Tag Archives: promotion

Symbolism in Sunflowers

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There is no way to get around that the last 2 months have been incredibly stressful. The only reason I have any sanity left is forcing myself to de-stress by ripping things up in the yard and sweet, sweet Lily. Her nagging me to get out of bed or take her for walks, listening to all of my rantings and giving me snuggles and kisses has kept me reasonably human.

But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I finally hired someone to fill our open position and vacation season has tapered down. I know I’m not out of the woods yet – still have to train new guy and there are still challenges, lumps and bumps that are not resolved and all of my projects and plans are still out there — but it has to start getting easier soon. That is my logic when looking at the improbable sunflowers. As mentioned, I threw a pack of seeds in the ground that Eric Murray got last year as part of a wedding invitation. The seeds were all busted up and not remotely promising, yet they grew — a lot. Now they are over 8 feet tall and lovely. And they will bloom any day now. I love sunflowers. Their cheerfulness forces me to smile. So I am smiling, knowing that brighter days are on their way.

Sunflowers

They are 8 feet tall and ready to bloom and making me cheerful. Not to mention Lily, basking in the sun.

Another Side Project

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I actually finished this project a few weeks ago, but I have been so crazy busy and distracted I didn’t take pictures so I could blog about it. My very good friend and Editorial Page Editor John Laird is retiring so The Columbian needed to fill his position. The Sports Editor Greg Jayne ended up getting promoted to the job and then my boss Micah Rice was promoted to Sports Editor. That left the copy desk without a fearless leader. So as assistant news editor, it made sense for me to try for it. And I got it. I am now, or will be at the end of this month when everyone shifts around, the News Editor at The Columbian. So far it is being really stressful and one of the first things on my to-do list is to fill our vacant position. I am excited for the challenge but also nervous. So we’ll see. The next few months are going to be insane!

Anyway, this project was pretty easy to throw together — just laid down some more of that leftover mulch that I removed when redoing the front patio and artfully arrange some of my pots. Planted a few extra things in said pots and done. But I love how it looks. And it is a good place to have some of my more heat-sensitive herbs — parsley, cilantro, sorrel — so they don’t bolt as fast.

herb garden bed

Looks super cute. On the other side of the walk, the blueberries are doing great. And the chamomile and callengula are filling out. I also threw some sunflower seeds that Eric Murray got in a wedding invitation last year in the ground and was surprised, not only that they came up, but that they are doing great.

And now that things are looking so cute back here, I have been trying to take time to enjoy it. So after a long weekend of weeding, I fired up the grill and cooked dinner.

grilling

A rib-eye steak and zucchini from the garden

Dinner

Steak, grilled zucchini and a arugula, blueberry and corn salad. (arugula and some of the blueberries are from my garden.) Holy crap it was delicious!

And as an added bonus, here is one of my more-awesome day lilies, that I snap a pic of today.

orange lily

Super cute orange day lily. Have I mentioned that I love orange?