Pelee Mums

Two Tones Mums

These amazing and unique flowers were found at the market, along with pumpkins of all sizes and gourds of all shapes. They are called Pelee mums, very hardy, and happy with temperature ranging from 60-70 degree.

Pelee Mums

The Pelee mums needs at least 12 hours of sun light daily, but not in direct sun or deep shadow. They need plenty of water for longevity. If the soil feels dry to the touch, then it is an indication that water is needed.

Macro of Pelee Mum

Pelee mums have vibrant colors, and most preferred for Thanksgiving display. These flowers are also used as ornaments at the Conservatory, and many different stores around here. Depending on the varieties, Pelee mums could either be an annual or perennial plant. These flowers are also great to us as cutting flowers since they are long lasting.

Joining Weekend Flowers, Pink Saturday, I Heart Macro, and Today Flowers!

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Anything Autumn

Yellow Tree

Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.
~Rachel Carlson

Colorful Autumn Leaves

Forests, lakes, and rivers, clouds and winds, stars and flowers, stupendous glaciers and crystal snowflakes - every form of animate or inanimate existence, leaves its impress upon the soul of man.
~Orison Swett Marden

Changing Colors

The moment one give close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself.
~Henry Miller

Jenny Matlock's Anything Autumn Colors!

What's Wrong With Alexa Ranking?

Has anyone noticed Alexa ranking for blogs lately? The numbers showed on my blog steadily dropping in the thousands a day! What the heck was that? I've been active, posting, submitting my post to search engines, and generating traffic to my blog regularly, but still it went in the million ranking now, whereas last month it stood at 543,750.

I don't understand, and don't know what to do about this! On occasion, I accept assignments to write review for paid posts, and they determine the value of my blog on this stupid Alexa ranking system. Since the numbers of my Alexa ranking drops, my blog shows a "dim light" in the advertisers' account, which means no assignments.

For goodness' sake, I hate this cat and mouse chasing game! It is a deceiving system and useless ranking. People formed groups to take turn to write an Alexa review for each other's blog. Nothing is pure or genuine about it!

As the moment, I'm frustrated with this dilemma. I can't babysit my blog 24 hours a day, and not getting any compensation for it. For those that use Alexa ranking to determine the blog value, it is not what it cracks out to be!

Will be linked to Best Post of the Week!

Thanks for READING!

Pretty Pink Aster Crego Flower

Beautiful Pink Aster Crego Flower

As the aster crego flower grew, a more vivid and striking color emerged! While the flower bloomed, a softer pink took over the entire flower, and it was very eye-catching. This aster flower is annual, so I will have to plant more next year.

A Closer Look 

Although I planted the seed way back in June, the flowers began to bloom in the beginning of September, and lasted until now. The bud started out in white, and slowly changes to light pink and finally to deep pink color. It is an amazing and unique flower!

Deep Pink Aster Flower

So far the flowers remained blooming and weathered many cold days! I love it since it grew from seeds.  They are late bloomers, about the same time as mums, but if you want to see the flowers sooner, you can read a bit about it in last week post : Pale Pink Aster Flower.

Joining Weekend Flowers, Pink Saturday, I Heart Macro, and Today Flowers!

Autumn Has Arrived

Gorgeous And Colorful Mum

You know autumn has arrived when you see beautiful and colorful mum bloomed. These spectacular colors, to me, screamed the season has changed.

Pumpkins

It is time to pick out a pumpkin, and carve it into scary characters for Halloween. As always, we are late in deciding on a costume for my son. I want to pay clearance price, not full price for something that he only uses once.

Wild Aster With Yellow Heart

Wild asters with yellow heart are growing everywhere around my neck of the wood. These little flowers love colder weather just as the mum flowers. It sure is the sign of autumn.

Wild Aster With Red Heart

I love these flowers since they grow in so many different shapes and hold such delicate poses. These wild asters attract little bees, and butterflies also, which made them a bonus for me to just let them grow.

Participating in Jenny Matlock's Autumn Colors!

Red and Yellow Marigold

Marigold Just Open

Marigold is one flower that I don't like the smell, and don't care to have. However, it chose my garden, seeded itself, and grew beautifully. It didn't matter where I transplanted, marigold kept producing flowers.

Deep Red and Yellow Colors

I have heard that marigold will deter many critters away, and to plant them around vegetables garden for protection. Well, it didn't work. I had this huge marigold growing right next to my tomato and sweet pepper plants, but the squirrels still managed eating them all.

Marigold Staying Strong

Despite the cold, rain, and windy weather, marigold flowers are resilient plants. They grew and flowered way into late November. I must admit that marigold gave such a warm welcoming feeling to see when all the surrounding went into hibernation.

Joining Mellow Yellow, Macro Monday and Ruby Tuesday!

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Pale Pink Aster Flower

Baby Aster Growing

This flower bloomed to my surprise since I planted them from seeds. They sat in a huge pot on my front porch, and despite many tries, nothing seemed to flourished until this beautiful flower came into sight. I've just located the envelop that the seeds came in, and this is called Aster Crego Mixed Colors.

Pink Petals Emerged

The leaves looked a bit like chrysanthemum leaves, but there were plenty of little soft spikes on them. The flower was quite pretty as it grew. It went from a total white bud and transitioned slowly into pink color.

Macro of Pink Aster Flower

I enjoyed watching this pretty pink aster flower grew. The plant was not all that tall but gave many flowers continuously. I picked up a few of different seeds at the Dollar Store when it was 10 cents a piece.

