Sue

My sunflowers make me happy.  I love them and have never had a good place to plant them at this house.  But last summer, Scott re-worked sprinklers and dug out a new flower bed for me on the north side of our lot.  We planted a few perennials for Mother’s Day to give the bed some structure, and the rest of the bed is seeded with all kinds of flowers, meaning we just broadcast seeds all over it.  At first I was a little concerned about design, color schemes, etc. and Scott told me we can call this our “Joseph bed”, referring to his coat of many colors.  So we just planted a bunch of things I like and let the seeds fall where they may.  The only thing I was careful about was making sure the sunflowers and hollyhocks got in the back so they could grow tall and not block anything.  Hollyhocks are biennial, so lots of little plants and no flowers this year, but next year we should have a tall forest of both kinds of flowers.  But this year, we have many different sunflower hybrids.  And that makes me happy!

I went to Baltimore, Maryland for the National Parent Information Resource Center (PIRC) Conference and really learned alot of great information.  But I also saw some cool stuff in the city.  I saw Camden Yards on the ride from the airport and wished I had pulled out my camera to take a picture for Scott.  I stayed at a hotel across the street from Harborplace which is on the inner harbor in Baltimore.  It’s a public space that surrounds the finger of water that is the end of the harbor.  You can stroll next to the water, there are shops, restaurants, street performers, and ships available to tour as part of the Maritime Museum.  I arrived at the hotel about 5 pm ET, got checked in, and immediately set out to find some dinner.  I crossed the street and started walking around the harbor and was enthralled.  It is a great spot!  I felt the ocean breeze across my face, smelled the salty tang in the air, and just enjoyed being outside.  I decided on dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe because it was housed in a great building, and I’m a sucker for cool architecture.