Throw Back Thursday.... My Garden Center Job.....

Two Years ago I worked two part time jobs for awhile.  My retail clothing job and I also worked at a garden center.  I remember my husband coming up to me in church saying do you want to work in the Nursery?  And of course we are at church and I'm thinking 'Nursery'  as  where all the little 18 month old children are and look at him like he just grew two heads...I immediately said "are you crazy, I don't want to be around little babies.."  Only to have him say "no the new garden center...there is a lady who works there and says there are some job openings."  Well that's a much better  idea than being around little babies. ( Sorry if I have offended anyone with little children but my brain is far from the baby days!)

I remember going and applying and being one of their first employees....I loved seeing how a business starts, and all the work it takes to open a garden center...I got to help with all the computer inventory...making the bar codes to go on the plant containers...I got to work with people who really knew a lot about plants...

I got to be surrounded by lots of plants for 4 hours a day....I enjoyed helping pick out plants for their gardens and to talk about gardens and gardening.  I also would find the poor sick plants and revive them...It's nice to have a green thumb...To be able to find that little wilting plant and bring it back to life...and then see someone take it home...

There is something about being in a garden center that is calming.  Perhaps it is the fact that you are surrounded by nature...

Or maybe it is the sound of the water fountains....

There are of course the stresses...People who buy things and then want to return them...making the right amount of sales...finding prices when tags fall off...Theft....yes people even steal plants....or change tags to cheaper prices....lines and not enough registers on busy days.....computers going down.....Plants dying of a disease....Was it from us or did it come from the customers garden?....not having what people want....

While I enjoyed the quiet mornings at the garden center...Time watering plants and filling water fountains...daydreaming about learning more...it was also a little hard to work two jobs...So when it got really slow after a few weeks and they told me they didn't need me anymore...It was more of a relief than a tragedy....It helped us get a little ahead of our bills but ended at the right time too...And of course I got lots of cool flower photos to add to my collection....Here are some of my favorites...

Have a great Thursday!
G.G.

My Garden in July...Daisies lots and lots of Daisies....

Summer is going by way to fast....I want it to slow down but it refuses to do this.  The flowers in my garden are starting to bloom and the biggest show is from the back of the garden where you find the Shasta Daisies.

The Daisies don't seem to care that it has been over 100 degrees for weeks and that there is very little water being supplied to them due to the drought.  They never wilt or look sad...They must not need lots of water and don't seem to mind that they are planted in hard clay soil...They are happy to bloom in masses for me.

They are home to a few spiders and other strange bugs that dwell in my garden.  Do you see the bug in the middle of this flower?  I'm not sure what it is..What I love about Daisies is you can ignore them and they grow fine and then you just enjoy all the flowers.  They come back every year too.  I'll be sad in a few weeks when I'm deadheading them.

I also have a few Zinnia's blooming....They have struggled with the heat and lack of water....And the cat who likes to use my garden as a litter box.  The question I get the most is "Do you really think forks will grow?"  I have told some people that I have read that if you plant forks they will grow roots and bloom...It's a known fact that plastic forks have the ability to grow....For a minute I think the person believed me...Then I have to talk about cats and keeping them out....Oh well that makes more sense than growing forks....

My back yard garden is Petunias and hopefully Cosmos.....Just hoping they can survive the heat and lack of daily watering.  My lawn well that is not surviving that well...But most peoples lawns are suffering this year so I'm not too worried.  I'm reading a book on the 7 Spiritual laws of Success and one is spending time in nature....So it is off to the garden I go.
Have a great week!
G.G.

My Retail Therapy.....Coloring it's how I meditate and find quiet in my life

Working in Retail can be crazy...To survive you have to be a little crazy and you have to have ways to get rid of the day to day stress....I'll admit I'm a little crazy....and I am starting to find ways to get rid of the stress...This past month I worked 9 days straight. It wasn't planned it's just what happens sometimes...By day 8 I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually drained....I was on the verge of what I call an "F-Bomb" day.  I intend to make a blog post about my "F-Bomb" day soon....But I was just done to put it very mildly. 

I knew that I needed quiet and I needed something relaxing to do....When I feel this way I get my markers out and color.  There is something about the repetitive motion of coloring that is soothing, and the ability to just let everything else go and just focus on color and patterns that help me to relax....My mind goes blank and all my troubles fall away and I become absorbed into the picture....It can take me days even weeks to finish a page because I like to slowly change the black and white picture to color. 

I had tried to learn how to do "Zen Tangle" and draw my own things but that just didn't work for me.  I was to critical of what I was doing and was unable to find that quiet that I needed.  So I was glad to find these books to color.  I actually have a few that I hope to buy....Do you have something you do that helps you relax? Coloring is my first step into learning to meditate....I hope to slowly learn how to be still and find silence and connect to the universe...I have a hard time sitting and doing nothing, and coloring it helps me to be quiet and yet move....
Well how do you find ways to leave the stress of the world behind?
G.G.

Humming Bird Moth.....A bird? A Bug?...More from my Tulip Festival adventure....

I love being outside and seeing all the interesting animals and bugs that are in our world.  It is so fun when you see something you have never seen before.  When we were at the Tulip Festival we saw this... And asked  Is it a Humming bird?...

Is it a bug?  What is this little creature?

I enjoyed watching it and was glad to get some photos.  Once Home I found out that it was a Humming Bird Moth.  

It was nice to be some place new and see something so different.  Have you ever seen a Humming Bird Moth? 
G.G.