Sunflowers and Such

These are awesome little sunflowers.

I bought sunflower seeds 

from Renee's Garden  earlier this spring.

I love their seeds and the varieties they offer.

These sunflowers are for container gardens,

 but would do well as an edging 

for the garden or flower bed also.

They grow just 2 1/2 feet tall.

These are called 'Junior'.

The blooms are just 4 to 5 inches across,

with multiple buds on each stem.

Little goldfinches think the leaves are mighty tasty

and are taking bites of the leaves daily.

The plants are looking a bit ragged now.

  I took the photos before the 

birds started dining on the leaves.

They also love the zinnia leaves.

Some of these first blooms are seed 

heads now.

I'm glad the birds haven't developed a taste for

basil leaves, because those are for us to eat.

I made a batch of pesto this morning.

I have three little jars of the green gold,

tucked away in the freezer.

We enjoy our own pesto on pasta,

pizza, and sliced tomatoes.

In a couple of weeks I should have enough

basil to make another batch.

I use a recipe from

 Susan Branch's Heart of the Home

cookbook.  I do make a small change though.

I use roasted garlic instead of raw.

Rick's car was vandalized at work

last week.

All four doors were keyed.

We suspect it was one of

 their mentally unstable clients. 

She was hanging out in the parking lot

when Rick got to work.

He went inside, but had forgotten his glasses.

So he went back outside to get them.

In that short amount of time, 

the damage was done.

She was still in the parking lot,

sitting on a curb rocking herself back and forth.

No one else was around.

Rick parks (he no longer does) away

from the building in some shade that's

the farthest spot from the building.

I think she must have been living in 

the dumpster nearby and his arrival 

disturbed her.  Poor thing.

So, that car is getting the damage taken care of,

at a body shop we've used before.

It's taking a bit longer than we expected

but it's all good.

Meanwhile we have a rental car to use

in it's place.

My car needs another passenger side

 airbag replacement.  

Apparently the parts they used

to replace the original one on recall

 was defective as well.

So we need to go to the dealer again

and until then no one should ride in 

the front passenger seat.

I was expecting a package from Amazon today.

It did arrive.  It has my name and address on it.

Inside the package there's

 three jars of protein powder,

 two jars of some other 

muscle building powder,

 and two boxes of workout vitamins. 

 I looked online and all that stuff

adds up to $171 on sale.

 It's not mine... ha!

My $30 order must have gone to the body

builder...  He's good to go if he wants 

a repair part for a lawnmower and a 

Kindle cover. I think he's going to be mad.

 

I called Amazon and they're sending

a label to ship their box of

 muscle man goodies back to them.

Meanwhile my stuff has been reordered.

  Hakeem the Amazon representative

 was laughing at such an odd mix up. 

 He was fun to talk to.

It's all good,

 and my stuff will be on it's way soon.

Meanwhile we can't mow the half dead lawn,

but that's okay.  We don't have neighborhood

busy bodies to complain.