The Great Flower Hunt, and Other Time Wasters

My daughter got a new camera. Yesterday, she went out on a walk and starting snapping pictures of critters and blooming flowers, then sent me the pictures asking for identification. One was a red squirrel. No big deal there. The next was some kind of duck. She did a little research and found out that it is called a Muscovy duck. (We don't have those here.) The third was some kind of flower. Hmmmm....never saw anything like it/them before. I generally pride myself on my knowledge of plants and trees, but she's in California, for Pete's sake. What do I know of California plants? Thus, I started an Internet hunt. I Googled "pink curly flowers in california". I looked through at least 50 pages of flower images that popped up. Nothing. Then I Googled "pink curly flower clusters". More looking. Still nothing. Then "california wildflowers". No go. After an hour or more, I found something that looked similar, although not exact, which gave me a name to search on: Grevillea. Googled that and came up with page after page of pictures of those (there must be dozens of varieties) until BINGO! There it was. Grevillea rosmarinifolia. It's quite unique and native to Australia--definitely NOT something that would survive winters in the Midwest but apparently blooming in Sunnyvale, California right now. So Meg has a name she can put with her picture, and I put several hours into the search. And that's why I don't get stuff done around here!!!!

Not sure why, but this winter my feet get cold. (Sitting on my duff in front of the computer.) Invariably, the only way to warm them is to get under the covers, which I did today. Didn't nap. Instead watched "Sleepless in Seattle"...again. It's a cute movie--just not much to show for an afternoon at home.

What else did I do today? Absolutely nothing! Oh...well...I did go to return a rented video that the grandchildren watched this weekend and put a little gas in my car. I also creatively fed myself. ("Creatively" because I still can't chew anything hard. I'm trying to get some nutrition but will have to find a way to get more fiber!) And, in the TMI department, I shaved my legs. Aren't you glad you asked??

Tonight, I will make a list of things I want to do tomorrow. Working from a list seems to be the only way I get things accomplished. I need to get busy, though, because as soon as the weather breaks, I need to be working outside, and I won't do it if the inside of the house isn't taken care of. So much to do. WHY can't I do it?? Sometimes it's just easier to hole up in the house and vegetate. I'm getting good at it!