A short gardening tip: plant the seeds in a sunny location at 1/4 inch deep, 12 inches apart, and growing up to 18-24 inches in height. For early blossoms, start seeds indoor 6 weeks before planting them outside when the danger of frost past.

This aster crego flower blooms late in the summer until frost. However, you can prolong the different blooming periods by planting them two weeks apart.

Joining Weekend Flowers, Pink Saturday, I Heart Macro, and Today Flowers!

Z Is For Zigzag

We zigzagged through the first few years of life in the US, living day by day! My dad and brother went to work in a car part factory. It was very tough for my father to watch his oldest boy doing hard labor, who had never work a day in his life since he joined the seminary in early childhood. My mom got a part-time babysitting job at a Lutheran church, and the rest of us went to school.

As we began our new life aimlessly, we got news from my two other brothers in Vietnam. They made the journey back to our old home, and found each other there, only that the government had taken possession of our house. They were forced to take refuge with friends' family.

They needed financial help and life necessary supplies such as clothing, personal hygiene items, medications, and obviously food. The rush to rescue them or to ease their burden was always a "red alert"! Mother boxed up the supplies with hidden money inside the box panels, and used clever slang words of "uncle Do", "Aunt Lar" for hints.

Surprisingly, this zigzag puzzle on both sides of the earth understood one another, and the concentration on helping my brothers in Vietnam was the focal point in our life here in US. I became aware that nothing was more important than money in sustaining life, and mother meticulously split the box panels just enough to hide rolled up dollar inside, before carefully glued them back together without a trace.

My brothers' life in Vietnam crisscrossed with our life in the US, and both were uncertain, insecure, and confusing. I thought that we would soon go back to our country, and my brothers had hopes to come over. I had no idea that there was no way back, and this was our permanent home.

Going through major life changes was not an easy deal, but human spirit, surviving instinct, and natural reaction kept us moving on. We also had wonderful sponsorship from our church, which had helped us tremendously to get over the many first hurdles.

Joining Alphabe-Thursday!

(Listed in the Teenager Years!)

Fancy and Beautiful Yellow Blanket Flower

One Beautiful Yellow Bud

This last week was a bit crazy in my world with so many things to do, and places to run. However, I didn't forget to snap some photos if I chanced into them. The beautiful yellow bud of this blanket flower was one of those, which I can't remember where I took it.

Fancy Petals of Yellow Blanket Flower

Isn't this flower fancy and beautiful? I just love how the petals seemed to just curled and twirled so delicately in all directions. The touch of red color on the petal was very vibrant, and also were very resilient.

All Opened Up

These blanket flowers came in red color, with yellow touches on the petals, a reverse of this one. I wanted to plant these flowers since last year, but never got around to it for some reasons.

Joining Mellow Yellow, Macro Monday and Ruby Tuesday!

Amazing and Unique Flowers

Unique Flowers

I saw these beautiful and unique flowers at a supermarket, and was blown away by their amazing shapes! I don't know what they are, but I think they are some types of mums or daisies.

Open Up

They had a light pink color on them at the tips, but when they opened up up, the colors were deeper, and looked a bit different. The lighting in the flowers display case was not good to photograph them, but I've tried my best.

Amazing Shapes

I was hoping to get these pink mums for home, but when I return to the market there was no more! I was in a rush and  didn't prepare for an extra purchase. Now this should teach me a lesson to always be ready for unexpected thing.

Joining Weekend Flowers, Pink Saturday, I Heart Macro, and Today Flowers!

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Y Is For Younger Years

Looking back I couldn't recall how my sisters and I survived the first few years in the United States. The only thing that stood vividly out in my mind was we studied the DICTIONARY almost 24 hours a day. We had to learn the meaning of each word in order to keep up with school.

Our sponsors set up a table and four chairs in the living room, and that was where we gathered. Heads buried deep down in the dictionary to do homework as soon as we got home from school and late into the night. We only watched television during the weekend when we had companies. My three younger sisters caught on faster in learning the language, and I found that watching television I could learn much more also.

The tension in our house was as thick as a rope. My parents had their own pain and confusion. My older brother faced his own uncertain future of whether to continue his journey to priesthood or to stay home to help the family. He was (and is) the oldest male, so the duty as such was not an easy thing to fathom.

1975 was the year of doom for us! Our lives turned upside down within the blink of an eye, and stripped bare next to nothing. We lost everything. The earthy possessions we had left was the clothes on our bodies. We could make friends, and shared all the hardship one day, only to lose them the next, or never saw them again. Life was very temporary at its best.

With heavy heart and mind, we went on since it was the only thing we can do. Everyone carried his/her own miseries but marched on. I seemed to skip my entire teenager years, and childhood years for that matter. We all existed but more like a shadow of being, and got by one day at a time. There was no direction at to which road to follow.

There was no talk of the future, how to plan for it, or what to expect from it. The future was just another "tomorrow". Now looking back, I realized that the younger generations have a better concept of life, and most of them have a concrete plan for their future, or at least they know what they want out of life.

Joining Alphabe-Thursday!

(Listed in the Teenager Years!)

Red Zinnia With Yellow Center

Talking about odd, my zinnia flowers' petals are all rolled up like these in the photos. I find them fascinating and interestingly allured!

This is my only red zinnia flower growing this year, and the center of it can captivate you for hours! I'm planning on saving the seeds, mark them separately, and re-planting them next year. I usually just put all the seeds together and experiment with them to see what they would produce.

Don't you just love the whimsical look of this red zinnia flower's petals? Taking pictures, planting flowers, or vegetables are the activities that seem to calm my mind when it is full or troubled.

Participating in Macro Monday, Mellow Yellow, and Ruby Tuesday!

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