Smarties Bar & Grill #76

250? That's a LOT!

 

Yes it was. Much easier to buy than plant LOL. I have 1.9 acres of yard so the open space can swallow up the landscaping impact unless you go big.

 

No

You can be the envy of the people passing by now.

 

Don't we all have some relatives that we would like to forget...lol. The hard lessons you have to learn from relatives, been there and done that.

 

Thank goodness we are out of the 100's and 90's and into the 80's. Today is especially beautiful with a nice breeze and a cloudless sky.

 

Yes, but everything you plant in that space needs to be low maintenance. Are you going to cut the daffodils after they bloom? I have a large place I put in creeping phlox. I knocked everything down with roundup. I threw out a bunch of fancy daffodils I had in a flower bed and planted thrift (phlox) plugs. This spring will tell if it works.

 

@politicalcenter "Petals from the Past" has some old fashioned chrysanthemums that are low maintenance. They put a show on each fall that is gorgeous..

 

Monarch Butterflies love feeding on them.

 

I don't cut daffodils (or other bulbs) back until they are dying back naturally anyway. I like to give them time to put on as much mojo for the next year as possible. Not always the easiest thing to do to leave them. I planted I think 150 or so gladiolas 3 years ago and they will go all the way til fall looking like crap after they bloom to die back. In fact, I just took the weedeater to them this past week.

 

Not really. There will be a couple spots they can see from the road but most of them I just planted out back in what I hope will be a decent sized drift of them in the middle of the grass.

 

That's good. You cut them back early and it takes away from next year's bloom.

 

Went to see Chiefs v Bears last weekend at Arrowhead. For those who don’t hang in the sports section, I’m a Bears fan and my husband, Nerd, is a Chiefs fan. We had so much fun that the KC area has moved to the top of the list in our, “where to next,” plan. We’ve grown exhausted of Florida. Our Escrow payment has gone up $1,100/month in the last two years, and will go up another $300/month next year, based on the info we just received.

We can sell this house and get something comparable for about $200,000 less. So, it still may be Colorado, it still may be the Caribbean or Canada, but, this is in the top 3, now.

Your post is certainly timely for me. The Midwest brings seasons back to me, along with Spring flowers. Tulips are my favorite, but daffodils definitely rank. I cannot wait to have that back in my life.

 

If you move to north Florida you can still get tulips, daffodils, less people and it costs less. You can buy acreage and do some farming.
Also you can enjoy the fall flowers that grow wild here.

 

October daises.

 

We've got a large common buzzard on the farm now. They were a rare sight ten years ago but are becoming more and more common all over England now.
In America they tend to be called hawks (although they are not actually from the hawk family).
More of a scavenger than a bird of prey but the crows really don't like them. I've just watched a crow attack him and chase him off.
It's a bit like watching a WWI dogfight with the crow trying to get above and behind the buzzard so it can swoop down onto its back. Fascinating to observe.

 

Florida is becoming a cesspool, honestly. Our escrow payment has gone up $1,100/month in two years. We just got our new insurance bill; another $300/month increase for next year. It’s madness. We have to move; our house is too expensive and we see no good reason to stay here. We miss the cold and the Midwest.

 

As a native Floridian let me assure you that most of the changes you are experiencing came from transplants. There are parts of Florida that are gorgeous and unchanged.

 

I have seen a mocking bird riding on a hawk. I think the mockingbird was a bit mad.

 

Chinatis. Vultures or buzzards. Hundreds roost hereabouts. In fact the mountain range tour north is called the Chinatis

 

At first I saw that as birds on spikes like victims of Vlad the Impaler.

 

The way they are drying themselves out, I thought they were Anhingas. The foliage is all wrong, though. Fascinating. We only see them when there’s a dead something around.

 

Just fed the resident vultures a chicken carcass before I logged on

 

Most of the changes came in the way of hurricanes increasing my insurance rates to the point where we can no longer afford to live here. The politics in any given state is not one of our prime reasons for living there. It’s a factor, but not the factor. We can get a better house in Kansas with $250,000 to spare. Just sayin’. We’ll have better internet than Ft Lauderdale, too.

 

I hope you get the price you want for your house or maybe more. I think I read that in some places people are making offers for more than the asking price. Good luck.
The best part is you won’t be leaving the forum.