned has seriously delayed the conclusion of the wedding rehearsal they're coming from.

And then realizing that same language barrier is making it surprisingly difficult to get across the idea that the party has come to a conclusion and all the other guests have left and "it's time you did the same so we can clean up and go home" without simply turning out the lights and pointing toward the door.

Or dealing with the self-important and drunken guest from a culture that doesn't value women as it should, who becomes angry when you defend your female employee's hard work at keeping tables at his family's party clean and orderly because she may have taken away his last half inch of watered-down scotch.

Which might actually have been consumed by the under-aged guest you've been playing cat-and-mouse with all evening.

But as I said, there are plenty of great moments, too, and for the middle of our trio of parties this weekend, we celebrated/hosted the wedding reception of some of our neighbors from here on Not Wisteria Lane. Congratulations and best wishes to Jen and Kevin!!

In the process, I was able to meet some more of our lovely neighbors here. Of course, now they know what I do for a living, they are thinking I might be talked into organizing the annual fall block party. We'll have to wait and see about that one, though.

It was just nice to get off my feet last night and relax a little with a bit of blog-and-comment reading before falling into bed finally.


All in all, it's been a pretty great weekend, even if the work schedule did mean I had to practice brevity with my earlier blog posts.

That's okay. Sometimes, I really enjoy sitting back and letting the garden speak to all of you, and see just what it encourages in you lovely people who come back regularly to visit the Midnight Garden.

I hope the weekend was a beauty for you and that all your hopes and dreams for what was hopefully a few days off came together exactly as you hoped, or maybe even better!

Before wrapping up, I'll just offer my thanks to my pal Meredith, who worked with me throughout the crazy weekend of ups and downs and kept a smile on my face and a laugh never far from my lips...even if we did have to hear the "Chicken Dance" more than once.

: )

14 comments:

The Hunky Gardener said...

Your garden pictures are kickin Greg! Garden till ya drop!

Greg said...

Aw, thanks, HunkyG!

That's the plan, of course.

spookydragonfly said...

I love the Lantana...but have also had mimimal results due to not enough sun exposure...love the damselfly meets Daisy photo on your last post...just popping in to say hello!

Butch said...

Nothing like watching a bunch of old folks ( like myself ) doing the "Chicken Dance." If you want to blackmail someone, just film them doing that dance, they'll do anything you want just to get that film back. ;-)

Jess said...

Sometimes, I really enjoy sitting back and letting the garden speak to all of you, and see just what it encourages in you lovely people who come back regularly to visit the Midnight Garden.

Well, after reading that post, I feel encouraged to go jump Marc's bones.

Okay, so I always feel like that, but I think I'll tell Marc that the pretty flowers inspired me. "Seeing all of that beauty made me think of your beauty and made me want you right now!"

Yeah, I know, but we're together forever. I have to use anything I can! ;)

Alan said...

Your tomatoes look like they are about the same stage as mine. For me it never matters how many days it's supposed to be mature...it's always the same every year ...mid,late August. I have purple coneflowers blooming all over the place, they so trouble free.

Greg said...

Spooky, it's amazing the power of the sun!

Butch, thanks for the chuckle! We had all sorts of folks doing the Chicken Dance yesterday...I'll have to make sure I have a video set-up ready for next time!!

Jess, I'll admit, that's an unexpected result of a nearly silent blog post, but it's nice to hear you old married types still got it goin' on! ; )

Alan, I've promised myself next year I'll have some purple coneflowers! As for the tomatoes, well, I'm just kind of itching for one of those tomato sandwiches!! Meanwhile, tho, the cherry tomatoes are super-yummy!

Anonymous said...

The beauty from my midnight gardener and the music had me teary - that is until I heard old Bing swinging on a star - such a sentimental daughter my mother had! And Butch - if you think the chicken dance is funny, you would love watching little ones conning their parents into doing the tutti ta -

dykewife said...

lovely photos. it would be nice to be a little insect and just get lost amongst the foliage.

alas, i spent most of this weekend (apart from time shopping for music and movies) trying to shift my circadian rhythm to a single night shift and then figure out how to shift it again to an evening shift. blah!

Sooo-this-is-me said...

Again, you have beautiful pictures.

Sadly up here it has rained every day since June so a lot of the flowers stopped flowering from lack of sunshine, also mold is killing a lot of my plants and my Mom's plants as the leaves are 'always' wet. I would be embarrassed to post pictures of my balcony now as the lush green and bright colours has turned to sick yellow, brown and even black. My peppers and tomatoes still seem to be doing okay.

Anonymous said...

Hello Greg!!! First: I attached a comment of mine to your last comment on my blog. So back and read that. You crack me up...you're funny even when you don't know you're funny. LOL

Loved this post and the humor in it. just delightful. Also, I had not seen Lantana since Australia where goes rampant and they can hardly control it at times and is often considered a pest. It was introduced from South America (I think that's where it comes from). There were two colors there: the red/orange/yellow colored one and then a pink/white/rose colored one. I love it and can still smell it when I picture it in my mind. So that was a great memory you brought up.

Have good week my friend and thanks for making me laugh along with sharing these beautiful photos. Robin

Greg said...

Hi Anony-mom! Love that Bing song--reminds us of the mules and pigs in the world around us!! Plus, it's just fun...and you're right, that Tutti Ta dance is at least as blackmail-worthy as the Chicken Dance!

Dykewife, I think I'd choose to be a butterfly...I want to fly and soar and dip and whirl through the garden the way they do!!

Hiya Robin! Glad to get you laughing. Life's too serious.

I didn't realize that lantana was an invasive in some parts of the world. Just proves my point that calling something a weed just depends on your perpsective.

Of course, I didn't realize they were scented, so you know I'll be taking my nose out to that hanging basket when I get home tonight!

Mother Nature said...

Hello,
I have been reading and enjoying your blog. You have a lot of nice photos.

Gill said...

Each time I visit I want to run out and find my trowel and go to town!!!
Your garden is beyond gorgeous Greg.xox

(Had to laugh at the underager sneaking shots of scotch!!!)